“We’re making love, Ashley,” he told her, his voice gruff and his throat dry at the precipice he seemed to be standing on. “I’ve got to tell you, I’ve done the other enough to know that this…” He arched his hips into her. “This is honest to God the first time I’ve ever made love.”
Yes, love, damn it. Tripp was as bad as Jameson, and he knew it. Falling in love at first sight. Thinking of forever after only knowing this woman a few days.
Ashley blinked those big expressive blue eyes up at him. “I think you love me,” she whispered.
Did he dare take that last step? “I think I want to get to know you better.”
‘Chicken shit,’ his heart whispered.
‘Fast thinking!’ his randy cock crowed. ‘Now get on with it.’
So, he did. Like the big, mean guardian angel Ashley believed he was, Tripp gave her his all. He didn’t dare say the L word, but he proved it by taking her with soft, loving thrusts. For this very first time in her life, Tripp made the gentlest, truest love. He took her step by cautious step. Slow and easy. When at last she moaned his name and her legs stiffened…
When her body quaked, and she scored his shoulder with her fingernails…
When Ashley lay shattered in his hands, like the fragile piece of perfection that she was...
Only then did Tripp close his eyes and allow his release to blow through his body. He didn’t chase it this time. Didn’t need to. Not with this woman. It just roared through him like a hurricane. Because Tripp was in love, and he damned well knew it.
When the act of what was most definitely love, was complete… When he bowed his head to her sweaty forehead and breathed in the sweet, musky scent of their lovemaking, worshipping her, wanting her still… Tripp knew damned well that fucking could wait for their next go around. Maybe later. Maybe never. Because Tripp couldn’t imagine a time that he’d ever want to just fuck Ashley. Did. Not. Compute. He’d found her, and he would cherish her forever. Together or not, from this day forward, he’d find a way to watch over her. Somehow.
Maybe he was the elusive guardian angel she thought he was. Maybe he wasn’t. A tear slipped out of the corner of his eye at the thought of giving her up, of letting her go. But that was what guardian angels did. They never hung around; they hovered, unseen, but always nearby. Close enough to rescue. Never intrusive, yet ever ready to protect and serve. In the shadows. Like him…
Chapter Forty
Ashley couldn’t believe she was crying. After that! After finally making the most beautiful love with her fierce guardian angel, she fell apart. Sticking her nose in his neck, she wrapped her arms around him and sobbed. Just sobbed. She’d never felt so treasured, nor so loved before in her life. So special. Like she was truly important. Like she meant something to him. So what if Tripp hadn’t said he loved her back. That wasn’t why she’d said it to him. There were no words to describe the depths her broken, battered heart had plummeted before she’d met this man. Just as there were no words for the soaring height her soul had reached now. She’d flown! Because of Tripp, she’d found heaven, and it was inside his arms and against his chest.
Tripp rubbed his massive palms up and down her arms and waist, still holding her as if she were fragile, which, apparently, she was. How had he known that? At last, she swallowed her emotions, licked the tears off her lips, lifted her chin, and faced him.
He bowed his head, looking down at her. In one swift rollover, he was on his back, her hands were on his chest, and her legs were splayed over his hips.
“Hey,” he murmured, his deep voice rumbled through her tender, sensitized skin between them. Not one part of her wasn’t still singing. She’d become a bundle of live wires, his hands on her hips and his thumbs on her tummy the only things holding her together.
Ashley half-murmured through her tears, half-choked at the mixed feelings pouring out of her. “You must think I’m crazy, crying like this.”
Tripp had the best smile. When he was happy, it covered his entire body. Even his cock twitched between her legs.
“Not at all. But I do think you’ve been holding a lot of hurt inside these past couple years. I know you said you’ve been to a counselor, but we’ve got a pretty neat lady at the office you could talk to. Her name’s McKenna, but we call her Doc Fitz. I talked with her a couple times when I first hired on. She’s Beau’s wife. You’d like her.”
“I might do that.” Tipping forward, Ashley crossed her arms under her chin and flattened herself onto Tripp’s chest. A counselor was the last thing she wanted to talk about, but first… “Don’t think just because I said I love you that you—”
“It’s only been a few days. I just need to—”
“It’s okay if you don’t love me, Tripp,” she insisted. “That’s not what love is about. It doesn’t make demands, and it’s not quid pro quo. It just—” her shoulders lifted “—happens.”
“Damn it, listen to me,” he growled. “You’re emotional right now. You’re overwhelmed. You don’t know what you’re saying. Besides, I’m not the marrying type, and you deserve someone better than me. But I—”
“Who said anything about marriage?”
He cupped his hands
