He took a step and leaned over the island. “Yes, I do. If we’re going to have any semblance of a normal relationship, then we did need to get something out in the open.”
“And what’s that?” she spat out angrily, praying she could hold her temper in check before she said something that would shatter the fragile bond holding them together.
“Every once in a while, you verbally attack me without provocation. And if you want an argument, then I’m not the one. I went through hell and back, and I’ve done things in war that I’ll spend the rest of my repenting for, so right now, I need peace in my life, and that includes not sniping and arguing with a woman I just happen to like more than I should. You’re not someone I need to pass the time with when I’m not working, Cherie. The first time I laid eyes on you, something told me to ignore you and walk away, because if I got involved with you, I’d be in a world of hurt. But instead of listening to the instincts that allowed me to sign up for multiple deployments, I found myself so inexorably entwined in your life that when I walked into that parking lot and found that crazy pervert attacking you, I knew then it was beyond what I could control. So, right now, I’m offering you an out. If you don’t want to continue to see me, then say it now, and I’ll stop pursuing you.”
Cherie felt as if Reese had suddenly ripped out her heart, leaving her to bleed unchecked. He was everything she could want in a man, yet a lingering bitterness wouldn’t permit her to let go of her past to accept all of him.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she struggled not to cry. “Are you giving me an ultimatum?”
“No, sweetheart. I’m giving you a choice.”
“The choice is I want you. You can’t imagine how much I want you.”
“How much?”
She sniffled and knew it was truth-telling time. She was rapidly approaching her thirty-fifth birthday, and that made her a grown-ass woman. And as a woman, she had to tell the man staring at her what she wanted.
“I want you in and out of bed.”
Reese rounded the island and gently eased her off the stool. “How long has it been?” he asked.
Cherie knew he was asking how long it had been since she’d slept with a man. “It’s been almost five years.”
His arms tightened around her body. “Did he hurt you that much?”
She nodded, rather than tell him she also had been responsible for her own pain and disappointment. Weylin couldn’t have used her if she hadn’t allowed it. After all, she did have free will to stop seeing him if she’d wanted. But she hadn’t because she believed he’d cast some spell over her, making her helpless to refuse his demands.
“Will you please kiss me?” she whispered.
Cradling the back of her head, Reese buried his face in her hair. “You know what’s going to happen if I kiss you, bae. It’s not going to end there.”
“It doesn’t have to end there. Please don’t make me beg you to make love to me.”
His fingers curved under her chin until she met his eyes. “I don’t ever want you to beg me for anything. All you have do is ask.”
A sense of strength filled her as she smiled through unshed tears. She didn’t want to use Reese to erase what she’d had with Weylin, but making love with him signaled not only a new beginning, but a chance for her to heal. “I want you to make love to me.”
Reese dropped his arms and walked to the oven and turned it off, then returned to sweep her up in his arms and take the stairs two at a time.
Chapter 17
Cherie felt as if she’d entered an alternate universe when she met Reese’s steady gaze as he knelt over her on the bed to remove her clothes. The events that had brought her to this intimate moment flashed through her mind like frames of film. It had only been two years ago when she’d found herself in a funk with the approach of her son’s birthday, and she knew she had to get away from Connecticut or have a complete emotional meltdown and possibly be hospitalized.
Weeks later, she’d flipped through a food magazine to read the classified section advertising vacation properties. She’d read the blurb on Coates Island and decided to contact the rental agent. After the childcare center’s director approved her leave of absence, she got into her car and headed south.
It had to be providence that brought her to sit at a table with Leah Kent the first time she’d entered the Seaside Café, and after apologizing for sniping at the redhead, she and Leah discovered their love of books. It was Leah who had introduced her to Kayana Johnson, and after the three had formed the Seaside Café Book Club, the rest was history. She’d returned to Coates Island the following year and realized it was where she wanted to live and start over with a new career. What she hadn’t planned on was meeting a man who would make her question what she wanted in her life, including her future.
It’d only been weeks since she’d first glimpsed Reese Matthews, unaware that their lives would be so inescapably linked that she wanted him to be the last man in her life. She wasn’t certain whether she was falling in love with him because what she was beginning to feel for Reese was so different than what she’d experienced with Weylin.
Cherie closed her eyes when she heard his intake of breath once he’d removed her sweater and pants. He hadn’t turned off the bedside lamps, and the illumination allowed him to see what her clothes had concealed.
She felt his warm breath on her throat as he pressed light kisses on the fading bruises. Her arms went up and encircled his neck, bringing him closer as she kissed his ear, breathing in the lingering fragrance of his masculine cologne, which blended sensuously with his body’s natural scent. Cherie knew she would never tire of smelling him. Her hands were busy pulling the hem of his sweater up and over his shoulders as his mouth covered hers in a possessive kiss that stole the breath from her lungs.
What had begun as a slow exploration changed to a frantic need to feel skin against skin. Within seconds, her bra and panties lay on the floor beside the bed, and Cherie discovered she couldn’t pull her gaze away from Reese as he undid the waistband on his slacks and pushed them and his briefs off his hips at the same time. She bit her lip when seeing him fully aroused. Everything about this man was so different from her former lover, and raising her arms, she silently welcomed him to claim what she was willing to give him.
Supporting his greater weight on his forearms, Reese forced himself to go slow when he lowered his head to taste every inch of Cherie’s body. He couldn’t believe her clothes had concealed a lushness that sent his libido into overdrive. He kissed her mouth, then moved lower to her full breasts, and then even lower to her belly before burying his face between her thighs. She moaned as if she were in pain, the sound making the hair stand up on the back of his neck. Her moans escalated to whimpers when his tongue tasted her essence.
“Please, Reese.”
