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that… I don't know how to explain it," Fox said. "I suppose I feel like I've waited my whole life for you, Celeste."
    She knew she should jump up from the swing and retreat to her room,
or just burst out with the truth. It was wrong not to tell Fox what she
was, or what she had been to his father. But she couldn't help herself.
John had lavished attention on her. He had made her feel secure. But
John had never made her heart pound like this. He had never made her
feel so alive.
    Fox touched her chin with two fingers and gently turned her face toward him.
    In the darkness she could only make out the outline of his face, but she knew he was going to kiss her.
A real kiss.
Something she'd not experienced in many years. Celeste never allowed her customers to kiss her; it was too personal.
    Just one kiss,
she told herself. Another moment of fantasy, and then she would go back to the harsh reality of life.
    Though she was prepared for his kiss, Fox took her completely by
surprise. His lips brushed hers in a warm, light caress. It was a
chaste kiss, but one of promise if she dared part her lips. Did she
dare?
    She touched her finger to the corner of his mouth, and he kissed her fingertip.
    "Marry me," Fox whispered.

----
Chapter Three

     
    Celeste inhaled sharply, but felt as if she were suffocating. It
wasn't that she'd never been proposed to. Customers were always asking
her to marry them. John had made that request at least once a week for
the last three months of his life. But somehow this was different. It
cut into her heart and bled her. It made her want to cry, not just
tears, but torrents. She wanted to cry for all that was lost, all she
would never have.
    Celeste pushed Fox away and jumped up from the swing, almost tripping as she made her escape.
    "I'm sorry," he called after her. He made a move to rise from the
swing, then settled back as if realizing how brittle her emotions were
at this moment. "I shouldn't have said that." He sounded perfectly
sincere as he brushed back the hair off his forehead.
    Now that he was no longer so close, Celeste could think more
clearly. She patted back the loose strands of hair that had fallen from
her neat chignon. She had always hated her hair. Red as sin, her father
had called it.
    She laughed, feeling foolish at her reaction to Fox.
Treat him like a customer,
her survival instincts told her.
    "Do you always propose to a woman the first time you kiss her?" she
asked, hoping that he didn't hear the tremor in her voice. A woman
could protect herself from a man as long as he thought she didn't care…
didn't feel anything for him.
    "No. No, I don't." His voice held a serious tone, as if this had not
been a boyish attempt to woo her into bed or at least to gain a peek
beneath her petticoat. "I… I've never."
    "Never what?" She felt better now. More confident. She could breathe once more.
Celeste, The Heavenly Body
of Kate's Dance Hall could handle far more than little Celeste Kennedy,
the Denver socialite. "Never kissed a woman?" She couldn't resist
brushing her fingertips across her lips. "I find that hard to believe."
    "Never asked a woman to marry me." He rose from the swing.
    She took a step back. "I find that equally hard to believe, Mr. MacPhearson."
    "So now it's Mr. MacPhearson again?" He extended his hand. "Look, I
said I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. It's just that I'm very…
taken with you. My father was right when he said you were very special.
I've never met a woman so beautiful, inside and out."
    Celeste watched him in the darkness. Now was the time to tell him
what she was. What would he have to say of her inner beauty, then?
    She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't form the words. Suddenly
she was afraid, more afraid than she'd ever been in her life. For some
reason she wanted Fox to accept her; she needed him to accept her. It
was almost as if her soul depended on it.
    "Celeste… it wasn't a seduction line," he continued. "Perhaps a
little premature,