HER SECRET 23

‘I don’t think that’s what you really want,’ she accused. She feared he was right, that it was too late for them. But to have something as precious as this . . . she refused to believe there couldn’t be a way.

With his shirt hanging open, he stepped into his briefs. ‘To tell you the truth, darlin’, I don’t know what I want, and I can’t see any point in dragging you into all that.’

He looked down on her, lying on her side across the bed, her skin flushed and shimmering from their lovemaking. He loved the shape of her body, the ruddy hue of her skin. Fresh passion stirred in his loins.

Bending down, he pulled the sheet over her nakedness. ‘I feel something with you I’ve never felt with anyone else,’ he confessed. ‘But you deserve better than me, you always have, and we’ve both always known it. Isn’t that why you were crying the last time? That’s why I didn’t want this to happen again.’

She caught hold of his arm. ‘Matthew, I wasn’t crying because I regretted what we’d done.’

‘I saw your