“Ditto,” he whispered, kissing her again. “But I was infatuated with you for way longer. The whole time I’ve known you.”
“Ditto.”
Sam had known she was into him from the way she became flustered and shy around him when he visited Cole at work, but hearing her say it gave him immense pleasure. “You were my forbidden fruit.”
“Forbidden?”
“Cole warned me away from you from the very first time I saw you.”
Her eyes widened.
“Don’t get upset with him. He’s a smart man. He didn’t want me to ruin your life. He values and respects you as an employee, and he cares about you as a person. And unfortunately, he, like everyone else in town, knows what I was like. Too risky for your protected heart.”
He remembered the afternoon in her office when she’d said that to him and how conflicted she’d looked despite her confident and earnest tone.
Her cheeks pinked up at her words coming back at her, and in the space of a breath she harnessed that embarrassment and it morphed into a tease. “You’re not bad without your book cover.”
“Not bad, huh? I’ll have to try harder.”
She rested her head on his shoulder again. “Just keep being who you are. I really like my version of Sam.”
He knew he’d never stop being the best man he could be for her. Not in a week, a month…a lifetime?
Chapter Twenty-Two
SAM AND FAITH stayed at the lake until after ten, talking and kissing and doing what they did when the end of each of their dates neared. Procrastinating. Faith watched Sam stow the towels and blanket behind the seats, anxiety burgeoning in her chest. She began making up excuses to stay out later. We could go out for ice cream. Take a walk on the beach. Go dancing. But she was wearing a bathing suit, and she didn’t want any of those distractions. She wanted more time with Sam. To learn more about him, spend more time in his arms. The degree with which that desire consumed her knocked her off-kilter.
They walked around the truck to the passenger door, and as he reached for it, she said, “Sam—” at the exact second he said, “Faith—”
His lips curved up. “You first.”
She fought the urge to bite her lip, fought the anxiety tingling in her chest, and borrowed courage from the loving look in his eyes.
“I don’t want the night to end.”
“I was trying to figure out how to get you up to my place without sounding like a letch.”
“Okay.” The word came fast, and as she said it, her anxiety fell away. Being with Sam was the rightest thing she’d felt in as long as she could remember. Probably since the day she walked into her first physician assistant class, that’s how clear her mind had become. She knew then she was making the right choice, and as Sam’s eyes gleamed with happiness, she knew she’d found the right path again.
He lived down a long, heavily wooded road. Butterflies took flight in Faith’s stomach as they pulled down a gravel driveway and parked beside his motorcycle, a four-wheeler, and a Jeep.
“Do you have company? You can take me home if you do.”
Without a word he kissed her, taking it deeper in answer to her offer. “Still want me to take you home?”
“Only if you’re coming, too.” Her eyes widened. “I mean…”
“You meant exactly what you said, I hope.” He kissed her again.
It was a kiss so different from the urgency they’d shared before their date. Everything felt different, less frantic, more real. Their relationship had somehow shifted through the course of the evening. Or maybe it had been shifting since they’d first come together.
Sam stepped from the truck and helped her out. “I don’t have company. They’re my toys.”
“Ah, I should have known,” she teased.
Sam’s cabin was built atop a grassy knoll with several large windows, nearly all of them open, overlooking the water. There were no gardens or pristine landscaping in sight. Wild shrubs and trees of varying heights and types sprang up like sentinels on the lawn, reminding her of what he’d said about finding beauty in imperfection. Two brightly colored kayaks were nestled on the grass by the woods, and a circle of chairs surrounded what looked like a fire pit. A long dock jutted out over the dark water. It was so peaceful, so different from the concrete streets below her balcony; it felt a world away, not mere minutes.
“It’s really pretty out here,” she said as they climbed the steps to the porch.
He kissed her again. “You’re really pretty out here.”
He was so openly affectionate, greedily kissing her so often, she came to expect it as much as she reveled in it. She still couldn’t imagine how such a loving man could go without a real relationship for so long, but she counted herself lucky. There were plenty of women who’d probably tried to catch Sam, and if they had, she never would have had the pleasure of being with him.
