Night Whispers - Leslie Kelly [39]
Mitch didn’t let it go. “Look, Kelsey, there’s something happening here, and we need to sort it out.”
Kelsey nodded, sighing, giving in. They’d have to have this conversation sooner or later. “I understand, Mitch. I think, for the first time, I truly understand what you’re feeling.”
“You do? Tell me, would you?” he said with a self-deprecating smile as he popped a handful of peanuts into his mouth.
“You want me so bad it’s killing you.”
Mitch choked, and Kelsey jumped up and pounded him on the back.
“Excuse me?” he said when he’d finally stopped coughing.
“You heard me. There’s no harm in admitting an attraction, Mitch. You want me. I know because I feel the same way about you.”
“That’s comforting,” he said, an amused grin crossing his face.
“And I finally understand why you have fought the attraction and made every effort to avoid me. I always figured you just saw me as a kid, a brat who used to bug you. But it’s a lot deeper than that, right? It’s all mixed up in your head, your loyalty to Nathan, your feelings for my parents, your view of yourself as an outsider.”
He stared at her, saying nothing, but Kelsey knew she was right.
“It’s okay,” she insisted. “Now that I know you’re not just being a tease, and you have deep reservations about anything happening between us, I can accept your rejections for what they are and not take them personally.”
She sounded so logical again. He really couldn’t stand it when she made things that were so very complicated sound so very simple. But Mitch couldn’t argue with her. She’d cut through all the extraneous garbage floating around in his head, and leaped straight to the correct conclusion. Then what she’d said sank in.
“Tease? What do you mean by that?”
“Well, aren’t men allowed to be called that? I mean, if I were the one who kept grabbing you and kissing you and rubbing all over your body and then running away, that’s what I’d be called, right? And isn’t that what you’ve been doing?” she asked matter-of-factly.
“Absolutely not! Besides, it’s not the same.”
“Why not? Because I’m a woman?”
“Exactly,” he replied before he could think better of it.
“I’ll have you know, Mr. Hotshot Anthropologist, that women can have the same physical sensations as men. You’d think, with all the cultures you’ve studied, you’d have learned that women have needs, too. When you kiss me, when you touch me and I feel your body pressing into mine, all I can think about is making love with you. And when you walk away, it’s frustrating as hell. Of course, now that I understand what the problem is, I can let it go. I can wait, Mitch.”
“Wait?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “Wait for you to come to your senses. But be warned. The next time you start kissing and touching me, you’d better plan to follow through, because I’m not going to let you walk away from me again.”
“You’re not going to let me—”
“Nope,” she said, not allowing him to finish.
“Let me get this straight. You think you can just wait, and I’ll totally forget my sense of responsibility and loyalty and fall into bed with you?”
“No, of course not. It’s not about forgetting anything, it’s about recognizing that you’re placing too heavy a burden on yourself.”
“A burden. Resisting you is a terrible burden?”
“Uh-huh,” she said happily. “But like I said, I can wait. We’ll just be friends, as we decided last night. Good friends.”
“And if that’s all we ever are?”
Kelsey laughed and rolled her eyes as if he’d just made a colossal joke. “Well, if that’s all, then we’ll have a terrific, lifelong friendship.”
All he could do was nod. He felt as if he were on a roller coaster, but with Kelsey, he often felt that way. She’d practically challenged him to resist her! For a brief second he considered not resisting her at all, but the impulse was gone in a flash.
Every word he’d said to her about his life and his future was true, and her interpretation was dead-on. She was throwing down a gauntlet, but he had no intention of picking it up.