The Way You Look Tonight (The Sullivans #9)(59)

He could have spent the rest of the day tasting behind her knee, nipping at her hipbone, rubbing his cheek against the undersides of her br**sts, but there were so many other spots he needed to taste, too.

The soft skin on her neck when she arched beneath him.

The small of her back when he rolled her onto her stomach so that he could fully appreciate the gorgeous curve of her hips while massaging away the aches that came with doing such hard work at the kitchen counter all night long.

The shadow of curls between her thighs that tempted a man beyond reason.

She was pliant enough in her drowsy passion that he could easily turn her in his arms and open her thighs with his as he took care of protection. And then she was reaching for him again, and her mouth was connecting with his at the exact moment he slid into her. She was so wet and hot and ready for him that he nearly lost it right then and there.

Cheek to cheek as they moved together, he could tell by the way her inner muscles clenched around him that she was as close as he was. Sex for Rafe had always been a marathon, a test to see how far he could push his partner and himself. But with Brooke there were no goals, no rules, no awards he was trying to win. Just pleasure.

And pure joy.

He could feel her mouth curve up against his cheek as she approached her climax. Only this time, as he increased his thrusts to help take her all the way over the edge, she gave him more than her smile, more than the sweet sound of her laughter.

"I love you."

Her mouth was so close to his ear as she gave him her heart that he almost felt as though the words had always been there inside his head, flipping every off switch to on, turning every red light green.

Rafe knew Brooke hadn’t said the three little words to try to get him to say them back, or to push him into making a decision he wasn’t yet ready for. She’d simply given him what was inside her heart, just as she’d given him her body.

And in that instant, Rafe knew it didn’t matter what Ben’s background check said. Brooke could have a thousand skeletons in her closet and he’d still love her.

"I love you, too."

He swore time stopped as her eyes opened. She looked up at him in stunned surprise. "You do?"

All these years he’d been so certain love only happened once in a blue moon, but somehow they’d gotten one, hadn’t they?

"I do, so damned much. You’re all I can think of, all that I’m going to want forever."

Her eyes filled with tears even as a wide smile split her face. Just as she laughed through every orgasm, she did the same now while teardrops rolled down her cheeks. After he kissed each of them away, she whispered one word against his mouth.

"Forever."

Chapter Twenty-two

A ringing cell phone woke them up. Rafe pulled Brooke closer, intent on ignoring anything that wasn’t warm and soft and smelling like chocolate in his arms, but the damned thing kept buzzing again and again.

She finally murmured against his shoulder, "Sounds like it’s pretty important."

By the fifth time it rang, he’d begun to think the same thing. Worried that something had happened to his siblings or his parents, he kissed Brooke on the forehead, then eased out of her bed. Through the window, he could see that the sun was high in the sky, and her bedside clock said it was past noon. They hadn’t slept more than a handful of hours after working all night long, but every hour in bed with Brooke was worth at least two without her.

She loved him.

The memory of the way she’d said those three incredible words to him just hours ago—and how he’d, amazingly, said them right back—had him wanting to toss his phone out into the lake so that the two of them could be left alone in their cozy little world together.

He grabbed his jeans from the chair in the corner of Brooke’s bedroom, and his cell fell onto the carpet. Ben’s name staring up at him from the screen froze Rafe in place. If there hadn’t been anything of note to report, his colleague would have sent an email or left a voice mail.

Clearly, five calls in a row meant Ben needed to reach Rafe immediately.

"Rafe?" Brooke was sitting up in bed now, the covers bunched up around her waist, her hair tangled from their lovemaking. "Is it your family? Is everything okay?"

"It’s the office. I’ll take the call out in the living room so that you can get back to sleep." Before he left, he gave her one more lingering kiss, one that stunned him all over again with its sweetness.

Her eyes were hazy with more than sleepiness by the time he made himself move away from the bed. He yanked on his jeans and closed the bedroom door behind him.

His gut twisted tight as he dialed Ben back. Was this how his clients felt when they saw his name come up on their phones, calling with the bad news they’d been praying he wouldn’t give them? He’d always tried to be sensitive about it, but now he wondered if he’d ever been anywhere close to sensitive enough.

When Ben picked up, Rafe said, "I want to know what you’ve got on Delacorte, but—" He lowered his voice and moved farther from the bedroom. "—I already know everything I need to know about Brooke. You can shred whatever you’ve got on her."

He knew now that there wasn’t a damn thing she could have done to make him stop loving her. He’d been crazy to tell Ben to do a background on her in the first place, almost as if he’d been looking for a way to sabotage his own happiness.