Read Countdown To A Kiss (A New Year's Eve Anthology) Page 26

  ***

  By the time Duncan stood on the doorstep of Annabelle’s condominium in Raleigh, ready for date number three, he’d considered and rejected a million ways to tell her the truth.

  What he’d said was true. He damn well didn’t want a one-night stand. And he had no intention of making love in that crazy-ass car of hers. But he was only a man for God’s sake, and a weak one at that. Things had heated up faster than he could keep ahead of, and his saving grace was that her dress had zipped up the side, not the back. So he’d fallen back on Plan A and told her the truth. But when she didn’t respond, he’d felt vulnerable and threw out the five date rule bullshit. And now she’d gone and told the debutantes and who knew who the hell else. No wonder her mother and sisters were looking at him with big ol’ eyes all afternoon.

  He wanted Annabelle to fall in love with him, but not under false pretenses. He had to tell her the truth.

  But date number three at the sports bar went so well––eating hamburgers and discovering more and more about each other––including a bunch of mutual friends––that Duncan literally forgot the dark cloud hanging over everything. Who would have guessed that a red-headed Southern belle liked to ski the double black diamond slopes, or had her own bookie?

  The date went later than either of them planned and for the second night in a row, at the stroke of midnight, there was a kiss that set off fireworks.