"Will you listen to me? Please?"
I just stared at him. The cold was leaving my body, but it stayed in my eyes.
"You hadn't laid out your stupid conditions when I . . . when I thought of Grandfather's shop. The whole situation was well under way when you put the brakes on. Think about it. It was the day your mother returned. I was about to tell you all about the Bookmark, about the perfect opportunity it was for you when you pulled that shit about how I couldn't give you what you wanted."
I thought. And he was right. The conversation about my employment was the catalyst for that awful separation. The separation I couldn't manage to maintain.
"By the time I saw you again, you already had the job. I was too afraid that you'd bolt again if you knew I had a hand in it."
"But you let me believe I got that job on my own."
"You did get the job on your own. Grandfather didn't know anything about you. All I did was suggest he needed an upgrade and Boyd agreed with me. I set the stage, but when you went to the shop to talk to him you were just a girl looking for a job. A job that was a perfect match. I swear I didn't tell him to hire you."
"But you enlisted my father's help, too. And you never told me that."
"Again, your father didn't know I had anything to do with arranging the job. I've gotten to know a few of the guys he works with. I mentioned the job to one of them. It was all very casual."
"That sounds all too convenient."
"Look, my grandfather is an old man. He can't keep that shop forever. He legitimately needed help and the Bookmark needed to move into the times if it was going to survive. Can you at least agree to that much?"
"Okay . . . but it's awfully coincidental."
"Who is better qualified for that job than you? Who?" He got up and paced. His tone was almost pleading. "You've got the right degree. You have experience in complex retrieval systems. You know your way around web sites and technology. I didn't have to suggest you to Grandfather. All I had to do was get the two of you together."
"But you never let on . . ."
"What would have happened then? I know you by now. You're ready to run at the slightest provocation."
"Like you did the day my mother came home?"
"Touché. That was a mistake. I was miserable. And scared."
"Scared of what?"
"Lots of things. Scared of opening up to you. Scared of letting you inside the wall. Scared, most of all, that I'd love you and lose you."
My heart started to pound.
"But I came back. I wanted to try. I couldn't stand being without you."
Boom. Boom. Boom.
"I wanted to tell you several times. But you kept going off on me. You told me you had 'no commitment to me' at the very moment I wanted to . . . Anyway, you pissed me off."
"What did you want to do, Tristan?"
"I don't like your terms. I don't like the arbitrary limits." He came over to the couch and pulled me to my feet, holding me close and squeezing the breath out of me with his embrace.
"I want to know that you'll be there for me. That you won't bolt out of my life. I've stopped being able to imagine a future that doesn't have you in it." He put me at arm's length and trained his magic eyes on mine. "You've brought something back that I thought I'd never feel again. I stopped looking past next week a long time ago. You have me dreaming again. But in every dream I have, you're the star."
He touched his lips to mine and kissed a tender ache into my core.
"I love you, Raina. It still scares the devil out of me but I swear I love you. Without limits, without conditions, and with every glorious expectation that my life is by your side."
I couldn't stop the tears that spilled blissfully down my cheeks. "Oh, Tristan, I love you too. With all my heart, I do."
He reached up and caught a salty drop and brought it to his mouth. "Sacred tears." I saw his eyes glisten, too. Every breath, every hour had led to this moment.
"Make love to me. Tell me with your body and then tell me again with your words."
We joined together in an act of willful forgetting. Our bodies slid past the valleys of doubt and the shadow of fear into a place so filled with light that it warmed away all angles. We were made into a circle, eternally without beginning or end.
Every man or woman who's ever said "I love you" knows the power of those words newly uttered. The pleasure of our bodies was elevated, crystallized and transformed. He kissed me with promises. His lips burned against mine and fused our mouths in more than simple desire. When he touched my breasts my nipples ached under his hands. His touch was sanctified by a simple phrase.
There was new born urgency in us. We both knew that there'd still be plenty of play, that there was a lifetime of games and giggles ahead of us. But on that night our coupling was a consummation. His body covered mine possessively and I felt the heat of his erection burning against my wet thighs. He moved his hips up over mine and his cock found me waiting to be taken. The flesh between my legs was reaching for him knowing that this particular moment would never come again.
Tristan bore into me with a slow, powerful thrust until he was as far inside me as our bodies would allow. I wrapped my legs around his waist and we were still for a moment. He put his warm hands, gentle and powerful at the sides of my face and looked at me.
"I love you. I love you now and I'll love you more tomorrow and all the tomorrows after that."
He moved inside me with graceful, reverent thrusts. The thick head lingered against the spot inside that was his secret place to unlock me and free me. I forgot anything but being full of him. The force of my desire for him dominated all else.
We rocked against each other, both resisting the urgency that would bring us to the end. We wanted to make the journey last. It was our affirmation of declared love that neither of us wanted to rush. And so we moved in a tandem dance of measured hunger until we could stand it no longer.
"Come with me." He kissed the words against my ear. "Come with me my only love."
"Tristan."
"My queen."
He claimed me with a ferocious plunge and pumped himself into my core. I felt him pushing against the mouth of my womb as the tension built in my channel and I tightened against him. I could feel him begin to throb as I lost myself in the crash of my climax. I bore down on him, milking him with my contractions and I felt him heave against me, stilling as he emptied himself into me. We gripped each other hard, releasing only when the aftershocks faded and our breath leveled.