“You can let me go now.” Her breath was warm against his neck, raising his awareness to a dangerous level.
“I don’t want to,” he confessed in little more than a whisper. He wanted to hold Jessie in his arms forever.
“Good. I don’t want you to let go either.” She pulled the book from between them.
He felt her fumble to set it on the seat behind him before her arms wrapped around his back.
Good grief.This woman was going to be the death of him.
Robert recalled the time his father caught him and Jessie making out in the loft of the stables. Blake Winters had calmly told Jessie it was time for her to go home and said that Robert would call her later. He’d then set Robert down and gave him the next level of the “birds and bees”talk. The one that talked about how powerful hormones were. The one that was full of all the dangers of physical intimacy before a couple was mature enough to make lifelong commitments to one another, because that’s what the woman Robert loved deserved. Lifelong commitment.
The love and respect his father showed his mother drove his father’s words home and when his dad asked him to make and keep a promise to Jessie that he would never take from her what she should never give him outside the bonds of marriage, he’d made that promise to her.
It hadn’t been easy, but he’d kept it. Despite the temptations during the many times they’d made out, Robert had been careful to make sure they never crossed that line. When things ended between them, and Jessie left for New York, he’d been grateful they hadn’t.
Now Jessie was back.
Robert bit back a groan. For years, he’d dreamed of holding her like this again. But if he kissed her now, the fragile wall he kept around his heart would crumble, and he’d never be able to erect it again.
He pressed his lips against her hair. “I really want to kiss you right now, but I can’t.”
Jessie gave what felt like an involuntary shudder. “Why?” Her breath tickled his neck again.
“So many reasons. You’re too vulnerable right now. I don’t think our relationship—if we even have a relationship—is at that level. And I don’t know...”
“Don’t know what?”
I don’t know if you’ll leave me again.
“I just don’t know.” He couldn’t voice his thoughts for fear it might plant the idea in her mind.
“I’m still married to Patrick, so we probably shouldn’t kiss.”
Her husband’s name was like a splash of cold water on his face, but his body still felt the warmth she created in him.
Her arms slackened, but Robert held her tight. He wasn’t ready to let go yet.
“Yeah, we definitely shouldn’t kiss.” He cherished the feel of her in his arms for a long moment before breaking the silence again. “I’m not ready to let you go yet, but you’re driving me crazy. You need to turn your face away from my neck.”
Jessie laughed against his neck.
This time he didn’t even try to hold in the groan that rose in his throat.
She laughed again. “Fine. If I have to turn my head away, then you have to move your lips away from my hair.”
It was Robert’s turn to laugh. He pressed a brief kiss to her hair before she turned her head. He brought his hand up and gave in to the temptation he’d been fighting all night, and plunged his fingers into her silky hair.
She let out a soft sigh.
“My sentiments exactly.”
Chapter 20
Jessie stretched and rolled over in bed, still shrouded in feelings of euphoria from last night. She had the most pleasant dreams after being held in Robert’s arms.
True to his word, he didn’t kiss her, and as much as she wanted him to, she was grateful he hadn’t tempted her like that. She had too many things to figure out about her future before she decided if there was a place for Robert in it.
Her smile faded as she recalled his parting words through the window of his truck. “If you need anything, Jess...anything at all, call me. But, despite what we just shared... Actually, because of what we just shared...I probably won’t be coming around too often. I think we both need to make sure we’re not rushing this.”
