Tell Me

by Strom, Abigail

  “Wait,” she said, her voice trembling. “What was the letter going to say?”

  Caleb’s breath was shallow and ragged.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I swear to God, I can’t think straight right now. You have that effect on me.”

  The vibration was in the air around her, connecting her to Caleb. It was like everything operated at a different frequency when he was around.

  She took a deep breath, and now his scent was around her, too, like rainwater and pine sap.

  “Try,” she said. “Try to tell me.”

  “I don’t know. I’m bad at this—you know I am.” He swallowed. “I was going to apologize for leaving you on Prince Edward Island. Beg your forgiveness, actually. And I was going to say something about how I can’t live without you.” He closed his eyes. “Something about how I love you.”

  Her heart tightened in her chest until there was an ache behind her breastbone. She reached out with her other hand, and now she had both his arms.

  “I was going to seduce you,” she said.

  He opened his eyes and stared down at her.

  “What?”

  “I was going to fly to Australia and seduce you. With this.”

  She let go of him and stepped out into the hall, where she’d dropped her things. She came back in with the boutique bag and pulled out the dress to show him.

  He looked at it for a moment and then back at her.

  “You were going to fly to Australia?”

  “Yes.”

  “To seduce me.”

  “Yes.”

  “With that dress.”

  “That was my plan.” She paused. “After I told you I love you.”

  He stepped close and slid a hand into her hair, and she shivered.

  His voice was husky. “Darlin’, you could seduce me in a burlap sack.”

  She closed her eyes. “I wanted to wear something beautiful.”

  He used his other hand to cup the side of her face. “You don’t need it.”

  “But I wanted it,” she whispered. “I’ve wanted it from the moment I saw it.”

  He stepped even closer, close enough that she could feel his body heat.

  When he spoke, his breath tickled her ear. “Tell me what else you want.”

  “You. I want you. Caleb—”

  But she didn’t have time to say anything else.

  Caleb’s mouth brushed over hers in the merest breath of a kiss. Then he did it again, and again, until she felt drunk on the whispering friction of their lips. Only when she felt her whole body going soft and pliant did he move a hand to the back of her head and deepen the kiss, his tongue delving into her mouth and tangling with hers until she looped her arms around his neck and arched up into him.

  He broke the kiss with a gasp.

  “Hang on, Jane. Before we get carried away.”

  “I want to get carried away,” she panted, her heart pounding.

  But he led her firmly over to the couch, moving cranes so she had a place to sit beside him.

  His expression was serious. “I shouldn’t have kissed you. Not until we had a chance to talk.”

  She started to smile. “If you hadn’t kissed me, I would have kissed you.”

  He reached out as though he couldn’t help it, brushing her lips with the back of a knuckle. “Yeah, sexual chemistry isn’t one of our challenges. But we do have challenges.”

  She nodded, her mouth tingling where he’d touched her. “I know.”

  “But I think we can make it work,” he went on. “I want to live with you here in New York, like you talked about. I’ll run the business from here, and I’ll hire more people to lead expeditions so I don’t have to be away from you so much.”

  Her heart swelled. “I don’t want you to give up any expeditions. That would be like taking away your eyesight or locking you in a prison cell. I don’t want that.”

  He shook his head. “You’ve got it backward. The only prison cell would be a life without you.”

  She caught her breath. “Caleb—”

  “Ever since I started traveling, I’ve been looking for something spectacular. Something that would take my breath away.” He paused. “Now I’ve found what I was looking for. And if I lose you, it won’t matter if I see all the wonders of the world, because they wouldn’t mean a thing. I’d rather stay in New York with you than see the most incredible scenery on earth. Because without you to help me see the magic, that’s all it would be. Scenery.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “That’s a pretty good speech for a guy who doesn’t do speeches.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve had some time to think about this. Did I mention how long it takes to fold a thousand paper cranes?”

  She started to smile. “What made you think of doing it?”

