McDaniels she could less than an hour ago. Was she already willing to make a liar of herself?

She held out her hand. “Come here,” she said softly.

Ronnie stood where he was, regarding her worriedly. “Are we through talking?”

She smiled. Maybe he was no more of a risk-taker than she was, after all. “You’ll have to take a chance,” she told him, her hand still extended. “Come here and find out.”

The mattress sank down when he lowered himself beside her, careful to keep some space between them.

She lifted the hand he’d ignored to his cheek, felt the quick rise of heat, the tense tic of a muscle working in his jaw.

“If you don’t kiss me right now, Ronnie Sullivan, I think I’ll explode,” she said, her breath hitching.

“I’m afraid I’ll explode if I do, especially if you change your mind.”

“Not going to happen,” she said with certainty. Not today, anyway. She realized she couldn’t promise tomorrow yet any more than he could. And that was okay. Right now was all anyone really had.

“I love you,” she whispered.

His smile was tinged with relief. “I love you, too,” he said.

Then his mouth was on hers, his hands were sliding under her blouse, and the whole world went spinning.

* * *

Ronnie remembered now why Dana Sue was etched in his heart forever. No woman could possibly be more unselfish in bed, more passionate, more exuberant. Once she’d reached this point, she wasn’t holding back. She was as eager a participant as he was, her hands wandering, her mouth a wicked tease against his skin.

Now that they were here, still clothed, but tangled together in his bed, their bodies fitting together so perfectly it took his breath away, he couldn’t imagine why he’d ever sought out anything else. Not even the thrill of the unknown was any match for this.

Dana Sue seemed to hesitate when he reached for the buttons on her blouse. He lifted a brow. “Changing your mind?”

She shook her head, and this time he recognized that the color in her cheeks was from embarrassment, not passion. It was her weight again. He could see it in her eyes, the faint fear that he wouldn’t like the body she had now.

His gaze locked with hers as he reached again for the top button on her blouse. This time he skimmed a finger along the bare skin at the base of her throat, felt her pulse jump. “One button?” he suggested.

“You never stop with just one,” she said, her breath a little ragged.

Ronnie grinned. “Then let me get on with this,” he said. “I love you, Dana Sue, every inch, every pound. If I wanted some skinny young thing, I’d be with her now, instead of here with you.”

Still, she brushed his hands away from her blouse. “I should never have let my weight get so out of control,” she said. “Especially when I know it’s not good for my health.”

Ronnie tucked a hand under her chin and forced her to face him. “If you’re not happy about the way you look, then you can do something to change it. I’ll stand behind you all the way. But don’t make it about me, darlin’. I love looking at you. I love touching you and watching you come apart. You were a sexy, desirable girl when I met you, you were a sexy, desirable woman when I married you, and nothing about that has changed in the past twenty years. Nothing!”

There was so much hope in her eyes as she listened to him, it broke Ronnie’s heart. “If you don’t believe what I’m saying, let me show you,” he pleaded.

At last she nodded, and this time when he slowly undid the buttons on her blouse and pushed the fabric aside, she shivered, but she didn’t try to stop him. Ronnie couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away. If anything, her body was lusher and more womanly than before. He traced the curves with his scarred and work-roughened fingers, feeling her skin burn beneath his touch. The faint scent of lavender filled his head, as familiar and intoxicating as the texture of her skin.

She was wearing an unadorned white bra, and her nipples were already hardened peaks beneath the material. He closed his mouth over one and heard her cry out in pleasure, then moan as he sampled the other one. She didn’t protest when he unhooked the front closure and removed the bra, then gave her full breasts more attention. There’d been a time when she could come just from that—from his mouth teasing and taunting her sensitive nipples. Even now, her hips bucked against the mattress.

He shifted until he was covering her, her instinctive movements making him even harder, but he waited to reach for the snap on her slacks, waited until she was all but pleading before he slid down the zipper and reached inside to touch her hot, wet core. This time when she bucked, he felt her coming with an orgasm that ripped through her and almost shattered his own self-control.

Grinning, he met her gaze. “Now we can take our time and do this right,” he teased, sliding her slacks and panties off, then lingering to caress her rounded hips and thighs so there would be no question that she still turned him on, that he still found her everything a woman should be.

Only then did he stand and shed his own clothes, coming back to her in less than a heartbeat, burying himself in her with a thrust that felt like coming home after a long, long absence. Locking gazes with her, he began to move, slowly, watching her eyes darken again, feeling her body respond to him, knowing the precise moment when control was about to slip away, and what to do to make it happen.

“I love you,” he told her, even as he felt the waves of another climax wash through her, setting off his own.

And for the first time in two years, with Dana Sue wrapped in

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