Tally was waiting on the screened-in back porch, watching for the bedroom light to flicker. The sign that she could enter. What Terrie had to say to Jesse, she wanted no one else to hear.

She watched as he pushed his hands into his slacks’ pockets, watching her carefully, his green eyes quiet, reflective as she sat on the bed, dressed only in the short silk gown she had donned.

“Why do I have a feeling you want to talk first?” he quipped almost too seriously.

“Because you know me that well,” she said softly, watching him a bit sadly. “You always have. Even when I was too young to know what it meant. And when I was too stupid to accept what it was.”

He leaned against her dresser, watching her quietly. Terrie felt her chest tighten at the flood of emotion that washed over her. He was so strong, even now, as he watched her uncertainly, his eyes brilliant with all the emotions she had never realized were there before.

“You were never stupid, Terrie,” he said quietly. “Frightened. Innocent…”

“And too stupid to know what I was feeling or what I wanted,” she finished for him. “I love you, Jesse. I always have loved you.”

He frowned, his expression brooding, intense. “I know that, Terrie. I always knew that.”

She tilted her head. He wasn’t lying. She could see just how very serious he was.

“And you love me,” she whispered, fighting her tears. “You loved me, before Thomas.”

He breathed out roughly. “Before Thomas, during Thomas, now,” he growled. “Love doesn’t just turn off, Terrie. What do you want me to say?”

It was there in his voice. Husky, controlled, endearingly honest. If there was one thing she knew about Jesse, it was that he would never lie to her about his feelings for her. He might not tell her something she needed to know, but he wouldn’t lie to her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked him roughly. “Why didn’t you let me know, Jesse, instead of leaving me in the dark?”

“How, baby?” He shrugged, though she saw his fists clench in his pockets. “You were so scared of me you ran damned near every time I tried to get close. You’ve been like that ever since you realized I did want you. You ran, because who I was, what I was, frightened you.”

It wasn’t him. She stared at him in surprise. It had never been his needs that had her running.

She shook her head slowly. “I ran because my own feelings, my own needs, terrified me. Not you,” she whispered. “You never frightened me, Jesse. Ever. But I scared the hell out of myself.”

“Because of who I am. Because of what I wanted,” he said roughly.

“Because of who I am.” She shook her head quickly. “Don’t you see, Jesse? It wasn’t you. It was me. I couldn’t make sense of my own needs, my own desires. I couldn’t understand what I wanted.”

“And now?” He looked so alone, so braced for her rejection.

She rose slowly to her feet, revealing the items she had left on the bed behind her. Handcuffs and leather ankle cuffs attached to chains. She saw his gaze flicker to them.

“Will you trust me to love you, Jesse?” she asked him softly. “I trust you. With everything I am. Everything you need. Will you trust me as well?”

Silence built within the room for long, intense seconds as he stared at the bed.

“I take it those aren’t for you?” He nodded to the items.

She looked up at him from the corners of her eyes, a small smile playing at her lips. “No, they aren’t for me.”

He tensed, his expression darkening with such latent sensuality she felt her pu**y creaming in response.

He cleared his throat. “No means no, Terrie,” he reminded her firmly. “I can be man enough to give you want you want, within reason.”

She smiled gently. “You’ve always given me more than I deserve, Jesse. But now, I want to give to you. My gift to you, because I love you.”

He pulled his hands from his slacks, his fingers working slowly at the buttons of his shirt. He looked around the bedroom curiously.

“Why am I suddenly nervous?” he asked her with a half smile. A halfhearted attempt to remind her how dearly he loved being in control.

She moved to him, her hand lifting to touch his chest, reveling in the feel of the hard, warm muscle beneath his dark skin. She felt his breath quicken as she laid a kiss between the edges of his shirt as it fell open. His hands lifted, running up her back as he drew her closer.

“God, Terrie, you make me lose all my control. You know that?” He lowered his head, his lips pressing to her temple, her cheek, then her lips.

Terrie moaned in rising hunger as his tongue swept over her lips, licking at them, tasting her, savoring her as his arms tightened around her.

“That’s only fair, because you do the same to me,” she panted breathlessly against his tongue, then moaned in pleasure as his lips took control of hers, his tongue forging into her mouth in a stroke of heated pleasure.

His fingers clenched on the material of her gown. His body tightened. The small signs of his arousal, his need for her, built her own need higher. She moved against him, reveling in his kiss. His lips were hard, rough, yet incredibly gentle on hers. His tongue thrust into her mouth with forceful strokes, making her hungry for more and more of his taste.

His hands moved to her bare shoulders, smoothing over the flesh, making her tremble from the hot pleasure that streaked through her body. A touch so simple, she thought in awe, just his fingertips, yet her vagina clenched with the sharp darts of lightning-hot sensations they created.

His lips moved over hers slow and easy. So gentle. His very gentleness was at odds with the tension that made his body tighten, made him harder, stronger than ever before. The tenderness never changed. He groaned with rough hunger. His tongue plundered her mouth, mating erotically with hers, yet each touch was so controlled, so light and adoring it made her soul weep with the need it transmitted to her.

“Wait. Wait.” She pulled back, aware that once again Jesse was giving. Overloading her senses, capturing her with a pleasure so seductively erotic she could do nothing but respond.

She couldn’t lose control of herself, she thought frantically. This was for Jesse. His pleasure. His need. She had to return to him the bone tightening ecstasy he gave her each time he touched her.

“Terrie.” He was panting for breath as he laid his forehead against hers, his hands, palms only, smoothing across her shoulders. “I need you so bad I’m shaking with it, baby. I could devour you now, standing here against this f**king wall.”