The Best Man to Trust - By Kerry Connor Page 0,65

she knew who he was inside, the man beneath the flawless exterior.

And found him staring back at her, his deep blue eyes focused intently on her face, like he couldn’t get enough of looking at her.

Like she was beautiful, too.

Happiness soared through her in a rush and she smiled, unable to keep the feeling off her face. He returned it, his lips widening in a big, open grin, and kissed her again.

Their bodies moved in tandem, building in rhythm and speed, matching the growing intensity of the emotions pounding through her. There was so much. Arousal and desire and need. Excitement and happiness and wonder. The feeling of all of them clashing together was heady, intense, a giddy swirl of so many emotions and sensations building inside her, the pressure growing. She couldn’t breathe. It was too much. Each moment built to more, more pleasure, more wonder, more everything. Until finally she couldn’t take it any longer. She erupted, feeling him explode with her, in her, around her at the same moment, in a flood of sensation.

And as they came down together and she clung to him, basking in every moment, she felt one thing above all else.

Joy.

* * *

“AS IF I DIDN’T hate the idea of leaving you enough already...”

Curled up by Tom’s side, her cheek resting on his chest, Meredith smiled. “I hate it, too, but it has to be done. The phones are still down. The only way we’re going to get out of here is to get the road cleared.”

He exhaled, his breath brushing over the top of her head. “I know. But there has to be a way of keeping you safe when I’m not here....”

The delicious warmth of what they’d just shared began to fade. Here they were again. Back to this.

She understood the motivation behind the words, knew that he genuinely cared about her, but they still rankled. “I told you, I’m just going to have to take care of myself. I know I didn’t do the best job of it today,” she added quickly when she felt him start to interrupt, “but I’ll just have to be more careful. I can do this. I have to do this.”

“Why?” he asked, his frustration clear. “Why do you have to do this on your own? I wouldn’t want to be on my own in a situation like this with no one having my back.”

“But you would do it if you had to, wouldn’t you? And I bet no one would question your ability to.”

“That’s not what I’m doing—”

“Yes, it is. And I can’t depend on you or Adam or anyone else to save me.” Even she could hear the note of desperation in the words and wished she could take them back.

He was silent for a long moment. “This isn’t really about me not thinking you can take of yourself, is it? It’s about proving it to yourself.”

She couldn’t answer, the admission too humiliating.

“What is this really about? Brad?”

Damn. She should have known he’d figure it out. “I can’t be that weak again,” she whispered. “I can’t.”

He fell quiet again. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough. “You said you were married to Brad for four years. How much of that time was he hurting you?”

Meredith sucked in a breath against the sudden onslaught of memories. “He always had a temper, but we’d been married about six months the first time he hit me.”

From his silence, he was letting that piece of information sink in. “Why didn’t you leave him sooner?” he asked, his voice rough.

A lump lodged her throat. She knew the answer. She’d spent plenty of time thinking about those years and her own motivations during them. That didn’t mean it was any easier to admit.

She had to force the words out. “Because I loved him.” She nearly winced, knowing how stupid and pathetic and utterly absurd that had to sound. “I know that doesn’t make sense. How could anyone love somebody who’d do that...who’d treat them like that? But I did. He was everything to me. From the first time I saw him I was amazed that somebody that handsome and confident would be interested in me.” She swallowed against the humiliation she could feel climbing in her throat. “Sometimes I wonder how much I felt for him was just awe. I never thought someone like that would give me the time of day, and when he did, there was a part of me that was just pathetically grateful for