Try all of it.
“I’m thirty-two,” she went on, the smile becoming wry. “I don’t spend much time thinking about conversations I had when I was seventeen.”
He searched her beautiful face and saw only sincerity reflecting back at him. She was serious. The heartless words that had torn his stomach into knots all these years evidently had not had the same effect on Charlotte.
“I never got to apologize to you,” he found himself blurting.
The finger that seconds ago had touched his lips now gently traced the line of his jaw. “You were forgiven a long time ago.”
Nate could hardly describe the burst of joy that went off inside him like fireworks. Charlotte had forgiven him? For so long he’d longed to see her, to hear her voice and look into her eyes and see anything but the despair he so clearly remembered. For a moment, he almost launched into an apology anyway, at least so he could explain why he’d broken up with her the way he had, but he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. Charlotte was here, with an earnest and slightly playful glimmer in her beautiful green eyes, and he didn’t want to spoil the moment.
The music changed, becoming an up-tempo Bobby Darin song, but neither Nate nor Charlotte altered the lazy pace they’d set. All around them, their former classmates were dancing and laughing and chatting over drinks, but Nate didn’t pay them any attention. All he could focus on was the sexy woman in his arms.
“I thought about you a lot over the years,” Charlotte admitted, nestling her head on his shoulder.
Nate swallowed. “You did?”
“Yeah.” Her breath was warm against his already feverish skin. “I wondered what you looked like now, what you were doing.”
“Not much,” he said with a husky laugh. “Just running Dad’s pub, having a weekly poker game with Owen and some other guys, pretty much living a very boring life.”
“Nate Bishop, boring?” Her eyes twinkled. “What happened to the wild guy I used to know?”
“He grew up.” Nate laughed again. “Your life seems pretty wild, though.”
“More like exhausting.”
She laughed, and the melodic sound sent a jolt of arousal straight down to his groin. Fuck, he wanted her. So damn much. How was it possible that in fifteen years he still felt the same uncontrollable desire for this woman?
“I’m in the studio most of the time, or on tour, or writing songs in my apartment. I don’t go out much, to be honest.”
He believed her. From what he knew from the papers, Charlotte made a huge effort to stay out of the limelight. She rarely gave interviews, never spoke of her personal life and was hardly ever caught by the paparazzi. Which was excruciatingly irritating since he had no way of knowing what she was doing, if she was seeing anyone…
Judging by the bare ring finger of her left hand, and the way she was seductively moving her body against his, he suspected she was very much single.
“Coming here was tough,” she added. “I wasn’t sure if I would.”
He met her eyes. “Why did you?”
After a long beat of hesitation, she tightened her grip around his neck and whispered, “I wanted to see you.”
Nate was dumbfounded. Was he hearing things? The girl he’d once loved so desperately had grown up into a sexy, talented woman, and instead of hating him for the way he’d treated her, she’d come back to a town she despised just to see him.
And just when he thought she couldn’t surprise him any more, she threw him for another loop.
“I missed you, Nate.”
His mouth went bone-dry. “You did?”
“Yeah.” A secretive little smile swept across her mouth. “We had fun together, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, we had fun.”
To his sheer disappointment, her hands dropped from his shoulders and she took a step back. But then he saw the mischief dancing in her eyes and realized she wasn’t about to abandon him. “Why don’t we get a drink and catch up some more?” she suggested, already turning toward the bar without checking to see if he was following.
Which was exactly what he did.
As if a magnet were pulling him toward her, he followed Charlotte’s delectable backside and forced himself not to question this sudden stroke of good fortune.
Charlotte had forgiven him, and for the first time in years, there was a spring to his step as he went to join the only woman he’d ever loved.
He smelled really good. Too good, Charlotte amended as Nate bent to whisper something in her ear and the intoxicating scent of soap and spice and something deliciously masculine floated into her nose. She couldn’t believe how easily he’d bought her lie. Maybe he was so desperate to be rid of his own guilt that he actually believed she’d gotten over what happened between them.