Chapter 22

22

This was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life making look at him just like that.

Maybe that was an odd way to put it, but that was what Gene wanted. That knowledge slammed into him so hard he almost lost his breath. “I have been waiting too damned long for this.”

Her bottom lip—full, soft-looking, and slightly wet—trembled. “Gene… well, this is new.”

“Chan…” he mimicked. “Don’t be afraid of me. I will never hurt you.”

It was the look of doubt in her eyes that slammed into him next. Of course she would doubt him. Six years of being on the defense where he was concerned basically ensured that. “I’ll make it up to you. Every stupid thing I did or said over the past six years. You have my word on that. But for now… honey, just kiss me back.”

He slipped his hands around her gently. He could feel the elastic belt that housed her new glucose monitor. He’d been there when Genny had brought it to her in the hospital. He wasn’t exactly certain what to do with it, and he didn’t want to hurt her. He had no choice but to drop his hands lower.

Well, that was where his hands wanted to be anyway.

Then he pressed his lips to hers again.

Gene forced himself to keep it gentle, coaxing. He had been an ass to this woman for six years, and she hadn’t deserved it. He couldn’t expect everything to just be okay between them now because he wanted it to be. He had to take things slow.

Chantal was shy, reserved, not very experienced with men. In fact, he wasn’t aware of her having seriously dated anyone. Though he was almost certain she had, he just hadn’t paid much attention.

Whenever he’d heard her name mentioned, he’d just sort of tuned it out. What a damned idiot he had been. He should have realized much sooner how this woman burned him.

Maybe he just hadn’t wanted to see it. Maybe she had scared him before. He could understand that. What he’d had with Mandy and Carly had been so superficial—because he hadn’t wanted to trust a woman enough for more. So he’d chosen the wrong kind of woman each time.

The exact opposite kind of woman from the one in his arms now. He wanted real so much more now than he ever had before. He needed real—what he saw between his parents, his brother George and George’s demon wife Ronnie. He wanted… more.

He wanted it with this woman.

Her mouth tasted like the finest wine. He’d heard that expression before, but Gene was a more literal man than that. Women did not taste like wine.

Then again, he’d heard a woman described as tasting like perfection before too. He’d discounted that idea immediately. Yet that was exactly what the woman in his arms tasted like now.

And he never wanted to let her go.

Gene pulled her closer, careful with her in a way he had never been with a woman before, and deepened the kiss.

He wasn’t a man of pretty words. Not like his brother George, the silver-tongued attorney who was now the mayor of their town. He wasn’t a sophisticated player, able to seduce any beautiful woman to his bed like his brother Guthrie.

He was a simple man who used his hands and his back and his heart to run the ranch that had been in his family for generations. He didn’t know how to give her the pretty words. Even though that was exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to give her all the pretty words, like he never had with a woman before.

To let Chantal know what she meant to him now.

But he didn’t know how.

So Gene just tried to show her.