His hold was almost bruising now. “I know you have stopped loving me. I deserve it, but I love you, baby. You are the air that I breathe. The only music my heart wants to hear. The other half of my soul. I will make you love me again. I can do it. You still want me,” he said as one hand cupped her breast with its already tight peak.
She turned her head and cupped his face between her palms so she could see into his eyes. “You love me?” she asked.
“For a long time. Since before that party I think, but to admit it would have been to admit the end of my independence. Fool that I was, I thought that mattered. Without you all the freedom in the world would be a tiny cell in a prison of loneliness.”
Her jaw dropped open. She couldn’t help it. Not only had he said he loved her, but he’d gotten positively poetic about it. “Those are pretty mushy sentiments.” She said.
He shrugged, his nature showing stronger in that moment than she had seen before. Emotion warmed his eyes and his body radiated heat just for her. “I feel mushy about you.” He said. He kissed her softly until her lips clung and then gently pulled away. “Tell me you will stay and let me teach you to love me again.”
“I’ll stay, but I can’t let you make me love you.” She said.
His expression was devastating and much too painful to witness for her to keep up her teasing.
“I already love you. I will always love you and therefore you cannot make me do something I already am…doing that is.”
She wasn’t sure that made sense, but she didn’t care because he looked like dawn was rising in his eyes.
“My beautiful Tess! I love you. I adore you.” He went into a litany of praises as he divested both of them of their clothes.
They made love on their bed, both saying words of love and need they had held back before.
When it was over, she cuddled into his side. “So, I guess this means, you really are fabulously happy about the baby.” She said.
“I am.” His smile would have melted the polar ice caps.
And just to show her how much, he made love to her again, this time touching her stomach with reverence with his hands and mouth and whispering words of love to the baby growing inside her.
Some time later, she was lying on top of him sweaty and sated. “Dash.”
“Yes, baby?”
“You really do love me?”
He sprang up, tumbling her into his lap and grasping her chin so their eyes met. “How can you doubt it?.”
“It just seems so unreal. You married me because my father forced you into it.”
Would she always remember that?
“He played matchmaker in the most unconventional way, but had I not wanted to be caught, I would not have been.” He said.
She sighed and said nothing.
“It is true. You realize I do not wish to pursue revenge on him now? I am grateful for his interference even if I was too proud to acknowledge it before.”
Could she believe him? Knowing what a shark her husband was capable of being, she shivered a little with relief on her father’s behalf. “I’m glad.” She said.
“To hurt him would hurt you and I will never again do that.”
“Guilt is stronger than the vendetta.”
He turned very serious. “Not guilt. Love. This is love.”
She so desperately wanted to have faith in his love, but perhaps that was why it was so hard to do so. He had been forced into the marriage. How could he love her like she loved him?
“Father didn’t really leave you an out.”
He shook his head. “You do not believe me, but it is true. I had repurchased most of the stock by the time of our marriage. I did not need half of your shares to control Black Shipping.”
“But you said…”
“I told you a plan I hatched in hurt and anger, not the truth of my heart, honey. I did not need the shares.”
And that truth was burning in his sexy brown eyes.
“You wanted to marry me,” she said with awe.
“Yes. So much, I was in despair you would not believe me about Olivia and leave me. I was terrified of losing you.”
The concept of him terrified seemed unbelievable, but the aftereffects lingered in his expression. “That was before you knew I wasn’t part of the blackmail plan.”
Understanding washed over her in a wave and with it came unstoppable love and belief in his love. “You wanted to make our marriage work believing I had colluded with my father to force you into it.”
That fact had gotten lost in her pain and confusion, but no male as strong as dash6 would have come to that point without being very much in love.
“I could not lose you.” His hold tightened. “You are the other half of myself. Without you, I am not a man.”
“I love you, Dash.” She said.
His eyes closed and he breathed deeply as if savoring the words. “Say it again.”
“I love you,” she repeated.
His eyes opened, burning into hers with purpose. “Always.”
“Yes.”
“And I will love you forever. I am going to make you feel like the most loved woman that ever walked the face of the earth.”
As goals went, it was a big one, but he could do it. All he had to do was keep looking at her like he was doing right now.
And she would love him like no other woman could.
Dash looked into his wife’s soft pansy gaze, his precious Tess. Her love was worth more than his pride, more than his company, more than anything else in the world to him and he would never let her forget it.
THE END
I have the most amazing readers.
Thank you so much for reading my book.