He wanted her. Really wanted her. A heady sensation, but the other thing he’d said played in her mind.
“I make you weak?” She didn’t want to make him or any man weak. Especially not when he made her feel strong, stronger than she recalled ever feeling.
He picked up her hand, pressed it to where his heart beat. “Does that feel as if you make me weak?”
His heart pounded beneath her fingertips. She shook her head.
“My resolve is what’s weak. You make me feel alive,” he clarified. “As if everything I do is bigger, brighter, more than anything I’ve ever done.”
That she understood because it’s how he made her feel. It amazed her that he could possibly feel the same. How could he when that seemed so unlikely? “I do?”
He nodded.
“I want you, Trinity, but I didn’t mean to tell you like this.”
She glanced around at the beach. Although there were other houses along the stretch of beach, they were essentially alone. The moon shone bright above them. The sea crashed foamy white waves that played a perfect love song. He’d just cooked her a delicious dinner and he’d lit candles. She couldn’t imagine anything more romantic, more seductive.
“What’s wrong with this? With this very moment?”
“Earlier I thought…” he shook his head. “It’s too soon.”
He was probably right. Less than two weeks was too soon. Still, they’d been together every night and if you put that on regular dating terms of weekend dates, they’d been seeing each other for months. Or was she just reaching?
Probably.
Because her hand had moved from his chest to his face. The grit of sand still lingered on her fingers but his skin was smooth, perfect.
“It’s not too soon,” she whispered, knowing it was true, especially when she heard his intake of breath above the crash of the waves. “But I should warn you that if we did, you’d be disappointed.”
“Never.”
She laughed ironically at his faith. If only. “I wish that was true, but I’m not very good at…well, you know.”
“Sex?”
Staring at where her hand caressed his jaw, she nodded. “I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t want me any more once we do.”
This time it was he who laughed. “You’d be wrong.”
“Again, I wish that was true.”
“Why?”
Could she write him a thesis on all the reasons why? Things like that he made her feel good about herself? That he made her believe in things that she shouldn’t believe in? That he’d taken away the loneliness that had iced her insides for so long that she’d believed the coldness was a permanent part of who she was?
“Because I like you,” she said instead, using his usual response to sum up all the emotions bubbling inside her. “A lot.”
In the moonlight, she saw his mouth curve upwards.
“Good to know,” he admitted, taking her hand. “I was beginning to wonder if this relationship was onesided.”
“Is that what we’re doing? Having a relationship?” Not that it didn’t feel like a relationship. It did. Plus he carried on at the hospital as if they were. But, still, there was no one around but the two of them and she wanted a straight answer from him.
“If you have to ask me that, I’m doing something very wrong,” he teased, scratching his head as if trying to figure out what that something might be.
“I…I just wasn’t sure.” Which sounded quite lame at the moment, with how his eyes searched hers. Even in the moonlight she could see desire flickering in the blue depths.
“After the past two weeks you aren’t sure that I’m totally fascinated by you and want to spend every second of my time with you?”
Wow. That’s all that her brain could register. Just wow. Wow. Wow. Riley’s words seemed so foreign, so far-fetched, yet she heard his sincerity, saw the truth in the way he looked at her. He looked at her as she’d never been looked at, as if she was the most precious being on earth.
“I’m scared,” she heard herself say, knowing her words were as true as his, shocked, though, that she was admitting her fear to him. Wasn’t that exposing just how vulnerable she really was?
“Don’t be scared of me, Trinity. I’d never intentionally hurt you.”
Intentionally. Which meant she likely would be hurt at some point down the line. Her life had taught her to expect no less. But she wasn’t going to hold back, wasn’t going to let the past or fear dictate who she was. Not when it came to Riley. Was she?
At this moment she was a woman sitting on a romantic beach, touching a fantasy man who was quickly encompassing her whole world.