“It’s been such an amazing night…I don’t want it to be over yet.”

Dylan didn’t say anything in response, simply looked into her eyes as if he was not only trying to make sure she wasn’t just saying what he wanted to hear, but that she truly meant it.

“Stay.”

The word came out as barely more than a whisper, which wasn’t right. Not when she wanted him to stay with her tonight more than she’d ever wanted anything. It didn’t matter how quickly her nerves had risen, or that she was trembling against him. She needed him to know how much this night had—and would—mean to her.

“Please stay and make love with me, Dylan. I know we’ve only got the couch, but—”

“The couch is perfect,” he said as he stroked his hands down her back to the curve of her hips. “And don’t forget the kitchen table.” He shot a glance at the small rug in front of the gas fireplace. “The rug doesn’t look too bad, either. And that’s just the first three times.”

She laughed the way she knew he’d intended her to, and also heated up the way he clearly wanted her to, as well, from his wicked suggestions of all the places he wanted to take her.

She wanted him in all those places, too.

“You’re nervous,” he said, his voice gentle despite the heat that remained. “Tell me why.”

She was continually surprised by how much Dylan saw, and how deeply. After meeting his mother, his father, his siblings, she knew she shouldn’t be so surprised. But he was just so different from any other man she’d been with.

And still…instead of truly being able to appreciate it, and him, she found herself always holding her breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Which was why it was more than just the physical aspect of their lovemaking that had her insides spinning. Tonight had to be about total honesty between her and Dylan. Honesty might have been only one of the many things that had been absent between her and her ex, but it had been the most important.

“This is what I swore to myself I would never let happen again. This is what I’ve fought so hard against for the past year and a half.” She swallowed hard. “But instead of keeping strong, I just asked you to stay the night with me. I just begged you to make love to me. And the worst part of all is that if you were to leave right now, I’d feel emptier and more alone than I ever have before.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promised her, and the answering relief that swept through her made her knees nearly as weak as his kisses had. “You are the strongest person I’ve ever met, Grace. I know what a risk you’re taking on me tonight after the way you’ve been hurt. I know you would never give yourself to a man if you didn’t trust him. To know I’ve earned even a little of your trust, even if I don’t have nearly all of it...” He smiled down at her as he brushed the backs of his knuckles across her cheek. “I’m nervous, too.”

His confession stole what was left of her breath, especially because she knew he wasn’t just saying it to try to make her feel more at ease by putting them in the same boat.

“Why?” She covered his hand with hers and drew it down so that his palm rested flat over her heart. “Why would you be nervous?”

“Do you really want to know?”

She would have said a quick and easy yes were it not for the fact that he was looking at her in a way that no other man ever had. She’d thought she was nervous about sleeping with him, but now she was a thousand times more nervous about his answer.

And yet, just as she couldn’t have pushed out of his arms and asked him to leave, there was no way for her to pretend she didn’t want to know his why.

“Tell me,” she whispered.

His mouth curved up, just enough for his eyes to crinkle at the sides. “I’m in love with you, Grace.”

Hadn’t she known it was what he was going to say? Hadn’t she read the truth of it in the way he looked at her? In the way he touched and kissed her? In the way he treated her son as though he was the most precious child in the entire world?

But that didn’t make the impact of his words of love any less forceful.

The only way she could keep her legs from giving out beneath her was to grip his hand still pressed over her heart, while his other hand on her hip held the rest of her steady. She knew he could see how much he’d just rocked her world, even more than he’d already rocked it by simply existing. And yet, just as he’d always gently pushed her to let him into her life since the day they’d met, he didn’t let her retreat from what he’d said now, either.

“I’m so in love with you that in one week, you and Mason have already become everything to me.” He leaned in so that his cheek pressed against hers and his lips were at her ear. “That’s why I’m nervous—because I want tonight to be perfect. Completely perfect.”

His breath was warm on her sensitive skin, but she shivered at the beautiful things he was saying to her.

Beautiful, but so incredibly overwhelming.

Could she trust that what she felt really was love this time? Or was it just a deeper physical hunger than she’d ever thought to feel? And when would she stop being so frightened of making another mistake?

Grace had never been more grateful for anything in her life than she was for her son, but at the same time, she’d never withstand the kind of heartbreak she’d been through with his father again.