“What way?”
“Like I broke you or something.” She paused, emotion strangling her for a moment. “This whole thing isn’t my fault.”
“I know it’s not your fault.” For some reason, her words seemed to have provoked him into urgency. He strode over to sit on the bed beside. “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is.” He reached out to take her hand. “You were right before. I was trying to manage this marriage all on my own. I should have told you the truth before. I should have told you from the very beginning.”
She shook her head. His words were earnest, honest, Peter-like, but they didn’t make her feel better. “The whole thing was because of me—because I got so stupidly drunk that night.” She pulled her hand out of his. “But that doesn’t change the fact that things are still a mess between us, and they’ll probably never get put back together.”
She’d been staring up at him from where her head rested on a pillow, but now he stretched out beside her. There wasn’t much room between her body and the edge of the bed, so he ended up very close to her, turned toward her on his side. “I don’t believe that.”
She tried to turn away from him, since his face so close to hers was sending her heart, her senses, into a tailspin. But she couldn’t make herself pull away. “I do.”
He reached out to stroke her cheek, very gently. “I know you do.”
“You said…you said that we would stay friends, no matter what.”
“I remember.”
“I don’t know how we can still do that now.”
“We’ll just make sure we do.”
“It’s not that easy. You want…want more.”
He wrapped an arm around her, sliding his hand slowly down her back. “And what do you want?”
“I don’t know.”
“So it’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. I really hurt you before. You can’t tell me I didn’t.”
“I’m fine, Kelly. I’m not going to let you go, no matter what. You’re not going to lose me.”
“I feel like I already have.”
He leaned forward until his lips were just a breath away from hers. “Well, you haven’t.”
It was exactly what she wanted to hear. And his warm, strong, familiar body was exactly what she wanted to feel. Her mind exploded in need and relief as he pulled her head toward him enough to kiss her.
The kiss wasn’t hard or deep or urgent. It was so soft, so tender, just the lightest brush of his lips against hers. It felt so good she moaned softly at the back of her throat.
“You’re not going to lose me, baby,” he murmured, his lips sliding over her cheek. “I promise.”
She gasped in pleasure at the words, the touch, and wrapped both of her arms around him.
They kissed for a long time, nothing more than the brushing of lips, the light flickering of tongues. And emotion grew stronger and deeper in her chest, her throat, her eyes, until she felt too full, achingly full, as if one more feeling would cause it all to spill over.
She was so overcome that she was hardly conscious of Peter turning her over onto her back, slowly taking off her clothes, starting to kiss his way down her body. Before she knew what was happening, he was nuzzling between her legs, and she was clutching at his hair as he brought her to climax with his lips and tongue.
She shuddered through the waves of sensation and was surprised to realize that tears were streaming from her eyes.
Peter moved back up her body until his weight was pressed down onto hers. He kissed away her tears. “I’m still your friend, Kelly. Even if everything else changes, that won’t. I just want to be your husband too.”
She couldn’t help but love the sound of those words, the idea of Peter as her husband—not just an accidental fluke, but a reality for the rest of her life. She held onto him tightly as he kissed her mouth with more urgency than before.
His body was tight now with arousal. She could feel the bulge in the front of his pants, rubbing against her hip. With the sudden need to feel him all the way, she started to fumble at the button and zipper of his pants. He was still mostly clothed, but she couldn’t wait to take off the rest of his clothes. As soon as she felt his erection in her hands, she spread her thighs and tried to move him into position.
He was panting loudly, his body so tense it was almost shaking, as he used his hand to ease himself inside her. She was deeply aroused, wet and pliant, and she cried out as she felt him inside her.
He used his hands to lift her thighs so she would wrap her legs around him, and then he turned them over onto their sides. It was perfect, beautiful, trapped in the most intimate of embraces, touching everywhere, feeling him everywhere. And then he kissed her again.