water. After securing it to the strut, he walked to the back of the pontoon and did the same.
He helped her out and up onto the dock, then followed. “So what do you think?”
“It was fun. I admit it. But I still don’t understand why you’d want to buy it.”
He took her hand and led her to a log bench that faced the water. “What if I said I wanted to start a fishing charter business up here?”
She hadn’t fully processed the implication of his words when her heartbeat spiked, her hands started to tremble, and a light-headedness hit her hard enough to make her dizzy.
He was talking about much more than purchasing a rickety six-seater float plane. He was talking about a commitment. He was talking about a future.
“Whoa. I recognize that look. Take a deep breath. Let’s back up a second.”
Now she was confused. He
“Look. I’ve blindsided you twice. Once in the dead of winter. Once in July when I showed up again unannounced. It’s not my intention to do it again.”
“Too late.”
He smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “OK. So I have a little trouble in that area. But there’s no pressure here, Jess. I want you to know what’s on my mind. And I want you to think about how you feel about it.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “I want to make a life up here. With you.”
Heart racing, she looked up at him.
“I want to marry you, Jess. I love you. I think I fell a little bit in love with you the first time I saw you.”
Her voice got trapped somewhere in the wellspring of emotions knocking around inside her. Elation. Fear. Excitement. Fear. Joy.
She didn’t want to be afraid. Not of him. Not of them. And yet… was she ready for this? Was she capable of this?
“Like I said, I didn’t want this to be another blindside, but sweetie, I’ve tried to make it clear that I’m crazy about you.”
He tipped her face up to his, and she could tell he was doing his best not to laugh at her.
“Not talking, huh? That’s OK. I know you need some time to process the idea.”
She needed more than time. She needed oxygen.
“So… I’m going to fly the plane back to Vermillion, OK? I need to get her back before sundown, and it’s about a thirty-minute flight. How long is it going to take me to drive back to Kabby? Hold up your fingers if you can’t talk.”
“Thirty-five… forty minutes,” she said numbly.
“OK, then. I’ll see you in a little more than an hour. I’ll stop and pick up something for dinner, so don’t cook. Jess?” he added when she stared at him. “See you in an hour?”
She nodded, leaned in to him as he pressed another kiss to her forehead, then watched him walk to the plane.
She was still watching the sunlight glint off the wings in the far, far distance when Shelley walked up beside her.
“Hey,” Shelley said in that quiet way she had of hinting that she knew something was up.
“Hey.”
“You OK?”
She breathed deeply and looked at her hands clasped together on her lap. “I’m not sure.”
Shelley sat down beside her. “Is that a
She looked at her friend. “Not sure about that, either.”
Chapter 19
“NO TALKING.” TY GRABBED HER hand when he finally arrived at the store shortly after closing time and led her straight up the stairs.
It had taken him more like two hours to make the drive from Vermillion to the store. Judging by the look on his face, she suspected he’d timed it that way.
He wanted to be alone with her. He wanted her in bed.
“No talking,” he growled again, dropping their takeout dinner onto an end table and walking her to the bedroom, where he stripped off his clothes and hurriedly helped her out of hers.
“Only this,” he murmured, lowering her onto the bed and covering her naked body with his. “Only this.”
He destroyed. He possessed. With his hands. With his mouth. With the strength and the fire of a man who would do anything to please his woman.
When he knelt between her thighs and ran his hungry hands from her breasts to her belly and finally to the heat of her, he demanded, “Open for me.”
A thrill shot through her, and she opened her legs and let him pull her to the edge of the bed, let him drape her thighs over his shoulders as he knelt down to the floor. Let him devour her with his mouth and his passion as he brought her to a lush and powerful climax that both shattered and restored her and had her screaming his name as pleasure so exquisite it scared her fired through her body.
She was still coming down when he dragged her to the floor with him, positioned her over his heat, and took her there again, only then giving in to his own release.
WHEN THEY’D RECOVERED enough strength to move, they crawled back into bed and burrowed under the covers, wrapped in each other’s arms.
Several long, luxuriant moments passed while their breathing settled and their heartbeats slowed.
“OK,” he whispered against her hair. “You can talk now.”
“Easy for you to say.”
She felt his smile before he tipped her face back so he could look into her eyes. “Hello.”
“Hello.”
“So. How are things?”
She laughed. “
“Can’t tell if that’s a complaint or—”
“We’ll go with
He tucked her head back beneath his chin and held her close.
How she felt lying here with him, naked and spent and steeped in the wonder of his strength and heat, was something she treasured. Nothing else mattered but these moments. Nothing else counted but this feeling. She didn’t want to catalogue or define it. She didn’t want to think outside this little pocket of intimacy. She wanted to live it, breathe it, be lost in it. For a long time, that’s what she did. Until it occurred to her that he was probably starving.
“Are you hungry?” she whispered into the silence.
“You think I’m lying around like a slug because you wore me out? Hell, no, woman. I’m weak from starvation.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you have a teensy-weensy theatrical streak?”
“Minored in musical theater in college.”
That brought her up onto an elbow. “Seriously?”
“I’m liable to break out in show tunes at a moment’s notice.”
