by Reese Ryan
A red plane caught her eye. Scanning, she realized it was the only red plane there. Moving to the center of the yard to collect it, she took a deep breath before unfolding it. I promise was the only thing written. Tressa brows bunched. I promise? What did he promise?
Before she got the opportunity to ponder the cryptic message any further, a paper plane soared overhead and landed a foot or two in front of her. She turned urgently, expecting to see Roth standing there. Nothing. Where in the heck was he?
“Roth?”
Her eyes scanned the yard again, even kneeling to look under her vehicle. Bemused, she gave up her search for him and collected the steel blue plane. She gasped, recognition setting in immediately. This was her plane, the one she’d crafted at the cabin. She studied her handwritten words—smeared, but somewhat still legible—on the warped piece.
“How—”
“When I first read your words, he makes me feel like I’m soaring, I swore I’d do any and everything in my power to always make you feel that way.”
The soothing sound of Roth’s steady tone caressed her like tiny fingers exploring every inch of her body. Gathering her thoughts, she turned to face him. The sight of him sent a boom through her system, reviving every part of her that felt as if it’d died since they’d been apart. For the first time in what she labeled forever, she felt alive again.
Her eyes took in every inch of him. His handsome face, his thick shoulders, the brown short-sleeved shirt he wore, the jeans that hung perfectly from his toned frame, even his all-black tennis shoes. I’ve missed you, she said, but only in her head.
Lifting the plane, she said, “How did you get this?”
“Glen.”
Her eyes widened. “It made it to town.”
Roth chuckled that beautiful sound she’d missed so much.
“Almost. He came across it when he was searching for his dog who’d run off into the woods. And since I’m the only one known for crafting paper planes, he put two and two together.”
Dumb luck or fate. She wasn’t sure which, and she didn’t care. All that mattered was that it’d brought Roth back to her.
Roth cupped his hands in front of him. “I have something to say. Just listen. Please.”
Tressa nodded.
“Baby—” He paused as if he’d suddenly recognized an error he’d made. When he started again, he dropped baby. “Tressa, I get it. It’s not always about what happened. Sometimes it’s about perception, appearance. The things you heard… I get it. They were awful and they hurt you. But there are two important things I need for you to know, then I’ll leave.”
Leave? The word rattled her.
“First, I have never, ever been unfaithful to you. The things you heard…” He shook his head. “I never did anything that would disrespect you. I put that on my life.”
“What about the kiss—” The idea of Roth kissing another woman froze the words in her throat.
“She kissed me on the neck. It wasn’t provoked, nor wanted. That’s the only time in five years her lips have ever touched me.”
So much passion radiated from Roth’s words that all she wanted to do was drape her arms around him. But she resisted. “You said you had two things to tell me.”
“The second thing… I love you more than life itself. You are my life. I’ll never stop fighting for you, for us. Because that’s what I do, baby. I fight for what I love, for who I love. I’ll never stop fighting. That’s my promise to you.”
Tressa swallowed hard, her chest aching with emotion. Roth reached up to touch her but abandoned the thought.
“That’s all,” he said, his voice cracking. “I won’t take up any more of your time.” He backed away, then turned to leave.
“When—” She took a deep breath, then started again. “When did you know?”
Roth turned slowly. Asking for no reference, no clarification that they were even talking about the same thing, he closed the distance between them. “When you took my hand at the cabin and placed it over your heart. My heartbeat fell in sync with yours at that very moment. And I knew I would love you for the rest of my life. These past two weeks—” he lowered his head as if to hide shame “—let’s just say my heartbeat has been irregular.”
Tressa thought about her own suffering. She’d contributed her palpitations to sleep deprivation, stress and caffeine. But could it have been from Roth’s absence? Could their hearts truly beat in such harmony?
Obviously.
“I owe you an apology, Roth. I was closed-minded and judgmental. I never gave you the benefit of the doubt or the respect you deserved. I let fear guide me. But that’s no excuse for how I treated you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. And I would do anything, anything, to have you back in my life again.” Tressa’s heart pounded against her rib cage and tears rolled down her cheek. “I don’t deserve a second chance, Roth, and I’m not sure I deserve you, but I want—I need—you.” She took a deep breath, then continued, “You are that spark that ignites everything good in me. I should have been the one fighting, Roth. I should have been the one fighting for you, for us. I’m fighting now.”
This time when Roth reached out to touch her, he didn’t pull back and neither did she. When the pads of his thumbs swiped across her skin, she closed her eyes, feeling as if her entire spirit recharged from his touch.
Roth rested his forehead against hers. “I’m lost without you.”
“I love you, Roth Lexington. I love you with every cell in my body. Do you forgive me for hurting you? Can you—”
His mouth crashed against hers, the feel of his lips causing a surge through her entire body. They’d kissed plenty of times before, but this time was unlike anything she’d ever experienced with him. She gladly accepted every urgent swipe of her tongue, meeting his urgency with eagerness of her own.
