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But I wouldn’t ask him to repeat them. They had been hard for him to say, I could tell. The last thing I wanted was for him to take them back or regret saying them. I wasn’t going to be one of those needy women who had to hear her lover profess his devotion over and over again.
I had been that way with Colin.
But with Colin…
Things had never been like this with Colin.
As much as I’d thought I was in love with Colin, those feelings paled next to what I felt for Talon now. Never had such a primitive force taken me over, demanded obedience…demanded Talon. It was lust, it was desire, it was passion, and it was…love. Love like I’d never known or imagined.
I simply smiled at Talon and hoped the smile said what I feared my words couldn’t.
He stroked my cheek and pressed his lips gently against mine. Then he rose and sat on the bed next to my supine form. He removed his boots and socks and then his jeans and underwear, which were still down around his knees. He lay next to me, still silent. For once, the silence seemed natural. I reveled in it, in the emotion that was thick around us, in the love we shared.
I didn’t delude myself into thinking this could be something permanent…even though I wished with everything in me that it could be. Talon still had too much he needed to work out, and plus… What would he think when he found out I was investigating him and his family for Larry?
What a conundrum. I didn’t want to quit my job. I needed it, even though I didn’t have a lot of respect for my boss. And on a personal level, I wanted to know more about Talon and his family. I wanted to know why he had tried to get himself killed overseas when he was saving all of those troops.
Something poisoned him inside, and he needed to work through that before we could even think about being together in the long-term.
But for now, I simply wanted to lie next to him, feel his closeness, his warmth. With all my soul, I wanted to help him through whatever was nagging at him. I just wasn’t sure he was ready for that yet. I would have to be content to
do for him what I could at the moment, and that was to be here for him. To love him. To let him know how important he was to me.
“I meant it,” he said.
I smiled again, looking to the ceiling. “So did I.”
He turned to me, got up on his shoulder with his head in his hand. “But I don’t know if I can…”
I pressed two fingers to his lips. “Don’t worry about anything right now. Just know that I love you, and I don’t have any expectations. All I need to know right now is that you love me. We don’t have to think about anything past the end of today. At least not yet.”
He cleared his throat. “Well, there is one thing I do need to talk to you about.”
His gaze was intense and fiery, his eyes serious.
“All right. What is it?”
“I don’t want you to get a tattoo.”
The calming love permeating me morphed into a defensive knot in my gut. “Why not?”
“I just don’t.”
I sighed, willing the calm to return…and failing. I had been dreaming of a tattoo for years. I loved them, and I really felt that they could tell a story, be a part of me inherently. “I don’t understand. Why would you have anything against a tattoo?”
“I hate tattoos.”
“Then you don’t have to get one.”
He sat up, clearly agitated, gripping the bed clothes. “I would never mar my body like that.”
“That’s your choice, Talon. And I respect it. I just need you to respect mine. I think tattoos are beautiful when done tastefully. And I do plan to get one.”
“I forbid it.”
This time I sat up, the defensive knot rising into indignation. “Did I just hear you forbid me to do something?”
He looked at me, his eyes glaring. “That’s correct. I forbid it.”
