She shook her head like she’d missed something. “Excuse me?”
“I said I will send the flowers even after we’re married.”
She lifted a chin. “Married?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
She placed her hands on her hips. “You go from being in love with me on Saturday to wanting to marry me today?”
A smile touched his lips. He could see she was confused. “Not really. I would have discussed the marriage part on Saturday but you got scared and left.”
He gave her a brief moment to absorb that before saying. “One thing you’re going to find out about me Sonya, is that I’m a man who might be slow when it comes to some things, but if it’s something that I want, something I truly want, then I don’t waste time going after it.”
He took a few steps closer to her. “I love you. And you can stand there in that spot all night and try and convince me that you don’t love me back but I won’t believe you.”
She threw up her hands in frustration. “Why? Just because we enjoyed each other in bed Saturday night?”
“No, because you’re standing in my living room right now. If you didn’t love me you wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t have come.”
She shrugged. “I told you why I came.”
“I know. To thank me for the flowers. In that case, thank me and leave.”
She inhaled deeply and said. “Thank you for the flowers, Mike.”
“You’re welcome.”
And then she turned and headed for the door. Before she could reach it, he said. “I might as well tell you that in addition to marriage, I want babies, too. At least three of them.”
She continued walking while he said. “I’ve watched you with Craig and Jessica and know that you’ll be an excellent mother. I already know you’ll make me a wonderful wife just like I intend to be a wonderful husband to you and a good father to our children. I will be the only man you will ever need.”
When her hand reached for the door, he added. “I’m not going to give up on you, Sonya. Nor will I lose interest. And the flowers will keep coming. I’ll do whatever it takes for you to see that we have a future together. And I mean every word that I say.”
* * *
She eased open the door thinking Mike was trying to mess with her mind . . . like he had already messed with her heart. She hesitated when her hand begin to tremble. How could he have known her heart when she hadn’t until this very moment? She lowered her head when she felt pressure, more than she could stand, lodge right there in her temple. She didn’t want to love him. But then she didn’t want to lose him.
He and Carla had been right. She was afraid. She didn’t want to ever go through the pain her mother had gone through when her dad had left her for another woman. She didn’t want to ever feel that sort of rejection. For her it had been easier to be the one doing the rejecting.
But Mike refused to let her do that. He refused to let her turn her back on what he knew was in her heart. She slowly pushed the door closed and turned back around. Her gaze met his across the room. “How did you know,” she whispered brokenly, fighting back the tears she felt lodged in the back of her eyes. “How did you know?”
He held her gaze and said. “I knew you had fallen in love with me the same way I knew that I had fallen in love with you. That night that we made love, it was the most compelling thing that I’d ever experienced in my entire life, and I knew it had to be the same way for you. I’ve engaged in casual sex before but nothing had ever been that powerful. No woman had ever been that giving. And regardless of what you said, a part of me was convinced that we were on one accord, our emotions were in sync. I loved you and you loved me.”
He reached out and lifted her chin so their gazes could meet. “Admit it. You do love me.”
She felt the single tear fall from her eye. “Yes. I love you but I was afraid to. In a way I’m still afraid to.”
“Don’t be. I will be here for you always.”
“It won’t be easy loving me,” she said stubbornly. “I’m not used to taking the lead from any man. I can be hard to handle.”
He chuckled as he pulled her closer into his arms. “You don’t think I know that? Trust me, I will handle you or die trying.”
She smiled. She could definitely believe that. She was suddenly swept off her feet into his arms. “You know, we never got around to day two of our lovemaking marathon,” he whispered, close to her ear.
“Does that mean we’re going to finish things up now?” she heard herself asking.
“Now is as good a time as any. Then I’ll take you home to get dressed. I’ve made dinner reservations for us tonight to celebrate this special day.”
A day for lovers.
She looked up at him when he placed her on the bed. “You were so sure I would come here today, weren’t you?”
His expression turned serious. “I hoped and prayed that you would, but you can be stubborn. That’s something I’m going to have to work on.”
“But not today?’’
He smiled. “No, definitely not today.”
And then he eased onto the bed with her, pulled her into his arms and captured her lips with his. She opened her mouth on a breathless sigh and the moment his tongue tangled with hers, every cell within her body came alive, every nerve ending felt sensitized.
“Let me love you,” he whispered when he pulled back from her lips.
“Only if you let me love you.”
He met her gaze, held it and then he eased off the bed and began removing his shirt. “Our reservations are at eight. That won’t give us much time.”
A smile touched her lips as her eyes fastened on the movement of his hands when he eased down his zipper. She scooted across the bed to the edge and reached out to slide her hand beneath the waistband to close her fingers around him; that part of him she’d been thinking a lot about lately. She heard his indrawn breath when she did so. With her free hand she pulled his jeans down past his hips. Then she bent her head and placed kisses all over his firm, taut stomach.
“Sonya.”
Her name was a sensuous whisper off his lips and wanting to cherish him in this special way, a way she knew from the last time gave him intense pleasure, she lowered her head and placed a hot, wet, open-mouthed kiss on his shaft before taking the hardened flesh into her mouth. The very thought of what she was doing to him, the man she could now admit she loved, made her entire body shudder. Her mouth adored him, her tongue stroked him, and her hands soothed and captivated him. And when she felt his body jerk, her mouth clung to him, refusing to let up or let go.
When the last tremors had left his body, she pulled her mouth back only to have him push her down on her back. “Now it’s my turn,” he said, throwing up her skirt to ease down her panties. And then he was there, taking both of her legs and placing them over his shoulders. Before she could release a shriek of protest, his mouth was there between her legs, inside of her, probing the bud he found there, tasting and loving her in the same manner that she had just loved him.
“Mike!”
The tongue that was relentlessly stroking her felt scalding hot, whiplash quick, meticulously on target. Nothing, not even the hands that were digging into his scalp could deter him from his goal. She moaned repeatedly, asking him to stop, then in the same breath, asking him not to stop. She even threatened him with bodily harm if he did so.
And then she felt it, an explosion like her body was coming apart, cell by cell. She screamed his name. Closed her eyes and screamed some more. She felt like she was in a cannon and being shot to Venus and back. When she finally came back down to earth, she inhaled deeply and opened her eyes to see the man she loved right there. His blue eyes staring down at her.
“More?” he asked, smiling at her.
With what little strength she had, she reached up and curled a blond lock of hair around her finger. She returned his smile. “Yes, more.”
He took the time to remove the rest of his clothes and then hers, and when she reached out to him with open arms, he came into them, positioned his body over hers and entered her. He sank deeper into her with every moan she made. When he had made it all the way to the hilt, he held his body immobile and locked his gaze with hers.
“Now I’ll give you more,” he whispered before claiming her mouth and moving his body.
Passion led the way, cleared the path and he rocked his body into hers, over and over with a surging need that she met each and every time. She could actually feel emotions that she had tried holding at bay for so long erupting under such profound intimacy. And when release came, both were shaken to the core, drenched with desire and swept mercilessly into a sea of ecstasy.
It was a true melding of bodies, hearts and souls.
Epilogue
“Surprise!”
Lights came on and Carla and Jesse’s eyes blinked wide. To say the couple was caught unaware would be an understatement. They had arrived at Mike’s under the false assumption that they would be joining Mike and Sonya for a special dinner to celebrate the couple’s engagement announcement.
Mike, ignoring the, I’m going to kill you look from Jesse, wrapped his arms around his bride-to-be, glad to have been able to pull one over on his best friend. He and Sonya had decided on an April wedding. That only gave Sonya a little more than a month to prepare, but according to the wedding planner she had hired, that wouldn’t be a problem.