Page 29 of A Lifetime in 30 Days
“He loved to travel,” she said absently, and wondered how abnormal it was that her husband was the topic of their after-sex discussion.
“I almost told him that I wanted you,” he said, and her head jerked in his direction.
“You what?” They’d forgotten to turn off the light in the bathroom, so the golden hue partially illuminated the otherwise dark bedroom.
He was lying on his side, an arm tucked under his head as he stared at her.
“Back in college, about a month or so after he started dating you. He was bragging about how good things were going and about how you might be the one, and I was getting so pissed with him. I almost shouted that I’d seen you first and that you should be mine.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. Hearing it now, all these years later, she was torn between whether to think it was creepy-obsessive or endearing because his crush on her had been reciprocated. She just wasn’t being as open with him about it as he was with her. No way was she putting herself out there for this man, whom she’d technically known for twenty years but at the same time had only really known intimately for about two hours.
“Seeing me first didn’t mean anything,” she replied.
His mouth curved into a small smile. “You don’t believe that,” he said. “I knew you still felt it too. Whenever we were in a room together, I felt your gaze on me. When I was trying desperately not to look at you, not to want to touch you, to talk only to you—hell, to take your ass out of whatever room we were in and go someplace so we could be alone.” He reached out and ran a finger down her cheek.
“It was wrong to look at you like that,” she said.
He sighed. “I saw you first.”
She grinned and turned over onto her side so she could face him. “You’re just gonna keep saying that, aren’t you?”
He nodded. “’Cause it’s true. And if I hadn’t been tongue-tied and afraid I might just pass out and make a complete idiot of myself, I would’ve claimed you right then.”
“Nobody claims me,” she said. “I only go willingly.”
He let his finger glide down her neck to trail along the breast that had escaped the confines of the tank top. One thing was for certain: after being trapped inside a bra for more than eight hours, when her girls were finally let loose, they had a mind of their own.
“I mean, we could go another round to prove my point, but I’m pretty sure during the last round, you were already admitting to being all mine,” he said, then licked his lips.
She swatted playfully at his shoulder but didn’t make any move to stop the tiny circles his fingers were making on her breast. “Sex talk doesn’t count.”
He paused then and stared at her. She wanted to look away. To say she was thirsty and get the hell out of that room for just a few minutes because his gaze was making her uncomfortable. Not like she wanted him to leave right this moment uncomfortable, but definitely like she was rethinking some of the things she’d said since being reunited with him.
“If you knew Caleb and I weren’t together, why didn’t you let me know when you came back to town?” she asked.
“I was determined to get my gym opened, find a house, do research and development for my supplements. It took a lot of my time.”
“Oh,” she said, and started to move so she could lie on her back again. Staring into his dark eyes was starting to be too intense.
But he moved his hand from her breast and had both his arms around her waist before she could make it. He pulled her to him until almost every part of his body was touching some part of hers. “When I’m with a woman, I like to give her as much of my attention as Ipossibly can,” he said, his face so close to hers that his breath was warm against her cheek.
“All those years you were away, I know you weren’t thinking about me. Or still wanting me. You had to date other women.” Her mind seemed to be all over the place, rattling off some of the things she’d meant to say last night.
He paused for a second, and she wondered if he might actually pull away or perhaps decline to answer. He did neither.
“I had girlfriends, Savannah. Just like I did when we were in college. But I never forgot about you. Never stopped wondering what if.”
She sighed, recalling having been caught up in thatwhat ifquestion earlier yesterday.
“How do you know I wasn’t already with someone else?” Obviously, this question was a bit too little, too late, but she wanted to know what he’d been thinking all these years, what he was thinking now.
“I didn’t when you were at the funeral,” he said, and kissed the tip of her nose. “But you definitely would’ve been more resistant to me paying for your lawyer if you had a man, and you certainly wouldn’t have gone out for coffee with me.” He kissed her cheek.
“If I had a man, he wouldn’t dictate which gifts I accept or who I can have coffee with,” she replied, and eased an arm around his neck.
He kissed her other cheek, then her forehead, then back down to drop another kiss on the tip of her nose. “You didn’t pick the right man, Savannah,” he whispered, then touched his lips to hers.
“You didwhatwith your mouth?” Ronni practically screamed when they took their seats in the alto section of the choir on Sunday.
