She saw him—all of him—as she stared into his eyes.
He’d opened his heart to her, yet he hadn’t spoken of love.
Neither would she.
She suspected that, like her, he saw that emotion as something amorphous, intangible, something that might seed and grow if conditions were propitious.
Neither he nor she was the sort to shy away from love if it came. Courage of that sort was another trait they shared, along with the liking for taking action. They were practical souls, both of them, and setting in place the framework for a shared life was an action they could actually take.
And take now.
The experiences of the day had hammered home how she felt about the children and only more powerfully underscored how she would feel about children of her own.
She wanted a family, just as he did, and he was the only man who had ever made her even think of spending her life with him.
She’d started this journey with no idea of what she wanted her future to be.
Now, she knew.
How to give him her answer?
She’d always believed actions spoke louder than words.
She leant forward and set her lips to his and kissed him—provocatively.
She exulted in his immediate response, in the leap and surge of need and want that affected them both. Eager and determined, she curled her fingers in his coat, and his arms came around her, and he shifted and lifted her to his lap.
On a sigh, she sank against him, then parted her lips and invited him in, and he surged into her mouth and claimed.
And she claimed him, equally sure, equally certain.
The kiss deepened, and heat spiraled through them.
He drew back enough to murmur against her swollen lips, “I take it that’s a yes?”
She hauled his lips back to hers, kissed him ferociously, then pulled back enough to breathe, “This is a definite and very determined acceptance.”
He chuckled softly.
The sound shivered along her nerves, leaving them even more sensitive. More yearning. For…
More.
She wanted more. Indeed, now she’d taken the plunge, acknowledged what she wanted, and made the decision to seize, just like him, she wanted everything. And she wanted it now.
As their lips met again and desire welled and passion rose, she set herself to achieve her immediate goal. With lips and tongue, she tempted and incited; with roving hands, she urged him on.
Her directness, her unequivocal invitation to plunder, drew Toby down the path he most wanted to tread. Unquestioningly, he followed her into a landscape of heated exchanges that stirred his blood and lured him to bestow caresses that dramatically escalated her passion and drove both of them on.
Need and hunger twined and surged in ever higher, more powerful waves.
He sensed her growing urgency—there in the increasingly desperate clutch of her hands in his hair, in the searing kisses she pressed on him—and felt the complementary pounding in his blood grow harder. Stronger.
Ever more insistent.
But they were in a chair on the patio, under the stars, and the breeze off the lake was increasingly chilly.
He managed to drag his lips far enough from hers to say, “We should stop.”
