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apologize.”
    Karen set the print down on her desk, next to the mouse pad, as her pulse fluttered in her fingertips. “Sorry for what?”
     
* * * * *
     
    She stood there, green eyes wide and hands loose at her sides, her slender fingers brushing the corner of her desk. How could she look so oblivious, like she had no idea what he was talking about?
    “For taking advantage of you.” He resisted the urge to wince as the words came out. “I shouldn’t have kissed you like that – not after you’d been drinking.” It had felt right at the time, but that was just evidence of what a fucking creep he was, wasn’t it? Offering to give her a ride home after she’d been drinking, and then shoving his tongue down her throat before he let her go…
    Karen laughed, and the sound sent slivers of disbelief slicing through him. How could she laugh about it? Had he betrayed her trust so badly that she thought she had to make a show of not caring?
    “Jed, you didn’t take advantage of me. How could you think that?”
    “You’d been drinking,” he repeated. “I should’ve just taken you home, and let that be that.”
    She crossed her arms, and he couldn’t help but notice how the motion pushed up her breasts. Visions of her in her low-cut dress from the night before swarmed his memory and amped-up his guilt. She’d looked amazing… She still did, in the new sweater Mina had given her for her birthday.
    “Well, I’m glad you didn’t,” she said. “I mean yeah, I drank, but not too much. I was barely buzzed, and well – I don’t know if I would’ve been able to work up the courage without a little help.”
    “The courage?”
    “To – you know. When I leaned forward and…” Her face was suddenly, totally pink. “I thought we were going to kiss so I sort of leaned toward you. When you pulled away, I was horrified. But then…” She shot him a shy grin. “I realized I’d been right.”
    “You’d been thinking about us kissing?” The notion sent a pang of sharp-edged desire through him, but he knew he shouldn’t savor it … alcohol had a way of making people think things they shouldn’t.
    “For ages .” She crossed her arms a little more tightly, almost as if she were hugging herself. “Ever since I first met you. I just didn’t know how… I mean, I was nervous. It was hard for me to tell if you felt the same way.”
    Looking at her standing that way, with her arms tight around her own body while her eyes searched his, he wanted to pick her up and wrap his own arms around her and hold her so tightly that he’d be able to feel her heart beat, her breasts compressed against his chest… “Are you serious? Karen, I didn’t realize…”
    Ever since she’d met him? Holy shit… That’d been months ago. And yeah, he’d felt an instant attraction too, but the idea that she’d been waiting all that time, wanting something to happen... It was unbelievable. And it made him feel like a dick.
    All the excuses he’d found to see her, the way he’d sometimes prolonged their little meetings in the back of the tattoo studio even though she’d answered all his questions and provided better images than he ever could’ve hoped for… “I feel like I’ve been leading you on. I’m sorry.”
    She tightened her self-embrace so much that it was a wonder she could even breathe. “Oh. I see… You don’t feel the same way.” Her face transitioned from pink to red before his eyes, and her expression vacillated from hurt to angry.
    Damn it, she looked at him like he’d hit her or something.
    “It’s not that I’m not attracted to you,” he said as his mistake dawned on him. “I am, but it’s not like we could be together.”
    She raised her gaze again, her eyes searching his. “Why not? Are you seeing someone else?”
    “No.” His voice came out a little too deep, a little too scraping.
    “Then what are you talking about?” Her face was still red, but she looked more bewildered than hurt now.
    He