She couldn’t wrap her head around this. “So if it isn’t out of duty to Mel, it isn’t something more moronically honorable as doing the ‘right thing’ since you took my ‘innocence,’ is it?”
He chuckled. “Dios, you say the funniest things. First, I don’t equate virginity with innocence. Second, your innocence seems to be almost intact. But don’t worry. I didn’t even scratch the surface of all the ways I plan to rectify that.” He nipped her nipple, had her coming off the bed with a sharp slam of pleasure. He withdrew on a sigh of satisfaction. “Any more far-fetched reasons you can come up with to explain why I’m proposing to you?”
“Why don’t you tell me your not-so-far-fetched ones?” she gasped. “And don’t say because I’m your one and only aphrodisiac. That wasn’t the case up until a few hours ago.”
“Up until a few hours ago, I didn’t know you wanted me.”
“That’s as straight-faced a lie as I’ve ever heard,” she scoffed. “I’m as transparent as the windows Consuelo keeps spotless. I showed you I wanted you weeks ago. Hell, I showed you I wanted you two minutes after I regained consciousness.”
He tasted her nipples in soft pulls as if compelled. “That you did so soon, coupled with your loss of memory, made me wonder if your mind wasn’t scrambled and you didn’t know what you wanted, or why. I thought I might be what you clung to, to reaffirm your life after surviving such a catastrophe, or because I was the one closest to you, or the one you seemed to perceive as your savior.”
She pushed his head away before her breasts-her whole body-exploded. “You are my savior, but that has nothing to do with my wanting you.” She devoured his beauty as he loomed over her, felt her core clench with the memory, the knowledge of what he could do to it. “I remember you had hordes of women you didn’t save panting for you. I think not wanting you is a feminine impossibility.”
The intimacy and seduction on his face turned off like a light, plunging her world into darkness. “So it’s only sexual for you? That’s why you wanted it to be only once?”
“Which part of me lauding your responsibility, dependability, heroism, nobility and honor didn’t you get?”
The mesmerizing heat flared back on like floodlights, making her squirm. “So you like me for my character not just my body?”
“I love you for your character.” That made that smug, male assurance falter, crack. He stared at her, stunned, almost vulnerable. She groaned. “I didn’t intend to say that, so don’t go all noble pain-in-the-derriere on me and find it more reason to-”
He crashed his lips onto hers, silencing her, wrenching keens from her depths on scorching, devouring kisses. He came fully over her body, grinding into her belly, lifting her off the bed, one hand supporting her head for his ravaging, the other at her back holding her for his chest to torment her breasts into a frenzy.
She tore her lips away before she combusted and it was too late to vent her reservations. “Please, Rodrigo, don’t feel you owe me anything. And I can’t owe you any more than I already do.”
He plastered her back to the bed, seemingly by the force of his conviction alone. “You owe me nothing, do you hear? It’s been my privilege to see to your health, my joy to have you in my home, and yes, my mind-blowing pleasure to have you in my bed.”
She started shaking again. It was too much. Loving him, needing to grab at him, to take him at his every magnificent word, blocking her mind to the fear that she’d be taking advantage of him, end up causing them both misery and heartache.
She trembled caresses over his beloved face. “I know you’re always right, but you’re totally wrong here. I owe you far more than medical care and shelter. And mind-blowing pleasure. I owe you for restoring my faith in humanity, for showing me what a family could be like, and letting me be a part of yours for a while, for stabilizing my outlook so much that I feel I will at last have a relationship with my own family, not just cynical and bitter avoidance. I owe you memories and experiences that have made me a stronger, healthier person, that will be a part of me forever. And that was before what you offered me today.”
He grabbed her hand, singed it in kisses, all lightness burned away as he, too, vibrated with emotion. “Mel’s debts…”
She rushed to make one thing clear. “I don’t know what hand I had in them, but if I had any, I’ll pay my part, I swear.”
“No, you won’t. I said I’d take care of them.”
“You’d do anything to protect your foster parents, and me, too, won’t you? And this is what I’m indebted to you for. The-the…carte blanche support. And you’re offering it forever now. And I can’t accept. I can’t burden you anymore with my problems. Any more support from you would burden me. Whatever your reasons are for offering to marry me, I have nothing to offer you in return.”
His hands convulsed in her hair, pinned her for the full impact of his vehemence. “You have everything to offer me, querida. You’ve already offered me everything and I want it all for the rest of my life. I want your passion, your friendship, and now that I know I have it, I want your love. I need your love. And I want your baby as mine. I want us to be lovers, to be a family. And the only reason I want all this is because I love you.”
She lurched so hard she nearly threw him off her. He pressed down harder, holding her head tighter to imprint her with every nuance of his confession. “I love you, mi amor, for your character and your body, for being such a responsible, dependable, heroic, noble and honorable pregnant has-been-virgin who had no idea you started a fire in me that can never be put out.”
She broke into sobs. “How can you say that? I was going to leave, and if I hadn’t almost attacked you, you would have never-”
“I would have never let you leave. Don’t you get that yet? I was going to keep shooting down your reasons and demands to leave for months to come, and when I was out of arguments, I was going to make you offers you can’t refuse so you’d have to stay. I would have confessed my feelings to you when I felt secure you could make such a life-changing decision and lifelong commitment, could handle my feelings and my passion. You only freed me from the agonizing wait. Thankfully. I was suffering serious damage holding back.”
Her tears slowed down with each incredible word out of that mouth that sent her to heaven no matter what it did or said. Scary joy and certainty started to banish the agony of grief and doubt.