“Are you going to let me see how it looks? I’ve had all these fantasies. . .”

Gripping his hand, she led him out of the bedroom and into the softly lit living room. Before she could chicken out, she turned, raised her chin and met his eyes. In them she saw heat and desire and love. So much love. Because of that, she didn’t flinch when his eyes took a slow journey from her face to her chest and below before returning to her face.

“The fantasies have nothing on the reality,” he said after a long moment during which neither of them took a breath. He brought her in close to him and ran his hands up and down her silk-covered back. “I’ve never wanted anyone or anything the way I want you, Madeline.” His big hands spanned her waist, heating her skin through the silk.

“I don’t want to disappoint you. I haven’t done this very often.”

“Baby, you couldn’t possibly disappoint me.” He dropped soft, open-mouthed kisses on her collarbone, shoulder and neck. “Remember earlier when you asked what I was thinking and I said I’d tell you after our date?”

Caught up in a flood of sensation, Maddie couldn’t seem to form words. “Mmmm.”

“I want to tell you now.”

He raised his face from her neck and looked her in the eye.

Maddie reached up to comb her fingers through his thick dark hair.

A tremble rippled through him.

“What do you want to tell me, Mac?”

“When you asked me what I was thinking. . . My exact thought at the second you asked was that I love you so much I ache with it.”

Tears sprang to her eyes. She was a regular waterworks tonight. “Mac. . .”

“I’ve never said that to anyone before. I had no idea what it meant to be in love until I knocked you off your bike and you knocked me off my feet.”

As a fat tear rolled down her cheek, she drew him into a deep, sensual kiss. “Mac, I—”

He stopped her with a kiss. “Don’t say anything. Not now. Let me show you.”

At that moment, Maddie would’ve followed him anywhere he chose to take her. She belonged to him, body and soul.

Urging her down to the bed, he dropped his shorts and joined her. They faced each other, touching, kissing, laughing softly when nose bumped nose.

“I wish I wasn’t all bruised and scabby for this.”

“I love those scabs. Without them, we wouldn’t have found each other.”

Maddie laughed, drowning in the heady scent of his cologne. “That’s crazy logic.”