Page 45 of Just One More Night

But still, Stefan only held her close. And stayed awake, because he wanted to remember every breath. Every small little noise she made as she burrowed deeper into him.

He thought of all things he’d lost, one after the next. His mother and grandmother. The father he should have had, who he’d seen glimpses of now and then, which it only made the reality of his father he actually had worse.

He thought of the things he’d given away, and more, the many things that had been taken from him.

All of it, all the things he’d consideredhis whole lifebefore her seemed to fade away. He would live without her, because he would have no choice.

But he didn’t fucking want to.

Stefan knew that living without her, waiting for her, was the only possible way to win her in the end. Because he knew her now.

And because he knew her, it wasn’t surprising in the least that she’d decided she needed to pursue whatever passion she wanted. Or that she would use that passion, whatever it was, as a way to put space between them. The truth was, he’d expected her to fight more against the intimacy he’d asked for here.

Instead, in true Indy style, she’d given him everything.

Was that worse or better, in the end? He couldn’t tell. Maybe he would be better suited to handle her departure now if he didn’t know how perfectly they fit together.

“I will remember this,” he promised her sleeping form. “I will remember everything.”

She had not merely become a part of him, as the overwrought Romanian phrase would have it. She was far more than that.

Because if he knew anything, it was this. A man was not meant to hold on too tight to a vision. The vision itself was the gift.

He had made this house of his beautiful. Inviting. A place where a woman like Indy could be comfortable, and stay a while. But she had made it home.

Stefan had already changed the way his world revolved for her. What was waiting a little longer?

Because he knew that chasing this woman of his, filled as she was with wanderlust and that stubborn streak, would only chase her away.

So he held her close as the dawn crept ever closer, settled in, and talked himself into setting her free.

Because that was the only way she would ever come back.

For good.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

INDYSHOULDN’THAVEbeen surprised to wake up the next morning to find Stefan gone from their bed.

He had taken intensity to whole new levels yesterday. She sat up carefully, and could feel her body, tight here and a twinge there, in case she’d forgotten. She hadn’t.

Good thing it made her feel a little too hot all over again.

She made her way into the shower and stood there a long while, letting the hot water revive her. When she got out and toweled off, she realized that everything inside of her was clear. At last.

Their month was over. He had chosen to end things with that endless, sensual-intensity marathon that made her feel shivery and molten just thinking about it.

She could picture his face, looking somehow more cruel as the day wore on. Even as those hard hands of his took such care with her, though they were the same hands that had spanked her. They’d moved over her body, coaxing her to just one more peak.

Then one more after that.

The man was a sorcerer.

But the thing about his kind of magic was that, here on this most momentous morning after, Indy finally felt swept clean.

All the muddling around, all thewondering, was all gone. Everything clicked into place.

She felt it hum through her, like awareness. Like attraction.