“I needed to. Not everything was totally bad. She loved me, and sometimes she’d hug me so hard I could feel that love deep inside.” She’d only been able to talk about this to Rosie and Chi. And now, after all these years, she was telling Matt. “How do you remember your parents?” In all the things they’d spoken of so far, they hadn’t shared this.

His hand flexed over hers, and she thought he might not answer until finally he said in a quiet voice, “I prefer to remember what it was like in Susan and Bob’s house.”

She melted for him, for the little boy who’d never found what he needed in his own home. Knowing that made her feel even closer to him. “Everyone’s different.” She offered him comfort with the rhythmic stroke of her thumb.

For a long moment, he watched her thumb go round and round on his hand, and the heat of his skin penetrated deep inside her. Finally, he raised his gaze from their linked hands. “Karmen’s mom could be like you, wanting to remember. Let’s call her now. It’s not too late.” Without letting go of her hand, he picked up his phone again and tapped the number his investigator had texted.

Her heart choking her throat, she listened to his gentle voice, his careful explanation, and finally his thank-you.

“Tomorrow,” he said. “She’d like to talk to us. We can be down there before noon.”

Ari wanted to throw herself at him, cover him with kisses, and show him how much what he’d done for her really meant. How much he meant.

Because in her heart, there was no going back.

Chapter Nineteen

“Thank you,” she said at her hotel room door. “Not just for dinner.” She put her hand on his arm, his tendons flexing beneath her fingertips. “For everything.”

The way he gazed at her had the breath catching in her throat. But instead of kissing her the way she so badly hoped he would, he said, “Breakfast at eight sound okay? And then we’ll get on the road.”

Of course she nodded. “It sounds great.” It seemed a crime to sleep alone after all they’d shared today, but unfortunately this wasn’t a decision she could make alone.

In her room, she wandered past the huge bed to the sitting area with its small sofa and two chairs surrounding a fireplace. Turning in a circle without sitting down, she finally realized the connecting door was still open. Crossing to close it, she saw Matt standing just beyond the door, his gaze on her as if he hadn’t looked away since she’d entered her room.

He’d given her such joy—the things she’d learned about Gideon today, the potential for what she might discover tomorrow. All of it encircled Matt, his generosity, his caring.

“I almost forgot to tell you.” His voice was raw with emotion and desire. “Noah wanted me to give you a good-night kiss.”

That was all it took. She didn’t think rationally, didn’t want to remind herself that this relationship could never work unless they were both fully on board.

Her body cared only about what she wanted, needed.

Craved.

She threw herself at him, almost launching into the air, and he caught her, hauling her high against him until she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist and curled her arms around his neck. He slammed the connecting door shut and shoved her up against it, his mouth on hers, kissing her until her breath mingled with his as though they were one.

He was so hard between her legs, and she was miles beyond hot, wet, and ready. She kissed him with ferocity, hugged him tighter, moaned her need into his mouth.

Pinning her body to the door, he held her face in his hands, dropping kisses over her cheeks, her mouth, her ear, tipping her head to get at her throat. He bit her neck lightly, then trailed back to her ear, kissing her until she trembled with desire.

“What do you want?” he whispered.

“Everything.” She wasn’t afraid to admit it. But she didn’t want to go there alone. She needed him to be as fearless as she was. “What do you want?”

“You.” Something rough and potent in his voice took that single word far beyond the physical. “I want to strip you down, bare you one gorgeous inch at a time, and love you the way you deserve to be loved.”

Everything inside her turned to liquid fire under the heat of his gaze. He let her slide to the floor, stepping back to look down at her. His fingers traced her curves with barely a touch, making it all the more intoxicating.

Then he skimmed beneath the lapels of her jacket. “I looked at you across the table tonight, the lilac jacket…” He pushed it off her shoulders, let it drop to the carpet, and rested his hands at her waist. “The white shirt…” He tugged it from her jeans, began drawing it up, the backs of his fingers hot against her skin.

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even say his name to beg for more.

When he pulled the cotton over her head, he stared down at her with such heat in his eyes that she felt spotlighted by his desire. As if she were the only woman he wanted, the only one he’d ever want.

“There it is,” he whispered. “All that pretty purple lingerie. I saw the hint of it beneath your shirt, and you have no idea what that did to me.” He slid one finger beneath the strap of her bra, brushing down, coming perilously close to her nipple as he dipped into the cup. Then he pulled the straps off her shoulders, letting them hang a moment down her arms. Decadent. Sexy.

Unbearably erotic.

He toyed with her, his hands at the zipper of her jeans, driving her crazy. Finally, he slipped the top button loose. “I wonder if your panties match that lovely lilac.” He drew on the zipper, hissed out a breath as he saw the fabric of her panties. “Hell, yes. You can make a man wild with imagining what’s beneath all these clothes.” Then he hooked his fingers inside her waistband and stripped off her jeans. All the way down, going on his haunches before her. “God, you’re beautiful.”

He pulled everything off, including her shoes, as she braced herself on his shoulder. His skin burned even through his shirt. Then he looked up at her, his gaze following the length of her body, his eyes as hot as a wildfire. Rising slowly, he let his fingers take the path his gaze had moments before. She trembled for him.

“I need to touch you.” He seduced her with his words, his heat, the way he snapped open her bra in the front and moved to circle her nipple with one possessive stroke. She was naked except for the tiny bikini panties.