Page 60 of The Crush
“Danny?”
“Hm?”
“Do you want me here?”
My head jerks up. “What?”
“Do you actually want me here?” She hugs her knees to her chest, her eyes closing. “I know yesterday caught both of us by surprise, and like you said, now I’m here. I know you said that I could stay, but if it’s too much, I can try to—”
“Stay,” I say quickly, now realizingexactlywhere I’d gone wrong. “I want you to stay.”
“I know you feel bad about what happened but—”
“Isabel.”
“—I don’t want you to feel like you have to let me stay here.”
“Isabel.”
“I don’t want to feel like anobligation—”
“Isabel.”
When she turns her head to look at me, I’m already in place to capture her mouth with mine, leaning over the tub and holding her chin with my hand so I can kiss her until she loses all doubt over exactly where I want her. When I finally pull away, her eyes and her smile are soft.
“I want you to stay here,” I tell her again. “You arenotan obligation, and if I haven’t been clear enough on how much I want you here, it’s only because I don’t want to pressure you.”
She frowns. “To pressure me?”
“I don’t want to be the thing keeping you from going home if you want to. Your family is important to you, and I know you miss them.” Her brow scrunches, and I amend, “Well…some of them.”
“I do, but it also felt kind of good?” The corner of her mouth lifts, almost a smile. “To finally stand up to him. Even if it’s a mess now.” She ducks her head to kiss my palm. “I’m glad you want me here.”
“There’s a lot of things I want when it comes to you.” I say it without thinking, watching her eyes widen in surprise, but it feels like less of a shock to me than it does an inevitability. Another stop on the road I started down the moment I opened my front door and saw her standing there.
She reaches up and strokes the stubble on my cheek with her thumb. “Would one of those things you want be getting in the tub with me?”
“It is now,” I mutter, the last of the tension releasing from my body as I stand and hastily remove my clothes, adding them to the pile on the floor before stepping in behind her. “Christ, how are you sitting in here? It’s so hot.”
She tips her headback and smiles up at me. “It’s a good thing for you that I like it this way. Sleeping with you is like sleeping with a furnace.”
I chuckle, then hiss out a breath as I sit behind her. Although I have to admit, once I’ve had a chance to adjust to the temperature…itisnice. But that could also be the wet, naked woman settling herself between my legs.
“I like this,” she says softly, letting her head fall back against my chest. “Why haven’t we done stuff like this before?”
“Because we’ve always been in a hurry,” I remind her, wrapping my arms around her and resting my head on top of hers. “And trying not to get caught.”
“Wait.” She starts to sit up. “What about—”
“He went back outside,” I tell her, pulling her right back down against me. “Decided to spend some time in the barn office.”
I feel her relax. “So we have some time?”
“Yes, bonita,” I say, tilting her head back and brushing her mouth with mine. “We have time.”
The Rosary
Dios te salve, María,
