“I said you’re welcome to stay with me—”
“No, after that. What did you mutter all quiet and sneaky-like?”
His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. “I said, forever if you like.”
She moved to the couch in the center of the living room and leaned against the back to buy herself time to settle the flapping butterfly wings fluttering around her belly. “You’d let me stay here forever?”
Denison closed the door gently behind him, then leaned his back against it. “Of course I would.”
She couldn’t help the emotional smile that commandeered her face. “Today was the best day I can remember.”
His gaze darkened and dipped to her tender lip. “Even though Matt hurt you?”
“Yes. He didn’t ruin our day. Only a tiny part of it. You let me in a little today, and it was more than you gave me in the months that we were together last time. You’ve changed, Denison Donovan Beck. And for the better, if you ask me. I liked the boy you were. I love the man you’ve become.”
He approached slow and slipped his hands around her waist, then bent down and rested his cheek against hers. As if he heard the cadence of music that wasn’t there, he rocked them slowly back and forth in a dance that made her melt against him.
“Tell me more about what you like,” he murmured in a soft stroke against her ear.
“I like that you are so devoted to your friends here. I like that you and Brighton are still close, and I like how you treat Skyler and Brooke. You boys revere them, always moving to take care of their needs before your own. You treated me like that today, and it made me feel adored and cared for. I like that you seem proud to have me beside you. That you don’t mind that the boys give you a hard time over showing affection toward me. I like that you respect Mother Nature. And Denny?”
“Yeah?” he asked, easing back to expose the deep happiness in his eyes.
“I like your tattoo.”
“You think it’s sexy, don’t you, Badger?” he accused with a chuckle.
“Yes,” she whispered, tracing his shirt where she knew the outline of it was. Running her fingertip along his defined pec, she smiled when he rolled his eyes closed and shivered under her touch. “But more than that, it’s sweet that you did that for me, even after what I’d done to you. I hurt you. Hurt us both, and you still paid tribute to what we’d had. That says a lot about your loyalty.”
He grabbed her hand without missing a step in their slow dance and kissed her knuckles. “You were always it for me, Danielle. It’s the way it works with me. With everyone here. I could’ve never cheated on you like you thought. It isn’t in my make-up. I only want you, for always.”
She rested her forehead against his chest and tried to stifle the excited energy he caused when he admitted sentiments like this.
“I’m scared,” he whispered.
Frowning, she looked up at him. “Of me? Why?”
“When this job ends for you, and you’ve done all you can do for research, I’m afraid you’ll leave me again.”
That didn’t sound like what he’d meant to say. Denison was still holding back, but she understood. She’d burned him on the way out of town, and she would have to earn his trust back.
She stretched up on tiptoes and kissed him in a gentle promise that she was here to stay. Even when the job with Reynolds ended, she would find a way to work in these woods, near the man she loved. Near the man she’d always loved. She was going to put in the time and prove to him she wouldn’t run when things got hard or confusing again.
She tugged at his shirt, scratching her nails gently against his skin as she lifted the hem, then tossed the fabric onto a heap on the floor. Still swaying her hips with his, she trailed little sucking kisses down his jaw and to his chest. She pressed her lips against the different shapes in his tattoo, then pulled his taut nipple between her teeth.
Denison muttered a curse as his hips bucked forward. Danielle brushed her fingers down his flexed mounds of abdominal muscles and pulled at the button of his jeans, then tugged the denim down his legs. His muscles twitched and jerked under her careful touch, and when she eased down the elastic band of his briefs, he inhaled in a gasp when her finger brushed the long length of his stone-hard erection.
He gripped the back of the couch until his knuckles turned white and his triceps bulged. His eyes were light gray now, not quite silver, but she would get him there. With a wicked grin, she knelt in front of him as he watched her with hooded eyes. The kitchen light was the only illumination, casting his flexing muscles into shadows and highlights. He was beautiful, bare in front of her, exposed, with that naughty smile that said he was utterly comfortable in his own skin.