Page 105 of Return to Me Always

At that, I saw him swallow as an intense look took over his face.

He stood up and helped me arrange the sheets and pillows. My heart beating like a hummingbird, I scooted myself backwards, my body resting against the headboard, the soft bedding against my skin, almost caressing me, keeping the chill away.

Tyler sat back down, looking at me with those heated eyes. "Are you comfortable?" he asked.

I nodded, feeling so awkward but also thrumming with anticipation.

As he turned the pages in his notebook and grabbed one of the pencils, I tried to steady my breath. How many times since I had met Tyler had my lungs not worked properly? It was certainly becoming a regular occurrence around him.

He looked over the length of my body, his eyes scorching me along the way and setting fire to my bare skin. But his glance was different, taking me in, studying me in a distinct way that he'd never done before. And he was oddly quiet, a focus settling over him as he began to sketch.

The desire to move closer and see what he was drawing was overwhelming, but I resisted. The seriousness of the moment hit me, and the urge to laugh came over me as it sometimes did during very intense moments. But I somehow managed to stifle it as I tried to think about something else.

"Tyler, can I ask you how many times you've sketched naked ladies?" I teased.

He glanced up, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "You're the first, and I have no idea what I'm doing. Wheesht, love. I need you to be still for me."

"Ooh, I kind of like it when you're bossy."

His eyebrows shot up. "You do?"

"Maybe a little." I shrugged. "Sometimes."

"I'll have to remember that." He grinned as he went back to drawing. "And I like it whenyou'rebossy."

I smiled at the idea of bossing around my big warrior man. My heart swelled as he continued to sketch me, a charged stillness filling the air around us. Never in my life would I have dreamed of this moment, of sitting here so vulnerable like this in front of my dream man.

As I struggled to keep my breathing controlled, I felt like I might jump out of my skin. So I kept my eyes on Tyler's as his own swept my body, studying me, and I tried to figure out exactly what part of me he was drawing. It seemed like he was focusing on my lower body first.

In vain, I tried to sneak a peek at his drawing, but it was futile. So I just lay there, watching him, observing him, taking in all ofhim. After all, he was naked too, although the sketchpad covered some of his best parts.

"What has you smiling?" he asked.

Busted. "You. Just you."

"Mm-hmm," he said, barely audible.

It seemed like his eyes moved to my waist and breasts, and I seriously struggled to breathe as an invisible sensuality pulled me toward him.

"Relax, Kat. I'm not going to devour you."

His soothing voice helped, but I still felt the blush creep up my cheeks.

"Yet," he added, making desire jump through my veins.

Had Tyler been serious about the no-shagging thing so I could rest? My shoulder was already feeling better, just a slight throbbing occasionally. More than anything, though, I needed this man's hands to touch me again, needed this man's lips on my body again.

"How much longer, babe?" I asked, trying to squash those feelings but unable to even come close.

"Soon."

Then his piercing gaze moved to my face as the pencil swept across the page, and somehow this was even more intimate than him sketching my body. He was looking at me, as he had many times, but seeing me through different eyes, an artist's eyes. I had to wonder what he saw, what he thought as his fingers moved with such grace and skill.

Before, he'd had to rely on the memory of his dreams to draw me, and I wondered if it'd somehow be different to sketch therealme that was directly in front of him. Would the drawing look the same or have some unique quality that the others lacked?

His eyes looked deep into mine as his fingers continued to move, almost making me jealous of a damn pencil. My heart stuttered at the thought of what those hands could do to me.

"You okay, Ryder?"

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