Dream A Little Dream

'You really want to go through with this, don't you? Even though it doesn't have anything to do with you.'

'She seems so perfect.'

He took a deep breath. 'All right, then. Listen up because I'm only going to say this once, so you'd better pay attention. I loved Cherry with all my heart, and now I feel the same way about you.'

She exhaled a long, slow breath.

He said, 'You might not have been able to save Dwayne's soul, but you sure saved mine. You pulled me out of all that self-pity I was caught in and turned my life upside down. I started to live again.'

She could feel herself melting, and she moved toward him, but he held up his hand. 'I'm not finished. You're the one who brought this up, so now you can listen. Cherry was… She was almost too good. She never lost her temper, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a bad word out of her about anybody, including people who were real creeps. Even if she was tired or not feeling well or Jamie had been acting up, she wouldn't snap or be grouchy, she'd just get quiet. She was so damned sweet.'

'That makes me feel a lot better,' she said dryly.

'Now here's the part I'm only going to say once.' He drew a deep breath. 'Sometimes living with Cherry was a little like living with Mother Teresa or somebody. She was so sweet, so reasonable, so damn good, that I didn't have a lot of room for error when it came to my own shortcomings.'

Happiness unfolded inside her like a fan of rainbows. 'Really?'

'Really.'

'And with me?'

He smiled. 'I have a lot of room for error.'

She beamed at him.

'One other thing.' He frowned. 'Cherry used to hum. When she was cooking, cleaning, even reading a magazine, she'd hum. Sometimes it was okay, but other times, it kind of got on my nerves.'

'Random humming can be annoying.' Rachel found that she was starting to like Cherry Bonner.

'And the thing was… Because she always overlooked all my flaws, I could never get on her case about it.'

'You poor thing.' She bit her bottom lip. 'Was she… I know I'm a jerk for asking, but… In bed?'

He began to look amused. 'You're a mass of insecurities, aren't you?'

'Never mind. Forget I asked.'

'It wouldn't be fair to Cherry if I held up a sex kitten like yourself as a standard for comparison.'

Her eyes widened, and she smiled. 'Really?'

He laughed.

She hurled herself across the couch, and his arms tightened around her as if he wouldn't ever let her go. His lips brushed her hair, and his voice grew gruff with emotion. 'Cherry was the love of my boyhood, Rach. You're the love of my manhood. And I do love you, with all my heart. Please don't leave me.'

She couldn't respond because his mouth had settled over hers, and she lost herself in a kiss so shattering that nothing else existed.

When they drew apart, she found herself gazing into his eyes, and it was like looking into his soul. All the barriers between them were gone.

'Aren't you forgetting something?' he whispered.

She tilted her head in inquiry.

He brushed her lips. 'Aren't you forgetting to say, 'I love you, too, Gabe'? What about that?'

She drew back, smiled into his eyes. 'Is there any doubt?'

'You're not the only one who needs to hear the words.'

'I love you, Gabe. All the way to the bottom of my soul.'

He shuddered. 'No more talk of leaving me?'

'No more.'

'No more arguments about getting married?'

'Not a single one.'

'You'll put up with my brothers?'

'Don't remind me.'

'And Chip's going to belong to both of us?'

She nodded, unable for a moment to speak. Now that he'd set his heart to it, Gabe Bonner would be a better father to her son than Dwayne Snopes could ever have dreamed of being.

She stroked the stubborn line of his jaw, kissed him again. She wanted to laugh and sing and burst out in tears all at once. The emotions were too much, so she hid behind some gentle teasing. 'Don't think I'm going to forget about that million dollars. You were right about me not keeping those diamonds, and you're not competent to handle your own money.'

'You are?'

She nodded.

'You're right.' He sighed. 'Still, for a million dollars, a man has a right to expect something special.' With no warning he swept her into his arms. As he carried her into his bedroom, one hand caressed her bare bottom. 'Let me think… What kind of kinkiness would be worth a million dollars?'

A dozen ideas skipped through her mind.

'First I'm going to strip you naked.' His throaty whisper made her shiver. 'Then I'm going to stretch you out on that bed and love every single part of you.'

A soft moan slipped through her lips.

'And Rach? Chip's out like a light, so we've got all the time in the world. I'll be going about it real slow.'

She struggled for air.

He set her on her feet, then locked the bedroom door. He returned to her at once, and his fingers brushed her collarbone as he unbuttoned the shirt. He dipped his head to her neck and nipped the skin with his teeth. The shirt slid to the ground. He nuzzled and nibbled and worked his way from one delicious spot to another.

When she couldn't stand it, she began pulling at his clothing, and she didn't stop until he was naked.

His, body. She drank in the sight of those ridges of muscle, the lines between tanned and lighter skin, the patch of dark hair on his chest and at his groin. She cupped him, feeling the heavy weight there, the tensile strength, loving the sound of his irregular breathing.

They fell back on the bed and discovered neither of them had the patience for slowness. She needed his heavy weight on top of her, anchoring her to this bed, this house, this town-binding the two of them together forever. And he needed it too.

Only when he was buried deep inside her did they slow. She wrapped her legs around his, loving the feeling of being completely open for him, of being possessed by him.

His gray eyes gazed down into hers. 'I love you, Rachel.'

She lifted the hand she'd curled around his hip and brought it to the nape of his neck, sheltering him as she smiled her own love back before she whispered the words she knew he wanted to hear. 'I love you, Gabe.'

He moved inside her, and their passion built, but neither looked away. They kept their eyes locked, unwilling to give in to the primal instinct that craved privacy at this moment of deepest vulnerability.

He didn't drop his head to the crook of her neck, but kept it above her, staring down. She didn't turn her cheek into the pillow but gazed upward.

The boldness of allowing another person, even one so deeply loved, to have such an open conduit into the other's soul intensified every movement.

Green eyes swallowed silver. Silver devoured green.

'Oh, Rach…'

'My love…'

Eyes open, they came together in a melding of souls.

Epilogue