Part 10 (1/2)

She was young.

She was healthy.

There was no reason she wouldn't be able to conceive again and carry full term with no trouble.

But Joe did it was a gentleness, a compa.s.sion that Dana doubted she'd had in the past. Yeah, she was a nurse, compa.s.sion was supposed to be her thing, but going and experiencing the loss herself, she suspected it was going to make a serious impact on how she approached things in the future.

Jake had left to go back to work and she'd headed out to kill time at the mall and hit the gym.

I'll be home by six, he'd said.

Well, it was nearly six-thirty, she was hungry and if he didn't show up soon, she just might go get the pizza she'd been craving and keep it all to herself.

She opened the door, but instead of going inside, she stood there, her mouth open.

There was music.

There were candles.

Rose petals...her heart flipped over in her chest as she edged a few inches inside the door, tracking the line of velvety red petals from the door to where it disappeared from her sight down the hall. Swallowing, she shut the door and dumped her gym bag and purse on the floor. Tucking her hands into her pockets, she edged closer, eying the petals and breathing in the scent of melting wax and the sweet perfume of the roses.

There weren't just a few petals on the floor, either.

Lifting her head, she stared at the crystal vase on the island in the kitchen, the matching vase on the coffee table. Angling her head, she stared down the hall and saw another vase, a little smaller, on the narrow table there. The only light coming from that direction was from her room, a soft, wavering glow-more candles?

c.o.c.king her head, she started down the hall, pausing by the floor to stroke one velvety petal.

Roses. Exactly what was Jake up to? Even as much as she wanted to ooh and ahh over the flowers a little more, she was too curious to just keep standing there. With one last glance, she left the flowers and headed into her room and there she came up short.

Candles and rose petals, the soulful wail of a sax rising all around her. The comforter was pulled back, revealing ivory sheets covered with more of the fragrant blooms, but still no sign of Jake. The door squeaked behind her. She jumped, turning around just in time to see Jake emerge from behind it as he closed the door and came towards her.

He was bare-chested, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans. In his hand, he held one perfect red rose.

Forcing herself to smile, she said, ”Never would have pegged you for this much of a romantic, Jake. Man, you've been hiding some serious secrets.”

The corner of his mouth curled in a faint grin. ”Maybe keeping just one or two.” He stroked the rose down her cheek, along her neck.

She caught her breath as the velvety petals trailed lower, tracing the line of her collarbone and then the scooped neckline of her T-s.h.i.+rt. Her lids drifted closed as the rose trailed lower, along the curve of her breast, her abdomen. He came closer-she felt the heat of his body, reaching out to hers across the few scant inches that separated them. As he reached for the hem of her s.h.i.+rt and eased it upward, she opened her eyes and smiled at him. ”You know, it's been a long few weeks...all the seduction really isn't necessary. I'm easy.”

He stripped her s.h.i.+rt away, her bra, let them fall to the floor. ”Maybe I want to.” He went to his knees in front of her and in another minute, her jeans and panties joined the rest of her clothes on the floor and he was once more teasing her skin with the rose. ”Maybe I need to.”

She dipped her hands into his hair as he leaned in and pressed his mouth to the mound of her s.e.x. ”Well, put like that...”

He nuzzled her and then stood up, carrying her over to the bed. The scent of roses grew stronger as he lay her down on them and bent over her. ”Do you love me?” he asked softly.

Reaching up, she covered his cheek with her hand. ”Yes. With all my heart...it feels like I've been waiting for this, waiting to have you with me like this forever.”

”I have been waiting forever,” he muttered, turning his face into her palm and kissing her hand. ”Day after day, year after year, I kept waiting, wondering when you'd come back.”

”Why did you wait? Why didn't you just come and get me?”

He caught her wrist and eased it to the bed beside her as he stretched out next to her. ”Because you would just wander away again... I know you, Dana. I had to wait until you were ready-” His mouth tightened in a snarl for a brief moment and then, as quick as that, he was smiling again, that slow, s.e.xy tease of a smile.

”What is it?”

Jake shook his head. ”No. It doesn't matter.”

”If it didn't, you wouldn't be thinking about whatever it was... What is it?”

He blew out a breath. ”This is supposed to be a seduction, not a chat.”

”I'm already seduced...believe me.” Dana grinned at him. She lifted up and pressed a kiss to his chin. ”So what were you thinking about?”

”Not what. Who. I kept waiting. Waiting. Then you start going out with Mason, and I wasn't so sure that waiting had been the right way to handle it-f.u.c.k, Dana, it almost killed me when I walked in the backyard and saw you with him that day. I wanted to kill him and then you go and blindside me, teasing me...” Something hot, something raw crossed his face and he rolled atop her, grabbing her hands and pinning them to the bed by her head. ”I couldn't tell if I was in heaven or h.e.l.l.”

He wedged her thighs apart, the rough material of his jeans abrading her thighs. Through them, she could feel the hard, heavy length of his c.o.c.k and she shuddered, whimpering with need. Rocking up against him, she said, ”This is supposed to be a seduction, not a chat.”

Jake chuckled. ”Maybe I want some payback for the h.e.l.l you put me through... Play with me...” He dipped his head and rasped it against her ears. ”All I'm doing is playing...just like you asked, remember?”

Jerking against his restraining hands, she scowled at him. ”Maybe I don't want to play right now. I don't like games as much as I used to.”

”So no more fun and games?” he murmured, levering his weight over the side and s.h.i.+fting both of her wrists to one hand. With his free hand, he stroked his way down her torso, circled her navel, the soft, sensitive skin of her inner thighs.

But not close enough.

Not where she needed him to touch her.

”I don't want fun and games with you. I want everything.” She stared up at him, into those dark blue eyes, so familiar, his face, a face she'd gotten so accustomed to seeing-how was it possible that she had just so recently realized he was so much more.

He wasn't a friend. He was everything.

Her heart. Her soul. And over the past few weeks, he'd been her strength. He'd been there when the tears crept up on her in the night, when they snuck up on her at odd hours through the day. ”Everything, Jake.”

”Everything.” He dipped his head and kissed her shoulder. Then, letting go of her wrists, he levered up, settling on his knees beside her. He held her gaze as he reached back behind him, grabbing something from the bedside table without even bothering to look. ”How much is everything...the rest of our lives?”

”That sounds pretty good to me.” She levered up on her elbows, craning her head to look at what he held, but he wouldn't let her see it.

He lay his hand, warm and strong, on her belly. ”What about kids? Do you want that? Do you want to try again?”

Her mouth went dry. Tears threatened, but she blinked them back. ”I don't know... I'm not ready to think about that. I mean, I want a baby, but I don't know how I'd handle it...if anything happened. I just can't think about it yet. I'm not ready. Are you?”

”I don't know.”

”Do you want kids? Is that what you want? To try again?”

He brushed her hair back, winding a curl around his finger. ”I want kids-but I need you.”