“I’m sorry,” he said in a ragged whisper.
The rocker slowed. “For?” she asked cautiously.
The simple question stymied him. For making her cry? For loving her? For refusing to go down a path that could only lead to worse heartache?
“For everything,” he said at last.
He turned away then, a dull sensation of anguish crushing his chest. Knowing he was closing the door on so much more than just the sight of the two people he loved most in the world, he quietly pulled it shut.
Even then, though, he couldn’t move. In the gathering silence, he heard Jessie whisper his name. It was no louder than a sigh of regret, but to his ears it seemed louder than a shout. He resisted the longing to open that door—the only shield between him and a wildly escalating temptation—for a single heartbeat, then two.
“Luke?”
He closed his eyes and tried to shut out the sound of her voice, but the echo of his softly spoken name was already in his head, driving him crazy. A sigh shuddered through him and he knew he was lost. He opened the door, stepped inside, then closed it.
And as he did, he knew with every fiber of his being that nothing in his life would ever be the same.
Chapter Fifteen
Jessie watched with bated breath as Luke closed the door to the suite behind him. Her heart seemed to have stilled and then, as he took the first step toward her, it began to thunder mercilessly in her chest.
Dear heaven, how she loved him. Earlier tonight she’d been sure that she had lost him forever. She had run out of ways to combat his stubbornness, or so she had thought.
Apparently all it had taken was the whispered cry of his name on her lips, a soft command he’d been unable to resist. He crossed the room, reluctance still written all over his hard, masculine face, and sank slowly to the edge of the bed beside the rocker, careful not to allow his knees to brush against hers. Too careful. It told her how deeply his feelings for her ran and how much he feared losing control.
His gaze remained fixed on the baby in her arms. A soft, tender smile tugged at the corners of his lips. If she could have, without disturbing Angela, she would have touched a finger to that normally stern, unforgiving mouth. She would have tried to coax that smile to remain in place.
“Was it so very difficult?” she inquired dryly.
His gaze found hers. “What?”
“Walking into this room.”
“Not difficult,” he said, the smile coming and going again like a whisper. “Dangerous. When I’m around you, I can’t think. My common sense flies out the window. No one has ever had such control over me.”
“I don’t think feelings are something you can dictate with common sense,” she said.
“Maybe not, but actions are.” He studied her with a rueful expression. “You have the lure of a siren, Jessie. You and your baby.”
“Is that so terrible?”
“I’ve told you all the reasons it is.”
“Reasons, yes, but you’ve never said what was in your heart.”
Luke sighed and looked away. When he eventually settled his gaze on her again, there was an air of acceptance about him that she hadn’t seen before. It gave her hope.
“My heart,” he began, then shook his head. “I’m not sure I can find the words.”
She leveled a look at him, then said quietly, “Then show me.”
A soft moan seemed ripped from somewhere deep inside him. “Jessie, don’t…”
“It’s just the two of us here in the dark, Lucas. You can show me what’s in your heart. There’s no one to object.”
She thought she detected the faint beginnings of another wry smile.
“Not just two of us, Jessie. Angela’s right here with us. Hardly a proper audience for all I’d like to do to you, all the ways I’d like to show you how I feel.”
Jessie wasn’t about to let him seize an easy excuse for maintaining the status quo. Her entire body shook with her desperate yearning for his touch.
“She’s ready to be put down for the night,” she countered. “I’ll take her into the other room. After that, Luke, no more objections. No more excuses.”
She tucked the baby into her crib, caressing the soft, sweet-smelling cheek with a delicate touch. Suddenly she was overwhelmed with emotions—love for this precious new life, love for the man who waited in the next room. Her fear of the future was diminishing day by day.
Finally it was her love for Luke that drew her back. She was lured by the promise of warmth, by the deep sense of honor that made Luke the man he was, a man worthy of loving. There would be no passion between them, she thought with deep regret. Not tonight. Physically for her, it was too soon. Perhaps emotionally, as well, though she didn’t think so.
But there would be commitment at last. She could sense it with everything in her. He would no longer deny his feelings. And with Luke by her side, they could fight the rest of the inevitable battle with his family together.
He stood when she entered, then met her halfway across the room. Fighting, then visibly losing one last battle with himself, he opened his arms to her. Jessie moved into the embrace with the sense that she was finally, at long last, home to stay. The serenity that swept through her was overwhelming.
“It won’t be easy,” he said, his chin resting atop her head as she nestled against his chest.
“Easy is for cowards,” she said bravely.
“Anything this difficult may be for fools,” he said dryly.
She stepped back and looked up at him. “Do you love me?”
He cupped her face in his hands, then slowly, so very slowly lowered his head until his mouth covered hers. The answer was in his kiss, a consuming, breath-stealing kiss that seemed
