Million Dollar Cowboy (Cupid, Texas #5)(77)

"Ridge, I-"

"Please don't tell me you're not going to invite me in," he said, his voice scarred and rough. "I need you tonight, Kaia."

"I need you too."

"Good." He kissed her hard.

Dazzled by the humming in her head, she finally got the lock opened, and let them inside.

Dart greeted them, reeling around their legs, meowing for dinner.

"I'm sorry," Kaia apologized. "I have to feed the animals."

"I'll help."

By the time they fed the animals inside and out, it was after nine o'clock. They took one look into each other's eyes and the next thing Kaia knew they were shedding clothes on the way to her bedroom.

What a blessing to have one more night with him!

They started out fast, but the minute they sank into her mattress, things slowed. Both of them wanting this night to last forever.

Kaia put the box of Trojans they'd bought at the truck stop on the nightstand and issued a challenge. "Let's see how many of these we can get through before dawn."

"Game on." He grinned, his teeth flashing white in the dim glow from the night-light in the shape of a horse that was plugged into the socket next to the bed.

And so it began, their glorious last journey, the beginning of goodbye. Kaia concentrated on every movement, every whisper, every caress, every scent.

Making love to Ridge showed her the world was multifaceted. A beautiful, mystifying world connected by a series of portals and dimensions, colors, shapes, and patterns; a world that flowed and ebbed as constantly and subtly as breath.

Being with him, body-to-body, skin-to-skin, heart-to-beating-heart shifted and merged, until they became an ever-changing, overriding, symbiotic energy that defied belief, and yet felt absolutely logical.

She was shattered and profoundly confused, while at the same time filled with bliss, ecstasy, and an engulfing sense of peace. It was as if a great storm had passed. Troubled waters parted and the sun was shining again, casting the world in a brilliant mosaic of bright, healing light. 

As if the overwhelming waves of her life, which before were so constant, complicated, and challenging were now a sweet, calm, lulling sea full of fluid beauty and teeming with life and hope.

In that sharp moment of their total release, she was reborn.

Like an infant awaking for the first time in a brand-new world, she absorbed the wonder around her, in awe of everything she tasted, viewed, touched, heard, smelled. A baby in the arms of universal truth. In his arms she was both vulnerable and yet extremely safe.

She knew without question that if she ever ran to him, tears in her eyes, he'd want to know who he should beat up without even asking why.

In their achingly perfect joining, she saw everything with fresh eyes-herself, her life, the entire world, Ridge.

Love.

She was in love.

And Ridge was the personification of it all. Her beloved. There was nothing she could do that would ever change that fact. Whether they ended up together in the long run or not, he would forever be her soul mate, her one and only.

Engulfed in this knowledge, powerless to alter her fate, Kaia surrendered one hundred percent.

She stopped fighting, struggling, resisting. She let go and let it happen. Allowed emotions, sensations, thoughts, fears, and doubt to roll through her and flow out of her.

In his embrace she found nourishment, sustenance, comfort. Being with him transported her to a whole realm of possibilities. And she was so deeply grateful for this experience. For the transformation.

For Ridge.

He had given her the greatest gift she had ever received. He gave her permission to be who she was. Without hesitation or restraint or judgment. He accepted her just as she was.

How did she begin to describe what was happening? To put it in words others might understand? But there were no words. This wasn't something people could understand unless they'd experienced it for themselves, and then they would have to invent their own language for their experiences.

This . . . this . . . well, whatever ever you wanted to call it . . . love, belonging, perfection. It was so intimate, so personal, so sacred, it was completely surreal. Her feelings were illogical, fanciful, dreamy, and yet absolutely nothing had ever felt so authentic.

Impossible to gauge how this experience would impact Ridge, their relationship, and the rest of her life.

But one thing was clear, her gut, her intuition, her instinct, and the stirring of her heart had set her on a new path from which there was no turning back. There was no way to retreat after something like this.

None.

Kaia was forever changed.

She had opened herself up to his life force. His energy filled her, and she was activated. Alive in a way she did not question but could not fully understand. How could she go on in the same old way?