Natural Blond Instincts

19

KENNA WOKE UP to the early sun shining in her face. Squinting, she sat up and blinked.

She was naked, still in bed. But not hers.

The room was warm from the rays blaring in the window. The scent of the ocean wafted in, too, ruffling the gauzy curtains.

There were other sights. Three discarded condom packets on the nightstand. And Wes’s pillow, which she’d stolen, lay in her arms. Like a silly lovestruck teen, she smashed her face into it, inhaling deeply. She couldn’t wait to hold him again, couldn’t wait to look into his eyes and-

Hold it.

The scent of bacon and something cinnamony came to her then, and she lifted her face in time to see a shirtless Wes slipping back into the room, holding a tray. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, so he was giving her that adorable, sexy, squinty-eyed-look that told her he was straining to see.

She was glad for the lack of glasses on his part, because it hit her right then, like a one-two punch.

She’d fallen all the way in love with him. Heart-pounding, pulse-drumming, howling-at-the-moon, crazy-about-him love.

Clearly mistaking her half awed, half horrified expression for lust, he grinned wickedly and set down the tray. “Hungry?”

“Um…yeah.” She put a hand to her belly, knowing it wasn’t hunger pangs making it quiver.

“You’re going to sidetrack me from my mission,” he said hoarsely, staring at her body as he put a knee on the bed.

The top button of his jeans was undone, and feeling shameless, she reached for the others. So she’d fallen in love with him. So what? He didn’t have to love her back, not right now, not yet, not as long as he kept looking at her like that.

“Wait.” He put a hand over hers on his jeans.

He looked suddenly so nervous that she sat back. She would have reached for the sheet to cover herself, but he’d sat on it. “About last night,” he said.

Oh, no. Nothing good ever started that way. He was going to dump her. She tried to tug the sheet free, but Wes simply place a hand on either side of her hips and leaned over her. “Kenna-”

“I need my clothes.” They weren’t on the floor. She couldn’t be dumped while buck naked. “Wes, where are my clothes?”

“Yeah, about that, too. I’ve taken your clothes hostage.”

“This isn’t funny.”

“We’ll get to that. Kenna, you’re amazing. I want you to know that. You’re independent and smart and incredible under pressure. I love watching you work.”

She stopped craning her neck for sight of her clothes and went still. “This is about…work?” She wished he’d release the sheet because she was beginning to feel very, very naked here.

He laughed and shook his head. “Okay, no. You know what? Starting over now.” Reaching out, he drew a strand of her long hair through his fingers, smiling with a sort of soft tenderness that quite frankly stole her breath. “This is not about work. This is about what’s going on between us. I want it, Kenna. I want all of it. And I want it to be permanent.”

She forgot all about her missing clothes and stared up into his dark, dark eyes. “Did you just…in a very roundabout way…say you love me?”

“Yes.”

Her mouth went dry. Her heart, her poor confused heart, started a heavy, erratic beat. “Do you think you could say it again with the words this time?”

“Kenna.” He blew out a huff of air and hauled her up to her knees in the middle of the bed to face him. “I’m holding your clothes hostage in the same way you’re holding my heart. I’ve imagined falling in love before, it was always a sort of long-term thing, something for down the road. Far down the road.” He cupped her face. “But apparently, love isn’t something you plan for. I certainly didn’t plan this, but from the first moment I saw you-”

“Don’t you say you fell instantly for me,” she said, shaking her head, trying to back away. “I know I drove you crazy. There was nothing instantaneous about how you felt for me.”

“Oh yes,” he said with a ragged laugh. “Yes, there was. You drove me crazy, you might always drive me crazy-” He laughed again when she smacked his chest. “But God, Kenna, I’ve never felt like this for anyone, have never loved another so very much.”

It was hard to talk with her heart in her throat, but she managed. “How did I ever imagine I could walk away from you?” she wondered. “From this?”

“Walk away?” He looked startled. “You were going to walk away?”

“I didn’t know how, especially after I fell in love with you.”

“Okay, stop. I have to see for this.” He scrambled around on the nightstand for his glasses and jammed them on. “Say it again.”

“I thought it’d scare you off,” she whispered.

“Seeing?”

“No.” She laughed. “The words.”

“Hey, nothing scares me.” He rolled his eyes when she sent him a long look. “Okay, so it was a valid fear.” He put his forehead to hers. “I’m so sorry. You are going to marry me, aren’t you? Make me the luckiest man on earth?”

She pulled back. “Have you given thought to what you’d be marrying into? My father. My mother. Serena. The tortuous Monday-night family dinners-”

“I can deal with any of it, all of it.” He tugged her into his arms. “As long as you’re part of the package. Say you will.”

“I will. Oh, Wes, I so will.”

They sealed the vow with a long kiss, then Kenna pulled back and smiled. “Can I have my clothes, now?”

He ran his gaze over her and slowly shook his head. Then he tossed her back down, following her with his long, hard, powerful body. “Not…quite…yet.”