Page 134 of Burning For You

He rolled and took her with him. She was resting on his chest now, his hand moving over her back.

“That’s mean. I’m hurt. I think you ate more than me.”

She shivered. From his touch. From the cold. From the words she was going to confess.

“I might have,” she said, her voice low.

She didn’t want to lose her nerve, but she was afraid she might.

Ash reached over and grabbed a fistful of the comforter they were lying on and flung it over her back. “There. Better?”

Like he knew what she needed once again.

“I am,” she whispered. “Ash.”

“Yeah?” he said just as quietly back.

“Sometimes what I feel for you is so hard to explain.”

“For someone with your writing talent, it shouldn’t be,” he said.

There was no humor in his voice.

If anything, it might have sounded like nerves.

Apprehension?

Did he not want her to say more?

Or was she thinking too much about this?

She was going with the second.

“That’s the thing. When I write, the words come into my brain and go out through my fingers, but if I opened my mouth, they wouldn’t sound nearly the same.”

“How is that possible?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It just is.”

“How about you close your eyes and just talk as if you’re in the room alone? I do that sometimes. I think it helps. Or it helps me.”

“But I’m not alone. What if I say something you don’t want to hear?”

He kissed her neck. “I think what you want to say I need to hear. Maybe it’s trapped inside me too. Maybe I’m just afraid of scaring you as much as you are me?”

And that told her everything.

Every fear she had wasn’t needed.

Every thought she doubted could go away.

“I love you, Ash. I love how you make me feel. Even when it ticks me off, surprisingly, I still love you. But more than anything, I just love how you are there for me. How I’ve got you in my corner.”

“Even when you tick me off,” he interrupted.

“I think right now, we’ve got that talent with the other.”

“But like I said earlier, we can get through it as long as we are together.”