She ducked her head.
And went still.
A second after that she placed her hand gently on his chest.
He knew that signal. The one for “Stop.”
He looked down.
Her hand was rising and falling with the rapid sway of his breathing, like something tossed into a tide.
He lifted his head.
The world was spiraling.
“Mac...” The word was scarcely more than a breath.
He decided he had the sexiest name in the world, if it could be said like that.
“Mmm?”
He had a powerful feeling he wasn’t going to like what she said next.
“I can’t do this.”
At least his intuition was dead on.
“If by ‘this’ you mean kiss like you invented kissing, I disagree.” His voice was a husk.
But that was just him trying to be glib.
To rearrange his armor and pull it back into place. He was just trying to forestall the inevitable.
He was pretty sure he knew what she meant.
She eased out of his arms. He had no choice, really, but to let her. It still felt like a sundering. He literally had vertigo.
“Mac... it’s...” She swept a hand back through her hair. “It’s just...”
And said nothing more.
She stared at him. Her chest still rising and falling with swift breathing.
“Avalon?”
“Sorry... thank you. Good night,” she said finally.
She pivoted and headed for the house.
He stared blankly.
Thank you, good night? Like she was Lynyrd Skynyrd, and he was a San Francisco crowd?
Chick Pea jumped down from the lounge chair and clicked along after her, and he watched both butts sway off.
It was a pretty adorable view, even if they were walking away from him.
Click.
