Her mouth dropped open. “You were?”
His grin was sheepish. “I practically stalked you. At home, at work. Before you ask how, I...have my ways.”
She struggled up to her elbow, incredulousness mushrooming inside her. “I’m sure you have. But even so...”
Lowering himself to the bed, he stretched out beside her, gathering her along his hot, hard body. “I’ve always made life-and-death decisions in seconds. Taking three weeks to conclude that I love you is a glacial pace for me. I took that long only because the decision to love you for the rest of my life is way more weighty than any life-and-death issue I’ve ever dealt with.”
She shook her head. How could all this be happening?
His large hand cupped her head. “Do you know why I came back to you when I did?”
“Because you completed that quest you thought would make you worthy of me?”
“You think it took me two whole weeks to do that? Everything was in place in two days.”
She blinked dazedly. “So why?”
“I was waiting for you.”
“To do what? Seek you out?”
“No, to reach your breakthrough. I knew you were close when I first acquired the lab, and that when you used the resources I put at your disposal, you’d no doubt reach it. I didn’t want to come back before you did. I wanted you to have this achievement you so deserve, before I distracted the hell out of you.”
That was tremendous. Unbelievable. But... “If you came the next day and explained that I didn’t put you off and you didn’t fear I’d boil your rabbit, I wouldn’t have agonized over you with every breath. I might have even reached that breakthrough sooner.”
His frown was spectacular. “Dammit. Everything I do because of you or for you backfires right in my face.”
She caressed his cheek placatingly. “With an end result that’s far better than any plan could have projected. Look at where I am now with my work, how ecstatic everyone is that you bought the lab. Look at me lying here with you, after you’ve given me absolute pleasure and so much more I never dreamed I’d have, and are now telling me that you...you...” A strangled cry escaped her as she buried her face into his chest, tears pouring from the depths of her soul. “This is...you are...too much. Way more than my heart can withstand or contain.”
“You are impossible for my heart to withstand or contain, too. What I feel for you is so intense, I feel I would go mad if you don’t reciprocate.”
“Oh God, I do, Antonio. I love you. I think from the first moment I saw you. But I never thought you could love me back.”
“You captured me from that first moment, too. I know myself, and I can promise you one thing—I’ll love you more every day. I only hope you never think I love you too much.”
She surged into him, shaking, tears flowing, unable to talk or breathe anymore. Her heart was overflowing. He soothed her, caressed her all over, sucking her lips, her nipples, lavishing the most amazing endearments and praise on her until she wrapped herself around him, undulated against him.
“Take me again, Antonio.”
His laugh was distressed as he unclasped her thighs from around his waist. “You might think you’re ready for another round, but trust me, you’re not.” He laid her back gently, his gaze scorching her all over before returning to her eyes, filled such sensual indulgence her core cramped with need. “So...never before, eh?”
Feeling free to show him everything in her heart and how wanton he made her, she rubbed her nipples against his rock-hard chest. “Apart from...uh...self-help, no. Why bother, when it wasn’t you?”
His gaze went supernova as he crushed her to him, then her lips beneath his.
When he let her breathe again, she felt self-conscious again. “So you’re not wondering how I reached this age without having sex? You don’t find it...”
“Pathetic?” he repeated her earlier description of her inexperience. “What’s pathetic is how ferociously glad I am that you didn’t.” He pressed into her, his arousal undiminished, his body buzzing with vitality and dominance and lust. “And I don’t find it strange at all, now that I know you. You don’t do anything unless it satisfies your meticulous, exacting mind, and I am only proud and grateful I’m the one who does. After you made me work my ass off for it, of course.”
He understood. And appreciated. Her heart swelled with thankfulness, even as it still quaked with the enormity of knowing he loved her back.
She caressed his hewn cheek, letting him see everything inside her. “I never wanted anyone, never considered anyone worth the trouble. But even when I thought you were unattainable and knew you would be trouble of unimaginable magnitude, I wanted you. I craved you, in any way, for any length of time, no matter the price. Or I thought I craved you. After this...cataclysm, I’m addicted to you.”