Page 71 of Lush Curves

“I get that, honey.” Gently, he pulled her closer, and was nothing but relieved when she came, just snuggled right up like she'd never left. “I spend hours and hours thinking about Cindy or a patient, worrying about something so damn huge, and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I see your face. I hear your voice. I feel your touch on me. I justmissyou, so damn much, and it takes everything that I have in those moments not to get in my car and go to your house and justtakeyou.”

Annie was almost breathless. “I...”

“Baby, can I talk?” Sam touched her lips. “Me first, then you?”

She nodded silently, her eyes shining.

“OK, then.” He traced her lips, then took his hand back with regret. “I want this to work, this thing between us. It can't be the way it was before, we both know that, but I think it can be ever better. I think...” He hesitated. “I think we can be a family, you and me and Cindy, and we can build up a life together. A home. I want that, want it with everything that I have and am, but here's the thing: you'vedonethe Mom thing. You've raised your kids, you'vejustsent them off out into the world. Hell, you're probably thinking about grandkids now, but even if you are looking at babysitting, for the first time in your whole life, you're on your own, free to live your life on nobody's terms but yours. You answer to nobody, you don't have to put anybody before yourself. I don't know if you can or even if youwantto raise another child, especially one who isn't yours. But if you can imagine being there for Cindy as she grows up, living with us, making a home and life with us, well... we'd welcome you with open arms. We'd love you. God, honey, you'd be soloved.”

Annie took a shaky breath, but said nothing.

“If you can't be a Mom to my daughter, I understand. I promise you, I do, and it's OK. It doesn't change a damn thing for me though, princess, because I want you in my life, in my bed. You could live in your house, and I'd live with Cindy in mine, and we'd see each other whenever you wanted. I could arrange for a babysitter overnight and stay with you, or you could come stay with me. I'm good either way. I can tell you that you'd be the only woman in my life, that I'd be with nobody but you... we'd be together in every way that mattered, but you wouldn't have to take on any responsibilities. You'd still be free.”

Tears were rolling down her cheeks now. Sam's face tightened and he brushed them away.

“Why are you crying?” he asked softly. “Why are you sad?”

“Oh, Sam. I'm not sad.”

“No?”

“No.” She shook her head, managed a tiny smile. “I want to be there for both of you. I want to help raise that strong, beautiful little girl.”

“You do?” Sam stared at her, almost afraid to believe it. “You – you want to move in with us? Make a family?”

“Yes. But not yet. Not even soon.”

Sam sighed, but not sadly. It was more a sigh of understanding.

“The way I see it, you and Cindy have known each other for a few weeks,” Annie said. “In that time, she's suffered a second huge loss in just a few months. She lost the man that she thought of as a father, and now her mother. You two have to get to know each other, just you two, as Dad and daughter. I can't – no, Iwon't– deny either one of you that experience.”

“But?” Sam said, hearing that word unspoken.

“But.” Annie smiled. “But Iwillcome over as often as you and Cindy invite me, and we'll cook and watch movies and go to the park and hang out. I won'tstayover, Sam, but you're welcome to come to my house a couple of times a month, when you can arrange overnight babysitting, so you and me can spend time alone, and find each other again.” She shrugged, and the movement pressed those luscious breasts against his arm. “And we'll take our time, all three of us. We'll take it easy. And then... who knows? Maybe then we can talk about being a family, for real and for good.”

“So – you're saying that you're open to it? That you'll think about helping me raise that little girl as if she was your own?” Sam stopped dancing, held her as close as he could. “That there's a chance that you'll be my wife?”

“Yes,” Annie told him. “I'm saying yes, there's a chance. For all of that.”

“A good chance?” he teased her. “Like, more than fifty-fifty?”

She got up on her tiptoes then, pressed her mouth to his. It was just a soft, short kiss, but it burned Sam like fire and stole his breath. It was the sweetest, best kiss he'd ever known, because he knewexactlywhat it was: it was a promise. A promise that this amazing, beautiful, fierce woman was going to open her heart to his daughter, and let Cindy come to her in her own time. Annie was going to stand and wait, wait patiently and without anger or resentment, for Cindy to accept and love her the way that Sam did.

And when that day came – even if it didn't come for years – then Annie was going to step up, step in. She was going to give Cindy a mother, a family, a home. She was going to be Cindy's almost-everything, the way that she was Sam's.

"Maybe seventy-thirty, handsome,” she whispered against his mouth. “Depends on a few things.”

“What things?”

She winked, a sexy little wink that made him harden against the curve of her hip immediately. She felt it, of course, and now she broke into that radiant, glorious smile, the one that he missed desperately and needed to see, every day, for the rest of his days.

“On many, many things,” she purred, rubbing herself against him just a bit. “I think we're discussing one of them right now, actually.”

“Are we?”

“Mmmm-hmmm.” She kissed him again, deeper, harder, and his whole body responded, helplessly. “I'd say that you need to find an overnight babysitter pretty soon, so we can take this conversation to the next level. By the way, that level is horizontal.”

“Next weekend good for you?”

---