They kissed long, hard and for what felt like an eternity. Then reality kicked in. Tressa jerked away from his addictive mouth. A look of pure desperation flashed across Roth’s face.
Tressa laughed for the first time in far too long. “Work.” She laughed again, this time at the ridiculous timing of her words.
Roth’s brow furrowed. “What?”
“I have to get to work.”
The pained expression slid from Roth’s face. A second later he scooped her into his arms. “You’re going to be a few minutes late.”
“If I’m late again, I’m going to be in the unemployment line.”
Roth carried her toward the house. “Then you can focus on opening your own culinary studio. Or be a stay-at-home mom.”
Tressa’s jaw fell open, but she couldn’t find her words.
“Keys,” he said, climbing the stairs.
Unscrambling her brain, she said, “Somewhere on the ground.”
A minute later they pushed through the front door. Roth slammed the door shut and pinned her against it. Again, his mouth claimed hers, but only for a short time. With urgency, he snatched her shirt over her head, then her bra came off. Untying the strings of her scrub pants, he pushed them down over her hips. Pressing his body firmly against hers.
“You feel that?” he asked against her mouth.
“Yes. And I want it.”
A sexy sound rumbled in his chest seconds before he snaked a hand down her panties. He massaged her slowly, gently. Intense moans rolled past her lips.
Roth kissed her gently on the lips. “Tell me you love me more than any other man walking the face of the earth and that you always will.”
Did he really expect her to form a sentence? As good as his hand felt between her legs, all she could do was moan.
“Say it, baby. Please. I need to hear it. I desperately need to hear it.”
“I…” The tingling sensations of an orgasm stalled her words. “I love you…more than any…”
“Any other man,” they said in unison.
“Walking the face of the earth, and I always… I always will. Oh, God!”
The orgasm nearly crippled her, shattering her into a thousand pieces of useless matter. Her knees buckled, and she fell against Roth’s solid chest. Scooping her into his arms, he carried her to the bedroom, laying her partially on the bed, and finished removing her clothing. Dropping to his knees in front of her, he claimed her core with his mouth. It wasn’t long before another powerful orgasm overtook her.
Like lightning, Roth rid himself of his clothing, blanketed her body with his and drove himself into her, hard and deep. Tressa cried out in pure ecstasy. He delivered wild, delicious strokes that fogged her brain. It felt good. It felt so good.
“Don’t stop, Roth.”
Roth pinned her legs back and drove into her even harder. “Woman, don’t ever make me suffer without you again.”
Jesus, it felt so good. “Okay.”
Roth growled a primal sound, his body trembling. A beat later he throbbed inside her, sending her over the edge once again. Delivering four or five more lumbering strokes, he collapsed onto her. Their heaving chests rose and fell in tandem. Roth’s sweat-silken forehead wet the crook of her neck and his labored breath tickled her skin.
“That was…amazing,” she said.
Roth raised his head, eyeing her with admiration. “You’re amazing. Are we good, baby? I mean, really good?”
Tressa smoothed a hand down the side of his face. “We’re good. Really, really good.”
Finally wrangling herself from Roth’s arms, Tressa darted into the bathroom, took the fastest shower she’d ever taken, threw on her bra and panties and barreled from the room. “I’m so—”
She stopped so suddenly, she nearly toppled over. Her jaw dropped, staring at the bed. “Roth?” she said, scanning the room for him. Taking a few steps closer to the bed, she rested a trembling hand over her mouth, while the other pressed into her quivering stomach.
Tressa reached for the black box sitting in the center of the bed, withdrew as if it would bite her, then reached for it again. Popping the top, she gasped at the huge diamond ring inside. Her hands trembled so badly, she nearly dropped the box.
“I want to spend my life with you, Tressa Washington.”
She turned to see a fully dressed Roth standing behind her. How did he keep sneaking up on her like that?
“I want to share with you my hopes, my dreams, my ups, my downs, my fails, my successes. I want to share it all with you.”
Somehow, her brain formed a sentence. “You want to marry me?” She wasn’t sure if it had been a comment or a question.
“Yes. I was supposed to do this the night we…” His words trailed off. “I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life, Tressa. But the one thing I got right was falling in love with you.”
Her eyes clouded with tears at his sweet words. Falling in love with him was something she’d got right, too.
Roth claimed the black box and removed the ring. “I know this is probably not the most ideal moment, but…” He lowered to one knee. “Tressa Nycole Washington, will you marry me? I’ll make you happy, baby. I’ll make you so happy.”
Tressa half sobbed, half laughed. “I’m in my underwear, Roth. But yes! Yes, yes, yes, a hundred times. I’ll marry you.”
