Page 138

“It’s not. It’s not for you. Or you,” she said to Lydia. “And it’s not for Gideon, either. I swear to you. It’s for me. Because it’s what I want.”

She went down the stairs, and headed out the front door. “Where are you going?” Fia asked.

“I’m going to go see Gideon. I think I’m going to tell him that I love him.”

And then she got into her car, and drove to his house.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

HEWASSITTINGthere in one of the kitchen chairs when headlights appeared in the driveway.

He stood up and went to the door, his body tense.

He knew who it was. It could only be Rory, but he had expected her to be spending the evening with his sister. She’d said she was packing for Boston. Weeding out her clothes, and things like that.

The countdown was on.

For him to start his new life, for her to start hers.

For them to be realistic.

She flung the door open, without knocking. And then she was in his arms before he could ask what she was doing here.

She kissed him, and he kissed her back.

Whatever he’d just been thinking, the dark thoughts about it all ending, they evaporated in the heat of the moment. Her mouth was confident, she was confident.

In the last couple of weeks, Rory had transformed into a demanding and bold lover.

He’d never experienced anything like it.

She gave what she got, and she was never performing.

And that in and of itself was the most attractive thing he could even think of.

And when she kissed him, right now, she went for broke.

It was deep and delicious and wonderful. It was just the two of them. And never for show.

He’d been in a relationship where half of it had always been for show.

Where half of what they got out of it was what other people might feel when they saw them together. Envy. Because they were successful and attractive and desirable.

And he knew that his wife had gotten a whole lot out of that. But Rory kissed him with her eyes closed tight, and Rory kissed him in secret.

And he had never been anyone’s secret. He had been someone they trumpeted to the world.

Until he had just one flaw. A big one, but still.

It had taught him a little something about when he mattered and why.

But Rory made it feel different.

Rory kissed him just to kiss him.

And that was a hell of a thing.

He stripped her shirt off her, admired her glorious curves.