This time it was he who laughed. “You’d be wrong.”
“Again, I wish that was true.”
“Why?”
Could she write him a thesis on all the reasons why? Things like that he made her feel good about herself? That he made her believe in things that she shouldn’t believe in? That he’d taken away the loneliness that had iced her insides for so long that she’d believed the coldness was a permanent part of who she was?
“Because I like you,” she said instead, using his usual response to sum up all the emotions bubbling inside her. “A lot.”
In the moonlight, she saw his mouth curve upwards.
“Good to know,” he admitted, taking her hand. “I was beginning to wonder if this relationship was onesided.”
“Is that what we’re doing? Having a relationship?” Not that it didn’t feel like a relationship. It did. Plus he carried on at the hospital as if they were. But, still, there was no one around but the two of them and she wanted a straight answer from him.
“If you have to ask me that, I’m doing something very wrong,” he teased, scratching his head as if trying to figure out what that something might be.
“I…I just wasn’t sure.” Which sounded quite lame at the moment, with how his eyes searched hers. Even in the moonlight she could see desire flickering in the blue depths.
“After the past two weeks you aren’t sure that I’m totally fascinated by you and want to spend every second of my time with you?”
Wow. That’s all that her brain could register. Just wow. Wow. Wow. Riley’s words seemed so foreign, so far-fetched, yet she heard his sincerity, saw the truth in the way he looked at her. He looked at her as she’d never been looked at, as if she was the most precious being on earth.
“I’m scared,” she heard herself say, knowing her words were as true as his, shocked, though, that she was admitting her fear to him. Wasn’t that exposing just how vulnerable she really was?
“Don’t be scared of me, Trinity. I’d never intentionally hurt you.”
Intentionally. Which meant she likely would be hurt at some point down the line. Her life had taught her to expect no less. But she wasn’t going to hold back, wasn’t going to let the past or fear dictate who she was. Not when it came to Riley. Was she?
At this moment she was a woman sitting on a romantic beach, touching a fantasy man who was quickly encompassing her whole world.
He wanted to be here, with her. He thought she was beautiful, he wanted her, and he didn’t mind telling her, showing her.
When he was with her she didn’t get the impression that he wanted to be anywhere except right with her. When he looked at her she didn’t get the impression that he wished she were someone else.
He wanted her.
He lifted her hand to his lips, kissed her fingertips.
“I have sand on my fingers.” And tears in her eyes. Why was she crying?
“Doesn’t matter.” He kissed the top of her hand, gently turned her arm to press his lips to her wrist, then he kissed her there. Gentle kisses where his lips lightly brushed across the tender skin, heating her blood. Brilliant kisses that made her mind go in thousands of directions, all of which involved him.
She shivered and scooted closer to him, grazed her knuckles across his clean-shaven jaw. “Smooth.”
He chuckled. “The better to kiss you without worrying about scratching you.”
“I’m not a dainty flower that easily wilts.”
“You want scratched?”
“I want kissed.”
“I’m a man who aims to please.”
When his lips covered hers, he didn’t kiss her with the gentle pressure he’d kissed her goodnight with each night. No, he kissed her with the mouth of a man who was hungry. Hungry and wanting to devour her.
As if he wanted her so much he couldn’t not kiss her that way.