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He’d taught her what bravery felt like. What confidence and certainty could achieve in the face of the worst odds, as long as you never gave up, never stopped going for your dreams with integrity, never stopped being honest.
If she didn’t take this risk, she might never know how good it could be between them.
If she didn’t make the choice to trust him, she might never find the courage to trust at all.
And if she didn’t forgive herself for being blind to her father’s and brother’s faults, she might never live a whole and happy life.
Before her was an ocean of indecision, a mountain of fears, a continent of risk.
But there was also laughter. Trust. Sinfully sweet heat.
And Daniel.
Every cell of her body, and every piece of her heart, told her he was worth it.
“I want to go with you.”
“Are you sure?” He faltered as if afraid to believe it was true. “Even if you don’t know exactly where the search for your family will lead?”
He already felt like her family. He felt like home. “I’m sure.”
Taking her mouth, he kissed her so deeply she felt all the love inside him. All the joy. He locked his lips to hers until neither of them could breathe, backing off only enough to frame her face in his hands.
“I love you, Tasha Summerfield. I want you in my home. I want you in my life. Wherever you are, that’s where I want to be.”
She swallowed, blinked, moisture blurring her eyes. Then she gave him—and herself—something she’d never thought she could offer again.
“I love you too. You’ve helped me see that I don’t need to keep punishing myself forever—and you’ve supported me every step of the way as I’ve emerged from my cocoon. I want to live again, Daniel. With you.”
* * *
He kissed her with every ounce of the love overflowing his heart, gathering her tightly to him, devouring her lips with all the feeling bursting out of him. When he couldn’t breathe anymore for want of her, when she pushed back to cup his face, peppering kisses on his mouth, his cheeks, his eyelids, he whispered, “I need to make love to you.” They’d been making love all along, but this was the first loving after those momentous words.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, her body pressed hard against him, she gave him exactly what he needed. “Yes, Daniel, make love to me. Never stop.”
He savored her words, the overwhelming emotions, and the bounty of her body, kissing his way down her throat to the pearled tips of her breasts. She arched, moaned, the sound rippling through him. He drank in her desire, relished the quake of her body and the sweet love words she cried out for him.
“Take me, Daniel. Take everything I am.”
“I love you, Tasha. So damned much.” Unable to wait another second to become one with her, holding her hips, he plunged inside her, so deeply he was sure their souls touched. “You’ll never be alone again, I swear.”
She cried out his name, and he took them both on a relentless ride to pleasure, to nirvana. They became one body, one mind, falling into bliss together, holding tight to each other.
He held her until his heart slowed, savoring the softness of her skin against him, the scent of her hair, the aroma of their loving. Her breathing leveled out into the gentle rhythm of sleep. He ached with the thought of moving her, waking her. This was too good to let go.
He’d fallen for her. Completely, irrevocably, wildly in love.
Tasha wasn’t perfect, no more than he was. Perfect didn’t exist, but real and good and loving and loyal did. She was beautiful, sensual, resourceful, and caring, but she also had real emotions, real fears, a real past. And just like a Maverick, she could move beyond the baggage.
All that meant it was long past time for him to move past his own baggage too. He needed to call his mother, to talk with her openly and honestly, to find out just what the heck, if anything, had happened between her and his father. He’d gone back and forth about telling the Mavericks, but in the end, he realized his whole dilemma had been nothing more than an excuse not to talk about it with the person he needed to: his mom. And while he was being totally honest, he hadn’t mentioned his fears to Tasha, not only because he didn’t want to burden her, but also because he’d been afraid to risk his heart for her that last little bit.
But Tasha’s love had changed him. She made him brave enough to reach out. Her love had shown him he could forgive even Evan’s mother for abandoning him. Her love gave him the strength he needed.
Easing away from Tasha’s body, Daniel pulled the blankets over her. After pulling on his pants and shirt, he carried his shoes out to the front porch, putting them on before he fished his phone out of his pocket.
His mother answered with, “Hello,” on the second ring.
Her greeting was another sign of that weirdness he’d been sensing. She had caller ID and she usually answered with an endearment.
