The Harder They Fall

Sixteen

“Oh, my.”

His grin widened.

“I – I thought you were at work.”

“Nope.” With a lift of his wrist, he showed her the handcuff, which he’d used to cuff himself to her headboard. “No work. As you can see, I’m… rather tied up at the moment.”

Trisha, eyes wide, drank in the sight of Hunter’s long, powerful body tied to the bed by his own will. Gloriously, magnificently nude. It was incredible, he was incredible. But what really caught her eye was the look in his. The calm, controlled certainty was back in those green depths, and added in was what she’d been waiting so long to see.

He winked.

Her knees wobbled. “Oh, my,” she said again.

He laughed. Laughed. To Trisha, it was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard. The fist that had clenched tight around her heart slowly loosened.

“Hunter,” she said quite steadily, in complete disregard of the pattering of her heart. “Not that you don’t look quite splendid…” She ran her eyes down the length of him. “But what are you doing?”

“Catching a cold.” His eyes shone with a teasing amusement, and much, much more. “Come here, Trisha.”

Again, her gaze ran over him, stretched out so comfortably, so relaxed, so… ready, willing, and able. Very able, she thought as her breath stammered in her throat.

Her knees touched the bed without her having any conscious memory of walking across the room. Hunter watched, his gaze searing and laughing and needy all at the same time. It reminded her of Duff suddenly, and how he always sprawled on his back when he wanted his belly rubbed. But the man sprawled out before her had the sleek, powerful body of a cougar, not a housecat. Still, she laughed.

“Anybody ever tell you that you could seriously damage a man’s ego if you stare at him and laugh?” Hunter asked conversationally, not looking insulted in the least. “Especially when he’s in the altogether.”

“I’m sorry.” But she giggled again. “I didn’t quite have this in mind when you took the cuffs.”

“I know.” He reached up and grasped one of her hands with his free one. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, you did that.”

“Trisha, I’m sorry.”

“For tying yourself to my bed?”

“No. For hurting you.”

Her amusement drained. “You didn’t do it on purpose.”

“No,” he agreed solemnly. “I didn’t. But it doesn’t change the fact that I withdrew when you needed me, refused to give you what I should have given from the beginning.”

“Give me what?”

“My heart.”

“Oh. That.” She shrugged as if it didn’t matter, but of course it did. And his words touched her deeply. “You’ve done what you could.”

“No.” He swallowed and stared at her ceiling. “Even now you’re willing to think the best of me. Do you have any idea how humbling that is? Especially since I don’t deserve it.” With a deep breath, he met her gaze again. “I never gave you the same courtesy, Trisha. And all along, you thought that was because I didn’t feel anything for you. But I did, I do, I was just a coward.”

“Well…” She shrugged. “I am a little different. Compared to what you’re used to -”

“No,” he said in a harsh voice laced with soft tenderness. “Don’t defend me, it was unforgivable. Doubting you, doubting us…” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I haven’t been fair. I’ve purposely held back from you, while you gave me everything you had.”

She stared unblinking at their linked fingers. “Why are you telling me this now?” she whispered, afraid to hope, unable to hold it back.

He brought her knuckles to his mouth, kissed her gently. “I can’t do it anymore, Trisha. I’ve been lying to myself all along, telling myself I could control this, but I couldn’t. It terrified me, to feel so open, so… exposed.”

“It was the handcuffs,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

“Maybe.” He let out a little laugh. “Somehow you made me feel even more vulnerable, stripped of every ounce of control and all inhibitions.” He laughed again. “But God, it was good.”

“So you decided to come back for seconds.” She nodded to the cuffs.

“I thought maybe this would show how seriously I intended to fix the problem.” He shrugged, an eloquent smile playing about his lips. “The key is on top of your dresser. I’m not going anywhere now, unless you let me go.”

Helplessly, she smiled back. “What if I never do?”

His smile was slow and devastating. “I was hoping you wouldn’t.”

Was he offering her everything she’d ever wanted? “Why? What has changed?”

“Time. The constant nightmares of your leaving. Waking up alone in the mornings, when I knew I could have had you in my arms. Coming home at night and wishing you were there, waiting for me, blaring music and all.”

“I was,” she said quietly. “Waiting for you.”

“I was afraid,” he admitted. “So deathly afraid you’d turn me away. I’d done it to you often enough.”

Self-conscious for some strange reason, considering that it was Hunter who was naked, she pulled her hand free and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Are you all right?” he asked softly, gazing up at her. “After last night -”

“So I didn’t dream it,” she said a little breathlessly. “I wondered, when I woke up and found you gone.”

“You don’t wake up easily in the morning,” he said. “When I said we had to get up for work, you mumbled something about my early demise if I wouldn’t be quiet and go away.”

Vaguely she remembered grumbling at the big, warm hand that had tried to gently shake her into awareness. “I was tired.”

“You haven’t been sleeping well either, I suppose. God, I’m so sorry, Trisha.”

