Fearless In Love
Page 67

How could he ever think that?
She opened her mouth, and he kissed her quiet, before saying, “My parents wanted to toughen me up, but deep down they saddled me with the belief that I wasn’t good enough. They made me think I had to be perfect, to take care of everyone else, to make sure nothing bad ever happened, just to prove I was a man. You’ve helped me recognize how far overboard I went. I can’t protect Noah from every bad thing in his life without stunting him or making him feel incapable. I can’t force Irene to be the mother I think she should be. I can’t even be sure I’ll find your brother. I can only do my best.” He brought her hand to his cheek. “I have scars, so deep that even Susan, Bob, and the Mavericks couldn’t heal them. Only you can, Ari.”
“You’re healing my scars too.” Her eyes were damp, and her voice shook slightly. “We’ve both got baggage, and I know it won’t always be easy, but I’ll never give up on us again. Never.”
“No matter which of us makes a mistake in the future, I’ll never give you up. And I will continue to do everything in my power to bring your brother home to you.”
“I’ve never doubted that.” She rested against him for a long, sweet moment, their arms tight around each other. “I just need to keep this place until we find Gideon.” She gazed into his face, so beautiful that she lost her breath the same way she had the very first time. “Then I won’t ever need it again.”
“No, you won’t.” His deep voice resonated through her with a delicious thrill. “You’ll be with me.”
“Have I ever mentioned how much I love it when you get all possessive like this?”
“I wanted to possess you the first time I set eyes on you.” His beard-rough cheek caressed hers. “Even when I told myself I could never have you, I wanted you so bad I couldn’t see straight.” He nipped her earlobe, making her shiver with need. “And a Maverick always gets what he wants.”
Ari threw her arms around his neck, kissing him deeply. “Make love to me, Matt. I need you so badly, need you to—”
He cut off her words by shoving his warm hands under her shirt. Flipping her top over her head, he dipped down to kiss the swell of her breasts, his fingers slipping inside her bra.
“I know exactly what you need, baby.”
He always had.
They both tore at her jeans, then his pants, throwing everything across the room until they were skin to skin on the couch.
“I love you,” he whispered, rocking slowly against her, sensitizing every inch of her skin. “I love everything about you.” He kissed her breasts until she moaned and writhed beneath him. “I want to do so many wicked things to you.”
He worked his way down her body, proving over and over how much she mattered with every bite of skin, every erogenous zone. Finally, on his knees beside the couch, he licked the very center of her, sending her spiraling into sheer sensation. She shoved her fingers through his hair, so silky, so thick, as she reveled in the sweet, hot sensuality of his mouth on her.
Lifting his head, his thumb on the apex of her pleasure, he whispered, “I love you.”
His voice wrapped around the words she’d longed to hear as he moved over her, giving himself to her with no reservations, no holding back. Just pure pleasure.
And more love than she’d ever known was possible.
She gasped out his name as he filled her up, her body, her heart, her very soul. The feel of him inside her was momentous, with spikes of pleasure shooting through her, setting every cell of her being on fire.
“I want this every day. Forever.” His hand on her hip, he pulled her even more tightly against him. His eyes were soft midnight, dark with desire, brimming with emotion as he made his vows to her. “I love you. I will always love you. You are my heart. You’re my everything.”
She came apart with starbursts before her eyes, the pulse and beat of his climax deep inside her…and the sweet certainty that every ounce of love she had to give would be returned a million times over for the rest of her life.
* * *
Giddy with happiness, Ari laced her fingers through Matt’s as they stepped out of her apartment a short while later. Not even Gideon’s absence marred the joy she felt, because she truly believed they would eventually bring her brother home.
Matt carried her bag, and she slung her backpack containing her laptop over her shoulder. She led them down the stairs, and as they turned at the landing, the light in the lower hall was blocked by a man studying the row of mailboxes.
“Can I help you find someone?” she asked.
He turned, and her heart stopped.
The man’s hair was military short, and his muscles were as big as a weight lifter’s. He was about Matt’s age, his face tanned, with lines at his eyes as if he was used to squinting against the sun. An old, battered khaki rucksack lay at his feet.
“Gideon,” she whispered.
“Hey, kiddo.” His voice cracked, as though he didn’t use it a lot, and his eyes were no longer the startling blue she remembered. As though he’d seen things that had leeched the brightness from them.
Ari dropped her backpack on the stairs, and a beat later she was in his arms, hugging him for every one of the sixteen years he’d been gone.
“You’re home,” she whispered. “I’ve missed you.”
“Missed you too, Ari.”
When he finally let her go, Matt held out his hand. “Matt Tremont. I’m your sister’s fiancé.” Turning his head to look directly at her, he dropped every last wall. “You should know that I love Ari very, very much.”
She gazed at the two most important men in her life, and a tear slid down her cheek. Matt smoothed it away before looking at her brother. “You weren’t here to ask permission. But I hope you’ll approve of our marriage.”
Gideon looked at Matt as if he were measuring the man he was on the inside, and then back at her. Finally, he said, “I can see how she feels about you.”
“Let’s go have a cup of coffee and talk,” Matt suggested.
“Yeah.” Gideon nodded slowly. “We should talk.”
They put his rucksack, along with Ari’s bags, into the trunk of Matt’s Jaguar. Gideon traveled as lightly as she did, and she wondered if he’d learned that with their mom too. Leaving the dingy neighborhood, they were soon sitting in a coffee shop with old-fashioned vinyl booths and freshly roasted coffee.