Author: Bella Andre

Something flashed in his eyes and it looked a heck of a lot like remorse. “I’ve already told you that none of them mattered to me. You’re the only one who ever has.”

The twisting of her stomach at the thought of all those women had her nodding. “You’re right, I don’t want—or need—to know the number.” Besides, if she extrapolated from their one year together in high school, she could make a pretty good guess.

“I don’t see what my past has to do with our future.”

“Here’s what: You’ve been with lots of women whom you freely admit didn’t matter. I’ve never done that.” Vicki lifted her chin and met his gaze squarely. “In my entire life, I’ve been with two men.”

She could read the shock on his face, loud and clear. “Hold on a second. You were a virgin when you met your husband?”

She didn’t want to be embarrassed about her choices. Not when they’d felt like the right ones at the time.

“I wasn’t a total prude during college. I’d fooled around with a handful of guys, but I couldn’t justify sleeping with them when I knew I wouldn’t be with them past the next semester.”

Besides, none of them had made her insides turn to goo, or made her heart flutter in her chest, the way she’d hoped they would.

Precisely the way Ryan did.

“I can’t believe your bastard ex-husband got to be your first.”

She could see how jealous he was about it. It shouldn’t have made her feel good, but it did.

She gave him a wry smile. “He loved it, of course. I think it made him feel like the conquering hero. You know, going where no man had gone before and all that. And, stupidly, I thought we were going to be together forever. Maybe if I had stayed twenty-two, it would have worked out, but I had to grow up at some point. Everything changed once I wasn’t that impressionable, star-struck girl anymore.” And still she’d hung on, hoping that they could work things out, hoping that she didn’t have to end up a failure at love, too.

“I’m not like that, Vicki. I’m not like him.”

“I know.” She had to smile at Ryan as she brushed her hand lightly over his stubbly chin. “That’s one of the reasons I let myself sleep with you. Not just because my hormones were taking over, but because I trust you.”

“Then keep trusting me when I say that I’ve wanted to be with you since we were fifteen. Even before you saved me from that car, I wanted you, Vicki. All those stories I’ve told these past few days about trying to get you to notice me and losing you to another man were true.”

“I love hearing you say all that, so much you wouldn’t believe, but even though I’ve only been with two men, I’ve seen enough to understand that wanting rarely becomes more than that.”

“What about the fact that since you’ve been back, everything’s been better?”

“I guess that’s something,” she admitted in a cautious voice.

“It’s a hell of a lot more than something. Vicki, I want you to give me a chance. I want to be your boyfriend. I want you to be my girlfriend. I want you to stop assuming that I’ll be wanting out in a few weeks. I want our relationship to be real.”

“It all sounds so good,” she said slowly.

“It will be good. I promise.”

His confidence was one of the things she’d always loved about him. But life had never come as easily to her as it had to him. Not anywhere near.

So she needed to be realistic...and make sure that what they were doing didn’t end up ripping away one of the most important people in her life.

“What if it doesn’t work out? What if all we’re feeling is the rush of new excitement at finally getting to be more than friends?”

“I’ve had it bad for you for fifteen years. My feelings have never gone away. They’ve only grown bigger, stronger with every year we were apart. And every time I look at you, every time I touch you, you’re even more beautiful than you were just seconds ago. Now that we’ve gotten horizontal—and vertical—a couple of times, I’m pretty sure you’ve wanted it, too. We’ve waited half our lives for this chance to be together. Do you really think we’re going to blow it now?”

She wanted so badly to believe that they wouldn’t. But she’d believed that before, had followed her passions, and she’d been wrong.

She had to be pragmatic, for once. Practical. Especially now, when so much was at stake.

“Of course I don’t think either of us would go into a relationship planning to screw it up. I just need to know—if dating doesn’t work out, will we still be friends? Or will it be too weird, too hard, to see each other all the time?”

Especially if it turned out that she wasn’t enough for Ryan after all.

He blew out a hard breath. “You keep saying that I’m not a forever kind of guy, but you’re the one who keeps talking about things ending.”

She was surprised to realize he was right.

“I’m just scared that we’ll make a mistake we can’t recover from. Where we are right now, I think we can probably still step back and be okay. But if we go further and it all goes wrong—”

“What if I told you that I see us together forty years from now, with kids and grandkids and you with clay under your fingernails and me coaching the Little League team down the street? And what if I told you that I’m in l—”

Even as she tried to catch her breath at the fairy tale he was painting for her, the very same one she wanted more and more with every passing year, full of kids and grandkids in a close-knit family that loved and laughed and fought as a unit, she jumped to press her fingers against his mouth.

Of course she wanted him to love her back, but she couldn’t bear to hear him say it after they’d just had such good sex. Not if she’d always be afraid it was the only reason he’d said it.

