“Dane,” I instantly protested. “Put me down.”
“Ari.” His beautiful emerald eyes bored into mine. “Let me be your husband.”
Emotion choked me up. I stroked my fingers over his set jaw. “You’ll always be my husband. No matter what. Just you—always and forever you. Whether you’re here or not. Whether you can pick me up or not. You don’t have anything to prove to me.”
“Sure I do.” He carried me out of the room and down the hallway, with a hint of a limp that I thought he fought to hide.
I understood his feelings, his need to be strong and virile in my presence, the way he’d been before the explosion. Triple Crown Thoroughbreds were put out to pasture for lameness—Dane clearly refused to be one of them. I’d experienced this with Hannah as well. She wouldn’t date and shied away from social interactions because of her uneven walk and the havoc it wreaked on her psyche.
Dane wasn’t one to shy away from anything. He’d power through just to demonstrate his confidence hadn’t taken a hit, to show that he was as capable as ever.
While I could comprehend and deeply empathize with Hannah’s hesitancy, I admired Dane’s resiliency.
Still, I muttered in his ear, “Don’t overdo it, Tarzan.”
“Do you know how desperately I’ve wanted to be with you? But Amano’s plan yielded results. At one point, I did yank out the IV, unhooked my leg from its holster, and tried to get out of bed. Landed flat on my face.”
My chest pulled tight, my heart constricting. “I wish I could have been there to help you.”
“So you know how I feel. A hundred times over. A million. I can’t stand that I wasn’t there with you, Ari. That I wasn’t by your side.”
I kissed his cheek and said, “Amano did the right thing. Even if he’d told me you were alive and I came to see you because you couldn’t get to me, I could have easily been followed. We could have put the entire mission in jeopardy. So … All I can do is thank God that Amano was able to get you immediate help.” I was beyond relieved, so very grateful. “And I’m just so happy to be here with you now. I love you so much.”
He carefully set me on my feet just inside our bedroom. His hands cupped my face and he stared deep into my eyes. “I’m doing all of this to free us, Ari. But I know how painful it is for you. It’s killing me, too.” He brushed away my tears and softly kissed my lips. “It’ll be over soon. I promise.”
He stepped away, raking a hand through his hair. His shoulders bunched.
“Dane?”
With his back to me, he glanced around his shoulder and said, “I’ve made a lot of promises to you, haven’t I? And I’m not keeping them.”
Now my heart wrenched. His pain lanced through me. “We’re not living under normal circumstances, Dane.”
I closed the gap between us and wound my arms around him from behind. I’d missed the feel of his hot flesh and hard muscles beneath my fingers, against my palms.
His hands covered mine for endless moments. Then he unraveled my arms and turned to me. His head dipped and his lips glided over mine. My eyelids fluttered closed and I absorbed all the tingles skating along my flushed skin. A sigh fell from my slightly parted mouth. The bliss I’d lost when I’d heard Dane hadn’t made it out of the Lux slowly returned to me.
He had made it out. And he was here. With me. No matter how temporarily.
He’s alive. He’s here.
I focused on that.
I carefully eased his sh
irt over his broad shoulders and down his arms, letting it drop to the floor. My fingertips skimmed along his strong forearms, up to his bulging biceps. Across his collarbone and down to his defined pectoral ledge. All the while, I gazed up at him. His eyes blazed with desire; his jaw worked rigorously.
I leaned toward him and gently kissed the scar on his chest. His fingers threaded through my hair.
“Ari.” Need tinged his low, sensual tone. It had been months since we’d been together, and my own need mirrored his. The raging of my pulse and the pounding of my heart made my breath quicken with anticipation.
I whisked off my long tight gray sweater and tossed it aside. As much as Dane making love to me slowly and sexily held huge appeal, there was no way I could survive the slow.
“I want you,” I told him as I ripped apart the button fly of my Levi’s. “Fuck me.”
He let out a primal growl.
“Don’t be polite or apologetic about it,” I added.