The Rebound - Noelle Adams Page 0,42

I just sat in there in my house, in front of God and Marlowe, and I gave you a selfish ultimatum. I can’t believe I did that to you.”

“It wasn’t...” She trailed off. He had kind of given her an ultimatum, but it hadn’t felt like that. It had felt natural. Normal. And she was the one who hadn’t been able to do what she should have done. “It was more my fault than yours.”

“Why was it your fault?” He still had his foot on the brake, but he turned slightly in his seat to face her. “You’ve told me what you wanted from the beginning. I was the one who suddenly demanded that you give me exactly what I want even though it wasn’t what we’d agreed to. I was trying...” He took a raspy inhale. “I was trying to do better about being honest. Not trying to control the relationship by hiding what I feel. But I did it all wrong. I was still trying to control it by acting like there were only two options. And I’m so sorry I made you cry, Madeline. It’s the last thing I wanted to do.”

She was bawling again now. Couldn’t even begin to stop.

“So listen to me. I want to say what I should have said from the beginning. I’m pretty much gone on you. I didn’t mean it to happen, but it did. And I think I need...” He finally put the truck into park, still stopped at a residential intersection. “I need more than sex, if we’re going to do this. But I don’t need everything. Not right now. Not until you’re ready.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was like the doom she’d known was coming—the doom that she deserved for her irrational fears and hang-ups—had suddenly been revoked. “But I should be... if you’re ready, I should be ready too.”

“Why? Is that some sort of rule? It doesn’t work that way. Maybe we’re both on the rebound, but I’m a lot further away from my relationship than you are. And mine never hurt me the way yours did. I can wait for you, Madeline. I’m happy to wait for you. As long as you think... as long as it’s more than sex for you too, then I can wait for anything else. I promise I can. You’re not taking advantage of me. You’re not using me. This is exactly what I want. Being with you, in any way you’re able to give me. Unless you know... unless you know for sure that you can never care for me like that.”

She had to stop crying enough for her to answer his earnest declaration. She’d never seen eyes as nakedly tender as his. It took a minute to control her emotion enough to speak. “I... I do. Care for you like that.”

With a ragged sound, he reached over to grab one of her hands. “You do?”

“Yes. I do. It’s more than sex for me too. I want more. I do. I’m just so scared...” Her tissue was sopping wet now and couldn’t absorb any more tears, so she had to make do with her sleeve. “I was a girlfriend for so many years, and it was... it was so hard. So soul-sucking. I never felt like myself. It never made me happy.”

Ken reached into the side pocket on his door and pulled out a stack of fast-food paper napkins, which she accepted gratefully. “I know that. I know you’re scared. I get it. I understand. You don’t have to be my girlfriend. We don’t have to call it that. Not right now and not ever if that’s not what you want. I just want to be with you, and I want it to mean something.”

“It does,” she whispered from behind one of the napkins.

“It does?”

She nodded, almost smiling now as a swell of deep joy started to rise inside her. “It does. You do. You mean so much to me.”

He made a sound that was a half-relieved laugh and a half sob. He raised her free hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against the knuckles. “That’s all I need.”

“Are you sure? Because the last thing I want to do is make you unhappy.”

“Seriously? Do I look unhappy to you?”

One look at his face proved that unhappiness was the last thing in the world he was feeling. She’d never seen Ken—or any man—look the way he did right now. Like something huge was bursting out of