“I think this is a good time to remind you that after spending more than a decade on different continents, we’ve only spent a week together and had sex twice.”

He pressed a kiss to her fingertips before sliding his fingers through hers and lowering their hands. “True, but it’s been really awesome sex.”

His sudden grin reminded her so much of the boy she’d first fallen for so many years ago. She laughed despite the serious tone of their conversation.

And then he put her hand palm-down on his chest and her laughter and his grin both fell completely away.

It was testament to just how well he knew her that he understood that when words were failing, the only surefire path to get to her emotions was through her hands.

“Be with me, Vicki. For real this time. And let me convince you that you’ll never need to know the answers to those questions.”

Vicki’s vows to be cautious had nothing on Ryan’s dark eyes or the strong and steady beat of his heart beneath her hands.

“I want to be with you, too,” she said softly. “But even though we started out things in reverse, I think we need to take it slow. Just to be sure that we don’t accidentally mess everything up.”

“Slow, huh?” Her heart dropped when he frowned. “I don’t know if I can promise to go slow with you in bed.”

Relief flooded her. “Don’t be stupid.” She grabbed another condom out of the side table, then pushed him down on the bed and straddled him. “Hot, fast, and dirty sex is grandfathered into this discussion.”

He grinned at her even as he pulled her mouth down to his. “Then what do you say we have a quickie before I ask you out on our first official date?”

Moments later she was answering him by sinking down onto his hard heat. For the next few minutes she let the sweet press of his mouth against hers, the rough caress of his needy hands over her skin, push away her doubts, her fears...and the sure knowledge that nothing had ever come easy to her before.

Especially not love.

Chapter Twenty-two

Ryan had waited fifteen years for this first date with Vicki.

Fortunately, the past year had been a master course in love as he’d watched his brothers and sisters fall one after the other. Regardless of how much he’d razzed each one of them along the way, he’d paid attention to their soul-deep emotional connections, the humor between the couples...and the sparks that lit and crackled between lovers like firecrackers.

Maybe it was too much to want a first date to do all those things. After all, he’d been happy with dinner and a movie and uncomplicated sex before. But there was no point comparing Vicki to any of the other women he’d dated.

And yet, Ryan knew that even if he pulled off the best first date in history, it didn’t mean his work was done where Vicki’s heart was concerned.

Because she hadn’t let him say he loved her.

He understood that she’d been hurt so badly by the only other man she’d ever let herself trust that she was wary of taking the leap again with him. But Ryan would never hurt her.

Never.

By the time Vicki walked through his front door and smiled with obvious pleasure at seeing him, he was way past the first date they hadn’t even had yet.

Unfortunately, he was pretty sure doing her up against the front door wasn’t supposed to be in perfect first date plans.

Just like blurting out “I love you” wasn’t going to fly either.

“How was your day?”

She looked radiant as she walked into the kitchen and dropped her bag on the counter. “Amazing. My project really started to come together today, in a really big way. Thank God.”

How was he supposed to control himself when she was glowing like that?

He put his arms on either side of her, effectively trapping her against the kitchen island. “I can’t wait to see it.” He lowered his mouth to hers and said, “I couldn’t wait to see you, either,” before kissing her softly, forcing himself to remain gentle rather than giving in to the nearly overpowering urge to lift her up on the counter and take her right then and there.

“What about you?” she asked when he let her up for air.

“Life is good.” She was so soft and sweet against him that he could hardly remember what he’d done all day. “Smith helped me convince a bunch more filthy rich people to clean up some by giving the schools money for sports programs. I don’t know why I didn’t think to pull him in before now.”

She grinned. “I can only imagine the team the two of you must make. Those poor rich people didn’t stand a chance, did they?”

Did she have any idea how pretty her mouth was when she was smiling at him?

“Are you ready for our date?”

She moved her hands around his back and pulled him closer. “Almost.”

“Is there—” He had to clear his throat to push the words past the lust clogging them. “Is there something you need to do first?”

“Yes.” She went up on her tippy-toes. “More of this.”

Her mouth had barely touched his when he had her up on the marble counter, a fistful of cotton fabric in his hands. Still— “You said you wanted to go slow. We can do this date without sex, Vicki.”

The thought of walking away from all her heat, her sweetness, was almost unbearable. But he didn’t want her to have a single reason not to go out on another date with him, couldn’t let her think all he wanted her for was sex.

“If you need me to control myself,” he promised, “I’ll find a way to do it.”

“I guess that means you’re a stronger person than I am,” she said as she took his shirt in her hands and yanked it over his head. “Because there’s no way I can wait for the date to be over to have you.”

She took his face in her hands to kiss him again, but even though there was nothing in the world he wanted more, Ryan had to make absolutely sure she wouldn’t use their pre-date sex as a reason to back away from him later.