“I’ll read her another book,” he said, “and you can go have your bath.”
Valeria gave him a look. “I don’t mind—”
“Neither do I.”
“Yes, Chris can read,” Maria said. “I want him to read me a book now.”
He hid his chuckles when Valeria shook her head and tossed the handful of children’s books to the bed.
“Anything to get out of bedtime,” she teased, strolling past him in the doorway.
He caught her with his hand to her wrist before she could leave. Dropping a quick kiss to her mouth, he murmured, “Enjoy your bath, okay? She’s fine with me.”
“She is.”
That was all she said before leaving him alone in the bedroom with Maria. Chris gave the little girl dwarfed by the big bed and huge blankets a look.
“One book,” he said.
“Three,” she shot back.
Oh, now they were bartering.
Kids were great.
“Two,” he countered.
Maria considered that before nodding once. “Fine, two. Chris?”
“Hmm?” he asked as he crossed the room. “What, bambina?”
“Do we get to stay with you now?”
He hesitated as he sat on the edge of the bed, already reaching for the books. “Do you want to stay with me?”
“You kept your promise.”
“I did, yes.”
“No one except Mamá keeps her promises.”
Chris shrugged. “I always will.”
“Can we make a new promise?”
“What is that?”
“That you won’t leave.”
“I don’t need to make that promise.” He smiled, leaning back on the bed with the book already opened in his hands. “I can’t leave, bambina.”
“Why not?”
“People don’t leave things they love, Maria. That’s all.”
“Oh.”
Her soft exclamation echoed in the quiet bedroom.
“Promise to be ours, then?”
Chris nodded as he flipped the page to the beginning in the book. “I can definitely promise that.”
She suckered him into four reads of two books, but he didn’t mind. And by the time he finished, Maria snored away in the bed’s middle, unaware when he slipped out of the bedroom to find her mother.
Valeria made it easy for him, considering she left the bathroom door wide open.
“You know,” Chris murmured, leaning in the doorway to enjoy the sight of Valeria’s tanned legs spattered with bubbles and hanging over the ledge of the tub, “my mother asked me a question earlier.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, about you and Maria.”
A sly, yet still sweet, smile curved her pouty lips when her gaze darted up to his. It was taking every ounce of his willpower to stay where he was, and not slam the door shut, go to her, and take what he wanted.
Somehow, this woman who had once been so confused about her lust and need for sex because of the constant abuse she suffered, could now look like his personal minx ready to torture him with seduction. Chris was more than willing to let her do that, too.
“And what was that question she asked?”
Chris cleared his throat, refusing to let thoughts of his mother into his mind when this beautiful woman was just across the room, naked but for the water and bubbles hiding her curves from his view. “What I planned to do with the two of you, actually.”
Valeria arched a perfect brow. “What does that mean?”
“Better question,” he returned, “what do you plan to do?”
“You.”
“Pardon?”
Her tongue peeked out to wet the seam of her lips as her hand came up from the water, covered in bubbles and dribbling water down her throat as she pointed a delicate finger at him. “You, Chris. I plan to be with you as long as you want me. That’s what you told me on the cliffs, right?”
“It was.”
“And that still stands?”
“Absolutely, Val.”
She grinned. “Then, that’s all I care about. Although, I would like to hear your plans.”
“With you?”
“Anything. I enjoy hearing you talk. Do you know how long it has been since I wanted to sit and have a conversation with a man? A man that wanted to hear me talk, too?”
He blinked.
Swallowed thickly, too.
“You can do anything, and I will be here to help you do that,” he said, shrugging. “If you want to put Maria back in her old school, let’s do it. Come to Canada with me, or travel back and forth—all right. Maybe I can take you out on a proper date, too.”
Valeria winked. “Maybe?”
His gaze lifted to meet hers when he murmured, “Yeah, and someday, you might let me marry you. Because that’s the thing about this. I don’t care what we do as long as you let me love you while we do it.”
She sucked in a quick breath.
Chris smiled.
“I see you, and her, and it’s all possibilities now. Unending possibilities, sweetheart. We can do anything—everything. You’re both looking for something, but I’m right here. You can stop looking now, Val, you found me.”
“Yeah, we did, huh?”
“I just wanna learn.”
“Learn what?”
He came further into the bathroom, closing the door behind him to quiet the noise so it didn’t wake up Maria in the next room. Crossing the space between him and Valeria, he kneeled beside the tub, resting his arms along the ledge so that the two of them were eye-level.
“This,” he said, tipping his head to the side when she leaned a little closer to him. Almost close enough that her lips pressed to his if she wanted that. “Us. Love, but without everything else, too. That’s what I want to do now.”
Her dark eyes drifted over his face, pleasure and happiness curving her lips as her wet fingers came to draw a line along the edge of his jaw. “That sounds like the best plan.”
“You think?”
“Perfect.”
“Like you, then.”
She dragged in a quick breath, her top teeth catching her bottom lip as she mumbled, “You always say the right things, you know?”
“Honest things, babe.”
“Still.”
“And only for you,” he promised.
Valeria nodded. “Just me.”
She closed the distance between them, her soft lips moving against his in a slow, tantalizing kiss that had his cock hardening under his slacks, and his chest pounding in his chest. Her tongue teased at the seam of his lips, ready and willing to take more of what she wanted from him. Chris wanted to give it, too.
Just kissing this woman was intoxicating.
A privilege.
It’s what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing, too. Kissing her first thing in the morning, and right before he fell asleep. Love was strange like that, but he didn’t mind. He would happily spend the rest of his days at the mercy and whims of this woman if that’s what God had planned for him.
She reached for him, soaking wet and dampening his already ruined dress shirt. He hadn’t even changed his clothes after arriving back. Which was fine, because she was in a perfect position—wet, in a warm bubble bath—to help fix that little problem of his.