Love Proof (Laws of Attraction) - By Elizabeth Ruston Page 0,59

snoring softly, with his hand curled possessively around her thigh, gripping it even in his sleep.

If she was awake, he should be, too.

She drummed her fingers against his arm.

“Subtle,” Joe murmured.

“It’s still my birthday,” she pointed out.

Joe groaned and rolled onto his side. He looked into Sarah’s eyes. “You’re so beautiful. I never get tired of looking at you.” He ran a hand over her shoulder, then down her arm. “You’re so different now.”

Sarah leaned back and let him explore. She had never been shy about her body around Joe. He claimed it so completely their first day together, she didn’t see the sense in trying to hide it.

He cupped her breasts in his hands, kneading them softly, looking at them under the glow of the bedside lamp. He kissed the peak of each breast in turn. “I like how rosy your nipples are. Your lips turn the same color if we’ve been kissing for a long time—did you know that?”

“No.” But she liked that he noticed. He never mentioned that before.

He smoothed his hands down the sides of her waist. Then he poked the tight muscles of her abdomen. “I like that.”

“My trainer said I used to be ‘skinny fat’ when I first came in,” Sarah said. “Thin, but no muscle tone.”

“I liked it then,” Joe said, kissing along the sides of her belly, “and I like it now.” He kissed the pale skin just below her belly button, then turned his head and rested his cheek there. Sarah laid her hand gently on top of his head. She stroked his short hair, then spread her palm softly against his cheek. Joe wrapped his arms around her waist and the two of them lay like that for a while.

It felt completely natural, Sarah thought, to be with him like this: tender, loving, no different from how the two of them had been toward each other all those nights and days of their seven weeks together. She felt no need to be cagey or smart-mouthed or self-protective in any way.

Because once she made the decision in the lobby of her hotel to give herself this one night, she let go of any of the barriers that held her back. She could erect them again in the morning, but for now, for these next few hours, she just wanted to feel him, to let herself be free with him, to give herself this gift and not hold anything back—not from herself, and not from Joe.

She caressed the sensitive area behind his ear, knowing what he would do. He raised his head from her belly and climbed back up to where their mouths could meet once again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts against his chest, and angled her hips so that she stroked him without taking him in.

Joe moaned. And grabbed her cheeks to control the motion. Sarah felt a familiar laugh bubbling in her throat. The two of them had become expert at the tease, both trying to hold off longer than the other, to make the other one beg, to be the one who gave in when the other couldn’t bear waiting another second more.

Abruptly Joe pulled away and strode toward the bathroom. He returned with a handful of condoms.

“Joe…” Sarah said with a laugh.

“I wanted to be ready,” he said. “In case you ever said yes.”

“How long have you been waiting?” she asked.

“Six years.”

Her expression darkened. And one of the barriers instantly went back up. “I’m serious, Joe. You need to be careful here.”

“All right, then,” he said, “two months. Does that make you feel better?”

Sarah nodded. And tried to shake off that flash of momentary anger.

“Do you have any good ideas?” Joe asked.

“About?”

“What comes next.”

“Lots of them,” Sarah said. And if Joe meant something else, she didn’t want to know it as she reached for him again to take what she had been missing for far too long.

Twenty-four

“Sarah.”

“Mmm.”

“We have to get up.”

She snuggled deeper into the cradle of his arms as he spooned her from behind.

“Sarah.” He kissed her shoulder. “We really have to get up.”

She heard the alarm, too, and knew he was right. They had to be at the airport by six-thirty, and she still needed time to return to her hotel, shower and change, pack, and turn in the rental car.

But it seemed impossible in that moment to leave the comfort of his body.

Joe kissed her one more time, then let her go and climbed out of bed. She watched