Secret Vow Read Online Free PDF Page A

perceptible.
    “I suppose I was just restless,” she said at last. “I had dreams that were bigger than this place.”
    “All right, I’ll buy that. So how was it, climbing your way through the fast-paced financial world?”
    “Exciting, at first. I was good at it, and very successful. But it was all-consuming; I basically sacrificed my social life.”
    “Hmm. So there’s no lucky man missing you right now back in Toronto?” he asked lightly.
    “No one, lucky or otherwise.” Brooke released a gentle sigh as she considered how long it had been since anyone had so much as asked her out.
    “I’ll admit, I’m not unhappy to hear that. You know I had a crush on you back in the day.”
    Brooke suppressed a smile as she replied, his words stirring a flutter of remembered excitement in her chest. “I got that impression when you tried to kiss me at the school dance.”
    “I’m not sure ‘try’ is the right word.” Amusement coloured his tone as he took a step closer to her, his eyes gleaming as moonlight touched his face. “You kissed me back. At least for a moment, before you pushed me away.”
    “You caught me by surprise.” She still remembered it clearly—the sweet, soft press of his lips against hers. But the momentary, unrestrained pleasure of it had quickly dissipated, snuffed out by shame. How could she accept such open affection from him, while harbouring a secret that might have offered him some measure of comfort?
    “You said I wasn’t your type,” Ian went on, his tone even. “You wouldn’t want to be seen kissing the son of the town crook, would you?”
    Brooke stared at him, her heart beginning to batter against her ribs. “That’s the second time you’ve said that. I never thought of you that way. I liked you.”
    “But you weren’t attracted to me.”
    “It’s not that,” she began, flustered—before she saw the corner of his mouth lift, and realized he was teasing her. “I wasn’t … I don’t know. It was my first kiss. I panicked.”
    Ian crossed his arms over his broad chest, regarding her quizzically. “Really? At sixteen you’d never been kissed?”
    She darted him a narrowed gaze. “Is that so strange?”
    “I suppose not. It’s rather nice to know I was your first.”
    “Shall I presume I wasn’t yours?” Brooke asked, feeling a smile curve her lips.
    Ian’s own mouth curled at the edges, as one eyebrow arched. “I may have had a few dalliances behind the bleachers with girls who shall remain nameless. But yours was the first kiss that meant anything.”
    With his last words a more serious tone entered his voice. As his gaze held hers, Brooke felt her pulse quicken, carrying a surge of blood to her cheeks. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings,” she said quietly. It was a relief to apologize to him, even for this small offense.
    “You could find a way to make it up to me.” Ian took another step closer, closing the space between them. His hand drifted up to smooth away a tendril of hair that had blown across her cheek—and then lingered a moment, his fingertips leisurely skimming her jaw with a feather-soft caress.
    Brooke held in her breath, as a warm shiver of awareness skittered through her limbs. She didn’t move or speak, but simply stood dumbfounded as his fingers curled tenderly around her neck to settle at her nape, entwining her thick mane of hair.
    Instinctively she tilted her head back as he bent toward her, his mouth brushing delicately over hers. She let her eyes fall closed, welcoming the sudden flare of desire that electrified her body. At once it called her back to that warm spring evening when she was sixteen, and the sweet thrill of her first kiss; she hadn’t forgotten the exhilaration of the moment Ian touched his mouth to hers—or the agony of disengaging from his embrace.
    This time she didn’t pull back, but surrendered fully as the gentle strokes of his lips deepened, slow and soft yet achingly insistent. His hand glided down