Can't Help Falling In Love (The Sullivans #3)(68)

“Thank you for trusting me, sweetheart.”

He slid the blindfold off at the same moment that he slid into her and she felt herself open up to him in a way she hadn’t ever opened up to anyone before. The walls she’d built, those final prison bars around her heart, came crashing down as he held her so gently and kissed her so sweetly.

If ever there was a time in her life to take a risk, it was now. If ever there was a person to risk it all for, it was Gabe. But before she could make her lips form the words, he was saying, “Come over to the other side with me, love,” and up, up, up she went as her next climax stole away every last thought, along with any possibility of speech.

All that remained was the love pouring from him to her...and back again as she finally let Gabe all the way into her soul.

Chapter Twenty-six

Megan had her arms tightly wrapped around Gabe and with her hands spread out over his chest, she could feel his heart beating, hard, steady.

She hadn’t come to him this morning for sex, hadn’t come simply to scratch the itch that only he could reach.

The truth was that she’d come for this connection.

For more happiness than she’d ever thought was possible.

For love.

“Gabe?”

“Mmm?”

He brushed the damp hair from her forehead and pressed a kiss to her skin. She loved his easy affection, that he wasn’t a man who felt he needed to hold anything back to be macho or manly. Not for the first time, she was struck by how well his mother had raised her sons. Yes, many of them were clearly big-time players with the ladies, but she couldn’t imagine any one of them purposely hurting a woman.

And, from meeting Chase and Marcus, she could see that once they fell in love, it really was forever. Chloe and Nicola were clearly the center of Gabe’s brothers’ worlds. She had a hunch about Chloe, one she hoped she was right about. It would be so lovely to be able to hold—and spoil—a little baby in the not-so-distant future.

As she luxuriated in the warm caress of Gabe’s eyes on her, the vision of Chloe and Chase’s baby morphed into something different. Something that should have frightened her even more...but only sent more joy moving through her, instead.

Gabe would be the most incredible father. He was already one of Summer’s favorite people on the planet. But Megan was getting ahead of herself.

First he needed to know how she felt about him.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you.”

“I can’t wait to hear it, sweetheart.”

Megan was silent for a moment as she marveled at being this lucky, that Gabe had been the one to find her and Summer in their burning apartment, that they’d connected afterward and found such amazing sparks, that they’d managed to work through their issues and...

“I tried to make myself stay away from you, to keep you at arm’s length, to keep you from getting too close to me and Summer. But I’ve come to realize that even if I succeeded in keeping my distance from you, even if I told you I couldn’t be with you anymore, it wouldn’t protect me. Not in the least. Because I’d still be scared every time I turned on the news and heard reports of a big fire. And I’d still die inside if anything happened to you.” She hated to even think it, let alone say the words, but she knew she needed to. “I’ve come to realize that pushing you away won’t protect anyone’s heart. All it guarantees is that I’ll miss out on the joy of being with you.”

This was it, this was the big moment when she would finally tell him, “I—”

His cell went off just then, a special ring, and although he was clearly frustrated by the interruption, he reached out to grab his phone from the table beside the bed.

“What does that ring mean?”

“It’s an urgent fire call.” His frown deepened with every word he read.

She sat up in bed, pulling the covers over her naked skin as if that would somehow protect her from what was happening. “It’s a bad one, isn’t it?”

He nodded, already moving from the bed to put on his clothes. “A truck potentially carrying hazardous materials crashed into several stores in Chinatown.”

Oh God, she thought. It’s a sign.

It had to be.

All the fears she thought had been loved into submission raised their heads and called out to her, screaming for her to listen, to heed their warnings.

What, they screeched at her, are you doing? You can still run to safety, before it’s too late.

She’d been lulled into thinking she could be in a serious relationship with him, that she could accept the fear of losing Gabe, but now she realized why. He hadn’t been called in to any fires while they’d been together...and she’d purposely kept from asking him about what happened during his shifts because she’d known she couldn’t have handled hearing about any dangerous situations.

And here she’d just been about to confess her love to him.

He was fully clothed within seconds and moving back to where she was frozen on the bed. “Megan? Sweetheart?”

She shifted in Gabe’s arms, moved back toward the headboard, away from him. “Your crew needs you. The people in the burning buildings need you. You need to go.” Her words came out harsher than she wanted them to, even as her heart was screaming, I need you, too.

But instead of leaving, Gabe put his hands on either side of her face. “I love you, Megan.”