Page 92 of Power Play

Rearing back, I stare at him, my eyes wide and unblinking. Did he really just say that, or did I imagine it? I pinch the inside of my wrist, and it smarts. Definitely not still dreaming.

Time to face reality. I’m not scared. Okay, that’s a lie. I’m still terrified of my feelings. But not of him.

“I love you, too.”

The words feel foreign on my lips. I’ve never said them before, not even to Carter. But with him… they feel right.

Al gapes at me. “You’re saying it for real? You’re not going to change your mind?”

“I love you,” I repeat, shaking my head. “Even though it terrifies me. Even though I don’t have any clue what I’m doing. I love you.”

He pulls me against him, wrapping his arms around me. With his face buried in my neck, it’s all I can do to hold him, indulging in the feeling of his body against mine.

“I love you,” he says into my skin. The press of his lips there makes me shiver.

“We have about an hour before Emmy wakes up. Are you hungry?”

“Not for food,” he says with a low growl.

He stands, and before I know what’s happening, he scoops me into his arms and over his shoulder. The stairs creak as Al marches up them, directly into his bedroom, and deposits me on the comforter.

Heat licks through me at the hunger in his eyes, his gaze sweeping over me, drinking me in. I reach for the hem of my sweater, but he shakes his head.

“Leave it. I’m not ready to unwrap my present yet.”

“Oh? Your present?”

He kneels at the edge of the mattress, covering my body with his. “You are a fucking gift, and I will spend every day of the rest of my life proving that to you.”