She smiled, and I tallied it up as a small victory. “Pretty damn good?”
“Yup.”
Damn it, I wanted to take her in my arms and get my hands all over her body. She was wearing a pair of jeans, black boots, and a black sweater. Nothing fancy or over the top sexy but she could wear a paper bag and look like the hottest woman on the planet.
“I’m scared, Ross,” she finally admitted.
“Scared?”
“I think I’m feeling too much, too fast.”
My heart skipped a few beats as it sputtered into a triple time pace. “There’s no such thing. It’s not something you can control.”
“Well, that’s kind of the problem,” she said with a watery smile. “I’m a little bit of a control freak and when I feel like this like everything is chaotic and wild, I shut down. And between your busy life and my new job and the case—”
“I know. It’s fucked up.”
She nodded. “Really fucked up. We don’t even know where you’ll be playing next season.”
My eyebrows rose up my forehead. I’d purposefully not brought that possibility up with her, mostly because the idea of leaving her was more than I could take, without telling her and having to have a real conversation about it.
She shrugged. “I’ve heard a few things, here and there.”
I grabbed her other hand and held them both tight. “I don’t know what will happen next season, but I don’t want to lose you. No matter where I end up. We can make it work. People do it all the time.”
She smiled, but it was full of sadness and didn’t quite make it to her eyes.
“I’ve lost a lot in my life, Shelby,” I started, my voice shaky. “I don’t know who my dad is. My mom’s not in my life because she chooses not to be. I didn’t have a shot at a normal childhood, and I’ve never really let myself get too attached to things or places, and certainly not to people. But that changed when I met you. Suddenly, it was like a wall came crashing down, and I couldn’t get it built back up fast enough to keep you out. And now, I’m thankful I couldn’t. I can’t imagine my life without you. This last week has been hell for me, wondering what you’re thinking and whether or not I’d ever get to see you again. I couldn’t handle the thought that we might have already had our last kiss or said our last goodnight to each other.”
Shelby’s tears flowed freely as I spoke, and I paused only long enough to wipe them away with my thumb. “I love you, Shelby. I’m fucking crazy about you. Since that first time I saw you at the diner. I think about you all the freakin’ time.”
“I don’t want to lose you either,” she whispered. “I’ve never felt like this before. When I’m with you, I’m so happy, but when we’re apart, my mind wanders, and all I can think about is you.”
I stroked my hand up the side of her face. “You don’t have to worry. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere, and no matter what happens next, I’ll still be here.”
Her eyes fluttered closed as I leaned in to brush a soft kiss to the lips I’d been aching to feel for days. I pulled her hips and brought her in close, needing every inch of her against me, to assure me that she was really there and that the words we’d said were real too.
She smiled when we pulled apart to catch our breath. She snaked a hand up between us and toyed with the hair that had fallen across my forehead. “I also kinda need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything, but right now, we have something else we need to do.” Without warning, I scooped her up from the couch and tossed her over my shoulder, laughing at the girly squeal that escaped her as I carried her off to the bedroom.
“Caveman!” she bellowed, playfully slapping at my ass.
I patted her ass and tossed her onto the bed. My body lowered onto hers, and I kissed her fiercely, claiming her mouth the way that I had been wanting to all week, only pulling back when we were both breathless. “You like it.”
She framed my face with her hands and gently pulled me back to hers. “I love it, because I love you.”
“I love you too, Shelb.”
The kiss that followed was hot enough to melt wallpaper off the walls. What had actually been days apart suddenly felt like years, and I was like a starving man who couldn’t get enough. I stripped her clothing off of her as fast as I could. Shelby’s own eagerness matched mine and within seconds, we were both naked and tangled together under the sheets.
I was addicted to her. The way she moved, responding to my touch. Every graze of my fingertips made her shudder. Every kiss made her gasp. And when my fingers slipped deep inside of her, she let out a satisfied moan that echoed through my head long after it left her lips. Shelby was everything I hadn’t realized I was missing from my life, and I’d do whatever it took to keep her here.