Page 88 of Free to Run
I frame her face with my hands. “God, I love you.” The words just come out, but I don’t care. Her laughter, her tears, her heartbreak, her happiness, it’s what I live for now.
Her lips part. “Keene.” Just my name on a gasp, and then silence while tears fan out from her eyes.
I hear her murmur, “I hope I never forget this moment.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I want to be able to look back one day and remember every single thing about the moment when the man I fell in love with told me he felt the same way. From the look on his face, to the smell in the air, to the feel of his body on mine.” Alison’s face is radiant. “And I want him to know what’s in here”—she presses her hand against my pounding chest—“is just a mirror of what’s in here.” She touches her own heart. Her eyes never leave mine when she says, “I love you too, Keene. I love you for everything you are, everything we’ve made, and everything we will be.”
My forehead drops to hers. I’m unmanned by her words.
We sit like that for a few minutes before I murmur, “I want to make love to you.” Feeling her nod against my head, I slide off her body and push myself to a standing position. I reach down and pull her into my arms.
For just a moment, we stand there, framed by the window—two people who felt the sparks of love the first night they met, but who never had the chance for it to catch fire. Until now. Lifting her hands to my lips, I pull her behind me toward my bedroom.
When the door closes behind us, I forget about everything but the fact that I’m holding my heart in my arms.
* * *
Much later,I move from the bed, and Alison makes a mewl of protest when I lean down. “I’ll be right back.”
She gives me a tender smile. I love that look. Hell, I love all her looks.
I grab up my jeans by the side of the bed and find the flat jeweler’s box inside. I snag it and walk back to her. “Come here, baby. I have something for you.”
Alison makes a sleepy protest. “I don’t need anything.”
I drop a kiss on her swollen lips. “I know you don’t need it, but I want you to have it.” I hand her the box, but before she can open it, I place my hand on top of hers. “There’s a story that goes with it.”
She swallows and nods.
“When I was growing up, there was one piece of jewelry I could always remember my mother wearing. No matter where she went or what she was doing.” I nod to the box. “I knew I would eventually give that to the woman I fell in love with one day, because it would be my way of showing her I know my mother would have loved her as much as I do.” I smile tenderly when I see the first tear hit the worn velvet, then the second.
Alison hands me the box. “Put it on me please.”
I choke out a laugh. “You haven’t seen it yet.”
“Like I care about that, Keene.” Her eyes blaze with beautiful certainty. Her lips curve as she rises to her knees to straddle my lap, gloriously naked. “Put it on me.”
I take a deep breath and open the box. Inside is a long platinum chain with a carat-and-a-half diamond on the end. Picking it up, I shake it out. “Lean over, baby.”
Alison ducks her head.
I slide the chain over her head with ease. Picking up the end, I give it a quick kiss before it drops between her breasts. “It looks beautiful on you.”
“Your love looks beautiful on me,” she responds back. She’s not wrong. Since we laid our hearts bare earlier, something shifted within Alison. She sparkles, even without the addition of my mother’s diamond. Slowly, I pull her head down toward mine.
“I love you,” I say hoarsely.
“I love you too, Keene,” she whispers in the darkened room.
The diamond lands in between us as our hearts align, right before our lips and then our bodies meet to communicate that love.
* * *
The next morning,I’m adjusting my tie when I catch a glimpse of my world in the mirror above my dresser. Alison’s sprawled across my sheets, wearing nothing but the diamond I placed around her neck in the early hours of the morning. She’s clutching my pillow tightly to her, a small smile on her face.
Everything is exactly as how it should be.
