Page 86 of Second Chance Savior

“You want me to stop?”

“I…no. Don’t stop.”

His fingers kept stroking. “Make up your mind, Charlie-baby. Should I keep going?”

“Always. Ah. Please.” I had no control over the words spilling from my mouth. “Say I’m yours.”

“You’re mine. In my heart, in every true part of me, you’ve always been mine.”

Every cell in my body seemed to clench at once, trying to hold on to this moment. But I couldn’t. It broke me into a million pieces. River’s arms tightened around me and I felt him losing control just as I did. Pleasure so intense it was like nothing I’d experienced. A lightning strike. Too much and yet exactly right. The two of us clinging to one another to push back the force of the storm. He kept kissing and sucking my neck, moving inside me, drawing it out until I was breathless and reeling.

I blinked, and a tear spilled onto my cheek.

That had beenwild.

River propped onto an elbow, looking down at me just as the tent lit up again with a flash of light. “Are you okay, sweetheart? Did I hurt you?”

He’d called me sweetheart before. But that had been sarcastic. The reverence in his tone now… It just reminded me of the things we’d said a few moments ago. ThatIhad said.

Say I’m yours. What had possessed me?

I rubbed the teardrop away. “I think the tent is leaking.”

“Uh huh. Sure it is.”

The storm had died down. Individual raindrops pattered onto the tent instead of a torrent. River pulled away briefly to deal with the condom. Then tugged me against him again, our bodies lifting and falling in sync as we breathed.

He was playing with the hair by my temple, brushing his fingers through the strands.

Intimacy was different with him. A pure head rush.

I’d had two serious relationships in my past. Spent years with men who were wrong for me, though of course Ross was a sweet, intelligent guy while Jud was a scumbag. In hindsight, something had been missing with both of them, and I’d failed to see it. Exactly why I was supposed to be taking a break from romance.

But even during the early days, neither one of my exes had come close to this kind of intensity.

It wasn’t right to compare River to his brother. Yet my wayward mind couldn’t help it. River and I had fiery chemistry, clashing and sparking. Undeniable.

Was it just the situation? The danger and adrenaline? Maybe, but I didn’t think so. I’d felt the same rush with River eighteen years ago when we’d been teenagers. That relentless, irresistible pull, before he’d left for the Navy and I’d insisted to myself that our connection had meant nothing. Because I’d been convinced that he didn’t care.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I blurted out.

“Tell you what?”

“How you felt. Ross and I broke up seven years ago.Seven. You and I saw each other after that. You didn’t say a word.”

River exhaled. I couldn’t see his expression well, but I could feel him frowning. “When you and Ross got engaged, it gutted me. I thought the jealousy would swallow me alive. I accepted an offer to join the Agency after that. Threw myself into my work even more than I had before. Probably more than was healthy. That’s when I met Trace. I had all the excitement and intrigue I ever could’ve wanted, career-wise. Years went by and I wasfine. I tried as much as possible to stay away from you.”

“I noticed.”

“Then Ross dropped the news that you two had broken up. I pretended it meant nothing. Lied to myself, repeating that same damn pattern. But I couldn’t stop wondering what-if, and that hope only grew until I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I finally decided I had to tell you, if only to hear you reject me and put myself out of my misery.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I meant to. Almost did.”

I rolled over to face him and wiggled to readjust on the sleeping bags. “Wait. That’s why you came that day. Isn’t it?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

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