Page 96 of Bad Decisions & Back Roads
He shifted, broad shoulders blocking most of the spray from hitting me as if even the water touching me too hard bothered him.
“What’s bothering you?”He bent and laid a soft kiss on my lips.Not heated this time, but certain.This was the kind of kiss that said he was listening even before I spoke.
My throat tightened.“I’m worried.”
“About what?”
“That…” I hated how small my voice sounded.“That eventually you’ll lose interest.Everyone else always has.”
He stared at me, not with annoyance or hesitation, but almost heartbreak.“Gia…”
He pulled me in tight to him.
“I’ve spent my whole life waiting for you.”His hands slid up my back like he needed the reassurance that I was there.“This isn’t casual for me.Even Jackie said it.You’re my person.”He gave a disbelieving laugh under his breath.“Nobody’s ever gotten to me like you do.Nobody mattered enough to scare me like you do.Hearing you almost died or seeing what your father did to you again…” He shook his head.
Emotion burned behind my eyes, but I didn’t look up at him.
“You don’t understand,” he continued.“You look at me and I feel it everywhere.You touch me and I forget who I am.When you break apart for me…” His voice roughened.“Christ, Gia.It’s like nothing I’ve ever had.”
My chest cracked wide open, but I couldn’t speak.
“Maybe those other men all felt that way because you were waiting for me too.”He reached behind him, shut off the shower, then wrapped a towel around me before pulling me straight back against him.
I whispered, “I do feel like my heart stopped working when I left you.It only started up again when I came back.”
“I love you,” he said firmly into my wet hair.“Not temporarily.Not until it gets hard.But always.”
A shaky laugh came out as I tried to mask how much those words destroyed me.“Even if I get big in all the wrong places after having a baby?”
He pulled back just enough to look at me like the question offended him.
“Especially then.”His palm spread possessively over my stomach.“That means we have a bigger family.”
“I’m scared I can’t have that baby,” I admitted, the words scraping raw on the way out.“That I’ll fail again.I’ll fail you.”
His expression changed in a way that almost undid me.He turned me around and brushed his mouth against mine, slow and careful, like he knew exactly how fragile I felt.“All we can do is try.If it never happens…” His hand slid against my cheek, steady and warm.“That doesn’t change us.It doesn’t change how I feel for you, how I’ve always felt.This is about us and whatever time we get together.Don’t you want to do it together?”
The breath caught painfully in my chest.For a second I could only stare at him, every fear and grief inside me colliding with the quiet certainty in his eyes.
“Yes,” I whispered, voice breaking around the word.
He pulled me against him immediately, holding me so tight it felt like he was trying to shield every cracked part of me from the world.
“I’ve been told I’m not an easy person.”He shrugged.“Just saying.”
I chuffed out a half laugh.I slid my hand around to his back side and down around his ass.“I’m really good with a dart gun, if you misbehave.”
“You shooting that evil llama was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”Then he rocked his head.“Okay, second to being totally wet in a see-through top.That was evil of you when I was in the middle of hating you for ruining my life.”He pulled me into him and caught my hands.“Stop.Or I’ll never get to the cow barn this morning.”
I traced circles on his chest with a finger and dragged my eyes up to his.
“Serious about that,” he warned.
“So, you’re choosing work over me?”I pushed away to stare at him for before a smile finally tugged at my mouth.“I’m starting to think you might be right.”
“About what?Not making it to the cow barn?”
“Well, that, yes.But I may have to give this sleepover thing another try.”I pointed toward the oversized bathtub.“I’m pretty sure I could come up with activities for in there.”
