Out Of The Blue (The Wrong Bed #12)(42)

"Dazed?"

"No. Love." He stroked her jaw with his thumbs. "Where was I? Oh, yes, so I quit my job."

"But you loved that job!"

"I love being a cop, but what I didn't love was being in Los Angeles, working undercover for so long that I was no longer Zach Thomas, but just a man existing. No family. No friends. No you."

"You didn't know then—"

He kissed her again, a long, deep, deliciously messy kiss this time, and he didn't pull back until they were both unsteady. "No, I didn't know I wanted you in my life, that didn't come until after the shooting, but I figured it out after I saw you again. One look, Hannah, and I knew, even if I didn't want to. It was as if I was looking into a mirror that night, and I saw my soul mate. I just didn't know how to accept it until I faced leaving here. Faced being without you. And even then I kept denying the truth, until I was back in Los Angeles and couldn't deny it anymore."

"So you just quit your job? But I was quitting mine! I went down to Los Angeles to find you and—"

"And I was here." Zach started to laugh, shook his head, then lowered his forehead to hers. "That's why Alexi and Tara got such a kick out of this. And I was clueless."

"You wouldn't have been if you'd told me!"

"Or if you'd told me." His eyes were alive with hope and joy. "You came after me. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?"

"Jobless?" she asked, still stunned that he'd given up everything for her. Everything. The depth of his love amazed and humbled her. Thrilled her.

"I'm still going to be a cop," he said. "Just here."

"In Avila. You'd … do that?" she whispered. "Really? You would? But…"

"I would and did. Don't you get it yet, Hannah? I want to be with you." Nervousness leaped into his gaze when he said that, making her realize she hadn't been honest enough back with him.

"Do you know why I went to L.A.?" she asked him. "Why I walked away from the lodge and Alexi and Tara?"

"No, but you're going to tell me, because you're not leaving this bed until you do." His body pressed into hers.

"Mmm. I love the feel of you wrapped around me," she whispered, arching into him a little.

His eyes, already hot, went hotter, and he thrust a thigh between her legs, spreading them, making room for himself. "Do you?" He dipped down to scrape his teeth over the spot beneath her ear, making her shiver with delight. "I love the feel of you wrapped around me, too."

All she could do was hum her agreement because he'd shifted that hard thigh and was rubbing it against her legs, pressing down until she spread even farther for him.

At the very intimate contact, they both sighed.

"You were going to tell me something important," he reminded her thickly, once again rocking against the very core of her, which sent shock waves of desire through her body.

"I—" She broke off with a startled gasp when he slid the straps of her sundress down, exposing her breasts to his gaze. She felt her nipples harden into two tight, aching tips.

"You what?" he urged, palming the weight of them in his palms, using his thumbs to rasp back and forth over her nipples so that she could hardly breathe. "Hannah?"

"I—" He swept the skirt of her sundress up to her waist, whisked off her panties and settled back against her, so that they were skin to skin.

"Wait," she gasped. "I wanted to tell you when I could actually see straight … I wanted you to know how much more than just lust this was … I wanted—"

"You're right." Utterly unselfconsciously, given that he was totally naked and clearly aroused, he rose off of her and kneeled on the bed.

"No distractions," he promised, lifting his hands, a small smile playing on his lips, but his eyes were completely serious. "So tell me why you came to L.A., why you would have given up everything you cared about."

Not as completely at ease with her own nudity as he was, Hannah sat, and demurely tugged down the hem of her skirt, which made Zach's lips quirk, but he said nothing, not even when she crossed her arms over her chest, bit her lip and finally looked him in the eyes.

"I would have given up ten times as much," she said. "Actually, I would have given up my entire life to be with you."

"Why, Hannah?"

"Because I love you. I love you with all my heart." She smiled through misty eyes. "I think I always have, and I know I always will." Her whole world seemed perfect. Almost. "I just don't want you to give up anything for me, I mean it." She squeezed him close. "Nothing. If you still want Los Angeles, then—"

"No." He smiled into her hair. "But I don't want you to give up anything for me, either. Except for maybe some time. You work too hard."

"I think I have a good reason to have regular days off now."

"Let me give you a better one." He cupped her face to stare into her eyes. "Marry me."

She went still. "I don't think I'm pregnant. The timing was wrong."

A flicker of disappointment crossed his face but then he smiled. "One thing at a time then. Be with me forever, Hannah."