Page 52 of Anything for You
I couldn’t say what it felt like, though, because it was certainly worlds apart from the friendships I had with Bruce or Kenny, or even someone single like Ethan Carter.
He was still quiet, and I wondered if the question was too much. “Sorry, maybe that’s pushy? I don’t know how this works.”
I slumped down, letting my back rest against the blanket and shifting my gaze to the puffy clouds above us.
A warm brush against my arm brought my attention to him. He lay on his side now, his head propped in one hand.
“It’s not pushy at all. It makes sense we should talk about it. I’m just not sure of how to answer… Not because I don’t know what I want, but because I don’t know if it’s too much.”
“Maybe you should just tell me what you want. Then I’ll know, and I can tell you the same.”
I was practically breathless, my pulse almost thready at my temple and throat. Lying next to him on the blanket was thrilling enough, but his focus and nearness paired with the conversation was almost dizzying in its influence on me.
He dipped his chin, spearing me with thoseeyes and sending a flood of awareness from my head down to the soles of my feet.
“I want to spend time with you.”
“Me, too. I mean, I want to spend time with you.” I swallowed, almost wild with anticipation for his words.
“I want to support you—be there for you as often as you’ll let me.”
“Anytime. All the time. You honestly already do,” I said, smiling too wide for my own good.
A half smile pulled at one side of his mouth, and he leaned, somehow much closer. He was almostoverme, body lying alongside mine on the blanket and leaning on one elbow. This giant of a man made me feel deliciously small and yet there was nothing I could want more than to be at his mercy when he looked at me like this.
“Good. And I want—” His heady gaze dropped to my lips, then slowly drifted back up to my eyes. “—to kiss you.”
“Yes.”
As though nature and all its creatures heard my reply, the sounds and even the breeze seemed to still. Our eyes hooked into one another’s, locked, and then he slowly moved his free hand to my head. He cupped my face in his warm, big palm and brushed his thumb over the apple of my cheek.
“You’re so beautiful, Dove. Your heart, your mind…”
His intensity was searing a hole straight through me and I couldn’t think straight. That must’ve been why I said, “Just the heart and mind, huh?”
One of those heart-piercing smiles broke across his face, and my heart rate jumped again.
“No, not just those things. But I wanted to make sure you know I don’t just want you for your body—I want all of it.”
He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear in the gentlest, most tender gesture that had my breath catching.
He inched closer, a scant inch from my lips. “Make no mistake, though, Dove. I do want you for your body, too.”
My lashes fluttered and I swallowed, chest downright heaving by now, and he still didn’t close the distance. Impulse took over, and I reached for the front of his shirt and pulled him in, though it didn’t take any force. Only the clear invitation, the consent written in the gesture and my very enthusiastic return.
The second our lips finally touched, I slipped my hands into his hair. I shouldn’t have been surprised by this big, quiet, sensitive man kissing in slow, mesmerizing passes, but here he was drugging me with his touch and then retreating all too soon.
My eyes reluctantly opened to find him staring at me with naked wonder on his handsome face.
“Why’d you stop?” I asked, then blushed profusely because I absolutely sounded like a little beggar.
He rewarded me with a light laugh, his gaze tracking where the tips of his fingers traced over the ridge of my collar bone, then slid up to traverse the slope of my shoulder. Eyes half lidded, his feather-light touch had so much tension coiling in me, I didn’t know where to go with it. I gripped his shirt again, tempted to tug and see if he’d kiss me again, but then he slipped the strap of my dress back over my shoulder—it must’ve slid down while I’d been lying here.
“We’ve got time. I don’t want to rush anything with you.” But then, he dropped his head and pressed one more kiss so completely gentle andfull, it brought tears to my eyes.
Silly though it might’ve sounded, it was like everythingthis man did had a purpose and that kiss’s was to say, “You’re precious to me.”
“Alright?” he asked, pulling away to see me attempt to discreetly brush away a tear.
