Slap Shot(54)

“You like Friends?” Rick asked.

I smiled. “Yes, I’ve seen every episode more times than I care to admit, but yes, I do like Friends. It’s good vegging-out TV.”

He dropped the remote on the couch and sat back next to me, somehow managing to keep his feet planted on the floor.

We sat in companionable silence, eating, sipping coffee and watching the antics of Ross and Rachael in Vegas drawing on one another’s faces and Monica and Chandler gambling like lunatics. One episode finished and another began. Rick took my empty plate and mug, set them on the table and tugged me into his arms.

“I really am so sorry about today,” he murmured into my hair. “I wish I could rewind time and make it all not happen.”

“You shouldn’t apologize.” I looked up and touched his soul patch with the tip of my index finger. “She’s the crazy one, she’s the guilty one, not you. You did nothing wrong.”

“But if you hadn’t got mixed up with me in the first place then it never would have happened. A regular guy doesn’t have crazed stalkers threatening the women in their lives.”

“Trust me, there is crazy in all walks of life, not just yours.” I brushed my lips over his. “Besides I don’t want a regular guy. I want you, a man who puts himself between his friends and danger. A man who looks crazy in the eye and holds it together.” My fingers slid down to the hollow of his throat, slipped lower and pressed over his sternum. “A man who was willing to take a bullet in the chest…for me.”

He sucked in a breath, his mouth tightened and his brows dropped low. “I’ve never felt so relieved in my life as when she moved that gun from you to me.”

“I know, I could see it in your eyes.” My heart was swelling at the memory of his face when the weapon had turned on him. He’d been so brave, so fearless. He truly was my hero.

“You didn’t believe all that crap I was telling her, did you?” he asked, worrying at his bottom lip with his teeth.

“No, of course not.”

“It was just to try to distract her, make her think her plan was working. That she still stood a chance with me.”

I smiled. “I know and it did the trick.”

“Yeah, she didn’t take much persuading, did she? Proves just how insane she is to really think we were about to get passionate while she had a gun pressed to my chest.”

I sighed and twisted so I could kneel beside him on the sofa. “Well, for all Laurie is crazy I can see why she was in love with you.” I slid both my hands over his shoulders and studied his rich chocolate eyes. They looked tired, he had slight rings beneath them and his thick, jet-black lashes hung low.

“Thought she was in love with me,” he corrected, slipping his hands into the small of my back and rubbing gently.

“Yes, of course, thought,” I said, dipping my head.

He lifted my chin with his thumb and his tired eyes suddenly sparkled. “Go on, what else were you going to say?”

I couldn’t deny my feelings any longer. I hadn’t planned on falling in love with Rick “Ramrod” Lewis, but every beat of my heart told me it was too late, I had. “Because…because, you’re a pretty easy guy to love.”

He frowned slightly. “Are you just guessing or are you speaking from experience?”

Cupping the sides of his neck, I felt his pulse beating strong and steady beneath the surface of his skin. “I’m not guessing, Rick, I know. I have firsthand experience with what it is like to love you.”

His whole face softened and something in the depths of his eyes melted. He pulled me close and kissed me gently, tenderly, as if I might break. His tongue dipped into my mouth searching for mine and I gave myself up to him, held on to what was real and true and shifted crazy and evil from my mind.

Moving forward, he maneuvered me so I was on my back lengthwise on the couch and sinking into the cushions. His thighs slotted between my legs and he hovered over me, taking his weight on his elbows on either side of my head.

My hands rose up to tangle in his hair and I tightened my grip on his head, pulling him closer. I sucked his bottom lip into my mouth and teased it with the tip of my tongue, sipping in his sweet waffle and coffee flavor as if it were fine wine. He mimicked each stroke with his own, his scratchy facial hair just catching on my chin and reminding me of the raw maleness that was uniquely Rick.

We were as one, so connected. I’d never felt like this before about anyone. Rick made me feel sexy, respected and safe. As if I was the most beautiful, perfect woman in the entire world, and to me he was the most perfect, beautiful man in the entire world.