Love Me by Bella Andre Page A

was her turn for her grin to fal away at his potent statement. And when he fol owed it up with, “I don't know what I would do if you left, Janica,” she was pretty sure al the breath left her lungs. Again, it wasn't love, but it was something. Something more than she'd ever thought to hear him say to her, to have him feel for her. Especial y considering the way he'd practical y been trying to force her out the door before their walk on the beach, when he'd been an apple and she'd been an orange.
    But when she looked at him, she could see that there was stil something more.
    “Say it al , Luke. You don't have to hold back with me.”
    She could see his brain trying to take over. She moved one hand from his stomach to his heart.
    “Keep talking from here, not up there,” she said, nodding at his head.
    “I just want to be with you. For the next few days without any—” He cut himself off again. “Fuck, I suck at this, don't I?”
    “Kind of,” she teased, then decided to let him off the hook by saying, “Are you trying to tel me that you just want to have fun?”
    “Fun,” he repeated, the word almost hol ow. He didn't move or speak again for a long moment. Final y, he said, “That's exactly what I want.”
    She knew what he was real y asking for. No more difficult questions. No more trying to reach inside his heart to uncover everything he kept hidden. And no more worrying about the real world or either of their opposite places in it.
    Her answer was simple. And the only one she could give. Because she wasn't strong enough to leave him. Not when she loved him so damn much it actual y hurt.
    “Okay.”
    He didn't look convinced. “I know it's a lot to ask.”
    Slowly shifting her weight down his hips to get closer to the erection that she’d felt growing against her backside during their conversation, she said, “I'm al for fun,” as she wriggled down over him. “Although in the name of ful disclosure, there is one thing, though, that I don't think I'm going to be able to promise you.”
    “Tel me,” he said, his hips shifting with hers, easily finding her wet heat.
    “I don't think I'm going to be able to stop tel ing you that I love you. ”
    With that said, she pushed down onto him, taking him al the way to the hilt.
    “I don't want you to stop,” he said.
    Surprise at his stark admission made her open up even more, both between her legs and behind her breast-bone. “I won't, Luke. No matter what.”
    But in the aftermath of their orgasms, Janica realized she didn't actual y know what he'd meant. Had he simply been tel ing her not to stop the erotic slide of her body against his because he'd been about to come?
    Or was it the outpouring of love from her heart that he didn't want to end?

Chapter Fifteen
    Luke couldn't remember feeling like this since he was a little boy. When he was with Janica, he caught snippets of freedom. Of happiness.
    And the sex was beyond great.
    Jesus, he'd never come like this, not with anyone else. He final y understood why the French cal ed it “la petite mort.” Being with Janica, taking her to the edge and then fol owing her over, almost felt like it was obliterating the dark patches inside of him, one orgasm at a time.
    The next day when they could final y stop devouring each other's bodies, they drove a couple miles down the road to go for a hike and then she made him stop at every little store and cafe on the way back to the cabin. What should have taken fifteen minutes, took over an hour. He'd never met anyone as interested in everything around her. Especial y when he knew that, if it were up to him, he would have kept his focus on the unimportant goal of getting back to the cabin to the exclusion of al else.
    In the afternoon, she apologized about having to take care of some work. He knew she was successful, but he hadn't realized quite what an extensive operation she ran until he caught snippets of her detailed conversations from the kitchen over the next few