Roth slid the ring on her finger, stood, hoisted her into his arms and kissed the past few weeks without him away. Pulling back, he said, “You should probably call to let someone know you won’t be in today and possibly tomorrow, either. We have lost moments to make up for.”
“Forty-eight hours is an awful lot of time. What do you have in mind, Mr. Lexington?”
“Well, soon-to-be Mrs. Lexington—” he kissed the ring on her finger “—I plan to spend all of that time reminding you how it feels to soar.”
Oh, she didn’t need a reminder. “I remember. In fact, I’m soaring on love at this very moment.” But she’d make the call anyway, because the idea of spending the next forty-eight hours, plus the rest of her life in his arms, was too damn tempting to pass up.
EPILOGUE
Tressa stared into Roth’s concerned eyes, not recalling a time in the past couple of years she’d ever seen her husband so shaken. Though she was the one in the hospital bed, he seemed to be suffering far more.
Roth blotted the sweat from her forehead. “Breathe, baby. Just like we learned. You got this and I’ve got you. What you go through, I go through, remember?”
“Okay, trade places with me,” she said through labored breaths.
One of the labor and delivery nurses chuckled.
“All right, Tressa, one big push and your bundle of joy should slide right into the world. Ready?” Dr. Fiona asked.
After nine hours of labor, hell, yes, she was ready. “Let’s do this.”
Several hours later Tressa watched Roth with their son, Shiloh Randall Lexington. The way he admired the newborn brought tears to her eyes. Thinking back, she remembered how tears had run from Roth’s eyes when she’d told him she was pregnant.
A week after their engagement, she and Roth had married at the only place she would consider—the cabin. At that time she hadn’t believed her life could get any better. It had.
Maybe she should give partial credit to Nettie and the top secret family recipe she’d shared with Tressa as a wedding gift. “Because you’re family now,” Nettie had said.
Turned out, it wasn’t a food recipe at all. It’d been a recipe for a happy marriage. It was an interesting tradition, and she planned to pass a copy down to her boys when the time was right and hoped they committed each ingredient to memory and prepared the dish every day, just as she had.
2 cups of romance.
2 cups of laughter.
2 cups of trust.
2 cups of respect.
2 cups of sharing.
2 cups of tenderness.
2 cups of courtesy.
2 cups of consideration.
2 cups of attention.
4 cups of patience.
She’d altered hers a tad, adding 16 cups of great sex.
“Knock, knock.”
The door creaked open and a very pregnant Vivian waddled through, holding Justen’s hand—Tressa and Roth’s three-year-old son. She never used the word adopted, because she felt just like she’d given birth to him. Justen’s thick black curls bounced as his short legs carried him across the room to Tressa’s bedside. He stood on his tiptoes to see her.
“Mommy, okay?” he asked in his tiny voice.
To be so young, the child always showed such empathy for others.
“Mommy is fine, my sweet boy.” She brushed a finger over his caramel cheek. “Let me look at you. I think you’ve grown two inches. Do you want to meet your brother?”
Roth waved Justen over.
Justen patted Tressa’s hand. “Justen be right back. ’Kay, Mommy? I’m a big brother now.”
“Yes, you are, son.” Tressa blinked back tears. God, she loved that little boy. What had started out as a temporary emergency foster placement had turned into a permanent adoption. She thanked God every day for bringing Justen into their lives.
“Congratulations, Mama,” Vivian said, approaching the bed and taking Tressa’s hand.
“Congratulations to you, Godmama. I hope Justen wasn’t too much trouble. He has the energy of several Jack Russell terriers.”
“He was good practice,” Vivian said, rubbing her protruding belly. “Having him at home with us made me even more eager to meet these two handsome fellows.”
“Where’s Alonso?” Roth asked, finally pulling his attention away from his boys.
“Yeah, I can’t believe he let you and those boys out of his sight for one second.�
�� Tressa laughed.
Vivian shook her head. “Well, the godfather of your children is passing out cigars and telling anyone who will listen that he has another godson. Pray for him.”
The room filled with laughter.
Vivian washed her hands and claimed Shiloh. It was the funniest thing ever watching her use her stomach as leverage. While Vivian entertained both boys, Roth pulled a chair to Tressa’s bedside.
“How do you feel, Mama?”
“Like I’ve hit the lottery, over and over again.”
Roth captured her hand and kissed the inside of her wrist. She loved when he did that.
“Woman, do you have any idea how happy you make me, how much I love you and our sons, our family?” he asked in a hushed tone, his eyes full of emotion.
“I do. You show me every single second of the day.” She ran a hand over his stubble. “Man, do you have any idea how happy you make me, how much I love you and our sons, our family, our life together?”
“Of course I do, but will you keep telling me every single day?”
“I’ll do one better. I’ll keep telling you until I take my very last breath, because you make me feel, Roth Lexington. You make me feel like I’m soaring on love.”
* * * * *
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