Page 63 of Love Me Carefully
“Yeah, like you,” she retorted lightly. She’d seen his pensive gaze, noticed the slump in his shoulders as he’d walked across the deck. He was worried, and he had every right to be.
“Yeah, like me.”
He stared at her then, his lopsided grin sending shivers throughout her body. “Terrell?”
“Mmmmm.”
He never took his eyes off her, which made the question she was about to ask all the more disconcerting. There were things she wanted to know, things she needed to know.
“Did you love her?” she blurted out. “Tanya, I mean. Did you love her?” she explained when he only blinked in response.
“No, I didn’t. Like I told you before, she fit this image that I had for a wife. I met her, we clicked and it just seemed like the right thing to be with her.”
“Oh.” Leah nodded her head as if she understood.
“I don’t think I’ve ever loved anyone.” Taking his hands out of his pockets, he braced them on the railing and leaned back. “Until now.”
Her head shot up and she stared at him blankly, wondering if she could really trust that he meant it. But this was Terrell. If nothing else, he was honest and loyal. She knew that if he was saying he loved her, he damn sure meant it. “And now?”
They both remained quiet while water rippled and splashed against the shore beneath the deck. The sun completed its descent, taking with it the wonderfully color-streaked sky.
He moved to sit on the lounge chair beside her, took her hand in his. “Now I’m so completely in love with you I can’t tell where I end and you begin.”
Could a body physically melt? Could her heart beat only to the rhythm of this man’s words? Leah could only answer yes to them both. “I never thought I’d be in love. Never thought I’d find someone I trusted with my heart.”
“You can trust me with your life, Leah. I would never do anything to hurt you.” He lifted her hand to his lips for a brief kiss.
With her free hand she rubbed the back of his head. “I do trust you, Terrell. I trust that you will be everything you say you are.”
She hadn’t said she loved him back, but that would come in time, he knew. Right now she needed assurance that he was sincere. She said she trusted him but he still felt compelled to show her that she could. “Let’s get some dinner. You haven’t eaten in a couple of hours so I know your stomach will be protesting soon.” Standing, Terrell pulled her up with him.
“Are you saying I’m greedy?”
Terrell tweaked her nose. “No, of course not. You have a healthy appetite and I enjoy watching you cater to it. Now let’s go before the rumbling starts.”
After a playful punch to his arm, Leah reached up and fixed his glasses.
“I must have walked around for the last thirty years with my glasses lopsided on my face,” he laughed.
“Why do you say that?”
“ ’Cause nobody’s ever fixed them as much as you do.” His voice lost its laughter as he stared into her eyes, one of his hands still holding hers while the other snaked around her waist.
“Maybe nobody ever noticed you the way I do,” she said, snuggling closer to him.
“Then I’m flattered,” he whispered before his lips sought hers.
“So am I,” she breathed as her eyes fluttered shut and her mouth opened to greet his. It was the sweetest kiss, slow and satisfying, his tongue sliding over hers in sinuous movements that made her wish they were closer to the bed.
His hand fanned out over her butt, pulling her closer as her fingers clenched at his shoulders urging him to deepen the kiss. His mouth opened wider as if to swallow her. She responded hungrily, wrapping both arms around his neck and pulling him closer to the brink.
“So sweet,” he moaned into her mouth before lightly nipping at her bottom lip.
“How much longer?” she asked, breathless from the assault and shaky from overwhelming desire.
“How much longer for what?” He was kissing her chin, her jaw, her neck and moving towards her ear.
She was melting in his arms, praying she wouldn’t fall onto the floor. Each time his lips grazed her skin, her knees weakened more. “How much longer before you go back to your room and grab those condoms?”
