Summer Love - Page 62

She opened her eyes. She could barely breathe. Somehow the strength was pouring back into her, but so fast, so powerfully. Sensation rolled over sensation, impossibly. She moved with him, pressed center to center, heart to heart, but all she could see were his eyes, so dark, so blue, so intense. Perhaps she was drowning in them.

“I love you, Stephen.”

Then she was falling, fathoms deep, into his eyes, into the sea. With her arms locked around him, she dragged him under with her.

***

He pulled her against him so that he could stroke her hair and wait for his pulse to level. She’d been innocent. But the surprise, the one he’d been dealing with for weeks, was that until Rebecca he’d been just as innocent. He’d known passion, but he’d never known intimacy, not the kind that reached the heart as fully as the body. And yet…

“We’ve been here before,” he murmured. “Do you feel it, too?”

She linked her fingers with his. “I never believed in things like that until you. When I’m with you it’s like remembering.” She lifted her head to look at him. “I can’t explain it.”

“I love you, Rebecca, only more knowing who you are, why you are.”

She touched a hand to his cheek. “I don’t want you to say anything you don’t really feel.”

“How can a woman be so intelligent and still so stupid?” With a shake of his head, Stephen rolled on top of her. “A man doesn’t travel thousands of miles for this, however delightful it may be. I love you, and though it annoyed me for quite some time I’m accustomed to it now.”

“Annoyed you.”

“Infuriated.” He kissed her to cut off whatever retort she might make. “I’d seen myself remaining free for years to come. Then I met a woman who sold her coffeepot so she could take pictures of goats.”

“I certainly have no intention of interfering with your plans.”

“You already have.” He smiled, holding her still when she tried to struggle away. “Marriage blocks off certain freedoms and opens others.”

“Marriage?” She stopped struggling but turned her head to avoid another kiss.

“Soon.” He nuzzled her neck. “Immediately.”

“I never said I’d marry you.”

“No, but you will.” With his fingertips only, he began to arouse her. “I’m a very persuasive man.”

“I need to think.” But she was trembling again. “Stephen, marriage is very serious.”

“Deadly. And I should warn you that I’ve already decided to murder any man you look at for more than twenty seconds.”

“Really?” She turned her head back, prepared to be angry. But he was smiling. No one else had ever smiled at her in quite that way. “Really?”

“I can’t let you go, Rebecca. Can’t and won’t. Come back with me. Marry me. Have children with me.”

“Stephen—”

He laid a finger to her lips. “I know what I’m asking you. You’ve already started a new life, made new plans. We’ve had only days together, but I can make you happy. I can promise to love you for a lifetime, or however many lifetimes we have. You once dived into the sea on impulse. Dive with me now, Rebecca. I swear you won’t regret it.”

Gently she pressed her lips to his fingertip, then drew his hand away. “All my life I’ve wondered what I might find if I had the courage to look. I found you, Stephen.” With a laugh she threw her arms around him. “When do you want to leave?”

Keep reading for a special excerpt from the newest novel by J.D. Robb

DELUSION IN DEATH

Available now

After a killer day at the office, nothing smoothed those raw edges like happy hour. On the Rocks on Manhattan’s Lower West Side catered to white-collar working stiffs who wanted half-price drinks and some cheesy rice balls while they bitched about their bosses or hit on a coworker.

Or the execs who wanted a couple of quick belts close to the office before their commute to the ’burbs.