Page 15 of A Love So Sweet
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He pressed several kisses along her leg and ran his hands up her outer thighs, beneath her dress, feeling her tremble. He drew back again and noticed her clutching at the blanket harder than before. A pang of worry pierced his heart. He moved swiftly over her so he could look directly into her eyes, and she began fumbling with the buttons on his shirt.
He pressed his hand over hers, holding it against his chest. “Max, slow down.”
Moonlight reflected in her eyes. Her skin was flushed, her lips pink from their kisses. She was so incredibly feminine, contradictory to the woman who’d been standing on the car, taking charge of the world before her. All hints of the vixen that had tried to seduce him were gone. Her gorgeous eyes brimmed with inescapable desire, but he couldn’t deny the trepidation warring alongside it, and his protective urges charged forth again.
“We need to stop.”
Max shook her head, but the fear in her eyes told him otherwise.
“We’re stopping, Max.” He righted her dress and helped her to a sitting position. Cradling her face in his hands, he gazed deeply into her eyes and said, “I shouldn’t have gotten carried away. I’m sorry. I just feel so much for you.”
“Sorry?” Her brow furrowed. The hurt in her eyes was all consuming as she put her glasses back on. “This ismyfault. I’m the broken one, not you.”
He gathered her in his arms and held her, feeling her heart beating frantically against his. “It’s not your fault. Don’t ever say that. What we do together is both of us, and if I pushed too far—”
“You didn’t.”
Max tried to turn away, but he continued holding her, unwilling to let another misunderstanding come between them. “If this is about what happened at the resort—”
“It’s not,” Max insisted. “I feel so connected to you, and Iwantto be closer to you. It’s all good. It’s not you. It’s…” She inhaled deeply, then pressed her lips together, as if she was trying to hold back her words. “I haven’t been with a man in that way since…”
In that second, he knew in his heart what she was going to say. He pressed a kiss to her cheek and said, “Since the guy who hurt you in college?”
She nodded and closed her eyes.
“Sweetness, it’s okay. I understand.”
“Understand?” She opened her eyes, embarrassment evident in them even as she avoided looking directly into his eyes. “You can have any woman you want. You don’t need one you have to try tounderstand. Can you please take me to get my car?”
Now he was the one filling his lungs with brisk air, gathering the courage to put his foot down on a sensitive situation. “Yes, I’ll take you to your car, but can we talk first, please?”
Her eyes flicked up to his. “Treat…”
“I’ll tell you what. You don’t have to talk. Please just listen. Everyone has something to overcome. I don’t care if it’s the prince of Egypt or the first lady. We all have broken pieces, and we have choices to make. We can either tiptoe around those pieces forever and let them guide our happiness, or if we’re lucky, we can find someone who has a broom, a dustpan, and a bottle of glue, and try to make it work.”
Max smiled, and a soft laugh fell from her lips, warming him to his toes.
“When I first saw you at the resort, Max, I felt something so strong, it scared me.”
“Scared you? You expect me to believe that? A man like you?”
“Of course I don’t expect you to, but I hope you will. I didn’t know what to do with my instant attraction to you. I mean, I’ve been attracted to women before, but with you it was different. I wanted to take care of you. I wanted to lo—”
Max closed her eyes, and he lifted her chin with his finger and said, “Please open your eyes. Hear me out. No more misunderstandings. If you walk away from us, I want you to do it with your eyes open.”
She swallowed hard, barely breathing, and finally met his gaze.
“I had never felt anything so powerful,” he confessed. “Then, before I had a chance to even process what I was feeling or why, I thought I lost you. I have shattered pieces too, Max. Lots of them. I’ll bring the broom and dustpan. Hell, I’ll even bring the glue. Just meet me halfway.”
“I’m so embarrassed,” she said. “All I want to do right now is bury my face in a big chocolate cake and forget this ever happened.”
“That’s funny, because I never want to forget a second of it.”
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