He opened the front door, revealing a masculine living room–kitchen combination, with dark furnishings, a wood-burning stove, and dark wide-planked wood floors. The walls were littered with pictures of Sam and his family and, she assumed, his friends.
He turned on the stereo, filling the room with a soft melody. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.” He disappeared through a door to the left of the kitchen.
Faith checked out the pictures. Sam’s eyes were alight with joy as he hung from a rope on the side of a rocky cliff. In another he sat in an enormous raft with Ty and a few other guys, water spraying over their backs. She moved from one picture to the next, drinking in the rugged, sexy man she was falling for harder by the second. She came to a picture of Sam and Cole, both dressed in waders, standing in knee-high water and holding fishing poles. Sam’s hair was windblown, standing on end, his cheeks pink, probably also from the wind. She imagined a younger Sam, listening to Cole’s advice when he started his business, and she prayed her and Sam’s relationship wouldn’t hinder his and Cole’s. Knowing Cole had warned him away from her worried her a little, but she wouldn’t let that drag her down. Not when everything Sam did lifted her up.
She walked around the cozy room and came to a picture of Sam and his parents. He looked like a surly teenager, with lanky arms and legs, his hair in need of a trim. She lingered there, wondering what it must have been like to be his girlfriend at sixteen. She wished she’d known him then. Was he as loving then? Did he treat Keira as special as he treated her?
“That was taken out at my uncle Hal’s ranch in Weston, Colorado. See the horses in the back?” Sam wrapped his arms around her from behind. His breath smelled minty.
“I wish I knew you then,” he said, turning her in his arms. “I could have kept you from ever dating the guy who hurt you.”
Her heart squeezed. “And maybe I could have kept you from getting hurt, too.”
“I wish I hadn’t wasted all that time fighting my attraction to you. I wish I had asked you out the first day I saw you.”
“I wouldn’t have gone,” she said honestly. “I was too broken back then. I wasn’t ready, and you probably weren’t ready for me, either.”
“Then I hope we can make up for that time, because I’m not sure I’ll ever get enough time with you. Even if we spent every day of the rest of our lives together, I think I’d still feel like it wasn’t enough.”
Could they do this? Build a world of wishes and hopes so fast? Is this what love was? Did it hit you out of the blue, when you weren’t looking for it? With the least likely person?
He rubbed his nose against hers, swaying to the music. “What’s that look? What are you thinking?”
Their bodies were so in sync, like they’d been dancing together for years, just as they’d been the night on the roof of Mr. B’s. Could it be that their hearts were, too?
“That this, us, is so big,” she admitted. “I feel so much.”
“Me too. Let’s not fight it.”
His mouth brushed over hers, and she breathed him in. His scent had become familiar, too. One whiff sparked feelings of safety and desire. They danced in a slow circle, feet barely moving, hearts tripping over each other. She pressed a kiss to the center of his chest, conscious of every point their bodies touched and the feel of his hands spread possessively across her lower back. If she could stay right there in his arms forever, she’d die a happy woman.
His mouth came coaxingly down to her in a kiss that was passionate without being rough and made her feel like she was going up, up, up on an invisible cloud. When their lips parted, she missed his taste. Missed it, didn’t burn for it. This was bigger, a pronounced longing from secret places deep inside her. Hidden places she didn’t know could want, places that made her feel on the verge of tumbling over an edge. Sam gazed into her eyes, and the raw emotions she saw drew her right in. She was utterly lost in him. In them.
“Stay with me tonight,” he whispered against her cheek, and then those satiny dark eyes found hers again. “Let me love you until the stars fade and hold you until the sun rises.”
Her throat thickened with emotions. Her voice came as a threadbare whisper. “Love me, Sam.”
Sam laced his fingers with hers, and as he led her into the bedroom, she knew she’d remember this moment, the look in his eyes, and the tremulous, aching love blooming inside her forever.