So fast that it startled a gasp from her, his free wrist snagged hers, and tugged. She fell on him, her hair curtaining his face. Propping herself up on his chest with her elbows, she stared down at him, very aware of his sinewy body stretched beneath hers.

“Say you forgive me,” he beseeched, running his free hand slowly down the delicate bones of her spine.

His touch made her shiver. “For what?”

“For being so slow and dim-witted that I fought this -” He broke off to kiss her until she was dazed.

But still he offered no word about what this all meant, if the flicker of hope and joy in her heart would be extinguished or stoked. “Hunter,” she said slowly, her insides starting to turn to jelly from the sizzling heat they generated between them. “Maybe I’m a little slow, but couldn’t you have just told me you’re sorry for hurting me and left it at that?” Unable to keep the hurt from her voice, she went on, “Did you have to” – she bit her lip – “tease me? Remind me -”

“Remind you of what’s between us?” he finished gently, cradling her face with his one free hand. “Yes, I had to. I wanted you to have it all in your head when I told you for the first time.”

Her heart stopped. “Told me what?”

“How I love you with all my stubborn, cautious heart.” He smiled again. “How I’ll love you with that same unbending, rigid organ for the rest of my days.”

“Oh,” she exclaimed, her bones dissolving at the words she’d waited so long to hear. Suddenly weak, she dropped her forehead to his chest, her eyes filling with joyous, scalding tears.

“Trisha,” he whispered, his own eyes misting as he watched her. He lifted her face. “Please, don’t cry. Anything but that. Throw something at me, smother me with your pillow, just don’t cry.”

The sob escaped her before she could control it, and his face twisted in a grimace. For the first time, he reached for her with both hands, then swore when he remembered the cuffs. “I’m too late, then,” he said flatly, mistaking her tears, his face pale as the white sheet beneath him. “I’m so sorry I hurt you, I -”

Startled out of her joy, she stared at him. “You think I -” Gulping, she sat up next to him and swiped at her wet cheeks with the back of her hand. Then she laughed. “You love me.” She laughed again. “You silly man. You love me.”

Reaching up, his thumb carefully wiped at a lingering tear. “Does it always make you cry when someone says that?”

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard it,” she said, smiling from ear to ear. “And I’m not crying because I’m sad or hurt. These are happy tears.” Unable to contain her pleasure and joy, she surged off the bed, dancing back a step when he reached for her.

“Come here,” he demanded, smiling helplessly when she giggled and shook her head. “What are you doing – oh, my God.”

She’d whipped off her top. The love swelling her heart made her giddy, intoxicated. With a wicked smile, she palmed the key from the dresser, slipped out of her shoes, then her skirt, laughing a little breathlessly when he murmured another heartfelt oath at his inability to reach her. “Your own fault,” she whispered as she slid off her stockings and underwear. She lay down on the bed, snuggling close when he wrapped his arm around her.

He yelped when she pressed her cold feet to his, then moaned when her quickly warming body slid against him.

“I’m so glad,” she whispered, kissing his throat.

He rubbed his cheek to hers. “That I love you?”

“That you’re just stubborn, not completely out of control. I’d hate to think you’d compromise yourself this way for just a date.”

She reached up to free his hand, then squeaked in surprise when his hand came free of its own accord. “What -”

“I never clicked them closed.” He grinned, a light, carefree grin she’d never seen before. “I wasn’t sure you’d have mercy on me.”

“You weren’t crying for mercy last time,” she reminded him, gasping when a hand slid down her spine, cupped her bottom. His fingers stayed, dallied until she gasped his name. Slowly, those fingers slid back up.

“Mercy,” he whispered. “God, I love you.”

She sighed as both his strong arms came around her. “I love you back, Hunter.”

“I was counting on that,” he said, the nerves back in his velvety voice. He looked at her, his usual composure and confidence gone. “Trisha.”

Smiling, she lifted a shoulder. “What?”

“It took me a while to figure this all out, but as stubborn as I am, it’s for keeps.”

“What – what is?”

Lifting the fist he’d just freed, he turned it over, showing her his palm.

In its big center sat a huge diamond ring.

“When I look at you, I see my future,” he said softly. He kissed her long and tenderly. “When I touch you, I know peace, the first I’ve had in a long time, if ever. You make me whole, Trisha.”

“You do the same for me,” she managed, her gaze glued to the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen.

“Then will you marry me, and make me whole for the rest of our lives?”

“Oh, my.”

He smiled and took her hand. “I sure hope that’s a prelude to yes, because I don’t think I’ll make it without you.”

Her eyes filled and ran over as she stared at him dreamily, picturing their children running around the house, all replicas of their daddy, with his expressive green eyes, his capacity to love, his understanding.

“You have to say yes,” he said a little urgently, clearly taking her silence for hesitation. “Who else will help me turn this duplex into the home it was meant to be?”

“I’ll marry you,” she said with a laugh. “Because I love you with everything I have. But as far as turning this house into a home…” She took a breath and plunged. “I might have given you just a little head start on that one. You see, I had this little accident today with the roof. But it’s no problem. All you have to do is -”

His bark of laughter drowned out her next words.