Taking a deep breath, she put her folded clothes into her bag and stashed it in a corner of the bathroom. Rubbing her damp palms over the soft cotton of her gown, she emerged from the bathroom to find Charlie already in bed. He was propped up against several pillows, his chest bare and the covers pulled up to his waist. She knew a moment of complete panic when she wondered if he was naked under there.

The thought caused a nervous giggle to escape from her tightly clenched lips.

“What’s so funny?” he asked in the gruff tone that might’ve sounded harsh to someone who didn’t know him as well as she did. Despite the extreme injustice he’d endured during fourteen years in prison, there was nothing harsh about her Charlie.

Her Charlie. How long had she thought of him as her Charlie? For quite some time now, if she were being honest with herself.

He folded the bed covers back and patted the mattress next to him. “Are you going to tell me?”

“This whole thing is funny,” Sarah said as she slid into bed next to him while willing her hammering heart to settle down before she hyperventilated or did something equally embarrassing.

He turned to face her, propping himself on an upturned hand. “You wanna let me in on the joke?”

She fixated on his muscular chest, the intricate tattoo that encircled his bicep, and the mat of dark chest hair that had begun to go gray in places. He was a finely built man, and she suddenly wanted to touch him, to feel his soft skin under her hands, to examine every hill and valley of the muscles that had fascinated her for months. “I’m nervous,” she said, keeping her gaze fixed on his chest rather than looking at his face.

“It’s just me, Sarah. Your friend Charlie.”

“Who’s now in bed with me and at least half naked.”

“Only half,” he said with a gruff chuckle.

“Are you nervous, too?”

“Hell yes, I’m nervous.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re here, finally, and I don’t want to do the wrong thing or scare you off.”

“You could never do the wrong thing.”

“Don’t be too sure. It’s been a long time since I was in bed with a woman. A long time.”

“So you haven’t, with anyone… Since you got out of prison?”

“Nope.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, so I’ve got my own set of worries, especially knowing what that bastard you were married to put you through. I want to give you everything you deserve, everything you should’ve had all along, but I don’t want to rush you—”

Sarah caressed the face that had become so dear to her. “Kiss me, Charlie.”

He put his arm across her middle and tugged her closer. “Is this okay?”

She nodded.