Page 153 of Miami Ice

“Does it scare you?” he whispers.

“No. Not at all. What scares me most is not experiencing these feelings with you. Because I love what I’m feeling—for you,” I confess.

Beckham grows emotional before my eyes. He swallows hard, and I can’t tell if he’s trying to find the words to say something or not.

But then he lowers his mouth to mine, kissing me slowly, sweetly, with a reverence I’ve never felt before.

As we make love, I know he’s decided to speak with actions rather than words right now.

And it’s absolutely perfect.

* * *

“Georgie, I need to ask you something,” Beckham says, trailing his fingertips up and down my arm.

I’m lying across his chest, cocooned by his warm skin and his protective hold on me. We just made love, and I’m still glowing from all the feelings I just experienced.

Both physical and emotional.

This time, sex was slow. Deliberate. There were looks exchanged that left me breathless because of the silent emotion spoken between us.

We truly made love.

Because we are falling in love with each other.

“Anything,” I answer.

“Did you tell Scarlett things about me?” he asks quietly.

I shift to my side, and he rolls over to face me. I reach for his hand and lace his fingers through mine. “How did you know?”

“What did you tell her?” he asks, ignoring my question.

“The truth,” I say simply. “I told her what an incredible man you are. How you support me and believe in me and how you have already made me a better person.”

I watch as Beckham swallows. I see the same expression he had earlier in his eyes, right before we made love.

“Why do you ask?”

He clears his throat. “Coach asked me to come up front and sit with him on the flight home,” he says softly. “Then he proceeds to tell me how I’ve been everything they want as a player. Coach tells me what you told Scarlett, and the qualities that you see in me as a man is what he is seeing in me, too. As a player. As a teammate. It just cemented his opinion about me.”

“Oh, Beckham, I’m so glad. That’s exactly what I hoped would happen. I told Scarlett with hopes she would tell her dad.”

“So you did it on purpose?”

“Of course I did. But I was speaking the truth. That’s what is in my heart. You’re a completely different man now than you were when you were in Denver. But the truth is? I think this is the man you’ve always been,” I say, tracing my fingers over his heart. “It’s always been in here. In your heart. You just weren’t ready to be that man until you came to Miami.”

“No,” he says firmly.

“No?”

Beckham is quiet. My gaze remains locked with his, and my pulse quickens.

“I wasn’t ready to be that man until I met you,” he says quietly. “And Georgie? I … I’m falling in love with you.”

Blood rushes to my ears. My heart is pounding, and pure joy captures me from head to toe.

Beckham is falling in love with me.

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