Page 82 of Trophy
“I hope so.”
This evidently was what he wanted to hear, because his face relaxed slightly. “You said when we first got together that you weren’t ready for a relationship, and so we were taking it slow. Do you still want that?”
She shook her head, knowing with certainty the answer. “I’m ready now. For anything.”
His lips turned up in a little smile. “I really want to tell you I love you, but I’m afraid it might be too soon for you.”
She gave a little gasp, her heart doing an embarrassing jump. “It’s not too soon.”
Now his eyes blazed up to match the little smile on his face. “I love you, Allison Davies.”
“I love you too, Rob West.”
He kissed her then, and she kissed him back, and both of them were eager and emotional and a little bit tired. She ended up slumped against his chest again, feeling like she might actually cry.
“Okay,” Rob murmured. “That’s good. That makes me feel better.”
“Me too.”
He stroked her back the way he’d done last night. “I know you were worried about a lot of things before. I know a lot of the problem was me, and it’s something I’m going to work on. I wouldn’t let myself be needy with you or open up if it made me feel out of control. I didn’t want to feel the way I’d felt in relationships before, but that meant I couldn’t do a real relationship at all. I’m not promising it will be fixed overnight, but I am going to change. I hope you know that.”
“I do. Thank you.”
“But there were other things you mentioned.” He paused. “You said you never intended to stay here in Fielding for long. Did you mean that?”
She felt a little pang—that everything in the world hadn’t been miraculously fixed. But the issues didn’t seem to be so monumental as they had before. “I… I wasn’t planning on it. Right now I don’t even know anymore. I don’t want to work at Dora’s for any longer than I have to. I do know that.”
“Well, of course not. I never expected you to. You’re taking classes again, so you can get a degree and get a better job. Right?”
“Right.”
His hand had grown still on her back, and she was sure he was going to say something about how there were plenty of job possibilities for her in the area. It wasn’t true, but he’d want to be encouraging.
When he finally spoke, it wasn’t at all what she’d expected. “You know, Charlotte isn’t very far away.”
“What?” she asked, lifting her head.
“Charlotte is only an hour or so away. If you want to work there, or if you end up managing to get your jewelry shop going, we could make it work. Or there’s Asheville, which is a decent size and even closer. We could live halfway between the city and here. Then neither of us would have to drive so far.” He gave her a quick, nervous look, evidently misreading her stunned expression. “I mean in the future, of course. Way in the future when we’re ready to make decisions like that. I just wanted you to know that you’re not trapped here, just because you’re with me.”
She was crying now, and it was absolutely ridiculous. She buried her face in his shoulder for a minute until the wave of emotion had passed. “You mean you’d actually be willing to move?” she gasped at last.
He lowered his eyebrows, clearly confused by her reaction. “Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t really want to live in the city. I would hate it like nobody’s business. But I’m not joined at the hip withthis house or anything. Of course I would move, if it could get you closer to what you want.” His confusion was changing to a kind of bemused pleasure as he recognized her joyful expression. “Didn’t you know that?”
“I do now.” She pressed clumsy kisses against his mouth and chin.
He appeared to think this was a very good idea, because soon he was kissing her back. And then his hands were moving all over her body, and then he was taking off her clothes.
She was fumbling with his clothes too, but he was quicker. They were both so aroused and urgent and emotional at the moment that they couldn’t even be bothered with foreplay. As soon as Allison had freed his erection, he was positioning her over him, and she was lowering her hips to take him in.
He kissed her as they started to move, building a rhythm of fast, tight little pumps. Allison wasn’t sure she could come, but she loved it. Loved how he felt inside her, loved how he was already huffing in pleasure and an overflow of emotion. Loved how he was holding her bottom in his hands, guiding her motion. Loved how they both were in the same mood, needed the same thing from each other.
They didn’t last long. When she wasn’t making any strides toward coming, Rob shifted his arms so he could find and rub her clit. She gasped as the pleasure started to build, and soon she was riding him hard, reaching orgasm just as he lost control.
Both of them cried out with their release and then held each other tightly, panting in the aftermath.
“I love you,” Rob mumbled, still trying to press kisses against her hair.
She believed him, without question.
