The Return Of Rafe Mackade tmb-1
Page 18
She tucked a sprig of lilacs into place. "Hmm... You asked me that before, as I remember. And never took me up on it, because I won't watch baseball."
"I mean it."
She twirled to face him, and her limp hand knocked against the table. "Excuse me?"
"Look, we haven't known each other very long." He stepped toward her, stopped cold. She was staring at him as though he'd lost his mind. He was certain he had. "But we've got something going here. I know we said it was just going to be sex, and we've just finished deciding we really like each other."
"Rafe,I can't—"
"If you'd just let me fumble through this." His tone went from quiet to testy in an instant. "I know how you are with having to weigh your options and think things through. But the least you can do is look at this from my perspective for one damn minute. It's not just sex for me, and it never was. I'm in love with you."
She stared into those sharp, angry eyes, heard the treasured phrase delivered in a furious snarl. And felt her heart swell like a rose blooming in her chest. "You're in love with me," she repeated.
It had always been easy to say the words when it didn't count—when they were just words, and not these tiny, razor-edged little pellets in his throat. "I'm in love with you," he said again. "It probably happened five minutes after I met you, maybe five minutes before. I don't know. It's never happened to me before."
"Me, either," she murmured.
He didn't hear her, didn't hear anything but the roaring in his head. "No one's ever needed me. I've never wanted anyone to need me. It gets in the way. But I want that from you. I have to ask that from you." He paused, fought to steady himself. "I don't like asking."
"I know. You don't have to." She walked to him, framed his face in her hands. "Rafe, you don't have to ask."
"If you'd give me a chance—'' he gripped her wrists "—I could make it work. We could make it work. Come on, Regan, take a risk. Live dangerously."
"Yes."
His grip on her wrists went lax. "Yes, what?"
"Why do we have such a hard time hearing each other?" she asked. "Listen up," she ordered, and kissed him firmly. "Yes, I'll marry you."
"Just like that? You're not going to think about it?"
"Nope."
"Good. Great." A little dazed, he stepped back. "We could, ah, t-take care of...it. Take care of it tomorrow. The license. Whatever. You want a ring...or something?"
"Yes, I do. Rafe, you're stuttering."
"No, I'm not." He stepped back when she stepped forward. "I just didn't expect you to take the jump so quick."
"If you're trying to change your mind, forget it. Was it the skirt?"
His eyes went blank and baffled. "What skirt?"
No answer could have pleased her more. "I think you should tell me you love me again." Before he could evade her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, linked her fingers. "I think you should get used to saying it."
"I do love you."
"And you were in love with me that first night, when we were alone, in the house on the hill?"
"I guess I was."
"I didn't know, didn't have a clue. I wonder if the house did. I remember how quiet it got that night-how settled it all seemed. Would you like to go back there, tonight?"
"Yes." He rested his brow on hers. "I would."
"There's something I should tell you first, Rafe. Something I think we should clear up between us."
"Regan, if you're going to slap down more rules and parameters—''
"I think I should tell you," she said interrupting him, "that as attracted as I was to you, as aroused as I was by you, I could have slept with you without loving you."
"I know." He refused to be hurt by it. "It's okay."
"I could have done that because you're the most incredibly attractive man I've ever met, all the way through. But there's no way I would have squeezed myself into that ridiculous outfit tonight unless I'd been wildly, stupidly and completely in love with you." Her eyes shimmered and smiled. "Is that okay?"
"Say it again." He took her face in his hands. "Look at me straight-on and say it again."
"I love you. I'm so very much in love with you, Rafe. There's nothing I want more than to go on loving you, and needing you for the rest of my life."
The thrill of it sprinted through him, then settled, warm and easy. "You could get used to saying it, too."
"I'm a very quick study. I love you," she murmured against his mouth, then poured the words into the kiss.
"It's going to get complicated." He gathered her close and held her. Just held her. "Life's going to be messy."
"I hope so." Eyes closed, she pressed her cheek against his. "Oh, I hope so. Why was I so scared?" she whispered. "Why was I so afraid to let you know?"
"Probably for the same reason I was." He tilted her head back. "It happened so fast, and it matters so much. And it always will."
"It always will," she agreed.
Later, when they were curled together in the deep feather bed, she laid her hand on his heart and smiled.
"I'm awfully glad you came back to town, MacKade. Welcome home."
The house was quiet around them, and slept as they slept.
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Document ID: 6862af0a-0429-4612-a587-02ba5174e926
Document version: 1
Document creation date: 26.4.2012
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