She shook her head. “I was just thinking how normal you and Winona are, what a normal, happy life you’ve had.”
He let out a laugh. “Yeah, normal. I’m thirty-three. I work on rockets and climb rocks, though I’m supposed to be a Sun Dance chief. Also, I live with my sister and her wolf. That’s as normal as it gets.”
She smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.
He kissed the top of her head, gave her a squeeze. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”
Her gaze was fixed on some faraway place. “I keep expecting to wake up and find that this is all a dream—that you and Win aren’t real. Or for you to tell me that you don’t really want me and that I have to go.”
He turned with her in his arms, rolling her onto her back so that he could look straight into her eyes. “That isnotgoing to happen. That’s just a worry in your mind, the voice of your past talking about things that happened before you met me.”
Tears pooled in those blue eyes. “I just don’t know what a man like you, who could have any woman in Scarlet, who’s smart and sexy and successful—did I say good looking yet?—sees in a woman like me. I came from nowhere. I was raised by crazy people. I didn’t go to college. I’m not intelligent like you and—”
“Stop.” It put a physical ache in his chest to hear her talk about herself like that. “You want to know what I see in you? I’ll tell you. I see kindness. The way you treat Bear, the way you are with animals—I could never be with a woman who didn’t have love and kindness in her heart.”
“Yeah?”
“That’s at the top of my list.” He wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. “You’re plenty smart. I know lots of people with college educations, some with doctorates, who are anything but intelligent.”
She sniffed, smiled. “Really?”
“Really. Come to work with me sometime, and I’ll show you educated people with no brains.” He slid his fingers into her hair, lifted it away from her face. “You’re honest. I know it took a lot of courage to tell me this. You were honest about being jealous of Rose, too.”
He went on, wanting so very much to reach her. “You’re talented. You’re a true artist, Naomi. I could never do what you do.”
He got a genuine smile for that.
He ducked down, brushed his lips over hers. “And, damn, woman, you’re beautiful.Everythingabout you turns me on.”
But then it hit him. This wasn’t about facts. It was about emotions. It was about the people who’d abandoned her, who’d abused her, who’d tried to beat their sickness into her, who’d made her believe there was something wrong with her.
He pulled away. “I know you’ve been disappointed by people before, but did you ever think that maybe you and I were meant to meet, that I was supposed to find you?”
Tell her, kola.Tell her the whole of it.
It was on the tip of his tongue, but when he opened his mouth, other words came out. “Maybe the Great Mystery behind this world sees all you’ve endured, knows how brave you’ve been and how alone, and wants you to be happy.”
Her blue eyes glittered with tears. “Do you really believe that?”
He knew it had been a long time since she’d believed in anything, so he would have to claim this for both of them. “Yes, I do. With everything I am, I do.”
“Hey, I’m home!” From downstairs came Winona’s voice. “Are youstillin bed?”
Winona had worked all day, so Chaska stepped up to make dinner. While he grilled buffalo burgers, Naomi chopped vegetables for a garden salad, his words running through her mind.
Did you ever think that maybe you and I were meant to meet, that I was supposed to find you?
It was a pretty thought, but Naomi had been around the block a few too many times to believe that some benevolent force was watching over her.
And yet…
Chaska understood her the way no man—or woman, for that matter—ever had. He saw inside her so clearly, saw her as she wished to be, not as the frightened, lost person she was. He respected her work. He listened to her. He was an incredible lover—yes, Rose had been right about that. Most of all, he cared about her. He’d made that clear in so many ways today.
The intimacy she had with him was more than she’d believed she’d ever have with a man. It was everything she’d wanted.Hewas everything she wanted.
Then why couldn’t she shake this feeling that it was all going to fall apart?
That’s just a worry in your mind, the voice of your past talking about things that happened before you met me.