Did she understand how he felt? If she did, at least one of them understood.

He wasn’t ready for it to end, intent to declare some sort of message, but yet, he was dying to finish.

“Please, Colby, come with me. I need you with me.”

Against his control, a deep breath loosened. She turned his key, unlocking an unprotected passageway. He drove with her, trying to fulfill her wishes.

Mia released again, ramming a shudder from his core to the tips of his ears. Absolute and sweeping completeness. They came in unison. His moan and her cry intermixed. Panting. Struggling. Battling.

With nothing left to give, he collapsed next to her, gathered Mia into his arms, and prayed she wouldn’t pull from him right now. He just needed a few more intimate minutes with her. A few more minutes of consummate fulfillment.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Even as Mia drowned in comfortable exhaustion, her anxious mind sat ready to taunt her. Lazy seconds lounged into hushed minutes in the twilight-lit room. Purple shadows cascaded from the picture window. Deep oranges tempered in the setting sky. The knowing air loomed in the bedroom, a million times heavier than the emotional weight of his words.

I’ve needed you my whole life. His words danced in her head and seared into her memory. What would he have said if she hadn’t cut him off? What did she want him to say? Something. Nothing. Everything. Who knew? Guessing made her heart and her head pound, one right after the other, seesawing in a brutal clash.

She hurt for wanting something so fleeting and so dangerous. The moments when she tried to reason away her feelings for Colby were absurd.

Absurdity was ignoring the jump in her stomach when he gave a languid smile or the warm rush when he stepped close. Absurdity was avoiding the glimmer of optimism. She wasn’t destined to be alone and didn’t have to feign imaginary interest in the boring and untrustworthy.

If she knew there were men like Colby Winters running around, she wouldn’t have given up in a shrug of disinterest. Now, every slow kiss and every sweeping glance was loaded with potential.

Gathered into his possessive hold, his sated breaths airily contradicted every one of his unyielding mannerisms. Mia just existed in the moment. No worries. No fears. No future. No past. Just now. Him and her. She burrowed against his chest.

“I thought you were asleep,” he whispered.

Scorching shivers washed across her warm skin. She could lie and say she just awoke, but there wasn’t a reason. He brushed her hair with the tips of his fingers, slow and soft, like she was his to cherish.

“I feel safe.” That wasn’t a lie.

“Good. You should.”

“I don’t mean from the hell that’s been chasing us. I mean from the hell that I’ve ignored for the better part of my life.”

“Good.”

“Very short and sweet, Colby.”