Sensual Confessions - Brenda Jackson [95]
“Are you okay?” he asked softly.
She nodded as she tried drying her hair with a towel. “Yes.”
He crossed the room and took the towel out of her hand. “Sit,” he said, pulling out the chair at the desk for her.
She glared up at him and he saw some fire returning to her eyes, but not enough to suit him. When she sat in the chair he went about drying her hair. This was the first time he’d dried a woman’s hair, but then there had been so many firsts with Sam.
“I called Luke and Mac and told them what happened,” he said.
She didn’t say anything. She simply nodded.
“Mac is going to clear your calendar for the rest of the week.”
She nodded at that, too.
“We’re staying here for a while. At least till Sunday, and then we’ll decide where we’ll go. If I have to, I’ll take you back to Houston, to Whispering Pines. Nobody can get on that ranch unless Jake wants them there.”
When she still didn’t say anything to that, he said, “And I want you naked for the entire time we’re here.”
She turned around, glared at him, stood up and snatched the towel out of his hand. “You horny bastard, don’t hold your breath!”
He laughed. “Hey, the fire’s back and I love it. I was beginning to miss your smart mouth.”
When Sam realized what Blade was trying to do, she threw herself into his arms and pressed her face against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. She needed his strength. And she would give just about anything for his love.
Blade held Sam tight for a long moment and then picked her up in his arms and carried her over to the bed. “I just want to hold you, sweetheart. Nothing more, I promise,” he said, tucking her close to his side as he stretched out in the bed. “I really need to hold you.”
There was no conversation between them as he held her, needing to have her close to him as much as it seemed she needed to have him close to her. A few moments later, he said in a strained yet husky voice, “I could have lost you, Sam. Damn, I could have lost you. And what scared me most is the thought of losing you without letting you know how much I love you.”
Her body went still and for a moment he wasn’t sure she was breathing. “Sam?”
She shifted slightly and turned in his arms to meet his gaze. “You love me?”
He reached out and traced the tip of his finger down the side of her face. “Yes. And I’m not saying that to try and put pressure on you or anything. I know you don’t love me yet, but I might as well warn you that if I have anything to say about it, you will eventually.”
Sam had to fight the tears from falling from her eyes when she whispered, “I do.”
Blade lifted a brow. “You do what?”
She reached out and placed the palm of her hand against his cheek. “I do love you.”
He pulled back slightly and stared at her. “You do not.”
She couldn’t help but grin. “I do, too.”
She moved up in the bed and leaned over him. “I love you, Blade Madaris, and that’s what scared me the most, too. The thought that I could have died and you would not have known how I felt. You would have had no idea how much I love you.”
“Oh, baby.” Blade pulled the woman he loved into his arms and covered her mouth with his. This was his woman. He loved her more than life itself and was determined more than ever to protect her. Nothing in this world was more important to him than her.
Chapter 24
When Sam awoke the next morning it was to find her body curled up close to Blade with his large arm slung over her hip, as if he needed to make sure she was there, plastered to him and safe from harm. She shifted her body and smiled, knowing she truly had something to smile about.
Blade loved her.
She never considered herself a crybaby, but she felt tears welling up in the back of her eyes. The two of them were an unlikely couple. He had been the player and she, the player hater. And she had done all the things to him that had been her trademark. And he still had come back. He had been there when she needed him. If she would have defied him and opened