Storybook Dad (Harlequin American Romance) by Laura Bradford Page B

stepped back. “Most
people are heading to bed by now.”
    “Most people aren’t standing in a room alone with you, Emily Todd.” Her laugh caught him by surprise.
“You think I’m kidding?”
    When she didn’t respond, he continued. “I can’t tell you the
last time I laughed as much as I have tonight. Or the last time I didn’t want to
escape into bed just to get the day over with. But tonight, with you, it’s been
different. Which means I now have a much better understanding of how much it
stinks for Seth when I make him clean up his toys before he’s ready to stop
playing.”
    * * *
    S HE MET HIM in the parking lot in the same outfit she’d worn when they arrived, the hint of
appreciation on Mark’s face worth the time it had taken to stop in her office
and change again. “Everything’s locked up, so we’re good to go,” she
announced.
    At the feel of his hand on hers, Emily looked up and smiled.
“This was fun, Mark. It really was.”
    “Uh-oh.”
    She drew back. “Excuse me?”
    “I said ‘uh-oh.’”
    “I got that. But why?”
    “I was bracing myself for the big black moment.”
    She wiggled her hands free of his and rested them on her hips.
“What are you talking about?”
    “The black moment. You know, like that instant when you reach
into your wallet to pay the toll and realize you’re flat broke. Or when you’ve
been craving some peace and quiet, only to get home and find that your water
valve broke and your basement is flooded. Or better yet, that moment when you’re
standing at the baggage claim in your oldest pair of ripped blue jeans and you
realize your suitcase is lost, and the meeting with your boss’s boss regarding
your long-awaited promotion is less than an hour away.”
    “Ooh-kay. So what black moment are you bracing for right
now?”
    He lifted his hand to her shoulder and then circled it around
her neck, drawing her to him with a gentle force that nearly took her breath
away. Slowly, deliberately, he brought his lips down on hers for what had to be
the sweetest, most passionate kiss she’d ever had—the kind she wasn’t likely to
forget in this lifetime or the next. When he was done, he hooked his index
finger beneath her chin and lifted her face just enough to leave a long,
lingering kiss at her hairline, making her shiver in response.
    “I’m bracing myself for the moment you say goodbye.”

Chapter Eight
    Emily tried to make her laugh sound carefree, but it
was obvious even to her that she’d failed miserably. She was falling for this
man. To pretend otherwise required a kind of theatrical prowess she simply
didn’t possess.
    “I don’t want this to be a black moment,” she finally
whispered.
    “Then say you’ll follow me back to my house and come inside for
a little while. Say you’re not ready for our time together to end yet,
either.”
    Startled, she glanced at the ground momentarily while she
searched for something to say. All she came up with, though, was an echo of his
words. “Your house?”
    The lone light in the parking lot caught the concern on his
face as he rushed to offer an explanation she wasn’t entirely sure her body
wanted to hear. “Oh. No. Not like that. It’s just that I’ve really enjoyed
hanging with you tonight, and I’m not too eager for reality to take over, you
know?”
    Problem was, she did know. She, too, found herself in a world
of married friends who were suddenly much harder to nail down for a movie or a
coffee or even a walk in the park. She wasn’t thrilled with the change, but she
was used to it. Mark, however, probably wasn’t. After all, his status as a
single father was still fairly new.
    “I could start a fire in the pit outside and we could sit on
the patio and talk. Or if you’d rather, we could see if there are any good
movies on cable. Whatever you want.”
    It took everything she could muster not to ask if he could kiss
her again the way he had outside Kate’s house, or even the way he had just