Her first dazed thought was that it surprised her that someone had set off fireworks inside the country club. Couldn’t that be dangerous? And had someone started singing “The Hallelujah Chorus”? And who was suddenly clanging all those bells?
In a last clutch at sanity, she realized that she’d fallen prey to a whole host of romantic clichés.
And then Andrew pulled her closer and she forgot how to think at all. She wrapped her arms around his neck and eagerly kissed him back.
She had no idea how much time passed before they finally pulled back for air. It could have been minutes—or another whole year, for all she could have said at that moment. Her arms still locked behind his neck, she stared wordlessly up at Andrew, who looked almost as stunned as she was.
It felt as though she’d been waiting all her life for a kiss like that. Who’d have thought it would have happened on this night, with this man?
She saw Andrew swallow. And then he bent his head again. She strained upward to meet him...
A heavy hand pulled them apart just before their lips touched.
“Happy New Year!” A middle-aged man with overly bright eyes and martini-soaked breath planted an enthusiastic kiss on one side of Nicky’s mouth, then turned and slapped Andrew’s shoulder hard enough to make him stagger. “Happy New Year,” he said again, drifting off to pounce on the next closest woman.
Andrew’s friends and acquaintances surged around them with enthusiastic handshakes and exaggerated air kisses. Joyce and Norvell descended on Nicky to kiss her, wish her a happy new year and tease her about the apparent conquest she’d made that evening. It was all she could do to answer coherently as she and Andrew were swept apart by the celebratory crowd.
Fifteen minutes or so passed before Nicky spotted Andrew across the room again, in conversation with his father and his companion. He was wearing his glasses again, she noted, and he looked stern and distant, in marked contrast to the dazed, almost vulnerable look he’d worn after they’d kissed.
As though he sensed her studying him, he glanced her way. He didn’t smile when their eyes met, but there was enough heat in the silent exchange to curl her toes.
She sagged lightly against the wall behind her. “Oh, wow,” she murmured wonderingly. “How did this happen?”
Nicole had never claimed to be psychic, or even particularly intuitive, but she was a strong believer in fate. And she had a sudden, staggering suspicion that hers had been sealed at the stroke of midnight.
A rush of panic almost sent her bolting for the exit.
And then she chided herself for her cowardice, lifted her chin and came to an abrupt decision. She wouldn’t know for certain where this thing was headed until she’d introduced Andrew to the sides of her he hadn’t yet seen.
Looked like it was time for show-and-tell.
Pushing herself boldly away from the wall, she turned to Joyce and Norvell, interrupting their conversation with an elegant elderly woman. “It’s been a lovely evening, Joyce, but I’m going now. Thank you for inviting me.”
Joyce was visibly surprised. “You’re leaving now? Alone?”
Nicky glanced in Andrew’s direction. “Maybe not alone.”
Joyce choked. “Oh. I—”
Nicky smiled at the older woman. “I’ll be in touch, okay? Happy New Year.”
“Er, yes, um, you, too, of course. Ah—”
But Nicky was already moving away, blithely dismissing the open concern in her distant cousin’s eyes.
THE SLIGHT TINGLE at his nape made Andrew turn. He wasn’t surprised to find Nicole moving toward him, smiling in a way that might have made him nervous had his head been clear. Since he was still inwardly reeling from the aftereffects of their kiss, he could only be pleased that she’d sought him out again.
“Andrew,” she said.
He liked the way his name sounded when she said it in that husky voice. His reaction to hearing it was decidedly physical. “Another dance?” he asked, eager to get his hands on her again.
She shook her head. “Actually, I’m ready to leave.” His stomach tightened. She was leaving? Now? He wasn’t at all ready to let her out of his sight just yet.
She looked at him through her lashes. “Want to go with me?”
He almost swallowed his tongue. He had to clear his throat to ask, “Where?”
“Someplace a bit livelier than this,” she answered vaguely. “Interested?”