Page 53 of A Touch Enchanted

I brushed my fingers along her cheek. “Just so you know, I was prepared to grovel more.”

“I have other ways of punishing you.”

My cock twitched, suddenly very much awake and alert. “Oh yeah? Show me.”

Without saying a word, she stood and headed for the bedroom. When she paused at the door and glanced over her shoulder, I didn’t need to be told twice.

I got to my feet and followed her.

Chapter seventeen

Violet

Icurledmylegaround Donovan’s, wrapping the two of us together like tightly wound twine. I really had meant to have a conversation before jumping on him. But it had been almost an entire day since we’d last had sex and I had my priorities.

I never used to be like this. No other guy had ever made me this wild with need. I feared I might be permanently ruined. Or saved. The option for either was still up in the air.

Donovan pulled me on top of him. “Too far away. Need you right here.”

I rested my chin on his chest. “We still need to talk.”

“Yeah, I know.” He rubbed my arms. “I didn’t just come here for makeup sex. Although, believe me, I’m not complaining.”

I played with the end of his beard. “I’m going to be honest with you, and I want you to be honest with me, too. Sometimes this thing between us feels too big. Like I can’t hold it.”

“That’s probably my fault.” He leaned up and kissed my forehead. “I haven’t given you a lot of reasons to believe in me over the years, but I’m trying to change that.”

“Why now, though? You could’ve come home sooner. You could’ve made a move after you came back, but you were so careful not to touch me too often or give me any indication that you’d ever had feelings for me.”

“I didn’t come back sooner because I didn’t want to get in your way. You had a life here. You were in a serious relationship. You sounded happy. I didn’t want to mess that up for you. It seems ridiculous now, but at the time it felt like I was doing the right thing.”

I thought I’d had serious relationships before, but just a week with Donovan was showing me that everything that came before this was just a dress rehearsal. Still, the timing made me question this fire between us. “I don’t want to believe it’s just the magic between us.”

“It’s not.” He sat up, bringing me with him. He cupped my face, holding my gaze. “The magic might’ve been what prompted me to act, but I promise you, I’ve never had anything more real in my life than what I have with you.”

I searched his eyes, looking for any sign of doubt and finding none. I knew Donovan, possibly better than I knew myself, and he was telling me the truth. So what if the magic had prompted him? That didn’t mean his feelings weren’t genuine. The magic was just as much a part of us as our souls. The fear he had of taking a risk with me told him more lies than the magic ever had.

If I was going to give him my all, my everything, I had to lay it all out there for him. He wasn’t the only one who’d screwed up. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you enough to tell you I didn’t want to involve my parents in the shutdown. A lot of people pity my family and I hate that. They have so much love and light and happiness in their lives, and all people can seem to see is the struggle. But you’re one of the few who has always looked at me like I was an equal. I was afraid of losing that. Of being pitied like my parents.”

It hurt to say that. It felt like a betrayal of the people who had always raised me with love and kindness, who were the type of people I aspired to be. But I hated pity. I’d gotten so much of it in high school because I wore second-hand clothes and got bullied by Paige and couldn’t keep up in class due to my dysgraphia. People wanted to feel bad for me because it made them feel better about themselves for caring.

But it had never been like that with Donovan. Even with an ocean between us economically, he never made me feel like I was lesser, and I needed that. I needed people who would challenge me, who would bring out my wild side and my vulnerable side, who would hold me to a higher standard than I held myself. It’s what made me a better person.

When I was with Donovan, I was the best version of myself.

“How could I pity you when you’re everything I wish I could be?” He brushed my hair back from my face. “You’re brave and bold and kind. I’m head over heels in love with you, and every day since I’ve come home, I’ve been trying to be worthy of loving you.”

My lips parted. “You’re in love with me? When did that happen?”

“I didn’t know what to name it until our senior year, but I’ve been in love with you since you stood in front of our kindergarten class and took responsibility for bringing my Beanie Baby to school. And I’ve only fallen more in love with you since.”

“It took me a little longer than that.”

“Oh, yeah?” He gave me a half-grin.

“I didn’t fall in love with you until the next day, when you brought me a flower you picked out of your mom’s garden as an apology for putting that cricket on my skirt.”

“Seems like we’ve been in love with each other for a long time.” The softness in his earthy brown eyes squeezed my heart. “Do you still think it’s the magic that caused it?”

---