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exactly what she was doing. She was convincing herself that she had been dismissed in favour of the woman he’d been thinking about. That she was somehow less worthy of his attention. So wrong, and there was only one way he could think to prove it as soon as he noticed her lips.
    He had to kiss her.
    She could have stopped him. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. He looked at her mouth and then back to her eyes and he could see that she knew he was unable to resist the temptation now that the thought had occurred to him. Slowly and deliberately…so slowly she had any amount of time to duck out of reach, he tilted and lowered his head. He was giving her the chance to move. Part of him was desperately hoping she would.
    But she didn’t move a single muscle.
    Her mouth was there. Waiting for him. Her lips still parted. And even then Mac moved so slowly he could feel the warmth of her breath against his lips before he closed that last, infinitesimal space.
    Once his lips touched hers, he couldn’t think of anything else at all. Her mouth claimed his. Dragged him in. Drugged him. It was only the need for oxygen that forced him to break the contact but then he heard the sound that Julia made. A soft whimper of desire and he was lost again.
    When her mittened hands came up to circle his neck, he surrendered himself without a heartbeat’s hesitation. He caught her head in his hands and tilted it. Touched her lips and then her tongue with his own and it felt like the ground had vanished from beneath his feet. He was weightless. Floating. Vaporised in some fashion by the heat being generated.
    When he became aware of what he was standing on again, Mac felt reality returning with a jolt. Who had broken that extraordinary kiss? He didn’t think he could have if his life had depended on it.
    He was breathing hard. So was Julia. She’d stepped back from him. It must have been she who had broken the contact, then, because Mac was sure his feet hadn’t moved. What was she thinking? What on earth could he say that might diffuse the intensity of what had just happened? Did he want to?
    And then Julia peeped up at him and grinned.
    â€˜You have to marry me now, you know,’ she said.
    Mac’s jaw dropped but then it hit him. This was ajoke. Maybe Julia’s reaction to the kiss had been nothing like his own. Or maybe she was just as astonished as he was and needed enough space to get her head around it. For whatever reason, she was going to make light of it and right now, it seemed the perfect way forward.
    â€˜Hey…’ He feigned shock. ‘It was only a kiss.’
    â€˜Only a kiss? Cheers, Mac.’ But her lips twitched and there was a glow of merriment in her eyes.
    Mac’s smile felt rusty but it was still there. And it grew. He could feel it stretching something that had got way too tight inside him. ‘It was a pretty good kiss,’ he said thoughtfully.
    Julia nodded in agreement. ‘Exactly.’ She sighed. ‘So now you have to marry me.’
    Mac’s smile broadened. ‘Is that so?’
    Julia nodded again. Firmly. ‘Yep. I paid attention at school and Sister Therese said …’
    The bark of ironic laughter came from nowhere. Oh, God…if only Julia knew that she was making a joke about the very thing that had been haunting Mac so keenly. He could actually hear a faint echo of his own voice from a decade ago.
    â€˜I’ll marry you, Chris. We can make this work.’
    And hers. Scathing.
    â€˜You can’t be serious! You think I want a kid? Holding me back? Interfering with everything I want to do with my life?’
    â€˜It’s my baby, too. You can’t just—’
    â€˜It’s my body, Alan. I can do whatever I like and you can’t stop me.’
    How could he have thought that Julia and Christine were alike? The very idea of marriage had been an insult. A threat, even, to the woman he’d believed himself