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He turned his head to look her in the eye. “For what?”
“For helping me see that not all men are bad. Some men, like you, are so very good.”
Chapter Eighteen
The depth of emotion in Tasha’s voice touched Daniel like nothing ever had. “You’re so beautiful,” he told her.
“You’re the beautiful one.”
“Tasha.” He needed her to know, “I won’t hurt you.”
She sat up and stared into his eyes, and he swore he could see all the way into her soul. “But what if I’m the one who hurts you?”
“You won’t,” he promised, wanting nothing more than to lean in to kiss her. But it had to be her choice—if it wasn’t, nothing would ever truly change for them.
Their first kiss had been a sudden, shocking burst of glorious heat. Their second had been a mash-up of emotions—relief, longing, desire. Daniel knew their third, and all the others that came after, could be so much more.
But only if Tasha allowed herself to want him, to open up to him, to truly be with him.
For long, excruciating moments, he waited. While she weighed the pros and cons, measured the good and the bad, fought yet another battle with herself over what she believed to be right and what she was absolutely certain was wrong.
He
wanted to sway her, to show her that the two of them were all pros and goods and rights. But she wasn’t a building that could be put together by taking careful measurements and using the right tools.
Tasha was a flesh-and-blood woman whose heart and soul had been crushed by the people she trusted most. No matter how badly he wanted to lead her toward happiness, she needed to rebuild at her own pace, in her own way.
Letting her breath go, she made her decision. His heart hammered inside his chest, and he feared she might pull away, turn from him, and close up again.
Instead, her lips brushed over his, like dragonfly wings. Soft and gentle, barely there. Teasing him with everything he wanted from her.
“More,” he whispered, relief—and desperate desire—drenching every letter of the word.
With a hand cupping his cheek, she angled deeper, taking him exactly where he wanted to go. He couldn’t breathe without breathing her in. He couldn’t swallow without tasting her. He couldn’t move without the delicious feel of her against him.
She pushed him back on the rock, leaning over him, her scent enthralling his senses, her ponytail falling over her shoulder to caress his cheek as she kissed him. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her tight. Her heat surrounded him, turning him as hard as the rock beneath them.
But her mouth was the delicacy he couldn’t get enough of—and she seemed to feel the same urgency as she took him with long, delicious sweeps of her tongue, toying with him, tangling with him, consuming him with desire.
He pulled her hair free, letting it fall over them like strands of silk. He filled his hands with her, from the round firmness of her hips, pressing her hard against him, to her magical hair that had a life all its own, binding him to her.
“You’re so sweet,” he whispered between deep kisses that satisfied his need to taste, yet drove him to crave everything from her. “You make me lose my mind.”
He’d lost it the instant he’d seen her hanging from the roof, his fear choking him, yet sensing even then how strong she was. From the moment he’d pulled her against him on that ladder and felt her lush curves, he’d wanted her.
She lit up something inside him that had never experienced such a bright and beautiful glow.
“Don’t stop,” she murmured, her lips on his.
He was as alive as the mountains around them, as full of joy as the squirrels chattering in the trees, as wild as the hawk flying over them.
A voice broke through. “Mommy, can I go swimming?”
Daniel expected Tasha to jump away, just as she’d pulled from his embrace with each of their two heart-melting kisses. But this time, she slid her fingers through his hair to hold him still as her lips took another sip from his. Then she laughed softly, sweetly, and moved to sit with her feet in the water just as the family appeared around the bend.
* * *
Tasha had tried yet again to do the right thing, to stop them both from taking a step that might hurt Daniel. But then he’d made her a promise that changed everything—he’d vowed he wouldn’t let her hurt him.
