“Always.”
Chapter 37
REID
The bedroom door settled into its frame with a quiet click.
Noah did not release my hand.
He had crossed the hall without the walking pole—twelve deliberate steps from the kitchen tile to the bedroom rug. By the tenth, the effort had drawn a tight line around his mouth. By the twelfth, his fingers had closed harder around mine.
But he had made it without stumbling.
The old navigation lamp burned green in the hallway, its muted light slipping through the narrow gap beneath the door. Rain whispered against the windows. Far below, in the dark storage yard, a loose halyard struck a mast with a slow, hollow knock.
Noah stood beside the bed and faced me.
Confidence had carried him out of the kitchen and down the hall.
Now that we were alone, it began to fray.
His gaze stopped at my chest rather than rising to my face. His thumb pressed into the center of my palm as though searching for a pulse there.
I waited.
“I haven’t changed my mind,” he said.
“About what?”
The corner of his mouth moved without becoming a smile.
“You always make me say everything.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you deserve to hear yourself choose.”
His eyes flicked up to mine, then away again.
“I want us naked.”
“All right.”
“I want you touching me.”
“Yes.”
“I want to try preparing.”
My pulse kicked harder.
He felt it through our joined hands.
“And maybe,” he continued, softer now, “I want you inside me.”
The words were quiet.
