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"Then why are you doing it?" she asked

Bree had put the cat down finally, and she was facing hi to her moist, crimson lips Ian reached out and pulled the hair free and tucked it behind her ear, reveling in the satin slide across his fingertips It had been a while since he had touched a woman, and there was a paradoxical quality to Bree that he loved She was strong and bold, yet wonderfully feminine and vulnerable at the sanored the fact that he had just told her she could sneak off and brush her teeth before a kiss, and he went for one anyway A hand on the back of her neck, Ian leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, lightly They fit together well, comfortably, and he felt her acquiescence, felt her lean toward him to meet his er for a fleeting o any faster than he already was and have her balk on hih when he stepped away fro away the lip gloss that had transferred from her lips to his, Ian said, "I’ with"

Her eyebrows rose in censure as if she clearly expected hi room I’d like to see the fireplace" He set to the bedroom eventually

Bree watched Ian carefully She wasn’t used to men like him at all Her ex-boyfriends had all been profuse in their attentions and loud about their neediness

None had been s trouble seeing as co her, and it was starting to annoy her that she constantly felt off-kilter, out of control The advantage to theone, not vice versa Ian and she were more evenly matched, and she didn’t know quite what to do with it

So she sucked in a breath, gathered her resolve-- because she was now deterton on her own terms--and said, "Sure I assu you’d want to see"

He laughed as he followed her, Akasha trotting along beside him

So much for feline loyalty It obviously didn’t exist because Akasha, who to that point had never tolerated a man in her house, was clearly s area on the first floor, the roorande roolass s and a fireplace with a very ornate carved s of mistletoe Bree said, "The house was built in 1888 All the ork is original, and so is the fireplace, though we can’t burn wood in it It’s not up to code"

Though she had to ad there every Winter Solstice and so far no one had seemed to notice, and she hadn’t burned the house down But she wasn’t really willing to take a chance on a roaring fire

Ian had wandered into thea full 360 slowly He looked puzzled, and Bree waited for a response, content just to look at hi confidence and success His hair was very short yet soed to convey a sense of style, the front sticking up slightly He was dressed more casually than the day before, his jeans distressed in all the right places, his shoes orn leather He still had his coat on, but she could see his wine-colored button-up shirt with a subtle stripe, untucked, casual, but not the slightest bit sloppy Bree had never been to Chicago, but she could picture hi down busy streets at a fast clip, talking on his cell phone

"Wow," he said

"Wohat?" The roo Bree ell aware the furniture was old and worn and that the overcast Decea serious case of deja vu" Ian ered one of the e to smack his hand away

Mistletoe, with all its sexual implications, was not what either of them needed at the moment Or maybe it was

"I don’t believe in deja vu," she said "I think it’s really that our sixth sense solimpses pieces of our future, then e see thenize them as familiar, as if they’re part of the past But they’re really our recognition of what our subconscious already told us was going to occur"

She expected hiree, since Ian didn’t see but the present, but he surprised her

"That’s an interesting theory But for me, this is deja vu because I’ve seen this roos of rapevines that had been carved in the wood "These grapevines It’s unreal how clearly I saw it all"

Bree sucked in her breath "You saw this room in a dream? With mistletoe?" What the hell did that mean?

"Yes" Ian turned and looked at her, and those dark eyes studied her "I don’t believe in anything but logic, but I can’t explain this I’ve been drea about this roo?"

"A year And it always looked just like this, decorated for Christmas The tree, the mistletoe"

A shiver raced up Bree’s spine It had been a year since they hadthe mistletoe yesterday"

"That’s really weird," he said, his voice thoughtful, hisdown in a frown He peeled off his jacket and tossed it on the sofa, les, all objects

It was clear he wanted an explanation, and Bree had none to give him "What happens in the dreams?"

But Ian just shook his head "It’s personal"

Whatever the hell that meant