The Way You Look Tonight (The Sullivans #9)(67)

"What do you say we get a little kinky?"

Her eyes opened wide with surprise, and then such happiness that he knew he’d been a fool to hold out on her for so long.

"You know how badly I want that," she told him, "but only if you want it, too."

Did he ever want it, but first he needed her to understand why he’d held back before. Looking into her eyes gave him the strength to admit, "I was afraid to trust myself with you. I was afraid I wouldn’t know when to stop, not just during sex, but after. I was afraid I’d give too much of my heart to you and end up like one of my clients, with it broken in my hands after you were done with me."

Her eyes were soft with emotion, and so much love it floored him. "And now?"

"Now I understand that when passion burns this hot, it’s okay to be scared of the power you have over me, the way you turn me inside out with a look, a touch, a kiss." Every word she’d said to him that night at the Italian restaurant when she’d spoken of true love was forever etched on his heart. "And now I know that I can talk to you about absolutely anything, and that you’ll still love me. No matter what."

"Always," she promised as she kissed him. "Forever." Her eyes were bright with anticipation when she drew back.

Rafe gave her one last kiss before moving to sit on the soft chair in the corner. "Take your clothes off, sweetheart. Let me see you. All of you."

His breath hitched in his chest as she reached for the belt on her dress. Rafe’s heart was beating so hard, his blood roaring so loudly in his ears, that he barely heard the leather falling to the rug. She moved her long hair over one shoulder so that she could pull down the zipper along her spine. The blue fabric slid off her shoulders and hips to puddle on the floor at her feet, and when her bra and panties quickly followed, he thanked God that she wasn’t torturing him with a slow striptease tonight.

"How do you want me?"

"Just the way you are." Her answering smile was the brightest he’d seen yet.

Rafe rose up from the chair and took the binding silks out of the dresser without taking his eyes off her incredible beauty. By the time he came to stand in front of her, Brooke’s chest was rising and falling rapidly. He lifted one wrist and gently tied one of the silks to it, pressing a kiss to the inside of her palm and then all the way up the inside of her arm. When colorful silk streamed from both wrists, and she was trembling from the path of his kisses across her sensitive skin, he knelt in front of her. Instead of immediately tying the silks to her ankles, he kissed the soft skin across her stomach, her hips, her thighs, moving lower and lower until his mouth was warring with the silks in his hands for the chance to be against her skin.

"Please," she begged. "More."

He was going to spend the rest of his life giving her everything she wanted, starting tonight. Lifting her into his arms, he carried her to the bed and laid her down in the center.

"Arms and legs spread, sweetheart."

He’d never dreamed that a woman could be this innocent—and naughty—all at the same time. His hands shook as he tied first her wrists and then her ankles to the bed, and when he was done and she was completely open to him, he knew it was more than her body she was baring, more even than her heart.

Brooke had let him all the way into her soul.

And he was the luckiest man who had ever lived.

Seconds later, he had his clothes off and was kneeling between her thighs as starlight spilled in the bedroom window, illuminating every beautiful curve, every sinful stretch of skin. Her mouth was warm and giving beneath his as he kissed her, and though his lips and hands repeatedly wandered over all of her most sensitive spots, he kept coming back to her lips...and to the kisses that had brought him back to life.

Knowing she trusted him enough to completely let go like this—and that he trusted her enough to completely let go, too—was the most beautiful thing he’d ever experienced.

"I need you, sweetheart."

He quickly untied the silks and as Brooke wrapped her arms and legs around him, with Rafe holding on to her just as tightly, he finally saw that the true love that he’d once thought was as rare as the blue moon had been there all along.

* * *

Though Rafe wasn’t even close to having his fill of Brooke, for a few precious moments it was enough to hold her in his arms and know that he’d made her happy tonight. Truly happy.

He gazed down in wonder at the beautiful woman beneath him on the bed. "Once upon a time you said I could ask you anything."

"Anything," she confirmed as she wrapped herself tighter around him, her cheek pressed against his.

He’d planned everything else that night, but pure instinct—and love—was what drove him to ask, "Will you marry me, Brooke?"

"Now, that," she said as she lifted her big green eyes to meet his, "sounds truly wild." And then she pressed her lips to his and whispered, "Yes."

Epilogue

Later that summer...

"Mom, Dad," Rafe said with Brooke beside him holding his hand, "there’s something I want you to have."

Mia made sure to take a picture of the surprise—and utter joy—on her parents’ faces at the exact moment they realized Rafe had deeded them the lake house. It was theirs again, only this time no bank could ever take it away from them.