He leaned back, breathless, like he was still in the throes of a dream, then leaned his forehead against hers.
“How?” he murmured.
“Ingrid.”
He loosened his grip around her body, but found her hand, clasping it uncompromisingly, and pulled her down on the small settee across from the easy chair where he had been sitting in front of the fire.
“Tell me.” He seemed to drink in her face, searching her eyes, using his knuckle to brush away her last errant tear.
“She wrote to me two days ago. She didn’t say a lot. She knew something had ‘happened’ between us and told me you were going to be up here for New Year’s.” She tilted her head to the side, smiling at him as another wave of love made her cheeks warm. “I was already packing for Chicago, so—”
“Chicago? Are you going to Chicago?”
She nodded at him, taking a deep breath. “I’m going wherever you are, Sam.” She released his hand and opened her palms, gesturing to the lodge. “Isn’t that obvious?”
He breathed in, biting his lower lip and stroking his chin with the thumb and forefinger of his free hand. “Hmm. It’s too bad, though…”
She wrinkled her forehead in confusion and her face turned pink, flushing hot. This was too forward. He’s back with Pepper, or he’s moved on, or—
“…because I’m moving to Great Falls.”
Her head snapped up and it was her turn to be shocked. He was grinning at her. Her eyes widened in confusion, and her heart started pounding. “W-what? What are you talking about?”
“I figure if the woman I love needs to be in Montana, then I need to be in Montana, too.” He smiled at her, shaking his head slowly as his eyes brightened again. “Jenny, I love you so much.”
She gasped and closed her eyes, bowing her head as her tears burst forth in torrents.
He pulled her into his arms and she rested her wet cheek on his shoulder, sobs racking her body. He rubbed his hands up and down her back whispering, “It’s okay, Jenny. It’s going to be okay now, Pretty Girl.”
She took a deep breath and her tears ebbed away, leaving her exhausted and happy, processing this news. Was it possible that she could have Sam in her life but not have to live in a big city so far away from her family? That would be her heart’s only wish coming true. Was that possible?
“You’re really moving to Montana?”
“I am. I interviewed for a job here yesterday, and it’s mine if I want it. I was going to drive down to Gardiner tomorrow to see if there’s any way you could forgive me for being so awful to you at the courthouse, and see if…see if…”
She leaned back and looked at him, smiling at him with love overflowing in her heart. She put her palm on his cheek and he turned slightly to press his lips into her palm.
“See if what?” she whispered, loving the sight of his bowed head kissing her hand.
He looked up at her and his eyes were serious, searching hers, looking for the answer to an unasked question. Finally he smiled at her and spoke in a gravelly whisper. “Come up to my room.”
She swallowed, eyes widening. This is it, Jenny. This is the man you love asking you to come up to his hotel room.
She swallowed again and looked down at her lap, her heart racing with unease: the last vestiges of the discomfort she used to feel around men, worries of maintaining propriety, sheer nerves at the thought of giving herself to him. She closed her eyes and bit her top lip, severing those old worries from her current train of thought with a single, unforgiving blow.
He loves you and you love him.
She looked up at him and smiled as confidently as her nerves would allow. “Okay.”
“Jenny.”
He smiled at her with heartbreaking tenderness, seeming to understand, with perfect clarity, everything in her head and in her heart. He took her face between his hands and kissed her lips gently.
“You take my breath away,” he murmured against her lips; then he kissed her again, this time more deeply. Any lingering unease dissolved as she melted into him, wanting him, needing him, desperate for his hands on her body, the heavy warmth of him pressing into her.
“Trust me,” he whispered close to her ear. “I promised your Dad my intentions were pure.”
Her voice was breathy and ragged against his cheek. “So you’re not going to try to seduce me?”
He leaned back, looking surprised for a moment, then chuckled, nodding. “Oh. Oh, yeah. That too.”
That too? What was he up to?
He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the elevator with him. Lacing his fingers through hers, she could have sworn she felt his tremble before their palms were finally flush. The elevator doors opened and he pulled her toward his room. He took a keycard out of his back pocket and slipped it into the reader, which flashed green, then opened the door, letting her precede him into the room.