Still Here: A Secret Baby Romance by Kaylee Song, Laura Belle Peters

asked.
    “My dignity.” It staggered me. I wasn’t expecting that answer, but I couldn’t blame her.
    Hell, I knew what she was talking about. No other woman caught and held my attention like she did. I’d torn through half the town looking to lose her memory after she left.
    I was known for those exploits. The things I did, the way I treated those women. I didn’t call any of them afterwards.
    They were disposable, but she wasn’t. How could I make her see that.
    “Rose, I would never take your dignity from you,” I said slowly. I didn’t push away from her, I didn’t let go, but I didn’t pull her closer either.
    “How can you promise that? I’ve heard the rumors. I know the man you used to be, and from what I’ve been told you haven’t changed much.”
    “If you really believed that you wouldn’t be here right now, would you?” I asked, my eyes flashing.
    I would steal all the kisses I could from her, but I wouldn’t leave her feeling like I’d taken advantage of her.
    I wanted this to be her choice. Not the night or the attraction to be to blame. It had to be all her.
    I would show her one hell of a night if she would just look up into my eyes and say yes. Dammit, that’s all I needed from her. One more night.
    “I don’t know what to believe. Sometimes I look into your eyes and I see something more. But sometimes they are just… hungry.”
    I was hungry for her, that’s for damn sure.
    “Do you want me?” I asked.
    “What?” she blinked back at me, unsure of what to say.
    “Don’t worry about anyone else is saying, Rose. Listen to this,” I pointed to her heart, “and this,” I pointed to her head. “You tell me what you want. I’ll do that. But I’m not going to answer to the townsfolk or anyone else. Just you.”
    I knew I had her all confused and turned upside down, but I didn’t care. I wanted her to know that no matter what I cared about what she thought. Not anyone else.
    I’d sworn off their opinions a long-ass time ago.
    “I don’t know what I think,” she admitted. But I wasn’t going to take that for an answer.
    “You do know, Rose. You just need to listen. You need to trust.” I caressed her cheek and waited for the answer.
    “I do want you,” she admitted, finally. “It might be the end of me but I do.”
    I closed the space between us and kissed her, hard. I wasn’t going to let her get away. Let this moment get away. Dammit, no matter how hard I tried my mind kept going back to her.
    So did my heart.
    She knocked the wind out of me the moment I saw her. I had to convince her to let me love her the way I wanted to.
    She might not see it yet, but she would eventually. I was sure of it.
    The sun had long since gone down, the blanket of stars looking down on us as I kissed her. As I willed her to feel what I was feeling.
    She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me even closer.
    “My place?” I asked after another long moment.
    “I have an apartment, it’s closer,” she answered. My place was all the way across town.
    “Where?” I asked.
    “Off of spruce,” she said as she kissed my neck. “Got the keys yesterday, all it has in it is a bed.”
    “That’s all we need.”

Chapter Eight
    H is hand found the door knob as he pressed me up against the door, his body covering mine. It swung open and we tumbled inside, unwilling to let anything come in-between our bodies.
    Even reason.
    I didn’t care when he threw me up against the wall and gave me what I guessed would be a bruise on my elbow, or when he pulled me away from it and picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his torso and let him carry me into the bedroom.
    We were a tangle of limbs and clothing and steaming hot breath as we fought like hell to pull off every piece of clothing we were wearing. They somehow ended up in a jumble on the floor as we danced across the floor onto that bed.
    Well, bed was a little bit generous. It was nothing moe than a mattress on the floor, but it didn’t