Page 46 of The Virgin Gift (The Gift 2)
But then Nina showed me what trust truly was. By opening her innermost thoughts and deepest fantasies to me, and only me. By letting me be her guide through her wild, dirty dreams.
I’d thought I was the teacher, showing her how to have all her filthy fantasies.
Turned out, she’d been teaching me all along.
How to trust again.
How to fall again.
How to open my heart to the woman who was meant to be mine.
Vulnerability.
Intimacy.
Love.
I’d never seen that trio coming, but as Nina walked toward me, exquisitely sensual in an emerald dress that hugged her curves, I saw all that and more.
I saw everything in her.
Before she could reach us, I rose, walking past the other patrons, my eyes only on her. When she was inches from me, I held her face. “You,” I whispered, then I kissed her lips, tasting forever on them.
I’d intended to ask her for number eleven.
I had it all mapped out. How I’d tell her, how I’d let her know she’d stolen my heart.
But when you’re kissing the woman you’ve fallen madly in love with, you don’t always want to wait for the perfect time to tell her.
Not when she’d roped her arms around my neck as she gave her mouth to me, asking with her body to be kissed fiercely, passionately.
And with ownership.
That was what my Nina had wanted from a man.
That was what she wanted from this man.
To be taken.
And hell, was I ever taken with her. So damn taken that when I broke the kiss, I couldn’t wait. “I’d like to think that kiss made it clear, but I’ve learned from you that words matter. That spelling out wishes and wants is so damn important.” I took a beat and gazed into her deep brown eyes as I clasped my gorgeous woman’s face. “So let me say this—I broke the rules of engagement.”
A grin played across her pink lips, and she whispered, “Me too.”
That emboldened me, but then, I was already feeling bold tonight. “I broke the most important one of all.”
“You did?” Her voice was a little flirty, but full of so much hope—a hope I felt deep in my soul.
“I broke it, and I don’t want to fix it because I don’t want to go back to friendship with you.”
“I don’t either.”
“I want to have everything with you. I want to be your man, your lover, your person, and your friend at the end of the day.”
She trembled, her voice hitching. “I want all of that too.”
I ran my thumb across her cheek. “And in case it wasn’t clear, I am wildly, madly, deeply in love with you.”
“Oh, Adam, I’m so in love with you.” One lone tear slid down her face, but before I could kiss it away, she brushed her lips with mine in a soft, tender kiss.
A kiss only she could give me.
And in it, I felt her ownership.
Of my heart and my soul and my whole damn mind.
It was everything I couldn’t live without.
When she broke the kiss, my head was hazy, and my mind was racing to where I wanted to go, to what I wanted to say.
But she beat me to it, surprising the hell out of me when she said, “But there’s one more thing on my list. I want number eleven.”
I’d never left a place so fast in my life.
25
Nina
This wasn’t how I’d planned it.
My goal was to show him how I felt.
But he’d beat me to it.
And I was good with that, so good. I didn’t know how long I’d be able to keep the words inside me anyway. They’d been bubbling up in me all day long, then tangoing on my tongue the second I’d walked into the club.
Saying them at last was both relief and freedom.
And I hoped the rest of the night would be too.
When we reached my place, I told him I needed a few minutes to get ready.
“Take your time,” he said.
“You probably want a glass of champagne though,” Brandon added, since we weren’t alone. He was with us, and he waved in the direction of Adam’s condo. “I picked up a bottle for you two lovebirds earlier today. I’ll go get it.”
When he left, Adam followed me into the bedroom, moving behind me when I reached the bureau, kissing the back of my neck. “You good with this? With him being here?”
I turned around so he could see the truth in my eyes. “Yes. I’ve wanted this so badly. I started to write it on my first list, but wasn’t sure if I could go through with it.”
“What changed your mind? I have to confess, I saw it there this morning, but I love that you asked for it this time.”
And this time, I wasn’t bothered that he’d looked at my list again. He was the list, and the list was us. It was ours. “What changed is when I started to fall for you. That’s when I wanted it even more.”
