She felt heat swamping her cheeks. Flirty Tom was not the Tom she’d fallen in love with. Grumpy Tom, aloof Tom, teasing and let’s-just-be-friends Tom … she was totally cool with all of those. Flirty Tom sent goosebumps chasing over her skin.
She moved into the room and handed him a cup. ‘Seriously, should you be standing?’
‘Day one: four fifty-metre walks. Every day a little more.’
‘Okay then.’
The silence lengthened and she felt shy, suddenly, which was silly, because hadn’t she known Tom her whole life? Hadn’t she seen him naked in a tub?
She lifted her coffee cup. ‘So. You’re all good then,’ she mumbled, thinking what she really wanted to do was set her coffee down on the windowsill and just hold him. She’d rushed all this way, she loved him, but now the idea of just stepping forward andhuggingseemed very, very difficult.
‘I’m all good.’
‘And … no more secrets?’
‘None,’ he replied. ‘How about you?’
‘I’m an open book.’ At least, she’d like to be an open book. ALaird’s Legacytype book, where burly-thighed heroes swept up lusty maidens and wickedly delicious things happened in chapter fourteen. And chapter twenty-one. And chapter thirty-two.
She choked on an overly hot gulp of coffee when he hooked a finger into the neckline of her t-shirt and pulled her closer to him. ‘And I’m an open book. At least, I will be, when I ’fess up and tell you that yes, I was lying the whole time.’
She shivered. ‘I want an apology for every lie.’
He drew her in a little closer. ‘I apologise for lying to you when I said I was a disinterested party.’
‘Um, I accept your apology.’
He was barely a breath away now, and one hand was sliding along her rib cage. ‘I apologise for lying to you when I said kissing you in the stables wasn’t much of a snog.’
‘It wasn’t? I mean, it was? I mean …’
‘Let’s go for a re-enactment so I can show you whatImean.’ He shifted, and the sun-bright window was on one side of her, with six foot of muscle-bound male on the other. She’d been as close to him before, but never like this. Not with this awareness that sheknewthat he wanted her and heknewthat she wanted him.
Her breath juddered out and she looked up into his eyes. It was like looking into a deep, deep lake. The worry that had framed his face had smoothed itself away and been replaced with … she chuckled, and tried to think of a more manly, appropriate word for his expression than ‘horny’.
His mouth quirked. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘You’re crowding me, Krauss.’
‘I know.’
She swallowed. His hands had slid up her back and his thumbs were finding ridges of scapula and rib to rub against and it was playing havoc with her ability to think. ‘Are we really ready for this?’
He kissed her cheek, just a fleeting press of lips, and his breath was soft in her ear. ‘We are so ready, Hannah Cody. For this and everything. For this andanything.’
He was right. She was ready. She rose onto her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck and touched her lips to his.
This wasn’t their first kiss, but it felt like it. He moved around, swivelling her until her back was to the wall, and his arms wrapped around her so she was tight within his embrace. She ran her hands up his sides, hesitating for just a second as they encountered the crepe bandage on his back, then ran them up his chest, which felt just as warm, just as good.
A sigh escaped her, and she felt herself melting as his lips moved to the corner of her mouth, to her cheek, to the curve of skin beneath her ear.
After a searing moment that all but made her forget her own name, he rested his forehead against hers. ‘Hospital room. Maybe not the most private of places.’
She willed her heartbeat to settle. ‘True. But I don’t think you’ve reached the end of your apologies.’
He laughed and it was lovely to feel it as well as hear it.
‘I apologise for lying to you when I said guys are jerks. Clearly that wasn’t true and I’m totally awesome.’
