She wrenched her arm free and lifted a finger to his temple, tracing a line into his hair. “There has never been a man on this earth I’ve wanted more.”
The dam on his resistance broke, and he wrapped a hand behind her head so he could reel her in and kiss her, kiss her like she deserved, with reverence. Noelle’s entire body softened as he drew her closer, lined their bodies as one.
The catcalls of passersby broke the spell, and he pulled back, wiping tears from his cheeks with the back of his hand. He breathed out, “I love you so much.” With the awareness that they had an audience, he admitted defeat. “I do believe we should continue this at my bungalow.”
He couldn’t believe he’d be able to share his new paradise with the woman he loved.
“You know, we might want to make a detour to this shop I discovered over that way.” She waggled her eyebrows, and Dane suspected he knew the store she meant.
“That’s in the wrong direction.”
She grinned like a saucy waif. “Worth it.”
“Why? What did you have in mind?”
“You’ll see.” She folded her lips into her mouth, like she was holding back a state secret.
“Kinky?”
She nodded, and he remember the paradoxical freedom in having his hands cuffed behind his back by one of his own ties. Could she force him to his knees, make him repent of his sins? He shuddered.
“Not illegal?”
Serious headshake.
“But sexy?”
She kissed him full on the mouth. “And is your kitchen stocked up? I don’t plan to leave your house for at least a day.”
She held her hand out for his, ready to lead him toward some fantasy sex shop she’d encountered while searching for him.
Who was this woman?
And he saw it all clear as day, because she was the woman he’d courted under cloudy New York City skies, years ago, before the floor had dropped out and he’d become consumed with vengeance. She was the woman who’d made him believe he was capable of an emotion as precarious as love.
He hated himself a little for deciding to take it, to take the bite from the apple of temptation and allow himself the happiness he’d never once deserved.
But when she looked back at him with that wanton desire, with that guileless adoration, he almost saw himself in her eyes. He could picture himself as the man he once thought he could be.
And he raced after her with reckless abandon, risking everything for the magic of possibility.
What if paradise could be regained?
What if love could be real?
Was there anything more dangerous?
