A Forever Christmas(38)

After Erica had ripped him to shreds, running over his soul with the equivalent of emotional cleats, Gabe had been fairly certain that he wasn’t capable of reacting to another woman to any satisfactory degree. Not anymore. He’d even begun to make his peace with that. The way he saw it, he needed time to heal.

And if he didn’t completely heal, if he remained on emotional lockdown, well, that was all right, too. The pain he’d gone through after the breakup was too huge to risk feeling again, anyway.

Which made what he was experiencing right now come as one hell of a shock to his system.

If they had been anywhere but in the front seat of his truck, front and center right before Miss Joan’s diner…

But luckily for Angel—and maybe for him, too—they were front and center right before Miss Joan’s diner, where any second someone could walk by, coming or going, and see them. He was not about to compromise Angel because his hormones had come back online or, for that matter, do anything that might reflect badly on the office of the county sheriff.

So, with a great deal of reluctance, Gabe took hold of Angel’s shoulders and as gently as possible pushed her back, severing their almost-perfect physical connection.

Her breathing still a bit ragged, Angel looked up at him. The outline of her lips were blurred from the impact of his, and there was utter confusion in her blue eyes.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked in a barely audible whisper.

“No. Oh, God, no,” he added with emphasis, his voice growing in strength and feeling with each word. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything quite so right in my whole life.”

That brief, sizzling connection had sent everything soaring to record heights within him. It would be a while before it all settled down back into place. He tried to resist pulling her into his arms again.

Now she really didn’t understand. “Then why did you stop?”

How did he begin to explain this? How did he tell her why he was obligated to stop something that his entire body was begging him to continue?

He took the easy way out. “We’re in a very public place,” he said.

As if to underscore his point, several people came out of the diner, passing his truck and absently looking in. They nodded as they made eye contact with Gabe.

“And you’re ashamed to be seen with me?” Angel guessed. Otherwise, why had he all but pushed her away like that?

“No! Why would you even think that?” he asked, stunned she would suggest something like that. “I just don’t want to compromise you.”

How was making her feel warm and wanted possibly be compromising her? “I don’t understand,” she told him honestly.

Gabe started up the truck, still waiting for his own breathing to level off. He took his time answering her, hoping the words would fall into place. As he spoke, he deliberately avoided looking at her.

“You’re vulnerable right now and vulnerable people do things that they wind up regretting later on.” It sounded so stilted to his ears, but Gabe doubted he could explain it to her any better than that. Wanting her was interfering with his thought process.

She took a stab at making sense out of what Gabe was telling her. “You think I was kissing you for the wrong reasons.”

It wasn’t her kissing him that had him worried. It was where his kissing her was going to lead. But he wasn’t really all that comfortable explaining the finer points of sexual attraction to her at this point.

So, for now, he took the way out she’d unknowingly offered. “Something like that.”

“I wasn’t,” she insisted quietly. She wanted him to be clear on this. “I was kissing you for all the right ones. Because I’m grateful to you and because you make all these colors explode in my head.” A soft smile on her lips, Angel looked at him, curiosity negating any residue embarrassment that she assumed she was supposed to be feeling—but wasn’t. “Is this the way people feel when they’re…attracted to someone?” she finally concluded.

She’d wanted to say “falling in love with someone” but she had a feeling saying that would make Gabe really back away from her. She didn’t want that to happen, at least not before she had a chance to explore this delicious sensation that was all but taking root within her.

“That’s part of it,” Gabe allowed. Slanting a glance in her direction, he lowered his guard. As he did so, Gabe could feel himself beginning to smile. “Colors exploding, huh?”