Page 38 of Cherishing Happily Ever After

She nodded a little.

“Last night, I told you things I’ve never told another person. And maybe it’s not enough for you, and it might take me some time because I don’t know how to do this.” He took a breath. “I don’t know how to do anything but casual,” he said. “I’ve never done it before.”

His hand reached out and cupped her cheek, and the touch of him sent a warmth through her that filled her completely.

“But whatever it is with us, I meant it when I said that there will never be anything casual between us.”

“What are you saying?” She hoped she knew. Her heart wanted to believe that she knew what he was saying. But she needed him to say it.

He stepped even closer so there were only inches between them. “I’m saying that I can’t stop thinking about you.”

His voice was rough, barely controlled. His thumb stroked her cheek and the combination of the two things was making it hard to think straight.

“I’m saying,” he continued. “That I don’t know if I can give you what you want.” Her heart sank a bit and she tried to look down, but Travis held her chin and forced her to look in his eyes. “But if you’ll let me, Stephanie,” he said quickly before she could protest. “I sure as hell want to try. That’s all I can promise right now, but I hope it’s enough for you because you and I both know that whatever it is that’s going on between us, it’s—”

She nodded as her lips curled up into a smile, interrupting him.

Travis returned the grin. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that it’s a good thing I’m so patient.” She laughed as he pulled her to him and wrapped her up tight in his arms. “I mean, I didn’t think you’d ever—”

He cut her sass off with a kiss that left no room for doubt about what it was Travis was feeling for her.

Travis knew it with a clarity that he’d never felt before. He could not and would not ever be able to just be friends with Stephanie. Ever.

He needed more from her.

He neededeverything.

Maybe he’d been a bit slow to come to it, but now that he understood more about how he felt about her, he couldn’t shut it off. There would never be anything casual about him and Steph. Ever. It was all in…whatever that meant. He still didn’t know, but he was finally ready to figure it out.

In the meantime, there was a lot more he needed to sort out. Including what her gorgeous face looked like when she was lost in the throes of passion that he planned on making her feel. Very soon.

Stephanie kissed him back. Soft at first. Unsure. But soon, her lips yielded under his and she matched his intensity.

He pulled back, just enough to speak. “You want this?” He needed to know. He needed to hear it from her and know with one hundred percent certainty that she wasn’t going to push him away again. That she wasn’t going to get scared of what could happen between them. “For real this time, Steph. Not just—”

Her hand slipped up behind his head and pulled him roughly back to her lips. The kiss was intense and full of need. She broke it long enough to say, “Yes. I want this. I want you.”

His hands slipped down to her hips, and he held her fast, as if she might change her mind and run away again. But she wouldn’t.

Their kisses developed a frantic urgency, and Steph’s hands traveled down his body to the hem of his T-shirt, where they slipped up and under the fabric. He gasped at her touch on his bare skin. She left a trail of heat as her hands moved over his skin and pulled the shirt up and off his head.

“That’s better.” Her smile was mischievous as she stepped back to assess him. “I’m not used to you with a shirt on. You’re usually half naked when you’re around me.”

He winked and once again closed the distance between them like a cat stalking a mouse. “You think that wasn’t intentional?” He leaned in and nipped at her neck, eliciting a perfectly sexy groan from her lips.

“Oh, I knew you were trying to get my attention.”

Her words were like puffs of air as he sucked and nibbled on her neck, moving lower until he reached her silky pajama top that had been such a tease earlier. He’d be happy to rid her of it, despite how sexy she looked in it. She would be a thousand times sexier out of it.

He lifted his head and pulled at her tiny top, not that it was much of a barrier. “And it worked?”

“Well, you got my attention,” she said as the top lifted up and over her head, revealing the most perfect, bare breasts he’d ever seen.

It was Travis’s turn to be breathless when she shook her hair out and the soft red curls fell over her bare shoulders to the top of her breasts, teasing her pebbled nipples.Damn.

“Now,” she continued, a challenge in her voice. “Let’s see if you can keep it.”

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