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He wet his lips. “Like I said, I built this to take you on the lake . . . the way I probably should’ve years ago.”
His large hand both warmed me and sent goosebumps down to my ankles. “You mean when I was sixteen?” I teased. “God, I’d give anything to go back to that moment just to tell your twenty-three-year-old self what you’re saying eleven years later.”
“I was a fool.” With a grunt, he pulled me hard enough that I had to decide if I was getting in with him or staying on dry land, where it was safe. “That side of the boat’s called the starboard,” he said. “Now climb over the starboard side and into my lap.”
“Manning . . .”
“This is it, Lake. I’m offering you everything I have. And I’m taking what I’ve always wanted.”
That was enough to get me in the boat. I held the front of my skirt and climbed in to stand between his legs.
Looking up at me, he said, “You know this sweater you’ve got on is see-through?”
“I had no idea,” I lied.
“Right. Spin around for me.”
I turned away from him to face the bow. He sat me on his lap and ran both hands up the inside of my sweater, lifting it until I pulled it over my head.
“Lake,” he murmured, discarding my bra, moving my hair over one shoulder. He smoothed his callused palms down my shoulder blades, my spine, massaging my back, my upper arms. “You’re shaking again,” he said. “Always shaking the first time.”
“Just with you,” I said. The light above the barn door clicked off. “It’s been so long.”
“I needed a woman’s touch. And you, you need a man’s touch, don’t you, Birdy?”
I shuddered, cold and turned on. He slid his warm hands around to my front and held my breasts. “I just need you,” I said.
“Is it over with him?”
“Who?”
“Whoever he is. Whoever has you right now. Corbin or someone else, doesn’t matter.”
I stood, the light came on, and I turned to straddle him. “Don’t you see, Manning? You’re the only one who’s ever had me. I tried. I dated, I had sex, I had boyfriends. I even had a marriage proposal. But you’re the only one who’s ever had me.”
“Christ, Lake. Give a guy some warning before you say that shit. Someone proposed?”
“I dated a guy from a hit TV show for six weeks, and he tried to whisk me off to Vegas.” I put my hands on his shoulders and lowered my voice. “I’ll tell you a secret. The more famous people get, the weirder they are.”
Manning gripped me under the ass, pulling me onto him until my skirt was around my waist. “I hate that you were around all those fucking weirdos without me.”
“At least I didn’t become one of them.” I smiled. “I don’t think.”
“You scared me earlier when you said you had a meeting about your contract. All day I was thinking you’d be tied to L.A. a few more years or that you’d get stuck in something you didn’t want. But I should’ve known you’d figure it out.” He wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly to him as he looked me in the eye. “What do you want, Lake? I’ll give it to you.”
“Just to be here,” I said.
“If I proposed, would you say yes?”
Again, it was too much. I pushed at his chest, overwhelmed, but he kept me fastened to him. His heart beat strongly against my palms. Or maybe it was my own heart that was racing, vibrating us both.
“Would you?” he repeated. “I know you have obligations and work and travel and now school, but when it’s time, will you come here and be my wife?”
I couldn’t help that with those words, my mind went to his past. “Did you ever have anything close to this with anyone else?” I whispered.
“Never. You’re my first, Lake. If I had loved a hundred girls before you, you’d still be the first. I don’t know how else to describe it. You make me unafraid to face not just my mistakes, but my childhood home. I don’t know how to be a father after what I’ve lost, after the example I’ve had, but you make me want to try.” He squeezed my ribcage, dropping his forehead to my naked chest. “Because you never stopped loving me, I can forgive myself. I want you to be my wife, but I can wait, and I will, as long as it takes.”
He shifted me on his lap. I could no longer ignore the hardness straining against me, and my stomach tightened. I reached between us to open his belt. “You know it’s only ever been you.”
“Is that a yes?”
“When did you get so impatient?” I pushed his pants down and took him in my hand. “You wouldn’t touch me for six years, and now you can’t wait five minutes for an answer?”
