Page 35 of Live Like There's No Tomorrow
Charlotte shrugged. “I think you have to, don’t you?”
Ben shook his head again, more adamantly this time. “No, I don’t. I don’t want to. I’m not going to. I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t come back, and I’m sure as hell not going to now that you’re here. Please, would you just forget all about her?”
“Can you?” Charlotte was starting to wonder if she was making too much of a big deal out of it.
Ben nodded. “Of course I can! Charlie, please! You said we need to be completely honest with each other and I want to be. I’ll tell you the exact same thing I told her.”
Charlotte sucked in a deep breath. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“I told her that if I wasn’t still in love with you then I probably would be interested in and exploring something with her, not just something casual. But—and this is a big but—Iamstill in love with you. I’ve waited fifteen years for this, and nothing, certainly not another woman, is going to get in my way now.”
Charlotte looked up into his eyes. There was a determination in them that she remembered. It was one of the things she loved so much about him. He could never be described as an in-your-face kind of guy, but when he made up his mind about something, when he wanted something, there was no stopping him. She smiled. “So, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you’re back, you’re mine, and nothing and no one is going to get in the way of that. You may as well get used to the idea.” His lips quirked up in the hint of a smile. “I think you’re right that we shouldn’t expect to jump straight back in where we left off, that we should take things slowly and take our time to get to know each other again, but you are so, so wrong if you think anyone is going to get in the way of us being together.” He reached up and brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. “Unless that someone is you. If you have your doubts and are trying to use Angel as a way out, just say so, please?”
“Oh my God, Ben, no! That’s not it at all! Being with you is what I want most in the world, for me. But what I want most in the world for you, is for you to be happy.”
He slid his arm around her waist and drew her closer to him. “Good because you’re the one who makes me happy. So, please, can we forget all this talk about Angel?”
Charlotte nodded. “We can for now, but I need you to know that if—” She didn’t get to finish the sentence; as his lips came down on hers, she couldn’t even remember the thought.
Chapter Ten
Ben finally lifted his head from that kiss and smiled at her. “We’ve got so much catching up to do.” A rush of desire coursed through his veins as she ran her hand down his back with a wicked smile.
“Oh, we do. But I don’t think we should get to that just yet.”
Ben laughed. “I didn’t even mean that—yet.”
Charlotte looked a little embarrassed, but she didn’t stop running her fingers up and down his spine. “Good, because I think we should wait before we go there. I thought about that a lot. I’d like us to earn our way back to that place as a new couple.”
Ben nodded slowly. “I’d be lying if I said that all my fantasies about our first day back together didn’t include some time in bed. But I think you’re right.” He closed his hand around the back of her neck, circling his thumb in her hair in a move that always used to turn her on.
“Oh, that’s cruel. You know I want to drag you straight to bed whenever you do that.”
Ben laughed. “Straight to bed or straight to the floor or straight to the backseat of the car—wherever was closest, right?”
She laughed with him. “Exactly, and now you’re agreeing that we should wait and yet you’re doing that to me.”
“You know I’ve always enjoyed the anticipation. And besides, I had to see if you’d still react the same way.”
“It still has the same effect on me.” She smiled. “I’m not dragging you into bed or even onto the floor because we just agreed we should wait.”
“Well, I’m not going to wait forever. If we’re going to do this right and get to know each other as new people—as a new couple—I’d like for us to get started straight away. So what do you say, will you have dinner with me tonight?”
“I’d love to.”
“Do you want to come to my place?”
Charlotte laughed. “And how long do you think we’d end up waiting if I do that?”
Ben gave her rueful smile. “Not long, but I want you all to myself. You know full well what it will be like if we have dinner at the resort. We won’t get a single moment to ourselves.” He thought about it for a moment. “We could go to Giuseppe’s?”
“That’d be nice. We’d get to go out on a proper first date.” She gave him the wicked smile again. “We can’t exactly get up to anything inappropriate at Giuseppe’s and we won’t have to talk to a million people.”
Ben smiled. “Maybe I can show you my apartment. We’ll have to pass it when I bring you home.”
She laughed. “I don’t think that would be very appropriate for a first date.”
