A Creed in Stone Creek - Linda Lael Miller [125]
“I’m the Colorado Kid!” he exulted, raising both hands as if the pajamas represented proof of his preferred identity.
“You’re a nut,” Steven said, with affection, ruffling the boy’s hair with one hand.
Kim stood, after giving Melissa one more concerned look, and made a big production of yawning and stretching.
“We’d better turn in soon, Colorado,” she told her grandson. “It’s getting late.”
“Good night,” Steven said to his stepmother and his son.
Melissa sat at the table, and Steven stood where he was for long moments after everyone else, including the dog, had left the house.
Melissa, who had spread the stick-family drawing out on the table in front of her, looked down at it. Her eyes were burning, and her throat felt thick.
Steven finally crossed to her, took her hand, raised her to her feet. Then he cupped her face in his hands and tilted her head back so he could look straight into her eyes.
“All I want to do is hold you,” he said. “But if you’d rather spend the night in Matt’s room, that’s fine, too.”
“I want to hold you,” Melissa replied.
He smiled. “Then we’re on the same page,” he told her.
His room, like Matt’s, was on the main floor.
The bed was huge, and oddly modern-looking, given the rustic nature of the ranch house, and brass lamps shed pale gold light onto thick pillows. The linens were Egyptian cotton, unless Melissa missed her guess, with a very high thread count.
Was she channeling Ashley?
No, Melissa nodded. She was nervous, that was all. And it was silly to be nervous now, when she was perfectly safe.
As calmly as if they slept in the same bed every night, Steven left Melissa to her hesitation and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom. By the time he returned, she’d appropriated a T-shirt from a chest of drawers and pulled it on. She’d left Kim’s clothes folded and resting on the seat of a chair.
Her eyes widened when she saw Steven—he was totally naked. Gloriously naked.
Melissa reddened as all sorts of things quickened inside her.
“I sleep like this,” he explained.
“Oh,” she said.
He got into bed on his side and, after a few more moments of silent debate, Melissa joined him. They lay far apart, staring up at the ceiling.
Then Steven stretched to flip the switch on his lamp, and both lights went out, leaving the room dark, except for a skim of moonlight that made the bedding glow white.
“Still okay?” Steven asked, after a long, long time.
“Still okay,” Melissa confirmed. “You?”
“Better than okay,” he said. And he drew her into his arms, held her close against the hard warmth of his body. “What would you say if I told you I think there’s a very strong possibility that I love you?”
A terrible joy spread through Melissa before she had a chance to raise her usual defenses. Long moments had passed when she was finally able to answer. “I’d say,” she replied, snuggling close to him and soaring inside, “that you’re probably just shaken up by everything that happened tonight.”
“Suppose it’s more?” Steven suggested, propping his chin on the top of her head. “What then?”
Melissa started to cry. “I’d say it was a good thing,” she told him.
A chuckle moved up through his chest, and his arms tightened around her. She couldn’t remember when she’d last felt so safe.
“Which means?” Steven prompted.
Melissa sighed, sniffled. “Which means,” she answered, “that I’m 99 percent sure I feel the same way about you.”
“But you wish you didn’t.”
“Don’t you?”
Steven considered before countering, “Not much use in that now, is there?”
“It is what it is,” Melissa responded.
“Think you could maybe work up a little more enthusiasm?” Steven teased, turning now, so his lips hovered just over hers.
She smiled, slipping her arms around his neck. “Yes,” she said. “But I’ll need some encouragement.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
STEVEN DID NOT MAKE LOVE to Melissa during the night; he’d promised to hold her, and he kept his word. But when dawn broke, and the first pinkish light of a new day tickled her awake, everything