She nodded, too emotional to speak.
“After hearing it, you may not want to have anything to do with me, but I hope you will.”
“Do you think . . .”
“What?”
“That day we kayaked the river, do you think you sensed in me the same kind of emptiness and loss you were feeling? I’d lost Amy. You’d lost Torrie. Did you recognize a—”
“Kindred spirit?”
“Something like that.”
“I’m certain of it,” he said.
“Oh.”
“Wait, are you wondering if that’s what attracted me to you? The only thing that attracted me?”
“Was it?”
“What do you think?”
The intensity of his stare was like a caress. It answered the question for her. She shook her head. “No. I think we both knew when we said goodbye that day that it wasn’t an ending, only a postponement.”
“The time we’ve spent together can be counted in hours,” he said, “but I feel like we know each other better than most couples ever do.”
“Are we a couple, Tierney?”
He came to her then and cupped her face between his hands, tilting it up to within inches of his. “God, I hope so.” His eyes lighted on every feature of her face before they settled on her mouth.
“Want me?” she whispered.
“You have no idea.”
Then he lowered his head and kissed her. His tongue slipped between her lips, gently at first, but instantly the kiss turned wet and hot, infinitely sexy, brimming with evocative promise.
Movement of his right arm was still limited, but he curved his left one around her, and with a move she remembered well from their first kiss, he placed his hand on the small of her back and drew her up flush against him.
They kissed for endless minutes, never breaking contact. When they finally broke apart, he smoothed her hair away from her face. “No longer afraid of me?”
“Only afraid that you’ll disappear from my life again.”
“Then you’ve got nothing to be afraid of.” He kissed her lightly to seal the promise, but when he raised his head, his expression was serious. “I’ll be better at it this time, Lilly. I swear to you. I’ll love you like you’ve never been loved.”
“You already have. You risked your life for me. Several times.”
“I didn’t know how to love before, but—”
She laid her fingers against his lips. “Yes, you did, Tierney. You couldn’t have done what you did, giving up more than two years of your life, and nearly dying for Torrie’s sake, if you didn’t love her.”
“But she died without knowing it.”
“I don’t think so. She knew.”
He looked skeptical, but she could tell that he desperately wanted to believe it. “Paula told me she read all my articles. Kept all the magazines in her room and wouldn’t throw any of them away.”
Lilly folded her hands around his head. “She knew you loved her.”