Her voice was husky when she said, “Tell me about your dreams, Nathan.”
As often as she had talked about her own, it occurred to her that she had never asked about his.
He shrugged and took another step toward her, bringing him to within touching distance of her, though he kept his hands at his sides. “I’ve never wanted fame or riches. My parents came close to having both, and I saw how little happiness those things brought them. What gives me satisfaction is having the people I love—my family—close to me, safe and happy. I’ve always wanted a career I enjoy that would pay me enough to take care of my family. I’ve always wanted to be my own boss and have some freedom to pursue a few pleasures outside of the office.”
She moistened her lips. “That sounds like a nice dream.”
“There’s another part to it,” he said. “I always wanted to find someone to share that life with me. Someone who enjoys the same things I do. Someone who values family the way that I do. Someone who will stand by me when no one else does. Someone I can stand by when she pursues dreams of her own. Someone who will sit on a porch with me when we’re old and reminisce about all the good times we shared and the inevitable bad times we survived.”
“It…sounds like you’ve given this a great deal of thought.”
“You’re not the only one who has made plans for the future,” he told her softly. “I’ve always known what I wanted. I knew it when I established this law firm and when I asked you to help me make it a success.”
All those months when she had thought Nathan was just drifting happily and aimlessly through his life, he’d known exactly what he wanted for his future. In his own way he had been pursuing those goals as faithfully as she had hers. Maybe he’d been even more focused, because he’d had his plans clearly delineated in his mind, while she had been chasing after vague goals of career success she hadn’t been quite sure how to define.
Had she wanted to make the McCloud and Briley Law Firm a major player in the area’s legal community or start from the bottom in a bigger, already established firm? Had she been pursuing her own dreams or her father’s? And if family had meant so much to her in her past, why had she been following a career path that would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for her to have a family of her own?
Nathan had been watching the expressions crossing her face; she wasn’t sure what he’d read in them. “If you want to go to L.A.,” he said, “I still think you should make the arrangements. And if you decide your dream is there, I want you to go for it. My goals can be pursued anywhere. Isabelle and I might just like L.A. She was born in California, you know.”
Caitlin set a hand on her desktop for support as she stared at him. “You would be willing to go to L.A. with me?”
“If that’s where you’d be happiest,” he agreed. “You and I are partners, Caitlin Briley. In work and—I hope—in every other way.”
“But this firm—your family—”
“This firm, as proud as I am of what it has become, is only a place to work. I’m a skilled attorney. I can find another position wherever we end up. As for my family, Isabelle goes where I go, and I can always come back to visit the others whenever time allows. Deborah doesn’t live in Honesty, but that doesn’t make her any less a part of the family.”
Caitlin looked at him with a deep sense of wonder. “You really do love me, don’t you?”
His smile was sympathetic, as if he understood how deeply shaken she was by the realization. “Of course. But you knew that already, didn’t you?”
She supposed she had. He’d shown her so every time he kissed her, every time he made love with her so sweetly and so tenderly. He hadn’t said the words, but he’d made his feelings quite clear.
She was the one who had held back. The one who had been so afraid to commit—and why? Fear, she thought. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of being trapped. And maybe deep inside, an old fear, that she didn’t really deserve him. A useless and groundless self-doubt left over from a childhood of living just outside the fringe of acceptable society, never quite being a part of any peer group.
She drew a deep breath. “I love you, too, you know.”
His smile was blinding. “Darling. Of course you do.”
She reached out to him then, placing her hands on either side of his handsome face. “Have you always been so confident?”
“When it comes to you? No. But I’ve never been afraid to go after what I want.”
“And you want me,” she murmured, her lips hovering very close to his.
“Sweetheart, you’ve always been a part of my plan.”
Something about that comment amused her. She was laughing softly when his mouth came down on hers, instantly transforming her humor to passion.
As if it had been all he could do not to touch her earlier, he let his hands sweep over her now, touching and caressing every part he could reach. Her own hands were just as hungry, stroking and shaping, tangling with his. They had both dressed in loose, casual clothing for this Saturday afternoon, which made it much easier to shed them.
“Tell me you locked the front door,” Caitlin murmured, retaining just that modicum of caution as they sank to the thickly carpeted floor.
He nuzzled her neck. “I locked the front door.”
“Good. I have a habit of forgetting. Oh, Nathan, that feels so good.”
“I love you, Caitlin,” he said, holding her hands over her head as he prepared to slide into her.