Chapter 12 #4
“What’re you up to, Chief Taylor?” Tiffany closed her eyes and sighed with pleasure, as she did every time he was near. She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the whole thing to go bad, but it only got better.
“About nine inches and growing,” he said as he always did, making her giggle—like always.
She slapped his rear, drawing a groan from him. “You’re so fresh.”
“You love me.”
“Yes, I do. I love you so much.”
“I never get tired of hearing that, baby.”
Before she knew what hit her, he was inside her, making tender sweet love to her. How did he do that? How did he walk in the room, strip out of his clothes and rev her up so easily? In the past, it had taken a lot more effort to get her in the mood. “I don’t know how you do this to me every time.”
“Do what? What am I doing?”
“Making me crazy without lifting a finger.”
He withdrew from her suddenly, making her wish she’d kept her mouth shut. “I skipped over all the preliminaries, didn’t I?”
“I don’t care. Come back.”
“In a minute.” He set out to kiss her everywhere, or so it seemed to Tiffany. By the time he entered her again, she was hovering on the brink of an explosive release, which detonated the second he pushed into her. “God, that’s hot. You make me pretty crazy, too. You know that?”
She looked up at him, so sexy and amazing, so devoted to her and her daughter, and the words tumbled out of her mouth before she took even a second to contemplate what she was saying. “When are you going to move in with us?”
He stopped moving and stared down at her, his expression unreadable. “I…ah… I didn’t know you want me to.”
Her casual shrug belied the pounding of her heart and the fear that he might say no. “You sleep here every night that you’re not working.”
“True.” Though he kept up the movement of his hips, she could tell she’d taken him out of the moment with her offer.
Determined to keep his mind on the task at hand, she ran her tongue over his nipple and bit down gently, drawing a sharp inhale that regained his attention.
He captured her mouth in a passionate kiss as he gathered her in tight against him and came hard without breaking the kiss.
For a long time afterward, he held her close.
Steeped in his familiar scent and the scratch of his late-day whiskers against her neck, Tiffany was certain she’d never been happier or more content in her life.
He’d very quickly become essential to her, and she could no longer imagine a day without him in it. Best of all, her daughter was equally smitten with their handsome cop.
“I didn’t mean to throw that out there the way I did,” she said after a long period of silence.
“You knocked the wind out of me for a second.”
She ran her hands over his back and down to cup his lovely rear. “You recovered rather nicely.”
He chuckled and raised his head to kiss her. “I did, didn’t I?”
Though she was on pins and needles waiting for his answer, she nodded and gave him a playful smile.
“The thing is…”
Tiffany’s stomach clenched the way it used to when she was with her ex-husband.
His explosive temper was something she’d never gotten used to, and her stomach had been in a constant state of upset.
She told herself Blaine was nothing like him, but she wanted it to work with him so badly.
Sometimes she wondered if she wanted it too badly.
“I’d sort of hoped we might get married,” he said.
It was Tiffany’s turn to stare at him in shock. “Married.”
“That’s what I said.” He kissed both cheeks and then her lips. “Not that this counts as an official proposal, but what would you think if I did propose?”
“I…um…I just got divorced.”
“So? Are you planning to play the field now that you’re free?”
“Of course not. You know I’m not.”
“Then why not make it official?”
“I thought we’d take baby steps.”
Blaine withdrew from her and turned onto his back, reaching for her hand and bringing it to his lips. “I understand that you’ve been through a lot, and the last thing I want is to pressure you for something you’re not ready for. But you should know I’m all in, Tiff. With you and with Ashleigh.”
Her eyes filled with tears that she blinked back because she refused to ruin this special moment by bawling. She’d done enough of that when she was married. “I love you so much. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not ready to talk about getting married again. That has nothing at all to do with you, though.”
“Okay.”
“So what do you think about baby steps?”
He turned on his side and rested his hand on her belly. “I think, besotted bastard that I am, I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give and be very, very grateful for every minute I can get with you.”
Releasing a sigh of relief, Tiffany turned into his embrace and kissed his chest. “This has been a really nice day.”
“You’ve waited a long time for the men in your life to love you the way you deserve to be loved.”
“Yes.” As much as she didn’t want to cry, she couldn’t help the tears. These were happy tears, however. They’d been a very long time coming.