Chapter Twenty-Six
Tasha didn’t know how long they held each other. All she knew was that she’d never been so happy, never felt so good. So whole. “I want to make love with you, Daniel. I want to give you everything the way you’ve always given everything to me.”
“You’ve already done that.”
He lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her to the dark bedroom. Her feet slid to the carpet, but she stayed on tiptoe, her head tipped back so she could see his beautiful, amazing face. Giving him everything started with confessing the last of her fears.
“When I saw your apartment today—and your plane—and Matt’s house—I was afraid. Of how rich you are. Of how hard it could be to live up to all that.”
“You know my money doesn’t mean anything.”
“But it does. It’s what all my father’s dirty deeds were about. Money is…” She searched for the right words, desperately needing him to understand. “Money is something you earn. It’s not something you deserve. And for a while today, I started to lose ground, because I was afraid I didn’t deserve you. That I hadn’t been good enough. That I’d made too many mistakes, and I hadn’t paid enough for them. And yes, I didn’t believe that I deserved your family either. But with my father tonight, I realized what I needed to deserve wasn’t your money, but your strength. Your loyalty. Your love.” She held his face in her hands just as he had held hers. “I’m making a promise to you, right here, right now, that I will never stop giving all those things to you, just the way you’ve always given them to me.”
He crushed her to him then, and together they fell to the bed.
“You’re everything to me,” he vowed. “I never dreamed you would fall into my life.”
“From a roof, no less,” she said with a smile that was full of more joy than she’d ever known was possible.
* * *
“I love you,” he whispered against her lips before he parted them and went deep. Tasted her, tasted sweetness, tasted love. “You are so beautiful, inside and out.” He would never cease to be amazed by her. “I’m going to make love to you for the rest of my life.” It was a promise, a vow.
He reached between them, pulling her clothes off, his fingers grazing her until she shivered with the erotic contact. Reveling in the heat of her, in the bounty of her breasts, he lavished kisses on the pearled tips. Then finally she was naked. He tore at his clothes, because the only thing in the world he needed now was her skin against his.
He entered her with a slow reverence, their bodies generating heat like the inside of a volcano.
“Daniel.” She arched, pushed her head back into the mattress, taking him deeper ever so slowly.
The times they’d had each other were out of this world, but after everything they’d revealed to each other, this was a true communion. He needed to relish each moment of it. Every moment of her.
He went to his knees, holding himself inside her, draping her legs over his thighs. “Tasha,” he whispered. “I’ll remember the sight of you like this forever.”
Her skin was tinged pink, her eyes half-lidded with desire, her lips moist and red from his kisses. He ran his fingers over her stomach, savoring her, then finally dropped to her hips and pulled her tight against him.
She rewarded him with a delicious moan. “Please,” she begged.
He held her, moved slowly inside her, so damn slowly it was exquisite torture. “Do you feel that?”
She cried out, her hands on his arms, her body clutching him from the inside, and he breathed harshly to stave off his own pleasure. As she dug her heels into the mattress, all her muscles tightening, he found her perfect spot and rode it relentlessly, his strokes short and slow. Driving them both to the edge of wildness.
It was all he could do not to lose control as her body tightened and released, squeezed and rolled. She moved with him, unconsciously trying to take him deeper, harder, faster.
His blood pounded, his body wanting to unleash, yet his mind needed this. Flushed with arousal, her lips parted, her breasts rising, falling, every muscle tensed. And the glorious sight of him filling her, the intimate connection, the ultimate ownership, his and hers.
Then he moved his hands between her thighs and Tasha went wild, crying out her pleasure, grabbing his arms, her nails biting where she held him, her body spasming around him.
Until the moment he couldn’t hold out a second longer, falling on her, thrusting high and deep, her cries filling him up. There was only her, the pleasure, the feel of her around him, and the explosion rocketing through him as she dragged him into the glorious wildness with her.
* * *
Tasha woke in the morning to the scent of coffee and bacon and toast, and the sound of the suite’s front door closing. Daniel had slung a fluffy robe across the foot of the bed for her, and she drew its thick folds around her, feeling lusciously naked beneath the soft material.
Delicious scents drew her out to the living room. Daniel wore the matching robe, the lapels hanging open to reveal tanned skin that she wanted to kiss all over, just the way she had last night.
“Coffee?” He held up the pot. “Or juice.”
Wrapping her arms around him from behind, she whispered in his ear, “You.”
He pulled her around to sit in his lap, kissing her breathless. “If you keep doing that,” he told her, “our breakfast will get cold.”
“I don’t mind if breakfast gets cold.”
Of course, that was right when Daniel’s phone rang again. Somehow, she guessed it was her brother, even before Daniel said the words.
She already knew why Drew was calling, had known it every moment that she was with her father in the hospital room. All the belief in the world couldn’t change someone who didn’t want to change. At least, not this quickly.
She climbed off Daniel to take the phone from him, but he pulled her to his lap again, giving her his strength. Just as they’d promised each other, he would always be there whenever she needed him.
With his arms around her, she said, “Hello.”
“Dad is gone,” Drew said bluntly. “I went out for coffee, and he was gone when I got back.”
“I knew he would go.” She didn’t sugarcoat it. “And I’m glad he didn’t try to pull you back in when he left.”
“I wouldn’t have run with him, Tash. I’m turning myself in. I’m sick to death of running. I’ll take whatever they throw at me. I meant it when I said I was done. No more lies. Ever.”
She leaned into Daniel’s shoulder, feeling sick at the thought of what would happen to Drew. But also knowing he needed to face the consequences. “I’m proud of you for owning up to everything. I’m here in any way you need me.”
“I love you, Tash. And I’m sorry. So damned sorry, I wish I could rewind back to eighteen and make very different choices.”
“Those choices made us who we are,” she said softly. Amazingly, they’d brought her to Daniel. “I’ll help any way I can, just please call to let me know what’s going to happen to you once you talk to the authorities.”
They said their good-byes, then Daniel held her tightly. “I take it your father is in the wind?”
“Yes.”
His muscles tensed. “Do you want me to find him? I can. I will.”
“No. Just like Drew, he has to make that decision himself, whether he wants to pay for what he did or run for the rest of his life. And maybe for now, that’s what he thinks he still wants.” She sighed. “It might be crazy for me to believe this, but I have to keep the faith that losing his family will force him to change.”
For long, beautiful, agonizing moments, Daniel simply held her, his lips against her hair. Then he said, “I can get a good lawyer for Drew. I’ll pay for him too.”
His sweetness and caring brought tears to her eyes. “Thank you. But I can’t let you pay for anything.”
“We’re partners. And now your brother is my family too. He’s doing the right thing, and I want to help him.”
“Thank you,” she whispered again, choking back the sob that rose up.
“One more thing,” he murmured against her hair.
“Anything.”
“Anything?” He had a wicked glint in his eyes, one that boded very well for her.
“Yes, anything.”
“Okay then.” He slid her from his arms, settling her back on the chair as he went down on one knee. “Marry me.”
She threw her arms around him, her love for him so great she didn’t think her body could contain it. “Yes.”