Page 30 of Her Secret Wish

It took him a few moments to recover but Rachel enjoyed the time, cradling him to her. When he finally lifted himself off and to the side, he propped his head on his hand to grin at her. “Good morning, beautiful.”

“I can’t get enough of you,” she admitted to him as they separated.

He shrugged and gave her a smile that was chagrined and cheeky. “What can I say? I’m addicting. But believe me, it goes both ways. I had incredible sex with a beautiful woman last night, several times, and slept in her bed, wrapped in her scent. How could I not be hard when I woke up?”

Rachel grinned. Good. If she was going to be plagued by these needs, she was glad he was, too.

They got ready for work together and said goodbye in the driveway, lingering over kisses. Rachel didn’t want to let him go, but the emotion seemed mutual.

“Text me later and let’s try to get together.”

She nodded, more than happy to do that. “Definitely.”

“I’ll see you later, babe.” He paused as if he wanted to say something else, then thought better of it, waved and ducked into the cab of his truck.

Rachel shoved her helmet on her head and swung her leg over the bike seat. The motorcycle roared beneath her as she started it, but it wasn’t as satisfying today for some reason. She thought about their goodbye. It seemed incomplete somehow.

AnI love youfrom each of them to the other would have finished the conversation. The only thing was that she didn’t know if either one of them were ready for that yet.

Chapter Thirteen

‡

Their reconnection didn’thappen that night. Or the next. An emergency contract came down the pipeline and Duncan tapped her to be one of the investigators assigned to it. In Nevada.

As Rachel checked the contents of her emergency go bag, she wondered if she had time to call Dean before she boarded the plane.

Shannon stuck her head in the doorway. “Duncan’s looking for you.”

Sighing, Rachel flung the bag over her shoulder. She’d have to call him from the airport.

***

Dean checked hisphone when he finally had a minute to spare. It had been wall-to-wall crazies today for some reason. Without even looking at a calendar, he could just tell that it was almost a full moon. The crazies always crawled out of the woodwork when the gravitational pull of the earth was lightest.

Damn. He’d missed a call from Rachel. As he pressed the button for voicemail, he grinned, wondering what she would be wearing tonight.

“Hey, Dean, something’s come up and I have to go to Nevada for a case.” She sighed over the line. “Not sure how long I’ll be but I will try to call you at some point. Not even sure what kind of op I’ll be on, exactly. Guess we’ll have to have our date when I come back. Don’t worry. I bought other things at Victoria’s Secret.” She paused. “I wish I didn’t have to leave. Seems like we’re just getting to the good part. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can. Love you. Bye.”

Wait, what?

His heart stuttered in his chest then started to race– 0 to 60 in 2.0 words.

Dean fumbled his phone, trying to remember which button to hit to replay the message. No way. She hadn’t said it. He’d just imagined hearing it. Right?

The message started again and he put it on speaker phone. “…talk to you as soon as I can. Love you. Bye.”

For the second time in two days she rocked him to his very core.Love you. She’d said it. He had absolutely heard it.

Did she even realize she’d said it?

She was so hard to read sometimes. As he was leaving this morning he’d almost told her the same thing. Laughing, he punched the steering wheel of the cruiser, then again. Then he gripped the wheel and yelled into the dash.

Rachel loved him. Just like he loved her.

***

Three hours later,Rachel still couldn’t believe she’d said the words out loud. No, she knew exactly why she’d done it. It was because of that damn disjointed, unfinished conversation this morning when she felt like there should have been more.

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