“Caleb,” she whispered, darting a glance down the hall. “You’re going to get fired. Knock it off.”
“Says the woman who stuck her tongue down my throat and gave me an erection and made me fall in love with her, all while I was at work. And then didn’t even have the decency to love me back.” My voice was perfectly low and level.
Possibly.
She rolled her eyes. “You know what? I was trying to make it easier for you.”
“Oh, right. I see that now. It always helps a guy to know his girl doesn’t love him. Next, you’ll tell me you were faking those four Os last night to spare my feelings.”
“Three. Don’t flatter yourself.”
“It was four and you know it.”
“No more than three and a quarter. Anyway, that’s irrelevant.”
“Says who? Do you want to leave me with nothing?”
“There are things you don’t know, things that may change your supposed undying love for me.”
“I never used the word undying,” I muttered.
Although I was concerned it actually was, and then what? I’d be well and truly screwed if she couldn’t even admit I’d given her four legitimate orgasms last night—no quarters here, thank you—never mind love me back.
God, love had already made me a sap.
She continued on, ignoring me entirely. “But you’re being such an ass that I’m not going to bother. It wasn’t just my doing. I didn’t get myself pregnant, dammit.”
“It wasn’t my doing either, this whole loving you thing. I didn’t ask for it. It was your own fault for being so irresistible. And for fitting against me perfectly every time I wrap my arms around you. And for always knowing the exact right thing to say when I’ve had an exhausting day at work. You’re always just exactly what I need. You have been since the very first day I laid eyes on you.”
“Caleb. Did you hear me?” she asked gently, her eyes suspiciously wet all over again.
She didn’t seem so shaky anymore. In fact, she seemed like a tower of strength standing there in front of me, so starkly beautiful with her steady gaze and her shoulders thrown back. Whatever I said, whatever I did, she would be just fine.
Damn if her rock-solid sense of self didn’t make me love her even more.
As for the rest, my mind was on hyperdrive. I didn’t think I’d hear anything but those words in my head for the next nine months. Well, less than that now.
I didn’t get myself pregnant, dammit.
Holy shit.
“I heard you.” I paced away from her to the opposite wall and back.
About ten times.
She didn’t say a word, just let me pace while my vision blurred with…sweat.
Yea
h. That was a good one.
I tipped back my head to stare at the ceiling. The ice that had formed around my heart when she hadn’t said “I love you” back cracked apart as if blasted by the sun. “It fucking worked. I wondered if it would. If it could be real.”
“What?”
I went to her and gripped her cool hands in my much larger, warmer ones. Rubbing them so that she could feel every bit of the intensity inside me. So much that I wasn’t sure I could contain it. “For almost a year, I wouldn’t sleep with anyone. I wouldn’t take the chance. The Cove, man. There’s something mystical here. Unexplainable.”
“You’re in shock. Maybe you should sit down. I’ll get you a glass of water. I need one too.” She tried to pull away from me.