Midnight Kiss (Virgin River #12)(78)

“Elise.” His hands, those hands she’d wanted for so long, they closed over her arms and pulled her closer until she straddled his legs. When she looked away, he touched her cheek to bring her eyes to his. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve wasted two years. Two long years.”

She had, too. Elise nodded, afraid to speak. She was so bad at this. How could he admit so much without being afraid? She would’ve walked away before confessing how lonely she’d been. For him. Even when she was supposed to have been in love with Evan, she’d been lonely.

“We’ll manage it. I’ll fly to D.C. You’ll fly to Denver. Vacations. Email. The phone.”

“Noah…”

“Listen to me, damn it. This is good. I am not leaving this to chance. And Jesus, I moved to Denver to get away from you, I can damn well move back to get close again.”

Her trembling heart stopped beating. Her knees tightened against his hips. “You did what?”

Noah grimaced and collapsed against the pillows. “Nothing. Forget that.”

“Forget it? Noah…why would you—”

“You were in love with someone else, and I wanted this thing between us to be over. That’s all. I just wanted it to stop.”

Her heart was a ball of pain in her chest. “But it didn’t,” she whispered. “It never stopped.”

“No.”

Why did he like her so much? She was too hard, too tough, too afraid to bend. But she bent now. She leaned into him and pressed her mouth to his bare chest, breathing out her pain into his skin.

She thought of the countless hours they’d spent together. She’d watched the way he moved, admired his decisiveness, eavesdropped on his conversations with others, noticed the small kindnesses he didn’t want others to see.

“Noah.” She kissed her way up to his chest, pressed her mouth to his thumping heart. “I love you.”

His heart jumped beneath his ribs.

“Don’t say anything back. Please. I just wanted to tell you.” The weight left her as suddenly as it had come. She’d done it. Something brave and right.

She felt his hands slide gently into her hair. He eased her up and sat up himself so their faces were only inches apart. “Don’t tell me what to do, Elise.”

“I didn’t say it so you’d say it back.”

“Too bad.” He kissed her so softly that tears sprang to her eyes. “I love you,” he murmured. “I’ve loved you for so damn long.”

She couldn’t say a word. The fear was back, but it was soaring on wings inside her, gliding in big looping swoops that left her breathless. So Elise kissed him hard and pushed him down so she could press into him. She swept off her shirt and shoved his shorts down, desperate to fill herself up with something more than this awful hope. He was ready for her, but he stopped her hand when she reached for him.

“Shh. Slow down.”

But she couldn’t. She was going to break if she didn’t have him now. She was going to break and sob and confess everything she felt, and that scared the hell out of her.

She met his eyes. “Please,” she rasped.

He held her gaze for a long moment before his face softened. Then he reached blindly for the box of condoms next to the bed.

Thank God.

THE WORRY IN HER EYES was killing him. She needed something from him, and Noah was determined to give it to her. Her body rose above him, her waist curving into flared hips. Her br**sts firm and proud and peaked by surprisingly dark ni**les.

He wanted to turn her over and worship her body, lavish long hours of attention on every bit of flesh. But he did nothing more than hold her h*ps as she rose above him. Then he was sliding inside her, the tightness enough to make Noah’s vision fade to a brief moment of black.

When his brain began processing images again, they were images of Elise. Elise rising above him, her lips parted, eyes closed. He should’ve been spent by this point. He’d come once this morning and twice last night, but there was something in her skin that soaked into him like a drug. Every time he touched her he was starving. Now her br**sts rose on every frantic breath she drew. She arched to pull him deeper. He rocked his h*ps and watched her gasp.

That little high-pitched break invaded her every breath, and primal satisfaction filled each hollow space inside him. He owned this secret of hers now. This tiny clue to the puzzle of her body.

She put her hand to his chest, her muscles trembling as her body curved forward. “Oh, Noah.”

“Yes,” he ground out past his clenched teeth.

And then she was crying out, a ragged, desperate sound, and Noah gave up with a groan.

He was still shuddering when she collapsed onto his chest, her hair sweeping the scent of her across his cheek. Their skin slipped with sweat. Their chests rose and fell in warring rhythm.

Noah was finally spent. He was sure of it. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t even draw a deep enough breath.

Heaven.

He was just starting to doze off when his brain shifted. Something clicked into place. An idea fell free.

Noah’s eyes popped open. “Maybe the money never left,” he said.

“Mmm,” Elise murmured, her body still dead weight on top of him.

He slid her off as gently as he could, but she protested with an outraged cry when she landed on her face. “Sorry,” he said as he reached for his computer.