The Princess Next Door by Jackie Braun

Author:Jackie Braun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Holly was fuming, even though she told herself she had absolutely no right to her anger. Still, she felt like a fool, and that seemed reason enough to give it vent. She waited until they were in the truck, seat belts buckled, to say in as casual a tone as she could muster, “Your girlfriend is very pretty.”

Nate cleared his throat as he stuck the key in the ignition. “Nadine is not my girlfriend.”

“Oh?” Holly puckered her lips, unconvinced. “Does she feel the same way?”

The truck’s engine revved to life, and he shifted into gear. He spared her a glance before he looked both ways for oncoming cars and then pulled out of the parking lot. The truck’s tires squealed and spat gravel, and she figured she had her answer, even before Nate said, “Look, we date…sometimes. Okay?”

Why did hearing him say that make her heart hurt? And it did. There was a funny ache in the center of her chest. Which was ridiculous. She had no claim on Nate. Whatever had been between them had ended practically before it began, and that was a very, very long time ago.

Their kiss of the evening before flashed in her mind, every bit as impossible to ignore as the lightning that had flashed in the sky during it. With it, needs she hadn’t known existed had filtered to the forefront.

“You might have mentioned it.” The words slipped from her lips before she could stop them.

“I didn’t see the need,” he said. He shifted in his seat. Squirmed? “For that matter, I don’t see why it should be a problem.”

“Problem? I can assure you, it is not a problem.” She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. Did she sound as pathetic and juvenile as she felt?

“You’re acting as if it is,” Nate replied.

Apparently so.

She dropped her arms. “All right, it’s just that I felt very foolish back there.”

Her revelation seemed to take him by surprise. “Why?”

“I felt like I was in the middle of a…a…” Holly gestured with her arms as she searched for the right word. “A lover’s quarrel.”

“Nadine and I are not…serious.”

But apparently they were lovers. Or they had been. That ache was back, and so was the small voice in Holly’s head that kept telling her to let the matter drop. It was none of her business. Besides, what right did she have to question Nate’s personal relationships when there was a man waiting for her back in Morenci that everyone assumed she would agree to marry in the near future?

Since she couldn’t ignore the ache, she ignored the voice and pressed on. “Serious or not, Ms. Masterson clearly was not pleased when she found out that I had spent the night in your home. Has she ever spent the night there?”

She studied his profile. A muscle ticked in his jaw, telling Holly she’d struck a nerve. “I’m not going to answer that. What I will say is this—I can’t help how Nadine feels or what she thinks.

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