“We’renotmaking love. Not when you?—”
“We’re not. I need my wits about me for this discussion.”
“Okay, then.” She walked around the foot of the bed, propped a pillow against the headboard and got in. “This is my side.” She pulled the sheet up and tucked it under her armpits. “You need to stay on your side.”
“All right.”
“It’s not funny.”
“It will be some day. You’ll see.”
“I doubt it.”
He copied her setup except he only pulled the sheet up to his waist, the rat. His lovely broad chest with its sprinkling of soft chest hair was on full display. But asking him to cover it would sound ridiculous.
He took a deep breath. “Remember when I said I was afraid you’d disappear?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever seenLadyhawke?”
“It’s my favorite mov— wait! Did you think I’d turn into a hawk?”
“Something like that. I never expected to find you. And when I did, I had trouble believing you were real, since I’ve only seen you in my dreams.”
She hadn’t meant to look at him, but when he came out with a statement like that, she couldn’t help it. “I’m your dream girl?”
“Yes.” His gaze remained steady.
“In what way?”
“Every way. When I first saw your face in the mirror at Hannigan’s, you looked familiar, but I knew I hadn’t met you before since you’ve never been to Ireland. Then tonight I saw you lying on the bed and I finally recognized you. In my dreams you’re always naked.”
“You really believe that somehow I’m the incarnation of your dream girl?”
“That I do. I wasn’t positive until we made love.”
“You made love to me in your dreams?”
“I never did. I guess that part had to wait until we were physically together. It was the final proof.”
“So let me get this straight. I look something like your dream girl, so?—”
“Exactly like.”
“Okay, I’m the spitting image of her.”
He frowned. “I don’t know what spit has to do with?—”
“Never mind. I look like her, so based on that, you think we should get married.”
“Hell, no. It goes way deeper than that. It’s all the circumstances that brought us together. I’ve been working for years to get to Wagon Train. I could have come any week, but I came this week. You could have ended up here any week but your family chose this one. I decide to get a hat, walk into that shop, and there you were.”
“Coincidence.”
“Is it? We were instantly attracted to each other. Have you ever had that kind of reaction to someone?”
“No, but?—”
