only a slow, gentle love. The kind of love she'd never thought she'd have again. They slide-stepped to the corner of the room, and as one, they slowly lowered to the air mattress.
Long, deep kisses broken by a slow slide of fabric filled her with a single fixation. Brody. He swamped her senses. His taste and smell surrounded her as certainly as his hard muscles surrounded her and shielded her from the outside world. How had she ever doubted this man or his love? Unbidden tears flooded her eyes.
"Hey, what's this?" His fingertip traced an escaped tear.
"I'm so sorry." The emotion of this second, with him, splintered her into a million shards.
He pushed her hair back away from her face and his eyes penetrated her soul. The honesty of his searching stare took her breath away. "We're past that. All is forgiven. We have each other. We have our future. We live in the here and now."
"Then no condom. I'm on the pill. I want all of you." Pieces of the past evaporated in the moment; carried away on his absolute forgiveness and love. He lowered to kiss her and entered her at the same time. She clung to his shoulders and arched under him. Oh, yes. This was heaven. Her heart shattered, but not in pain this time. Brody had obliterated what remained of her heart, but with each touch, kiss, and breath he restored her. Each fragment built on the next. The past annihilated, the future renewed.
His breath left goose bumps when it moved across her overheated skin. There was an absence of words, but not a lack of communication. He spoke in the way he touched her, and her answers were composed by her responses to those gentle hands, lips, and tongue. Unfettered and unrestrained by the past, she focused all her attention on the man who still loved her.
They climaxed together and, completely spent, drifted for several long moments before he whispered the words that set her world on its axis and made the stars shine in the heavens.
"I loved you then; I love you now, and I'll love you and Gage, unconditionally, until the day I die."
Chapter 17
Brody shook Erik Edelman's hand. "Nice to meet you."
The guy was as tall as he was, and he looked damn tired. The luggage he was toting under his eyes could be used as steamer trunks.
"And you." Erik returned. "Sorry for being late tonight, but business has been crazy. The boss is in a snit, which makes telling him things he doesn't want to hear difficult." The man rolled his eyes. "He's on a tear, and thankfully, I made it out of the meeting intact." The man downed half his beer in one go.
"I take it his bite is worse than his bark?"
"Oh, hell yeah. But, enough about me. What is it you do?"
They moved to a large wrought iron table and scooted the chairs away from the table to sit.
"We have a couple businesses. Digital storage and website design." He took a drink of his beer and prayed Erik didn't have a clue about either.
Erik shook his head. "I use computers as a tool. I can muddle through all the programs, but if you ask me to go farther than that, I'm lost."
"Which keeps me in business." He hoisted his beer in Erik's direction. "So, what do you fly?" He pointed to the hangar.
Erik's face lit up. "My Piper? Clare calls her my girlfriend. She's a beauty. Would you like to see her?"
"Definitely." He caught Amber's eye as she talked with Clare and nodded to the hangar. Amber smiled and waved at him, drawing a knowing smile from Clare. The women laughed as they headed down the flagstone path. Erik had a spring in his step as they walked toward the flight line.
"Ah, is that the famous greenhouse?" He pointed to a large glass or Plexiglas building, perhaps sixteen feet long and ten feet wide.
"Yes, it is. It's a kit, believe it or not, and it only took three weekends to put together. She loves her plants. Hell, she can plant a dead stick and make it grow. That's her hobby, and this is mine." Erik disabled the alarm and opened the door to the hangar. He reached in and flipped on the overhead lights.
He whistled. "Nice." He walked up to the plane. "Three blade, constant speed propeller?"
"Damn straight. She's got a 350 HP engine and pressurized cabin up to twelve thousand feet."
Brody nodded. "Light emitting diodes." He