Risky Pleasures - Brenda Jackson [66]
She smiled. “Yes, I meant every word. You’re not only my sex mate, you’re my soul mate, as well. I do love you, Cameron.”
“And I love you. Does this mean you’d consider marrying me?”
She grinned. “Yes, if you ask.”
He turned toward her in bed, took her hand in his and gazed deep into her eyes. “Vanessa Steele, will you marry me? For better or for worse? Will you be my soul mate and my sex mate? The mother of my children? My best friend? My—”
She placed her finger to his lips. “Cameron Cody, I will be your everything.”
He leaned closer, and, right before he captured her lips with his, he whispered huskily, “You already are. You were definitely one risky pleasure worth taking.”
Sexual Healing
“Are you okay?”
Leah Mason glanced up at the man walking beside her and a faint smile touched her lips. “Yes, Reese, I’m okay.”
She sighed inwardly. No matter how many times he asked her that, her answer would always be the same. But deep down she knew it was a lie. What could be okay about a twenty-three-year-old woman who couldn’t let the man she loved touch her—at least anything beyond a kiss?
“Did you enjoy yourself?”
They had reached the front door to his home, and she stopped and turned to him. “Yes, I did.”
That was not entirely true, either. They had been visiting his family and because no one knew the full story of why she had mysteriously left Newton Grove five years before, breaking Reese’s heart, his family resented the fact he had started seeing her again. She knew they were worried that she would up and leave and break his heart a second time.
“When we get inside I want you to talk to me, baby.”
He opened the door, and when they walked into the foyer, he reached out and took hold of her hand and led her to the living room. When they sat down on the sofa he turned to her, tightened his hold on her hand and said in a low tone, “Now tell me what’s up, Leah. And don’t deny something is bothering you because I can feel it.”
Leah sighed deeply. Not for the first time she wondered why she was blessed with having such a wonderful man in her life. He had always been so attuned to her every thought, want and hurt. And he had tried so hard to take the hurt away.
It had been six months since he had learned the truth of what had happened to her that fateful night, what had driven her to flee from her family and the man she loved. Since then she and Reese had agreed to take things slowly, rebuilding their relationship one day at a time and giving her time to put behind her what Neil Grunthall had done.
Reese had been patient, understanding and more supportive than any man had a right to be. But still, after all this time, she hadn’t been able to get beyond being a victim of rape.
He scooted closer beside her on the sofa, continued to hold her hand and looked deep into her eyes. They sat so close their thighs were touching and she began feeling butterflies go off in her stomach, the first sign of anxiety from a man being too close.
Inwardly, she fought the feeling that tried to intensify and glanced down at their joined hands for strength. She told herself that he wasn’t an ordinary man. He was Reese, the man she had fallen in love with at seventeen, the man she had given her virginity to just months before her eighteenth birthday and the man she had planned to marry, and they’d have all the babies he wanted to give her.
He was the also the man who had secretly built his house for her, to give to her as a wedding gift. She hadn’t known about the house when she’d fled town. At the time it would not have mattered. All she’d been able to think of that night was her humiliation, shame, hurt and disgrace.
Neil, who had seen Reese as his enemy, had raped Leah as a way not only to get back at Reese, but also at Leah’s father for firing him. She had felt that her father and Reese were the last two people she could have gone to with the truth. There was no doubt in her mind that they would have killed Neil with their bare hands, and she couldn’t risk that. So she had run away without telling anyone what had