  “I remembered the cranes you made in December. And I remembered you saying you’d tried it a few times when you were a kid, but that you’d never finished.” He paused. “I don’t have an imagination like yours, and I’m not much good with poetry and fairy tales. But if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s getting things done. I want to help you turn your dreams into reality. I want to help with your bookstore, and be here for you while you finish a book, and watch you send it off to a publisher.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You’ve never read my writing. Maybe it’s terrible.”

  “Maybe it isn’t.”

  She took a breath and let it out slowly. “But what about you? I don’t want you to run the business from here and let other people lead the expeditions. I want you to keep exploring. And I wouldn’t mind coming along sometimes,” she added. “Just not all the time.”

  “Okay, so, we’ll compromise.” He paused. “You know, I think we’ve had it wrong all this time. On the surface we seem so different, but who we are inside isn’t different at all. Only what we do and where we do it. I explore out there, and you explore in here,” he said, touching his temple.

  “I like that,” she said. “I like thinking we’re both explorers in different ways. Maybe it won’t be so hard for us to figure this out after all.”

  “I sure hope so.” He took both her hands in his. “Because I don’t want to live my life without you.”

  The fault line in her heart cracked wide open, and it was the sweetest pain she’d ever known.

  She took a deep breath. “I feel the same way. Oh, Caleb . . . I wish I could take you back to Prince Edward Island. It was so beautiful, and everything made me think of you. I feel like we were cheated out of our time there.”

  “Well, then, let’s get it back. Let’s go there on our honeymoon.”

  She blinked. “There’s going to be a honeymoon?”

  “Hell yes.”

  “For there to be a honeymoon, there’d have to be a wedding.”

  He grinned. “I thought of that, too.”

  He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a ring box. He opened it, and a red stone winked at her against black velvet.

  “It’s a ruby,” he said. “There are a lot of reasons I chose a ruby instead of a diamond, if you’re interested, but . . .”

  He was holding a ring.

  He was proposing.

  “Wait,” she said. “Wait, wait, wait.” Everything around her was so beautiful—the delicate paper cranes, the ring in Caleb’s hand, Caleb himself.

  And then there was her. “I look awful. I’m a soggy mess. I don’t want you to remember me like this when you think about . . .”

  “Sorry,” he said. “This is exactly how I want to remember this moment, down to the last detail.” He paused. “Except that you look a little cold.”

  “I am,” she said. “Let me change, and then we can do the proposal over again.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve got a better idea for warming you up,” he said, and then he was sliding the ring onto her finger and pulling her into his arms.

  Her body melted into his. “I love you,” she said, the words muffled against his chest.
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  “I love you, too,” he said. “God, I love you so much.”

  Warmth spread through them both. And as they held each other close, heartbeat to heartbeat, Jane knew she’d never be cold again.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to the amazing team at Montlake, especially Maria Gomez. Thanks to Charlotte Herscher, editor extraordinaire, for her insight. Thanks to my incredible husband, who’s read every word I’ve ever written and is still willing to come back for more. Thanks to my son for his all-around awesomeness and for going with me to Prince Edward Island. And my deepest gratitude to Tara Gorvine, the best friend and critique partner in the world, who always knows what’s sexy. You guys are the best.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Photo © 2014 Target Portrait Studio

  Abigail Strom started writing stories at the age of seven and has never been able to stop. In addition to writing for Montlake Romance, she has written for Harlequin and is also the author of the self-published Hart University series, the first book of which earned a 2016 RITA nomination. Her books have been translated into several languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Turkish. Abigail also writes the steamy paranormal Blood and Absinthe series under the name Chloe Hart. Learn more about the author and her work at www.abigailstrom.com and www.authorchloehart.com.

  Abigail earned a BA in English from Cornell University as well as an MFA in dance from the University of Hawaii and held a wide variety of jobs—from dance teacher and choreographer to human resources manager—before becoming a full-time writer. Now she works in her pajamas and lives in New England with her family, who are incredibly supportive of the hours she spends hunched over her computer.