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“Look at me,” he said, and she heard the fight for control in his voice.
She opened her eyes, met his, and while their gazes were locked, he pushed her over the edge of desire into a completion that was so foreign to her that she was lost in the sweeping tide of it. Naomi stared into those aqua eyes as her world rocked and her body splintered. She screamed, unable to stop the wild rush of release as it grabbed her and shook her down to the bone.
Naomi watched him, lost in those eyes, as her body, still trembling, held on to his and cradled him as he let himself go.
When he collapsed on top of her, Naomi held him tightly. Their hearts raced in tandem, their bodies quaking as if they were shipwrecked survivors clinging to each other for safety. But it was so much more than that.
He rolled to one side, taking her with him, and Naomi laid her head on his chest, listening to the steadying beat of his heart. Loving him was going to be hard, she knew, but there was nothing she could do about it. He was in her heart forever. And she would never, for as long as she lived, forget what they’d shared here tonight. On the night she knew she loved him.
* * *
Toby lay there like a dead man. If the hotel had been on fire, he’d burn to a crisp because there was no way he could move. He doubted his legs still worked.
Hell, he’d been with plenty of women in his time, but not once had he experienced anything like what had just happened between him and Naomi. He scraped one hand across his face and stared at the ceiling. He’d crossed a line. Hell, he’d erased the line. And he didn’t give a good damn. All he could think about was that he wanted her. Again. Now.
She curled on her side and slid one leg across his, and the silky glide of her skin against his stirred him into need in a flat second. Who knew that there would be such heat between them? He rubbed one hand down her back, and she cuddled into him, sliding her palm across his chest. She was...amazing. More than that, but he didn’t have the words. What he had was need that only she could meet.
That was dangerous territory, though, and he had to lay out some signposts before they headed farther down this road. Now that the line was gone, new ones had to be drawn. To protect both of them.
“Toby...”
She whispered his name on a breathy sigh, and instantly his body tightened. Didn’t seem to matter that he barely had his breath back from the most incredible sex of his life—his body was apparently raring to go again.
But right now he had to give his brain the upper hand. If he could manage it while she was looking at him through soft eyes, her tongue running across her bottom lip. Oh, man.
“Okay, we need to talk,” he said and winced because he’d just sounded like a damn cliché.
“No, we don’t,” she said and smoothed her fingertips across his nipple.
“That’s not helping.” Muffling a groan, Toby caught her hand in his and held her still. If she kept touching him like that, talking would be the last thing on his mind. “Naomi, this changes things.”
She chuckled, tipped her head back and looked up at him. “It sure does.”
“Not funny,” he warned, going up on one elbow and rolling her over onto her back. Still, seeing the softness and the humor in her eyes, he nearly smiled back. Then he remembered the line. Smoothing her hair back from her face, he ran his fingers through the long, silky threads and had to fight to concentrate. “We have to talk about what this is going to mean between us.”
She sighed, stiffened a little, then said, “That it’ll be even easier for us to show affection toward each other?”
Oh, he wanted to show her some affection right now. But before anything else got started, he had to make sure she knew there was a limit on how much he was willing to give. How much he was willing to risk.
He looked into her eyes—eyes that shone like warm whiskey—and shook his head. Taking a deep breath to center himself, he said, “Sure. Yeah. That’s a good point. But what I want to say is...” Hell. What was he trying to say?
Naomi pushed herself up slightly, bracing one hand against his chest. “Want me to say it for you? That I shouldn’t let my little heart fall in love with you because you’re not interested in love?”
“Naomi...”
“Or is it that you don’t want me to make the mistake of thinking that our marriage is going to be real all of a sudden?”
“That’s not what I was going to say,” he argued, though he had to admit it was pretty damn close.
“Right.” She tipped her head to one side. “You can stop panicking, Toby. We were friends and now we’re friends plus. That’s all. I get it. That about sum everything up?”
Sounded like it did. Although why it bothered him that she was being so reasonable about it all, he didn’t know. He hadn’t expected calm, and he should be grateful for it. Toby wasn’t even sure why he felt oddly...disappointed. “Yeah, I guess it does. Look, the point is, we had the no-sex agreement, and that’s shot to hell—”
“Not going to say I’m sorry about that,” she put in.
“No, me either,” he admitted. They could at least be honest with each other. “But I have to make sure you know that sex doesn’t mean—”
She pushed herself off his chest into a sitting position, shoved her tangled hair back and looked him dead in the eye. “For heaven’s sake, Toby. I’m not going to throw my heart at your feet. I know you, remember? I know that Sasha messed your head up so bad you don’t even want to hear the word love.”
