Page 76 of His Own Heaven

“How so?”

“Rafe and Jane have had this on again, off again, push and pull relationship for sixteen years. They’ve been in love forsixteen years, but do you know how long they’ve officially been dating?” Lucy shook her head. “About as long as we have.”

Pulling back so she could see his face, Lucy saw as clear as day the sincerity in the man’s expression. “Holy crap. It’s taken them sixteen years to get their act together?”

“Yes, and I don’t want that to be us.” Toby’s gaze bored into hers and her pulse went into overdrive, especially when he slid his hand along her thigh and under the hem of her skirt. “I know how lucky I am to have found you, Lucy, and I don’t want to waste a minute of our time together.” He squeezed her thigh with bruising intensity, and staring into his icy blue gaze was like watching an oncoming storm. “Move in with me, baby. Be mine. Be my girl 24/7.”

He was freaking her out. Toby could see the panic in Lucy’s eyes as easily as he felt the thunderous pulsing of his heart.

He wanted this. He wanted her. And seeing Rafe with Jane had only reinforced exactly how much. He was done with screwing around, with one night stands that never satisfied his wants or needs.

He was tired of his most meaningful relationship being with his twin brother, a man who already had the children and the family he craved.

And he was absolutely done with loneliness and filling his life with work and pretending he wasn’t the biggest sad-sack on the planet.

Toby had found the woman he was meant to be with—a woman who both inspired and calmed his passions—and he wanted to get the show on the road. But now that he knew what he did of her upbringing, he suspected the woman in question would need convincing.

“What do you need, baby,” he murmured, nuzzling against her before biting the soft skin below her ear, marking her flesh. “Talk to me.”

She made a little moaning sound and snuggled closer, dug her fingernails into his bicep as she held on. “Just yesterday you said you weren’t going to ask me to live with you because you knew I’d say no.”

He shrugged. “And now I’m hoping you’ll say yes.”

She was quiet for a moment, then said, “Admittedly, the thought of waking up every day in that big, luxurious bed of yours does hold a certain appeal.”

“But…?”

“It’s a big step, Toby. And as you pointed out, we haven’t been dating very long. We’re still learning things about each other. What if we move in together and realise we can’t stand each other outside of the bedroom? What if our working relationship suffers because we rushed our personal one?”

She had a point, a very sharp and valid point. Which Toby chose to ignore. “What if I admit I’m scared shitless of the exact same things, but told you I want to live with you anyway? What if I told you you’re worth taking a risk on?” When she started shaking her head he fisted her hair at her nape and made her look at him. “I’ve never known anyone like you, Lucy. When I’m with you I feel… comfortable.”

Lucy pursed her lips and raised one brow. “As compliments go, ‘comfortable’ isn’t a great one.”

Toby grinned. “When you’re as big as me, and into the kink I am, feeling comfortable in my own skin and knowing I can be myself around someone is just about the best compliment I can think of, but if you don’t like it, then how about this? I adore you. I adore everything about you. You are clever and sassy and sexy and beautiful and barely a second goes by when I’m not thinking about you in one way or another.

“I adore fucking you until your voice runs dry, and waking up beside you knowing I get to fuck you all over again. I adore reading books under trees together. I adore how you scowl at Charlie for being a dick when he puts the salt mill back in the wrong place. I even adore listening to you sing off-key when you cook.”

Her spine straightened. “Hey! My singing isn’t that bad,” she spluttered indignantly.

“Baby, it really is, and I don’t care because, fuck it, I—” He swallowed hard, the words “I love you” on the tip of his tongue and ready to fly at a moment’s notice. But he knew this woman, knew she wasn’t ready to hear a declaration of love.

She was afraid to trust him, to trust their connection as anything more than sex. And he wasn’t willing to do anything that would jeopardise that connection. He didn’t want her running scared.

Lucy trusted Toby with her body but not her heart, so before he told her he loved her, he had to show her, had to prove to her that he was worthy of that very special gift.

“You what?”

“I want you to meet my family,” he said, a plan forming in his mind. “This weekend, I’m taking you to The Forge and you’ll meet my sister and her fiancé, my dad, a few of my brothers, Charlie’s girls. It’ll be great.”

Lucy’s gaze narrowed. “That wasn’t what you were going to say, was it?”

He grinned. “Maybe.”

She stared at him a moment longer then mirrored his grin. “Fine. Don’t tell me.” Then she stroked her fingertips across his brow. “You feeling better now?”

“Yes.”

That impertinent eyebrow went up again. “And do you still want me to move in with you?”

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