“Me too,” she sighed, covering his hands with hers.
“Last night,” he started, pausing, not wanting to jeopardize the moment with indelicacy. “You said you hadn’t been with anyone . . . but me.”
“That’s right,” she whispered, her fingers tightening over his.
He kissed her shoulder, then leaned his head up, turning her around in his arms.
Her face tilted up, her clear green eyes searching his.
“Only you,” she said, licking her sweet lips nervously, then braving a little grin as she lifted her chin.
He nodded at her, the rush of love in his heart so pure and strong, it warmed his body like a blanket. “Only me.”
“I didn’t want to be with someone unless I loved them as much I loved you.” She looked down for a second, then raised her head and nailed him with her eyes. “So I waited.”
The truth bubbled up inside him like an unstoppable force. “Me too.”
At first she gasped, then she flinched, her brow knitting as she stared at him in disbelief. He could tell that she was holding her breath because her breasts pushed against his chest without drawing away.
“Breathe,” he whispered.
Huge tears welled in her eyes as she sucked in a ragged breath, still staring up at him in shock. “W-what?”
Suddenly his eyes burned and he blinked at her, every moment he’d tried to force himself to bed another woman rushing back to him. He’d failed. Every time. And part of him had wondered if he’d ever be capable of an intimate relationship again . . . or if Laire had ruined him for every other woman in creation.
He shrugged, still holding her tightly in his arms. “No one was you.”
“You haven’t been with . . . anyone?”
He gulped over the lump in his throat and shook his head. “Got close a few times but . . . couldn’t.”
Her face crumpled and she leaned forward, resting her forehead on his chest, under his chin. “Are y-you . . . l-lying?”
“No, baby,” he said gently, rubbing her back as she cried. “I didn’t just love you as a kid or as a summer fling or as anything that was temporary. Don’t you see? I loved you as a man, in every season, forever. And when I lost you, I lost . . . everythin’. There was a hole inside me the size of a crater. And . . .” He paused, flinching as he recalled the depths of his agony before reminding himself that now, here and now, the woman of his dreams was back in his arms. “. . . and nothin’, nothin’ on God’s earth, could have filled it but you.”
“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry I hurt you like that, E-Erik.”
“Hey, hey,” he said, leaning away just enough to reach for her cheeks. He clutched them tenderly, turning her tear-streaked face to his. “We hurt each other. We didn’t love like kids, but we were kids. We made mistakes.”
She nodded, sniffling softly. “Big ones.”
“Bad ones.”
“Terrible ones.”
He chuckled softly, shaking his head slowly. His voice was intense with need and awe when he told her, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” she responded on a sigh, her lips tilting up into a brilliant, glorious smile. “I love you forever.”
Leaning his head down, he pressed his lips to hers, surprised—in the best possible way—to feel her fingers reach for the buttons on his shirt and start unfastening them. He followed her lead, slipping his hands under her sweater and pushing it over her belly, skimming his palms over her breasts, and leaning away from their kiss as he slipped it over her head. He shrugged out of his unbuttoned shirt and pulled his T-shirt over his head. Laire reached behind her back and unfastened her bra, then straightened her arms, letting it glide down to the floor in a whisper.
His eyes dropped to her perfect breasts, and he sucked in a sharp breath. Just as perfect as they were when she was his girlfriend, they were fuller now, no doubt from her pregnancy. Glancing up for permission, she nodded as he reached for them, cupping the soft mounds of warm flesh from the sides, plumping them together, and sighing from the sight.
“You’re . . . beautiful,” he murmured, looking up at her for a moment before sucking one pert nipple between his lips.
She whimpered, a low “unh” sound, as she plunged her hands into his hair, pulling him closer and arching her back as he skimmed his lips between the valley of her breasts to kiss the peak of the other.
“Erik,” she moaned, breathless with need.