Standing on the edge of yesterday and everything he wanted for his future, he hoped she took the leap with him.
Like he’d done from the beginning, he waited, letting her take the lead.
“You’re home.” The words came out on a relieved exhale.
“Almost,” he said a half second before his lips met hers.
Her lips were soft and warm and welcoming. She opened to him, meeting the slide of his tongue with hers. She combed her fingers through his wet hair and held on. Blake caught himself leaning down to press his wet body to hers. He ended the kiss with a soft nip to her lips and chin. He kissed his way down her neck, inhaling her sweet and tangy scent. Something Ella sent to her from her new cosmetics line. Thankfully, not the same one she sent his mother or that Ella wore. Something soft and sweet, just for his Gillian. The joy in her eyes when the gift basket arrived stayed with him. He loved seeing her happy.
“God, I missed you.”
Her warm hands cupped his face. “I missed you, too. You’re freezing. You need to get out of those wet clothes.”
He stood next to the bed, staring down at her lovely face. “I needed to see you before I went home to shower and change into something dry.”
She rose and sat on her heels in front of him. “Don’t go. Stay with me.” Her gaze fell away from his for a second with her whispered, shy words.
Too much to hope she meant in her bed, he tried to read the look in her eyes. He wanted her so bad that he didn’t trust himself to believe he saw the same gnawing need reflected in her eyes. He wanted her, to be sure. It would be miserably hard to leave her and go back to his place, but he’d do it if she needed more time.
“Stay with me,” she said again, her voice definite.
They stood at a fork in the road, both of them coming from different directions. If they intended to follow a single path and not turn back to where they’d come from, she needed to know one thing. “I love you, Gillian.” He whispered the words, but they held every ounce of love he had in his heart for this woman. She meant everything to him. If she felt the same about him, he’d love her tonight, and every day for the rest of his life. If she didn’t, he’d walk away, because he couldn’t sleep with her the way he had with others and walk away whole.
“Show me.” Gillian felt full for the first time in her life. Every dark corner, every dream she’d ever dreamed and locked behind that door in her heart came alive with his words. He hadn’t gotten into bed and said he loved her in the heat of the moment. No, Blake wanted her to know that he truly, deeply loved her by telling her before he’d even touched her. He meant it, and her heart, her soul, knew it for the truth.
“I need the words.”
Point of no return. If this didn’t work out, he’d lose everything he’d worked so hard to build here on the ranch, and Gillian would lose the only man she had ever trusted and opened her heart to love.
Yes, this meant something. This mattered. More than anything else they’d ever experienced in their past. This wasn’t the next step in their relationship—it was the first step toward their future together.
“I’ve only ever said those words to Justin. He’s the only one who ever deserved them—until I met you.” She leaned up, cupped his face in her hands, looked him straight in the eye, and spoke the words he needed to hear and her heart needed to say. The words she hoped would make all those locked-away, never-to-be-believed dreams come true. “I love you, Blake.”
His hands slid over her shoulders and up into her hair. His lips pressed to hers in a soft, languid kiss that held so much love tears stung the backs of her eyes.
He ended the kiss and stared down at her, his fingers toying with her hair. “You are so beautiful.”
“Stay. Love me.”
He shrugged his heavy, wet coat off. She helped him with his thermal shirt, mapping her fingers over his taut muscles. He sucked in a breath when her warm skin met his freezing body. She took her time looking at him. She’d seen him with his shirt off many times. Gorgeous, all hard planes and sculpted muscles, his skin tanned from the sun. His broad chest tapered to lean hips. The wet jeans molded to every contour of his corded thighs and outlined the long, thick length of his arousal.
He kissed her softly and left her only long enough to close the door and lock it. He stood beside the bed and stared down at her. She reached for the hem of her nightgown to pull it off over her head.
“Don’t.”
She let go, hoping he hadn’t changed his mind, but the blazing heat in his eyes said he wanted her. Bad.
“I want to do it. I’ve been dreaming about this for a long time.” He kissed her forehead, and then the tip of her nose before he stood before her again, undid the button on his jeans, slid the zipper down the rigid length of him, and peeled the wet material down his legs and off his feet. She couldn’t take her eyes off all those lean muscles, nothing but his black boxer briefs covering him now. He hooked his thumbs in the band at his waist and slowly pushed them down his legs. Her gaze followed the journey down those lean muscles and came up and locked on his hard cock. She swallowed and met his steady gaze, saw the cocky half smile she’d grown to love so much and had missed these last days.