“It’s too early to know if what you’re feeling is love, honey,” he said in a tender voice. “We care about each other, and the chemistry is definitely there, but is that really love?”
Tears stung her eyes. She’d known. Deep down Shayla had known Vance would buck at the notion of having something deeper with her. She’d hurt him too deeply when she’d dumped him. It didn’t matter that she’d had a good reason or that she’d been forced by her father; Vance had still been left bleeding. Shayla feared he might never let down the walls he’d erected around his heart.
“I know what I feel, and it isn’t chemistry. This isn’t about having a good time together either. I’ve always loved you, Vance. The years apart didn’t change a thing.” To heck with it. He might want to backpedal, but Shayla knew her own heart, and tiptoeing around it wasn’t going to change how she felt.
Vance shifted them until they lay spoon-fashion. He pulled her in close, and she cozied her bottom against his groin, content for now to lie next to him. He placed a possessive arm over her stomach and said, “You might know what you feel, honey, but I need a little time to process.” He paused, then added, “And since you’re back in Blackwater for good, there’s no reason to rush, right?”
“It seems to me like you’re dodging the subject,” she said as she caressed his arm.
“No, I’m resting up for round tw
o. There’s a difference.”
Good heavens, round two? “You couldn’t possibly…”
“Oh, I can,” he whispered against the top of her head. “Do you remember that time we went to the drive-in movies? I believe there was a round two and three that night.”
“I remember.” Shayla was thrown back in time as she recalled the night Vance had taken her to the drive-in for the first time. “I had to lie to my dad.”
“You did?”
“Uh-huh. I told him I was with a friend. Otherwise he never would’ve let me go.”
“Naughty, naughty,” he said as he caressed her belly with his work-roughened hand. “Did he ever find out?”
“Nope, and I’m not sorry I lied.”
His fingers drifted lower until he was within an inch of her pussy. “Hmm, why is that, beautiful?”
“Because that night turned out to be one of the most magical nights of my life,” she said in an unsteady voice. Vance played havoc with her senses. Between his passionate touches and the walk down memory lane, Shayla wasn’t sure if she was coming or going.
Vance’s hand stilled. “For me too, honey,” he told her in a low voice.
His words sent Shayla’s heart into a tailspin. “Really?” she asked, holding her breath for his answer.
“Really,” he replied. “I don’t even remember the movie we went to see. All I remember is you. How pretty you looked with the moonlight shinning through the windows. The way you sort of breathed out my name when I finally managed to get beneath your pretty jean skirt.”
Tears stung her eyes. “I can’t believe you remember what I wore.”
“I could never forget that night, Shay,” he said as his hand slid a little farther south. When his palm covered her mound, Shayla could hardly breathe without panting. “Especially since I managed to coax three orgasms from you.”
His cocky words had her grinning. “Of course, you were much younger then.”
He stiffened. “Are you saying I’m too old to get it up, woman?”
She turned her head to look into his eyes. “If the shoe fits…”
He took hold of her chin and pressed a kiss to her lips. When she felt a hard length pressing against her bottom, she moaned. “Does that thing ever rest?” she whispered against his mouth. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”
His hand coasted upward and covered one breast and squeezed. “Not where you’re concerned.” He turned her to her back and moved on top of her. With his arms at either side of her body, caging her in, he murmured, “And I’m not dodging what you said. I just need time to think it through, okay?”
She nodded. “Just promise me you will think about it.”
He licked her bottom lip. “I will. Later,” he said as he proceeded to take her to heaven once more.
Chapter Ten
As Vance sat at his kitchen table the next morning going over a bid for a small strip mall, Shayla’s words ran through his head. She loved him, she’d said. Just like that, as if it were that simple.