Iswallowed.
He crouched so his face was level with mine and stole my clammy hands from between my knees, cocooning them in his warm ones. “But, Dimples, I don’t want anyone else. I want you. Justyou.”
My chest stumbled with sobs. “You say this now, but in a couple years”—my voice broke—“when I still can’t fill a cup or drive acar—”
“I’ll just say itagain.”
I bit my wobblylip.
“Besides, I have no doubt in my mind that you’re going to be back behind the wheel of a carsoon.”
“You don’t know that,” Imurmured.
“I do.” He hunted my face with his emerald eyes. “You’re much too willful to give up hope, or your independence, for that matter.” He raised one of his hands to my face to push back my long blondestrands.
I let him look his fill. Maybe if he looked long enough, he’d realize he didn’t want to wake up to thisface.
When he leaned over and kissed my spoiled cheek, my wet lashes swept down, stayed down. A part of me still didn’t understand how he could stand the texture of my scars, much less the sight ofthem.
“I’m not sure what I have to do to convince you that I can’t live without you, Ness.” His words pulsed against the tip of my nose. “Bringing you back from the dead would’ve been enough for mostgirls.”
My lips twitched. I opened my eyes to find his agonizingly gentle ones set onmine.
“Is it because I can’t give you any daughters? Is that why you’re pushing meaway?”
A chuckle burst through my trembling lips. “I love boys too, youknow.”
He smiled, but then he grew so serious that my laughter wilted. He unfurled his long body, tugging me up in the process. “Will you come home with me? Not tonight. But tomorrow? Or the dayafter?”
Pressing my lips together to stop their shaking, Inodded.
“Good. Because I have this piece ofland.”
“By alake?”
“That’s the one. And the only thing standing on it right now is a palmtree.”
My head jerked back a little. “You planted a palmtree?”
“Had to have something to build our housearound.”
Ourhouse? Had this man ever envisioned his life withoutme?
“I’m starting to have a surplus of houses,” I whisperedraucously.
“As long as you only have onehome.”
A fresh wave of emotion slicked my eyes. “Oh, August,” I croaked, throwing my arms around hisneck.
His calloused hands slipped under the silk fabric of my jacket and pulled me close, pressing my body against his as though to seal me into his skin and erase the distance I’d put between us. Moment after moment passed in this quietcommunion.
As the logs crackled in the fireplace, I filled my lungs with his familiar scent and my ears with his heartbeats. How I ever thought I could give up this man was beyondme.
The tendons in his neck flexed under my fingertips. I lifted my head off his chest and craned my neck as his mouth arced toward mine. He kissed me long and deep, stamping the shape of his lips ontomine.
When he started on my neck, I rasped, “Want to go for a swim?” Between what he was doing to me and the fire, I was dangerously close tooverheating.
I felt the curve of his smile on my skin. “I didn’t bring any swim trunks. Hope it won’t be aproblem.”
