Page 49 of Peak of Love
“I will not thank you for making me feel like a woman who deserves to put time and effort into myself. I will not thank you for making all of this possible by being the man in my boys’ lives. I don’t know how to describe it. Having you with us takes the pressure off. I don’t have to be everything to them because someone else is consistently guiding and supporting them. Because of you, I’m balancing being a decent parent and not being so hard on myself when I fail.”
“You couldn’t fail if you tried,” he uttered seriously.
She sighed, taking in the sincerity of his voice and the sheer beauty of Dane Verghese a mere inches away.
“Anyway, I’m not here to thank you. I’m here to tell you I miss you and… ” She paused, distracted by his fingers that roamed from her hands to her hips.
He looked dazed when he finally spoke. “I missed you, too, Celina. So fucking much.” God help her, the anguish in his voice brought a flood of selfish relief.
Encouraged by his kneading hands and desperate confession, Celina eliminated the distance that kept her from his caress. She slid across his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“This is me not thanking you. This is me,” she looked down at her knees shyly, “this is me telling you I love you.”
Silence. She was about to lower her arms and scurry to her feet. She came to say what needed to be said. Suddenly, Celina was appalled by the thought that he wasn’t talking because he was embarrassed for her. Worse! That he felt pressured to say it in return. What if—
“Say it again,” he ordered in a voice she recognized from their most intimate moments. Rich and dark and deeply masculine. “Say it again while you’re looking at me.”
His hands that were on her hips moved up and around, wrapping her tight into his chest till their foreheads rested against each other. “I need to hear you say it while you’re looking at me, Celina.”
Her hands cradled his sharp jaw as she pulled back to meet his blustering stare with her own. “Dane Verghese, I love you so much. Not only as a friend and not only as the man who gives my sons the love they need. I love you so much it makes my heart soar and my body ache and my soul dream.”
“I’d give you the world, Celina.”
She watched his Adam’s apple roll and his molars grind. Celina began the slow, steady movement of her fingers into his hair. And then she shifted to face him completely, straddling his hips and pressing her tender breasts against his hard chest.
“I don’t want the world. I want you.”
“Baby, you feel too good,” Dane grunted while grabbing her bottom. “My sweet Celina, you are so, so good.”
She surrendered to the heavenly press of their bodies, even as part of her craved to hear the words that assured her of his feelings. If this is all Dane could offer today, she loved him enough to give herself in any way he’d have her. What mattered is that they were together. Celina would embrace Dane’s affection, his generosity, his sensuality here and now.
And then tortured words escaped his anguished mouth. “I’m not him, Celina. I’m not Asher and I’ll never be able to replace what he was to you.”
She stiffened and pulled back so she sat further down his long, muscular thighs. “I love you for you, Dane. This isn’t about Asher at all.”
“How?” he asked with a worried scowl. “How can itnotbe about Asher when losing him shaped all of our lives?”
“But our lives aren’t over!” she answered. “Didn’t he teach us that most of all? To love with everything in your beating hearttoday.Because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. I don’t expect or want you to be Asher. Please look at me, Dane.”
He blinked hard in an attempt to keep back the moisture threatening to spill.
“I would never want you to be anyone except yourself. And I don’t want to be with anyone else. I loveyou.I can say it a million times, but what I really want to do is show you. Will you let me? Will you let me show you how much I love you?”
“Baby, how can I say anything butyesto the woman I love?”
Happiness bloomed in her heart and pushed away the insecurities. “The woman you love?”
“You know I’m fucking I’m crazy about you,” he grunted, giving a playful pinch to her ass.
Heady with affection, she rubbed her lips against his jaw and peppered his neck with wet kisses. “Crazy about me? I thought I just made you crazy.”
“That too.”
She melted into his embrace and took a deep, nourishing breath of his fragrance, the scent of clean spring rain.
She felt the moment Dane’s tenderness turned to something else. “You want to show me you love me, sexy girl?” Dane growled as his hands moved under the dress’s hem to massage her shaking thighs.
“Then fucking kiss me already.”
