The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [228]
Her beautiful eyes filled with tears again. “Yes.”
“I love you, Lizzy.”
Her eyes widened and she stared. Stock-still, she did no more than watch him with wary disbelief. Gabe had to laugh at himself. He hadn’t quite meant to blurt that out, and he felt a tad foolish.
Elizabeth was everything he wasn’t. Serious, studious, caring and concerned. She had a purpose for her life, while he’d always been content to idle away his time, shirking responsibilities, refusing to settle down, priding himself on his freedom. She was at the top of her class, while he’d gone from one minor to another, never quite deciding on any one thing he wanted to do in his life. His time in college had been more a lark than anything else; he’d gone because it was expected. He’d gotten good grades because his pride demanded nothing less, but it had been easy and had never meant anything to him.
Lizzy would never consider letting someone like him interrupt her plans. She was goal-oriented, while he was out for fun. She’d told him that she wanted the summer with him, but she’d never even hinted that she might want more than that.
Trying to make light of his declaration—though he refused to take it back—he said, “Don’t worry. I won’t start writing you poetry or begging you to elope.”
She blinked and her face colored, which added to her already blotchy cheeks and red nose, giving her a comical look. Gabe forced a grin and kissed her forehead. Damn, but he loved her. He felt ready to burst with it.
“Have I rendered you speechless, sweetheart?”
She swallowed hard. “Yes.” Then: “Gabe, did you mean it?”
“Absolutely.” He cupped her breast and idly flicked her soft nipple with his thumb until it stiffened. “How could I not love you, Lizzy? I’ve never known anyone like you. You make me laugh and you make me hot and you confuse my brain and my heart.”
She scrunched up her mouth, trying not to laugh. “How…romantic.”
Gabe shifted, settling himself between her long slender thighs. “I’m horny as hell,” he admitted in a growl, letting her feel the hardness of his body. “How romantic did you expect me to be?”
She looped both arms around his neck and smiled. “Thank you, Gabe.”
“For what?”
“For making me feel so much better.” Her fingers caressed his nape, and she wound her legs around him, holding him, welcoming him. “For being here with me now, for saying you love me.”
He started to reassure her that he hadn’t said the words lightly, that he meant them and felt them down to his very soul. But he held back. Similar words hadn’t crossed her lips, and he needed time to get himself together, to sort out this new revelation. So all he said was, “My pleasure,” and then he kissed her, trying to show her without words that they were meant for each other whether she knew it yet or not.
He felt as if his life hung in the balance. He needed her, but he didn’t know if he could make her need him in return.
SAWYER STOOD behind him, leaving a long shadow across the planks of wood that extended over the lake. Gabe didn’t bother to turn when he asked, “You want something, Sawyer?”
“Yeah. I want to know why you’re mangling all those nails.”
Gabe looked at the third nail he’d bent trying to hammer it into the new dock extension he was building for his brother Morgan. Normally he did this kind of work without thought, his movements fluid, one nail, one blow. Over the years he’d built so many docks, for his family and for area residents, that he should have been able to do it blindfolded. But he’d hit his damn thumb twice already and he was rapidly make a mess of things.
In a fit of frustration he flung the hammer onto the shore and stomped out of the water, sloshing the mud at his feet and sending minnows swimming away. Sawyer handed him a glass of iced tea when he got close enough.
“From Honey?”
“Yeah.” Sawyer stretched with lazy contentment. “She was all set to bring it to you herself, but I figured you might not welcome her mothering right now, since you’ve been a damn bear all week.”
Gabe grunted in response, then chugged the entire