Page 59 of The Art of Loving Lacy
Dane remembered it like it was yesterday. He’d wanted to climb through the computer and hold her until her tears dried and she felt safe. “I knew that night that I couldn’t be with anyone else. Not while my heart was becoming yours.” He looked away. “I’m sorry, Lace. You’re the last person on earth I ever wanted to hurt.” He reached for his shirt.
“Dane…”
His heart ached for the hurt in her eyes and the embarrassment that rose on her cheeks. But mostly, he hurt for himself and the reality that who he had been would never change—even if he’d stopped being that person months ago.
“I’m sorry I killed the mood,” he said softly. “My history is always going to be between us. It’s the one thing I can’t change.” He went to the glass doors and closed and locked them. “You don’t have to stay for the rest of the week, Lace. Nothing I do will ever change the man I was.”
“Wait, please,” she said, stopping him in his tracks. “The other night, when you said you had women all over the world, I thought you had been with them more recently. More than ayear, Dane, that’s areallylong time.”
“I’m well aware of every day, every second, every hour.” Dane’s heart was shattering. He didn’t need to remember all the nights he’d longed for her touch, or the multitude of midnight hours he’d spent staring at the photos she’d texted him, wondering what it would be like to kiss her.
He needed to go away. Far away. Someplace he wouldn’t see her face in every cloud.
“I’m not judging you, Dane,” she said. “I asked that question expecting an answer of a few months, maybe two or three. I don’t know. That would have made me feel better. I never imagined it had been that long.”
“Now you know.” He couldn’t change the fact that he hadn’t gone to see her in all the months since they’d met, and he couldn’t change the number of months and years he’d slept with other women—all of which made him too upset to think clearly enough to comprehend what she was trying to say.
He looked away, and Lacy wrapped her arms around him from behind, resting her cheek against his back.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For?”
“For liking me enough to be faithful even when I was too far away to know if you weren’t.”
Dane clenched his eyes shut as relief tore through him. His shattered heart began pulling itself back together, piece by fragile piece. He’d completely misunderstood what she’d said, and the realization knocked the air right out of him. He turned and reached for her, as much for stability as for the need to feel their connection.
Everything he’d wanted for so long was right there, coming together, and he couldn’t find the words to tell her how much it meant to him. Instead, he looked into the sea of love in her eyes, and he lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her until his heart reassembled, until the pain of thinking he’d lost her melted away and the desire to love her back to beinghistook over.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her toward the bedroom.
“You’re staying,” she said with a wide smile.
“Babe, we have a lot of making up to do.”
THE NEXT MORNING Lacy danced around the kitchen, humming as she made coffee, eggs, and toast. She’d gotten up while Dane was still sleeping and picked wildflowers from the garden. She arranged them in a vase and set them in the center of the table.
“Breakfast? This was not on the itinerary,” Dane said as he came out of the bedroom in only his boxer briefs and wrapped his arms around Lacy’s waist from behind. He kissed the back of her neck and slid his hands beneath her satin camisole.
“Neither was last night,” Lacy said, turning to kiss his cheek.
He pulled her close. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything as much as I wanted us to get back together. I can’t change my pa—”
Lacy covered his lips with her finger. “Shh…I didn’t know how much I had been wondering about your past until the words left my lips last night and, Dane, I couldn’t have asked for a better response. No more talk about your past, okay?”
“You won’t get an argument from me.” He kissed her neck.
“And I won’t ever bring it up again. That’s done, and I’m working on my fear of sharks, but I think my fear was bigger than just sharks.”
“Bigger?” He kissed her shoulder, her breastbone, her neck.
Lacy closed her eyes, her body purring from his touch. “Yes,” she said in one long breath. “Danica said…Oh forget it.” She turned and kissed him. “I swear I feel like a nympho with you.”
“Good.” He narrowed his eyes and lowered his mouth to hers, taking her in a possessive kiss. He swept her off her feet and carried her back into the bedroom. “I haven’t had a chance to spoil you yet.”
“Didn’t you spoil me last night?” she asked as he laid her on the bed.
“Heck no. Last night Idevouredyou. There’s a difference.”
