Headstrong by Meg Maguire

Author:Meg Maguire
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2011-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Colin glanced to his left across the backseat of the taxi, watching the passing streetlights wash over Libby’s face, propped against the window, placid with sleep. It was odd to see her so serene. Odd and intimate.

Staring out his own window, he recalled the strange incident from earlier that day. The incident itself hadn’t been strange, but his reaction had been.

During one of his deliveries downtown, Colin had run into a woman he hadn’t seen in a few months—Jessie. Someone he’d known quite well, if briefly. Someone he liked.

“Colin! It’s great to see you. You look good.” Eyes he’d shared any number of conspiratorial glances with had scanned him with a certain breed of approval.

He’d returned her smile. “You’re one to talk.”

“Where have you been hiding yourself?”

“No place. I’m where I always am. I assumed you just hadn’t been looking to find me.” He’d flirted, yes, but his heart hadn’t been in it. For a couple of minutes they’d chatted, but Colin’s efforts to match the expectant tone of Jessie’s rapport were failures.

“I still think about you sometimes,” she’d said eventually, nervously, and Colin had remembered how, up until recently, he’d thought of her too. How until recently he’d hoped he might run into her again, just as he had that morning, and maybe arrange something. Another night like the handful they’d shared six months ago, before his inevitable refusal to make things serious had erected a sad but predictable wall between them. Yes, he’d have liked another night with this woman, if she’d been okay with that one caveat. He would have, if this had been three weeks ago.

“Are you seeing anyone special?” she’d asked.

He’d shaken his head with a sad smile. “Nah. You know me.”

She’d looked around them for a moment before asking, boldly, “Do you ever think about me?”

“I have. A lot,” he’d admitted. In that moment he’d almost been able to feel her hands on his body again, taste her skin.

“Would you like to hang out sometime?” The way she’d bitten her lip made her meaning plain.

“That’s a tempting offer, but I’m sort of keeping things uncomplicated at the moment.”

“I know, Col. I’m not asking for anything complicated.”

“Thanks…but no.” Who was this man, the one suddenly inhabiting his body? Colin didn’t do relationships—didn’t do exclusivity or attachment. He had nothing against the concept, he simply couldn’t go there. And he’d tried to.

When he’d started dating again after his dark period, each time he met someone he fancied he’d tried to muster that spirit. Tried to entertain the possibility until eventually it just became cruel. He’d had to admit it wasn’t an option, both to himself and to any woman of the moment who seemed keen for it. And for the last few years that was how it was. He could give someone his body and his heart for one night or a series of them, but not for keeps, and he was very up front about that little policy.

Now he couldn’t even seem to give that.

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