Entangled (Serendipity Adventure Romance Book 2) by Anna Lowe Page A

believing you. For yelling. For saying all those terrible things.”
    He went still, then rubbed his chin over her head. “I’ve heard worse.” He tried a little smile, but it didn’t fool her. What could be worse than what she’d said and done to him? All that, plus the things she hadn’t said. Like
sorry
and
I love you
and
I never should have doubted you.
    “I’m sorry. So, so sorry.” She was babbling a little now, caught in a mudslide of emotions that she’d locked away so long ago that she almost forgot they were there. Until Tobin brought them all back. The love, the laughter, the regrets. So many regrets.
    God, if only she could go back and start all over again.
    She looped her arms behind his neck and cried into his shoulder. Cried enough to put the rain cloud outside to shame, babbling the whole time. “I’m sorry, Tobin. So sorry.”
    “Shhh,” he whispered, holding her close.
    She shook her head. Six years, she’d denied him those words. It was time to make it up, or start making it up. Trying, at least. If only she could find something more powerful than words.
    “It’s okay,” he whispered, running a hand over her back.
    She shook her head. “It will never be okay.”
    “It will if you let it.”
    She looked up, jaw a little slack. There it was — one of those little tidbits of Tobin wisdom that popped out of nowhere and walloped her over the head.
    He cupped her face with both hands and looked into her eyes. “It’s okay, Cara. Let it be okay.”
    Was it really as simple as that?
    Deep blue eyes promised her it was, even as her soul continued to wrestle with the idea.
    He sighed a little, then brought the towel up to dab her cheek. “Now you’re wet all over again.”
    She put her hands over his. “You are a prince. A true prince.”
    He threw his head back and laughed. Laughter like a ray of sunshine in a very dark place. “No prince.”
    “A prince. A gentleman,” she insisted. Because there she was, clinging to him like a child to a teddy bear, while Tobin held back. She could feel the restraint, feel him quivering for more than just a comforting kind of hug. He’d been exactly the same, their very first night. One thin strand of valor tried desperately to put on the brakes while desire poured off him in waves.
    His smile faded. “I’ve given up on gentleman. It just doesn’t pay.”
    Her chest tightened, hearing the truth in his words. Doing the right thing had only gotten him stung, again and again. But even so, he didn’t give up. That was the thing about Tobin: easygoing teddy bear on the outside, knight in shining armor within.
    She nuzzled up, her cheek to his, and rubbed back and forth against the stubble.
    “Mmmm.” A happy humming sound came from his chest. “Nice.”
    Very nice, so she did it some more. Eased up on her death grip of his shirt and slid her hands across the intersecting layers of muscle on his back. The happy hum was coming from her now. She nosed his ear. He smelled so good. Felt so good to have him this close again.
    “Beware, m’lady,” he whispered. “There be dragons in there.”
    Her heart thumped harder. “You want me to stop?”
    “Only if you want to stop.”
    Like that was going to happen.
    He looked at her more intently than she ever remembered him doing before. A new and different Tobin. Wounded, even if he didn’t admit it. Wary. She’d done all that to him.
    But maybe, just maybe, she could undo parts of it again.
    She rapped her knuckles gently against his brow. “Knock, knock. Let the other Tobin out.”
    His eyes were closed, his whole body still. Only his lips moved. “What other Tobin?”
    The one who loves me
, she almost said, but settled for something more neutral. “The one who knows just how to touch me.”
    The hand he’d left against her chest twitched, and a whole cheering section went off in her mind.
    “The one who kisses me, over and over and over again,” she whispered, running her lips along his