Page 84 of Guarded Secrets
He nudged her chin up, searching her eyes, and repeated his question. “Am I too late? Can you still love me?”
She draped her arms around his neck. “I love you, Owen. I will never stop loving you.”
He felt everything inside him align, and damn if that didn’t feel exactly right.
“Good. That’s good.” He closed his eyes and let the warmth of love seep into his soul.
He felt like he was getting a second chance at life. He’d had to get out of his own way to embrace the future that was waiting right in front of him.
Opening his eyes again, he said, “I told you I was a risk, that I’m likely to destroy everything. You didn’t heed the warning. Now I’m yours and you’re mine. It’s us together, princess.”
He brought her hands to his mouth and pressed his lips to her knuckles.
“You won’t destroy everything, Owen. We’ll build something together.”
He spun her around, ending their dance with a kiss full of promise. “Come with me. Let me take you to bed.”
“Yes.” She glanced at the remnants of their meal. “We need to clear the table first.”
“I’ll take care of it later.”
She was already shaking her head. “You’ve lived here long enough to know the raccoons will help themselves if we leave this out.”
As bad as he wanted her, they cleaned up.
Not that he didn’t pull her hair aside to kiss the back of her neck while she was rinsing dishes at the kitchen sink.
Or that she didn’t rub her ass against the bulge in his jeans when he stood behind her to reach into a cupboard.
By the time he backed her up to the edge of his bed his need for her was straining his grasp on sanity.
He’d never experienced this level of need scrambled together with feelings of love so intense that all he could see was her.
Her fingers went to his belt, and while his libido saidyesand demanded he rut like a feral animal, his heart demanded something more.
Grappling for control, he nudged her back on the bed, took her hands in one of his.
“Slow down, princess. I want this to last.”
His free hand dipped under the hem of her sweater, and he groaned when he traced bare skin across her rib cage and over a rounded breast to its peak. “No bra.”
She tugged her hand free to pull down the front zipper on her sweater and he nudged the material aside. He dipped his nose to nuzzle her breast.
“No panties, either,” she whispered.
He groaned. She worked his shirt up to his shoulders. “That doesn’t help me go slow. If I’d known you were bare I’d never have made it through dinner.”
He pulled his shirt over his head, then tugged off her sweater.
Her breasts were gloriously free before him, and he felt like the luckiest man on earth.
Her fingers returned to his belt, working the buckle loose. “Slow next time.” She levered herself up to use her teeth to scrape along his neck. “Fast this time.”
Her words broke the dam and he was flooded with a frenzy of need, matched only by her own. He fumbled for his wallet but managed to roll on protection.
Then he was there, poised at her entrance.
Gazes locked together, he plunged. She surged to meet him, wrapping her legs around his hips.
