Dammit! Leah couldn’t help herself—she opened her eyes, saw the desire swimming in his eyes just before he lowered his head to kiss her neck.
She gasped with shock when his lips touched her skin. He skimmed her neck and face, a whisper on her skin, until he touched his lips to her mouth. It was a sweet, tender kiss, but it seared her like a branding iron. His lips were a salve on an old wound—so soft, so perfect. And then his hands were suddenly on either side of her face, cupping it, lifting her chin so that he could kiss her reverently, tasting her, sampling her. She could smell him, could feel the warmth of his body so close to hers, and she felt herself falling and falling, back to the place they’d once been.
That kiss, so wholly unexpected, so astonishingly desired, knocked Leah into a tailspin, sent her reeling and her heart tumbling off its shelf. His lips drifted across hers, tantalizing her. His arm slipped around her waist, pulling her closer, so that her breasts were pressed against his chest, and his erection pressed against her abdomen. His body, hard and familiar, made her want to sink into him, to feel his arms securely around her and his strength infuse her.
But when his hand found her ribcage and slid up to her breast, Leah mentally tripped and fell flat on her back. Rocked by the sensation of being in his arms again, her heart cried out to her to stop, to protect whatever little piece of her that was left, reminding her how deep and painful the hurt had been, and Leah suddenly recoiled, jerking back and away from him as if she’d been burned.
The smile that registered Michael’s surprise was so damn sexy that Leah was astounded she was able to resist the urge to fall to her knees and sob. Instead, she found the strength to peel his hands from her body. “How dare you,” she said hoarsely. “How dare you do this to me now, after the damage you’ve done.”
“Damage? Come on, Leah. I made a mistake.” He touched her cheek with the back of his hand, stroked her chin with his knuckle. “I made a mistake,” he said again.
“Me too,” she said breathlessly, still feeling his lips on her mouth. “A huge, colossal mistake.”
“I didn’t mean just now. I meant before. I should never have let you go, baby. I am asking for another chance. I want to start over, Leah. I want to pick up where we left off, keep going and never look back, because I have never stopped wanting you, not once. No woman has ever compared to you, and I realized—too late, but I realized—that I’d been a fucking fool. Give me another chance. I promise you won’t be sorry.”
She was stunned. What was this? Was he crazy? He didn’t mean what he said, he couldn’t mean it, and she shook her head, pushed her hair behind her ears, and stepped back, away from him, despising him for the look of abject disappointment in his eyes. “Why didn’t you say that five years ago when I desperately needed to hear it?” she blurted. “We can’t go back, Michael. Too much happened between us, and too much damage was done, and too much time has passed.”
“Damage,” he repeated skeptically.
“Damage,” she whispered. “I didn’t go to Hollywood because I was too devastated to function, did you know that? I was so stunned and hurt and wounded that I couldn’t even get off my goddam couch, Michael.”
“You—”
“I lost everything!” she exclaimed, interrupting him, throwing her arms wide. “I was paralyzed with grief. I couldn’t function, I couldn’t act, I could barely form a coherent sentence.”
He looked stunned. Horrified. And still it wasn’t enough.
“You want to know what happened to me after you dumped me? My agent eventually stopped calling me, and finally sent me a letter severing our relationship. My friends from Broadway went on with their lives and kept their distance because they were afraid I would jinx them somehow. I felt like the whole world had faded from view, and it was months—months—before I could face it again. But by then it was too late. I had grieved myself into a black hole and no one would touch me. And now you come prancing back into my life five years later and say you’re sorry?” A shout of hysterical laughter escaped her. “Save your breath,” she said, her voice shaking. “I will never go back to you.”
He looked devastated and reached for her face. “God. I’m . . . I’m so sorry, Leah.”
“Sorry?” she repeated, and slapped his hand away. “Jesus, Michael, do you have any idea how much I loved you?” she asked, as tears suddenly filled her eyes.
“I loved you, too,” he said quietly.
She gasped with shock. “Ohmigod, you would say that now?” she whispered tearfully.
“You need to know it.”
“What I know is that if it is true, if you really did love me, then what you did is even more insidious.”