“Please,” Britt said, giving herself permission to hold onto him as closely as he held her. “I need to be sure about who I am or … who I’m not.”
She tilted her head back as Lachlan leaned forward, pressing his forehead against hers. A natural motion between the two of them, as if they’d done this hundreds of times. Perhaps they had. Moments locked and hidden away in the memories she couldn’t access. She closed her eyes, inhaling his scent—so familiar andcomforting. The urge to dive her fingers through his hair grew strong. Another instinct that could easily be driven by her past.
“I have missed you so much,” Lachlan whispered, his hands caressing her back and leaving a trail of butterflies fluttering in their wake. “I?—”
“Stop!” Britt said, a fissure of panic slicing through her. “Don’t say another word.” The words hung heavy in the air between them. “Not until we have proof of who I am.”
She couldn’t bear for him to pour out his heart when she wasn’t sure she was the woman he wanted her to be. The woman, after a year of fighting it, she now hoped she could be.
“That’s why I want to tell you now. So you get it through that beautiful, thick, stubborn head of yours that nothing will change how I feel about you.”
“No.” She gripped his t-shirt in her fists. “I don’t know the right thing to do here, Lachlan. I’m so scared that things won’t turn out how you expect them to, and I don’t want to disappoint you or Paloma.”
“I would never blame you or be upset with you if they didn’t,” Lachlan reassured her. “It wouldn’t be your fault?—”
“Just stop talking,” Britt said, sliding her arms around him. The strong muscles of his back relaxed under her touch as she pushed her body flush with his.
Chuckling, Lachlan said, “I’ve heard that from you so many times.” His laugh reverberated from his body through hers as he quietly studied her. “Let me guess, you just want me to hold you?”
“You aren’t guessing, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Can you do that?”
“I can and I will do anything ye ask of me, as always,” Lachlan said. The emotions in his voice brought tears to her eyes. “Saying no to ye has never been an option for me.”
“I’m sure Brittany Freeman found it hard to say no to you, too.”
A flicker of a frown played between his brows, giving him the most charming boyish look. “You actually had no problem telling anyone no, including me.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You weren’t my wife, Britt. And that wasn’t because I didn’t ask you. I’m not going to tell you how many times you turned me down,” Lachlan said, amused and wistful.
“I thought Brittany Freeman was a smart woman,” she said, moving her hands to caress the sides of his face. “How she didn’t stake her claim on you officially seems foolish.”
“Who knows?” Lachlan said, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “I might get lucky the next time. I don’t really know how to give up on what I want.”
“What do you want, Lachlan?” The question was a veiled proposition, bold and daring.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Britt looked away, her face warming as she studied the floor where her bare feet rested between his larger ones. Lachlan dipped lower until his face was at eye level with hers.
“I want you.” His voice was low, deep and seductive. “Whatever your name is.” His eyes narrowed on her mouth, inciting a flurry of fantasies about his lips on hers. “Whoever you are.”
“Lachlan …” His name tumbled from her lips as the energy in the room crackled with a palpable passion that weakened her knees. She couldn’t fight the shift unfolding between them, like barrelling past a point of no return. Her yearning for him had been unleashed and couldn’t be put back in the bottle even if she tried. She was done trying. “I want you, too.”
Lachlan’s arms scooped under her ass, pulling her against him as he hoisted her into his arms like she weighed no morethan a feather. She wrapped her legs around his hips as her arms draped around his neck. The enormous bulge in his pants pressed against her dampening mound as he spun her around and pinned her against the door. He leaned forward, their breaths tangling together in symphonic unison.
The gruffness of his voice sent a chill down her spine as he whispered in her ear, “I swear I’ll die right here, right now, if I can’t taste you.”
Britt stifled a gasp as he pressed his erection firmly against her. Her nipples hardened into tight buds as her breaths quickened. Her heart was about to pound out of her chest.
She swallowed hard, glancing at the hallway behind him. “What about Paloma?”
“She’s locked in her room watching a Disney movie. She won’t hear a thing.” The intensity of his gaze bored into her. “Unless you’ve suddenly turned into a moaner?” He raised an eyebrow.
