She stood up and crossed to the door. Taking a deep breath, she put her hand on the knob and turned it, swinging the door open.
And oh, dear Lord, Matt stood there, his hair down around his shoulders, his handsome face unsmiling. Even though the night had turned cool, he wore only his running shorts, and she could see the taut muscles in his chest rise and fall with each breath he took
Gazing up into his beautiful eyes, Maggie knew that the desire she saw there mirrored that in her own eyes. She wondered if he could hear her heart pounding from where he stood.
She wasn’t sure who moved first, but he reached for her as she fell into his arms.
Matt kissed her, desperately, ferociously. And she clung to him, her mouth demanding, her arms wound tightly around his neck as he pulled her closer to him. Her tongue was in his mouth, and his hands swept the length of her body, and he knew that he shouldn’t be doing this, but he couldn’t make himself stop.
Their legs intertwined, and she rubbed herself against him. And still he couldn’t stop himself from reaching down to lift her up so that her legs encircled him.
He pulled back then to look into her face.
She gazed back at him, her cheeks flushed from the heat they’d created, and he felt giddy. He buried his face in her neck, breathing in her scent. She smelled like Maggie—clean and sweet. How many times in his life had he stood close enough to inhale her fragrance, close enough to drive himself mad with wanting her?
She pulled his face up and kissed him.
But again he pulled back. “It’s not too late to stop,” he said, his voice sounding breathless to his own ears. He prayed that she wouldn’t agree.
“Says who?” she countered, tightening the grip of her legs around him, then laughing at the expression on his face.
Another kiss propelled them across the room and they tumbled together onto Maggie’s bed, Matt kissing her again and again in an explosion of need and desire.
“I came up here to talk,” he tried to tell her.
“I can’t talk right now,” she said, kissing his cheeks, his eyes, his lips. “I’m busy.”
He laughed. She kissed his neck, and he closed his eyes, his laughter turning to a sigh of pleasure as he touched her, as he filled his hands with her breasts, as he stroked the smoothness of her soft skin.
“It’s important,” he breathed.
“I’m listening.” She trailed kisses down his chest to his stomach.
Matt felt her tugging at the waistband of his shorts, and he grabbed her wrist. He spun her over and pinned her to the bed with his body, his hands holding her arms above her head.
“Now I’m really listening.” She smiled up at him.
Unable to resist, he brought his mouth down to hers and kissed her slowly, sweetly, deeply. When he pulled back, she was trembling.
And he was, too.
“I really tried to stay away from you,” he confessed. “I know this is selfish, but I couldn’t help myself because…” He took a deep breath and said it. “I love you, Mags.”
“You don’t have to say that,” Maggie said quietly.
“But I do,” he told her. “I’m crazy in love with you. I have been for years. It’s important to me that you know that.”
She looked searchingly into his eyes, her expression dubious. “Matt, I’m not one of those women who have to think that you’re in love with them before they’ll—”
“No. Mags, I know that,” Matt said. “This isn’t a line. I love you. You have to believe me. God, I’ve never been more sincere in my entire life.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter—”
“It does to me. Damn it, I love you! You better believe me.”
Maggie stared up at Matt. His eyes held a glint of determination she’d only seen since he’d begun improving the business, and suddenly, she realized that he was serious.
He was serious.
He loved her.
It was a good thing she was lying down, or she’d fall over. “I believe you,” she whispered.
Relief and satisfaction flared in his eyes before he leaned forward to kiss her again. His mouth caressed hers, gently at first, then with greater need. He was on top of her, and she wrapped her legs around him, pulling him even closer to her.
She was on fire. Everywhere he touched her, she burned. He stopped kissing her, and she pulled her arms free, reaching up around his neck to bring his mouth back to hers.
But he resisted. “Maggie…” His face was so serious.
She pressed one finger to his lips. “Matt, I love you, too,” she told him with a tremulous smile. “Make love to me.”
But he didn’t smile back. In fact, he looked even more troubled. “There’s more I have to tell you.”
Maggie pushed him off of her. “No.”
Well, that surprised him.
“Not now.” She crossed to the dresser and dug through her purse. Matt sat up slightly, leaning back on one elbow, watching her. “You just told me that you love me.” She found what she was searching for and crossed back to him, picking up his free hand and slapping the little package into it. “Use this and prove it.”
He looked at her in amazement. “You carry condoms in your purse?”
Maggie crossed her arms. “Oh, great,” she said in mock anger. “Now you want to talk about that, too?”
He pulled her down onto the bed with him and kissed her. Maggie wasn’t sure exactly how it happened, but when she came up for air, she was no longer wearing her nightgown.
He ran his hands and his eyes over her body, and Maggie felt the familiar rush of heat to her face as she blushed. Then a deeper, more powerful heat infused her as his mouth found her breast.
She ran her fingers though Matt’s long, shiny hair, arching her hips up toward him. She could feel him through his shorts, but that wasn’t good enough.
He clearly thought the same thing, rolling over and, in one quick motion, he yanked them down and kicked his legs free.
Matt had dropped the condom on the bed, and now he reached for it and put it on. He really didn’t need it—there was no way he could get her pregnant, and he hadn’t been with anyone else in—God, it was years. But it would take too long to explain, and Maggie had been adamant about this not being the right time for conversation.
He lay beside her and kissed her, intending to take his time. He’d waited so long for this moment. Every minute, every second was going to count.
