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“Something like that. It’s all a bit blurry after that. I don’t remember anything until you were there.”

I felt his fingertips feather-light on my arm. I kept my chin high and my eyes focussed into the distance.

“Mel, if I am hurting you, I’m really sorry,” Joel murmured. I took a few deep breaths .

“And I’m sorry that you got hurt because of me,” I replied through my teeth. “So, I guess we’re even then.”

I heard his frustrated sigh. “This little cut? It’s nothing. In a few weeks it’ll be nothing more than a great story to tell.”

I shrugged. “Well, I’m glad you’ll be able to get over it that easily.” I wasn’t talking about the scar anymore.

Joel was quiet for a long moment. “Is there something you want to say to me, Mel?” he finally asked. I dropped my chin to my chest then, because the tears were spilling now and I really didn’t want him to see me crying over him.

“There’s no point, Joel,” I replied bitterly.

“Why do you fight the way you feel about me?” He sounded amused.

My emotions overflowed. I leapt up from the love seat and turned to face him, not caring about the tear-tracks on my cheeks. I tried to focus on his face, not his body, clad only in boxer shorts.

“Why do I fight it? What, does it annoy you when a woman doesn’t swoon at the sight of you?

Does it make you feel less of a man if you can’t make a woman’s heart melt?

I can’t afford to make myself that vulnerable around you, Joel!

It’s not fair that you can steal my heart!

I don’t want you to have it!” I snapped my mouth shut.

Oh God, had I just, in a weird, roundabout way, told Joel I loved him?

Joel was smirking now. That just made me even angrier, and I screwed up my face to try and keep the tears from getting worse, wiping hurriedly at the fresh ones that were rolling down my cheeks.

“I stole your heart?” he asked, his mouth hitching up even further into that cheeky grin that I would have said annoyed the living daylights out of me, if I wasn’t totally in love with it. With the man it belonged to.

“You know you did – you’ve been trying to for months now! I hope you’re happy – it’s yours! You’ll probably just break it anyway. I’m so angry at myself for letting this happen!”

I stopped and stared at him. He was laughing at me! I couldn’t believe it. I felt my face burning red hot and I snapped .

I lunged at him, pummelling at his torso with all the strength I could muster in my right arm. I lashed out again and again, my fist making contact with his ribs, his stomach.

Joel just stood there and took it like I was tickling him with a feather duster. He watched me with that ridiculous grin on his face.

I slowed down my attack and then stopped altogether, dropping my face into my good hand. I didn’t want him to look at me. Could I have made any more of a mess of this?

“I didn’t steal your heart.” Joel spoke with such quiet assurance that I almost looked up into his face, but at the last minute remembered how blotchy and red I would be. I kept my face hidden in my hand.

“Yes, you did!” I snapped childishly, my words muffled because my fingers were over my mouth.

“I didn’t steal it, Stinky. I traded it. Yours for mine.”

I froze. I couldn’t look up at him. I hadn’t heard right. I was going insane. I was starting to hear voices.

Cool hands pried my fingers away from my cheeks and tilted my chin until my face was pointing directly at his. I didn’t look up into his eyes. Instead, I pouted stubbornly.

“That’s a pretty fair trade, don’t you think, Mel?” Joel asked in that softly spoken tone that always made me weak at the knees.

“Don’t lie to me, Joel. It’s not funny, you know,” I grunted, looking everywhere but at him. He sighed and manoeuvred his face until I couldn’t help but look at him. I closed my eyes.

“Mel, look at me please,” he commanded. I pursed my lips but opened my eyes. He was so close that I couldn’t think straight. I swallowed the saliva that rushed into my mouth.

“Why is it that you always have to argue with me? Here I am, trying to tell you that I’m in love with you, and you still want to disagree!”

“I – I …” I stammered, not knowing what to say.

Joel snickered. “What can I do to prove it?”

I dragged my face out of his hands with an effort and stomped over to the glass balustrade.

“You’re in love with me?” I asked, whirling around to face him .

He stopped in his tracks and watched me with a half smug, half pleading expression. “Would I say it if I wasn’t?”

I opened and closed my mouth, trying to work out a cutting, clever retort to that. But I had no words.

“Trying to catch a fly, Stinky?” Joel chuckled. I snapped my mouth shut, hearing my teeth click together.

“You want to prove it? Stop calling me Stinky!” I snapped, putting my good hand on my hip and eyeing him grumpily. He laughed out loud and closed the distance between us in two graceful strides.

“Melanie Elizabeth Black, I love you,” he murmured. “I’ve loved you for longer than you can possibly imagine.” He wasn’t even touching me, but his gaze felt more intimate than if I was standing naked in front of him. “Now, are you going to swallow your pride and respond?”

“Joel,” I groaned. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words, even when he’d had the courage to say them to me.

“Just say it, Stink, so I can kiss you already,” he whispered. I heard my breath hiss as I gasped. I ignored the fact that he’d just used the nickname he’d promised not to.

I knew I had to say it. I knew it was time to tell the truth. But I was stubborn, I couldn’t quite swallow all of my pride.

“I don’t know why I have to say it out loud – you already know it anyway,” I grumbled. “But yes, I’m in love with you.” I sighed, reaching up to brush my fingertips down his cheek. He deserved better than that.

“I love you, Joel Herbert.” I whispered.

His mouth met mine, but he could hardly kiss me he was smiling so much. And that made me smile too. Soon we were both grinning like fools, and we’d given up on kissing for the moment.

“You love me,” I sighed in wonder and pressed my cheek to his, loving the way I could feel his smile. He turned his head until his lips were at my ear.

“ You love me ,” he replied. His mouth traced down from my earlobe, along my jaw to my chin, and then he found my mouth again .

He wasn’t smiling anymore. He was kissing me in that way that I should have realised was about more than just seduction. He’d always kissed me like someone who loved me, I’d just been too blind to recognise it. I wrapped my right arm around his neck and pulled him closer.

His hands slid down my back and slipped under the bottom of my t-shirt. He broke away and gasped as his hands met my naked butt.

“I wasn’t going to do this tonight,” he moaned against my hair, even as I felt the physical evidence that it was definitely what he wanted to do, jabbing me in the hipbone.

I dug my nails into the back of his neck. “Why the Hell not?” I asked huskily.

“Because I didn’t want you to think that I only said I love you so you’d sleep with me again.”

I giggled breathlessly. “I’m going to regret saying this, when your ego gets so big it needs its own postcode, but you wouldn’t have needed to say it to get me in bed with you. You were right – I can’t resist you.”

“Now she tells me!” he joked, his hands moving off my butt and caressing up and down my back. I clung to him, pressing my lips to his collarbone.

“Mel, I love you, and if you said to me that you wanted to sleep alone tonight, I’d respect that. The last few weeks have been … a lot.” He leaned back and waited for me to answer. I bit my lip as if I was thinking about it.

“Well,” I replied after a pregnant pause, “actually …” I grinned when I noticed that he was holding his breath. “I think I might just spend the night in your room, if that’s okay.”

He didn’t need any more encouragement. He scooped me up into his arms, like I weighed nothing, careful of my shoulder, and carried me inside. I laughed, and it was the most carefree sound I’d made in as long as I could remember.