Back In The Bedroom (The Wrong Bed #29)(51)

It was her turn to stare at him, speechless. Then she both laughed and cried and took one of her hands off his face so she could smack his shoulder. “You might have said so.”

“I did,” he said, and put his forehead to hers. “In every kiss, in every look and every touch.”

“And you were going to let me walk away?”

“I wouldn’t have held you back, not from your adventure.”

“You love me that much?”

“Look, I’ve screwed up at love before. I’ve gone the opposite route and closed myself off, and screwed that up, too. Neither worked for me, but then you came along—”

She made a soft noise of emotion, of hope and joy, and he hugged her. “I know how to put numbers together,” he said in her ear. “I know how to get them to make sense. I know how to do a lot of things, but loving you…I don’t have a clue.” He pulled back to see her face. “All I know is that your smile makes my day and that when I’m with you, everything seems right.”

“Oh, Reilly,” she sighed, devouring his mouth. Just plastered herself against him, sank her fingers into his hair and kissed him desperately, hungrily. She kissed him with everything she had, everything she wanted to give him.

“So you’re staying,” he finally said, his voice unsteady and missing its usual easy confidence.

Tessa buried her face in his throat, inhaling him, just breathing him in. “I don’t know…that was a heck of a job offer from Eddie. I mean, the Greek Islands? Think of the experience.”

He tightened his hands on her. “I can offer a chance for experience, too.”

“Really?” she asked. She cocked her head. “What do you have in mind?”

He whispered in her ear, low, raw, earthy suggestions, things no one had ever whispered to her before. Excited, aroused and her heart overflowing, she nodded. “Sounds like quite an opportunity.”

“Oh, yes,” he agreed and put her back into the car, this time on the passenger side. He got in behind the wheel. “In fact, there’s no need to wait, we can start—”

“Now?”

“Now.” He drove her to his house.

“But work—”

“Forget work. I gave Marge the day off to go do something special, something she’d never done before,” he said. “I told her I was going to do the same,” he said, smiling at her, a smile full of so much love she felt her eyes well up again.

And his quickly faded. “What’s the matter?”

“I always wanted to fall in love with a man who’d show me his feelings,” she said slowly. “A man who was warm and compassionate and soft—”

“Wait a minute.” He turned off the engine, then led her inside. Once there, he took her hand and led her to his bedroom. “Warm and compassionate, no problem. Or at least I can try…. But that being soft thing—”

She laughed.

He pressed against her, so far from soft that her laugh turned into a little gasp.

“You think this condition is amusing?”

“Only because…” She paused and looked at his bed.

“Because…” he said helpfully, drawing her to his mattress, where he started in on her buttons.

“Because I know how to relieve the condition,” she said, assuring him and started on his buttons, too. “We’ve finally got it right. We’ve finally made it to a bed.”

“Finally.” He held her off, the playfulness gone. “Right place, right time, right woman. It’s all just right. You’re everything to me,” he said softly. “Everything.”

She reached for him, half-undressed, holding him close, so close that she could feel his heart beating against hers, could feel the two different patterns merge, become one. And she sighed as her world became complete.





Epilogue




Fifteen months later

THE GREEK ISLANDS were lovely this time of year. Tessa let out a languid sigh and figured she was the luckiest woman on earth.

She was in her bathing suit, lying on her back, staring up at an azure summer sky so amazing it took her breath away. Beneath her, the yacht rocked gently in the breeze, the water lapping at the sides with a pleasant, hypnotic sound.

“Mrs. Ledger?”

That brought a smile to her face, though she didn’t turn toward the male voice. “Yes?”

“I’ve brought you your sunscreen. Turn over and I’ll rub it on you.”

With a naughty smile, she turned onto her belly and wriggled a little to get comfortable on her towel—and to show off her backside.

She gasped when the tie of her bikini top was tugged free, then set to her sides. Then the cold lotion was squirted on the small of her back, making her gasp again.

“Mmm, nice,” he breathed into her ear. His hands touched her, slid over her muscles and warm skin in a way that made her moan, without the strap of her top across her back to encumber him in any way. Up and down, then to the backs of her legs, even dipping into her bikini bottoms enough to have her wriggling some more.

“Does your husband know what I do to you?” he whispered, his fingers getting quite wicked, making her lose her train of thought.

Hmm. To even the score, she flipped over and exposed her bare breasts. She looked up into Reilly’s face. “He knows,” she said, feeling smug at the glossy look in his eyes as he devoured the sight of her.