“A month or so?” Heath asked. “This isn’t one of the ‘Real Life Rules to Catch a King’ is it? I hate that show and I’m not a king and reality television is stupid. You don’t even have phone service, so how in the hell would you be able to watch TV?”
“Well, they did have TV in the dungeon, but it’s not anything like that. It’s a…personal issue. But I do want to be with you, if you can wait.” She shot him a look that was horny and vulnerable and amused all at the same time.
He loved that look. He wanted to see that look every day from here on in. “I can wait. I can’t wait two months if you want. I could probably even wait a year if I had to.”
“Let’s not go overboard, a month should be fine,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll go make up the trundle bed.”
“I get to stay here?” Heath asked as she wiggled under his arm and fetched sheets from one of the cupboards.
“Of course. I said you couldn’t sleep in my bed, not that you couldn’t sleep over. There aren’t any hotels in Deepweeds. I wouldn’t want you to sleep on a bench at the station.”
“You trust me not to wake you in the night and ravish you?” He forced away the image of Bella in the moonlight, asleep until he pulled the covers away from her body and started trailing kisses up one delectable thigh.
Thoughts like that weren’t going to help him get a handle on the raging hard-on already visible through his khaki pants. He should have worn jeans, stiffer fabric to hide his stiffy.
Of course, he hadn’t been anticipating problems of this sort when he’d dressed to make a businesslike first impression.
“I trust you.” Her look grew serious as she paused in pulling a trundle bed out from underneath her own comfy mattress. “Maybe more than I should?”
“No way,” Heath said, just as serious. “You can trust me, Bella. I’d never do anything you didn’t want me to do, in bed or out of it. If you say wait, we wait.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “Thanks. I believe you. Is that weird? Since we’ve known each other less than twenty-four hours?”
Heath crossed the room and took her face in his hands.
“No, but it’s probably weird that I think I’m falling in love with you.” His heart and his cock both tightened as she gazed up at him with a mixture of shock and…excitement.
He stood corrected, that was the look he wanted to see for the rest of his life.
“That’s the third time you’ve said that.” Her lips parted, begging him to taste them one last time before they went to their separate beds.
“You’re right. How much thinking do I really have to do?” He pulled her closer and slid his arms down to cradle her ass in his hands, urging her closer to him, giving her a physical reminder of how much he craved her beautiful body.
Her eyes closed as her hips tilted forward. He almost lost it then, knowing that her clit was rubbing up a
gainst his cock and that he was only a few lousy pieces of clothing away from contact with what was swiftly becoming his favorite thing in the world.
“I love you,” he whispered, knowing even as his heart skipped a beat and his mouth dried up that he was telling the God’s honest truth.
“You really are crazy.” She looped her arms around his neck.
“Do I still get a good night kiss?”
“Heck yes.” She pulled him down to her mouth, giving him another taste of her heat, her passion. The sense of urgency, of hunger he felt simmering in Bella was the most powerful he’d ever known, so powerful it might have scared a lesser man.
But he had never considered himself “lesser” and her need made him hotter than any woman ever had. Especially when she did that little thing with her tongue that she was doing right now.
“Are you sure this is good night?” he asked, unable to resist slipping a hand up to tease at her nipple through her sweater. She was a breast girl; he’d known it from the start. His hands, his tongue, his teeth on her nipples drove her crazy, maybe crazy enough to reconsider making him wait a month to ease his growing hunger.
“You’re a bad man.” She smiled against his mouth, then surprised him by biting his lower lip.
“In a good way?” He managed to get the words out, despite the fact that her teeth still claimed his lip and his cock was starting to throb.
God, did she know what she did to him?
“In a very good way.” She pulled away, letting out a sigh before she slipped from his grip and threw a lavender-scented pillow in the center of his chest.
“Good night, Mr. Miller,” she teased before she blew him a kiss and slipped into the bathroom.