The man who looked at her with exasperation at times, but always with honest emotion. Even if she couldn’t always identify that emotion.
The man she loved.
“I haven’t wanted to move in with you, because I love you, Tristan.”
He took a step back. His arms fell from his chest and he looked at her as if she’d surprised him.
What had he expected?
“Should I not have said that?”
He shook his head. Then rubbed a hand over his forehead. “I was not expecting that.”
“You weren’t? Everyone knows how I feel about you.”
Sheri felt so incredibly vulnerable right now. She wrapped both arms around herself, holding herself as tightly as she could.
“Everyone?”
“Well, Ava noticed, and she hardly knows me at all. I’m pretty sure Lucille knows. She picked up on it the first time we spoke on the phone. Even your friend Gui knows. And I didn’t have to tell him, either, he just guessed.”
She didn’t expect Tristan to love her back. Oh, man, what if that was what he was afraid of? “I don’t expect you to love me.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe in more than one love in a lifetime.”
“I know that. I think that’s part of the reason I love you so much. I want to fill up that emptiness you have.”
Tristan walked over to her then. He took her shoulders in his hands and drew her toward him. His mouth came down on hers, heavy. He kissed her so deeply and with so much passion she couldn’t help but respond.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and simply held on to him. He was in complete control and he made her forget everything. But she felt so much more now. It was as if, in admitting her love for him, she was finally free to let go of all the barriers she’d been keeping between them.
His tongue brushed hers and she moaned deep in her throat as shivers of awareness spread down her body. She moved closer to him. Needed to feel his body pressed up against hers.
Tristan lifted his head. “Thank you for loving me.”
She couldn’t help but smile at the polite way he said that. “You’re welcome.”
He brushed a strand of hair from her face and stared down at her with such seriousness that she felt a pang deep inside.
“There isn’t a lack of love in my life, ma petite. There is a burned-out hole where my heart used to be, and I’m afraid no amount of love will ever bring it back.”
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