Page 162 of Love Unspoken

"You're so bossy," she complained in good humor.

"Tesoro, when we're together, you are the boss. You know that, don't you?"

She laughed then; it was clean, and it warmed my heart. "You, Lucas Covington, are a smooth talker. Okay, now, can we talk about this project?"

I grinned. "Yeah, we can do that."

"A question first, how did you know that this would be the kind of project I wouldn't be able to turn down?" she asked and added, "Don't pretend you didn't put this together to get me to work with you."

"I wasn't going to." I wanted to jump up and down and tell the world that my woman was going to give me a fucking chance. Lucas Covington, who took what he wanted and how he liked it, was on his knees, and I had absolutely no complaints. If it meant she'd be mine again, I'd genuflect to Amara for the rest of my life. "Basil helped me out with the idea, and then Grandma, who was already thinking about this with Jill, worked with the Chancellor."

"I'm flattered." Her eyes sparkled with amusement. "You went to a lot of trouble."

"For you, Tesoro, there's no mountain high enough."

TWENTY-FIVE

AMARA

It had been two exciting weeks—both professionally and personally.

From a work perspective, my teaching assistants and I were having a lot of fun working on the women's health advocacy project. I was learning a lot, and we were all excited to work on something that would have a direct application in the real world. As academics, sometimes the research we did was not translated into a benefit for a population, but this was different.

Personally, Lucas and I were back where we used to be when we initially started dating. I had told him to stop apologizing. Enough was enough. It was time to look forward. Basically, we were two people re-discovering each other with so much sexual tension that we were all but vibrating with it. But neither of us was ready to take that step. The last time we ended up in bed, it had only made things murkier.

Did I want him? Hell yeah. Did he want me? Undoubtedly.

We didn't go beyond kisses, though those got pretty heated. There was an almost innocent quality to this renewed relationship we were building.

"This is madness," I told him one night when we were necking in his car like teenagers.

One of his hands was kneading my breast, and the other was on my naked thigh under my dress.

"The best kind there is, Tesoro." He kissed me again, soft and sweet.

I kept waiting for his hand to move up, up, up until he was touching my core. I desperately wanted him, and I knew he did as well because when I cupped him, he was thick and hard.

"I'll come in my pants, Amara," he growled as he removed my hand.

"Don't you want me?" I asked, mindless with desire.

"More than I want to breathe." He peppered kisses along my jawline. "More than you can imagine."

"Then?" I angled my head so he could nibble on my neck and lick the throbbing pulse there.

"I love you," he whispered against my ear, making me shiver.

I stilled.

He raised his head; his eyes sad. "When you can say it back to me, I promise to fuck you so hard and long that you won't be able to walk the next day."

I licked my lips, wanting to tell him whatever he wanted so he'd fuck me exactly the way he said he would.

But I'd decided to be honest with myself and with Lucas; to not hide how I felt and show him what was happening inside of me. "I'm scared."

He kissed my nose. "I know. I haven't earned your trust yet. But once I do, you won't be afraid to tell me you love me. And when that day comes, Tesoro..." He paused, his eyes glistening with unshed tears as he fought to keep his emotions in check. "When that day comes, I'll be the luckiest man alive."

Every time we talked, I felt like I learned more about him, and I let him know me better. We'd been together for two years, but I felt that we had known each other inside a bubble where it was just us—but now we were seeing more of what was inside of us, what made us the people we were when we let the outside world in.