Treading Water: Coming Home Part 15

Knowing he'd wanted her so much for so long gave her heart a happy lurch that scared her. She was falling for him. To be honest, she'd been falling for him for a long time now, and to know he felt the same was exciting and a little frightening, too.

"Why did you just get all worried?" he asked as he continued to move slowly.

"I didn't."

"Yes, you did." He placed a kiss on the furrow between her brows, which was how Jill realized she'd furrowed her brows. "Talk to me. What're you thinking?"

She hugged his hips with her legs. "You want to talk now?"

"I'm a master mult.i.tasker." He flexed his hips and made sure his chest hair abraded her nipples, both of which drew a gasp from her. "See?"

His delighted smile drew one from her, too. "I never doubted your skill for a minute."

"Something made you unhappy. Since I'm inside you at the moment, you're giving me self-confidence issues."

"You haven't lacked for self-confidence a single second in your whole life."

"I am right now. What is it, honey? Tell me."

Those words said in that accent in this moment made her melt. "I, um, I'm a little frightened by this."

"By me?"

She shook her head. "Not by you. By us. It's happened so fast."

"It hasn't been fast. It's taken forever by my count. That's how long it's been since I first wanted you. Every day, minute and second since the day I met you." As he said the words, he picked up the pace again, holding her tight against him as he made pa.s.sionate love to her.

It didn't take much effort on his part to take her up again, impossibly higher this time because he joined her, thrusting into her with a cry that seemed to come from his very soul.

Jill held on as tight to him as he held her.

"So d.a.m.ned good," he whispered many minutes later.

"Yes."

"Don't be afraid. I waited so long for you. I have no plans to let you go."

As far as a.s.surances went, Jill thought, it didn't get much better than that.

Chapter 7.

Reid and Kate spent the next few days at the resort. They talked about venturing out so Reid could show her around the island and so they could find another place to call home when they were on St. Kitts. In the end, however, they ended up spending most of their time taking long walks on the beach, spending leisurely afternoons in bed and talking.

They talked nonstop.

At one point, Kate joked that they were attempting to relive every minute they had spent apart by sharing those minutes with each other. By the end of the third day, after Reid convinced her to skinny-dip and make love-this time in broad daylight-Kate was as relaxed as she could remember being since she left home as a naive eighteen-year-old ready to conquer the world.

Other than a few cryptic texts from Jill, Kate hadn't had any contact with the outside world in days, which was fine with her.

She emerged from the shower to find Reid waiting for her in bed.

He held out a hand to her.

Kate dropped the towel and slid in next to him. "This week has been amazing," she said when he had settled her into his embrace.

"For me, too." He traced a finger under her eye. "The dark circles are starting to fade."

"Despite all your attempts to disturb my sleep, I'm as well rested as I've been in ages."

"Good," he said with a chuckle. "Then I can keep you up nice and late tonight."

"Could I ask you something?"

"There's still something you haven't asked me?"

"Uh-huh."

"Go right ahead, darlin'. I'm an open book where you're concerned."

"What happened when you went to see Mari the other day?" He hadn't said anything about the visit with his ex-girlfriend, and Kate couldn't help but be curious about what had transpired.

His deep sigh answered the question.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I don't mind telling you." His fingers spooled through her damp hair, loosening tangles she hadn't bothered to comb out. "She was angry."

Kate had so many questions, but she forced herself to stay quiet and let him talk.

"I can't say I blame her," he said after a long silence. "She deserved better than what she got from me. We were together one minute, and the next it was... over."

"I asked Buddy not to tell you I was coming. I wanted to see how you'd react to me after all this time had gone by."

"When I saw you there on the beach, I thought I was hallucinating. I'd been thinking about you a few minutes earlier, and then there you were."

"You were thinking about me?"

"Honey," he said with a laugh, "I always thought about you. I never stopped."

"Neither did I."

"Which is why I had no business being with Mari. It wasn't fair to make a life with her when my heart was engaged elsewhere."

"How did you meet her?"

"Through mutual friends. By then I'd been alone for nine years, and I was starting to get tired of myself. Heck of a reason to start a relations.h.i.+p, huh?"

"You were alone for longer than that before you met me."

"I was never lonely then, because I had Ashton to think about and a company to run. After you, I was lonely."

Kate ached at the pain she heard in his voice, knowing she'd caused some of it. "So it was better after you started seeing Mari?"

"That's the kicker. It wasn't really. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the time I spent with her, but I was still lonely."

Kate tipped her head back so she could see his face. "Why?"

"Because she wasn't you."

"Reid-"

He rested a finger on her lips to quiet her. "It may sound trite, and I wouldn't blame you for accusing me of feeding you lines, telling you what you want to hear. But the truth is that since we've been back together... It's the first time I haven't felt lonely since I lost you."

Filled with remorse over what they'd both lost so long ago, Kate blinked back tears.

"Don't cry, darlin'. Things happen the way they're meant to. Who knows if we could've held it together back then? Maybe you needed the last ten years to get your career off the ground. I probably wouldn't have fit into that, you know?"

"Maybe."

"The age difference was a bigger deal then, too."

"To other people, but not to us."

"You know I was never comfortable with it. I still worry about what you might miss out on being with me."

"I've had a long time to find out how it feels to be without you, and I didn't like it."

"Have you thought about what your daddy will have to say about us being back together?"

"Some, but he knows I'm a grown woman now. I make my own decisions. I hope he'll respect the fact that I choose you."

"Are you prepared for the possibility that he won't?"

A flurry of nerves attacked her stomach when she thought of telling her dad she was back with Reid.

He raised a brow. "Darlin'?"

"I won't deny that I'm nervous about telling him, but no matter how he reacts, it won't change how I feel about you."

"And how is that?" he asked with a playful smile.

"Why tell when I can show?" She raised herself up and started with kisses to his chest, working her way down in slow increments designed to make him as crazy as he made her.

"When do you have to go home?" Jill asked Ashton in the middle of the night, nearly a week after they arrived in Malibu. The time with him had been incredible, and the thought of having to go back to her regular life made Jill want to cry.

"Why? Are you anxious to be rid of me?"

"Quite the opposite."

"Oh, so my devious plan has worked?"

"What devious plan is that?"

"To make myself essential to you. I'd given it ten days, but if we got it done in seven, I won't complain."

Jill moved so she was on top of him and smiled when his arms came around her, as she'd known they would. "It only took two days, but don't let that go to your head."

"Too late." He kissed her forehead and squeezed her tighter. "We'll go back to Nashville on Sunday, if that's okay with you."

"Fine by me."

"When will you head back out on the road?"

"Not until after the first of the year, at the earliest."

"Really? So we'll have months together in town?"

"If that's what you want," she said, purposely nonchalant, hoping to get a rise out of him.

"h.e.l.l yes, that's what I want. Haven't I done a good enough job of showing you what I want?" To make his point, he squeezed her bottom.

"If you'd done the job any better, I might never walk again," she said dryly, drawing a guffaw of laughter from him.

"What about what you want, sweetheart? Is this it? Am I it?"

"Yes. Of course I want this." She raised her head and kissed him. "I want you."

"That's good to know, because you've got me falling head over heels in love with you. I hope you know that."

Jill stared at him, utterly astounded.

"Too soon?" he asked with a wince.

"No. Not too soon."

"Then what?"

"I just... I can't believe everything that's happened this week."

"Does that mean you might, you know, be a little head over heels with me, too?"