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“In order to seduce you?”
“To get your way.”
“If I’d had my way with you, things would be a lot different between us.” His fingers wrapped possessively over her wrist. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”
“I just want . . . to be with you,” she whispered, rising onto her toes and kissing his cheek. Softly she outlined the shape of his brows with the tip of her finger. Everything she did seemed so natural, just as it had in the past. Trevor groaned with the frustration tormenting him. He noticed the innocence in her clear green eyes and the heat burning in his loins began to ache. “Ashley,” he ground out, “I don’t want you to do anything you might regret.”
“I won’t.”
He clenched his teeth together and forcefully willed his passion aside. “What I’m trying to say is that you don’t have to feel obligated to me.”
“I don’t, Trevor,” she replied, showing just the hint of a dimple. “Not anymore.”
Her hand pressed against his cheek and he could stand the bittersweet torment no longer. With a sensual movement, he turned his head and touched the tip of his tongue to her palm, letting the moist heat from his body flow into hers.
“Trevor . . .” she moaned, her voice fading into the night. “Oh, Trevor.” She shuddered with the pain of ragged emotions, the same feelings she had been denying for eight agonizing years. His tongue created a moist path between her fingers and she felt as if her entire body were ignited by his warm touch. Her throat became dry, her voice a breathless whisper. “I’ve always loved you,” she vowed.
“I want to know that you’re mine,” he said, steeling himself against the desire running rampant in his veins and the passion dominating his mind.
“I always have been.”
“Ashley, don’t. Don’t lie to me. Not now.”
“I’m not—”
“Prove it.”
“If only I could,” she wished.
“Let me make love to you.” It was a simple request. His dark blue eyes bored into her, exposing the depths of his torment. Her feelings for him were dangerous. They entrapped her in the same words of love that had betrayed her in the past. His offer was tempting, yet she hesitated, afraid of losing herself to him as she had once before.
“There’s nothing I want more,” she admitted.
“But you’re afraid.”
“There’s no future for us. . . .” Her dark brows had pulled into a worried frown. With all of her heart she wanted to lie beside Trevor, to find the exhilaration once again of becoming one with him. But the old fears resurfaced.
“Shhh. Don’t think about tomorrow.” His fingers caught in the thick strands of her blue-black hair, pulling her head to his. For a delicious moment, his lips brushed over hers, lingering just a fraction of a second. “Let me love you, sweet lady,” he whispered.
Her response was to let go of the fear and the pain of the past. Her surrender was complete. “Please,” she murmured. Reaching upward she twined her fingers in his hair and turned her lips upward to accept the warm invitation of his mouth.
“It’s been so long,” he groaned as his lips pressed against hers and conveyed to her his overwhelming masculinity.
Her heart thudded irregularly with the urgency of his kiss. Desire, hot and fluid, crept up her veins as she felt his tongue meet hers. Without breaking the heated kiss, he shifted and lifted her off the floor to cradle her against his chest. Trevor began to carry her up the stairs to the loft.
“I can walk,” she protested, thinking of his recent injury.
“Not a chance,” he replied. “You might change your mind.”
“Never.” Tears of happiness welled in her eyes as she looked up at the angular face of the man she loved.
When he reached the top of the stairs, Trevor didn’t hesitate. He strode across t
he small loft and dropped Ashley onto the bed, before lying beside her. The room was shadowed, but in the pale illumination from the skylight, Ashley could make out the masculine angles of his face.
She felt the touch of his hand as he caressed her cheek and she read the desire smoldering in the depths of his eyes. His fingers slid seductively down her throat to linger at the neckline of her sweater.
Closing her eyes, she leaned against him and let out a shuddering sigh when his fingers dipped below the ribbing at her neck to tentatively touch the swell of her breast. Her hands worked at the buttons of his shirt, letting it fall open to expose his solidly muscled chest. The bandage, a swath of white against his dark skin, reminded Ashley of the reasons he had come to the cabin, the reasons he was here with her now. Her fingers gently outlined the white gauze.
