Brave Enough To Love Again

Chapter 80

Eden

Keane's thumb brushing over my lips caused tingling sensations spreading throughout my entire body and my heart began racing as my cheeks betrayed me again by reddening without my permission.

I swallowed hard at his touch, but the food in my mouth had not been chewed properly yet so I almost choked on it and began coughing profusely. Keane stood up from his chair immediately and run to me with a glass of water. I felt like an idiot as I drank, and he stroked my back to help me calm down.

When I turned my head in his direction to excuse myself and to thank him, our noses almost touched because of how close he was next to me. Our gazes interlocked, and for the life of me I would not have been able to tell for how long we stared at each other before one of us finally blinked and interrupted the eye contact.

Love, attraction, lust, longing; I felt it all.

The corner of Keane's lips went up into a grin that took my breath away and made my heart skip a beat.

Holy mother of Abraham Lincoln. He is one hell of a good-looking devil.

I was falling in love with him all over again.

Not that I ever stopped loving him, but I was in serious danger of falling even harder for him than before.

"Are you okay?" He sounded a little worried despite the faintest hint of amusement in his smirk.

I cleared my throat. "I'm fine." I pushed my chair back and stood up to leave the kitchen and escape his nearness. "I'm going to take a shower."

Keane stood up from his squatting position and blocked my way. Before I could complain, he lifted his hand and stretched out his right forefinger under my chin to lift my face higher so that he could look me in the eyes again. "Are you sure, you're okay?"

I didn't trust my throat and mouth to produce a coherent reply, so I simply nodded my head in confirmation. Keane seemed satisfied after inspecting my face closely. So he moved a step aside and with an exaggerated gesture with his arm and hand he motioned for me to walk past him to the bathroom.

With long strides I fled from his presence and went to the bathroom to take a very long shower. First, I let my whole body be soaked in cold water to cool down my overheated system. It was his doing. Afterwards, I stood under the shower for an extensive period of time until my skin could no longer stand the hot water than rained on me.

Once I was done with my shower I put on my bathrobe and opened the door to the adjacent bedroom to let the steam out before I began to dry my hair.

As I was rubbing my hair dry with a towel, I felt hands over both of mine. I did not hear him enter the room. Keane positioned me away from the mirror I was facing, to turn toward him and pulled my hands down to finish patting my hair dry without saying a word.

Again my whole body was on alert because of him. I did not move an inch. After a few moments he stopped moving and put his hands on my shoulders. I did not know why he halted and I did not dare to lift the towel to look at him and ask, so I waited to see what he would do next.

The moment I felt his breath close to my lips I knew what was about to happen. His face was centimeters away from mine and he wanted to kiss me, but I pulled the towel on my head down over my face to stop what he wanted to do.

All of a sudden his lips were on mine but the cloth I had tugged down was inbetween us. He pulled away quickly and I saw him grin before I turned around again to avoid staring at him.

"I can do it myself." I watched his face in the mirror in front of me.

"I know you can. But it would make me so happy if you let me have the pleasure of doing it for you." He smiled softly.

His words and especially his actions made my knees weak. He was just too kind, sweet, handsome, sexy, hot and simply irresistible for me to stand it any longer.

Why am I doing this? Why the hell am I trying to resist him again?

My whole system was confused, my heart was racing, skin tingling, face reddening, and goosebumps covered my whole body.

Moments later Keane reached for the hairdryer before I could grab it myself to finish off the drying process.

He began to blow-dry my hair as if it was the most normal thing in the world, and as if he had been doing nothing else in his whole life, like a professional hairdresser. I stood in front of the mirror as stiff as a poker, while he was so close behind me, I felt his body warmth radiating on me.

Once he was done, he grabbed a hairbrush and began brushing my hair. I never knew how the simple act of one's hair being combed by a gorgeous guy, one is attracted to, could be so sensual and stimulating. My body betrayed me in all sorts of ways: I felt the moistness between my legs, my nipples hardening and my pupils dilating.

He was torturing me. And I didn't know if he was aware of it or if he was doing it on purpose.

After putting away the hairbrush he wrapped his arms around me in a backhug and leaned his chin on my shoulder close to my neck. His arms clenched over my stomach in a tight embrace after which he left out a long sigh.

I couldn't explain it if someone asked me but I knew that he was saying sorry to me in that moment in his head. Call it telepathy if you want or whatever, but right there and then, I knew that was what was going through his mind.

Oh my god. This is too much.

Keane kissed the spot where his chin was moments ago nonchalantly before letting go of me and taking the hair tie off from my wrist. He put up my hair in a loose bun, clumsily so, but he still managed it, before spinning me around to face him.

"I love you." He stared into my eyes and his gaze conveyed all the emotions he felt, from regret to pleading for forgiveness, desparation, to intense and life-changing, spirit-stirring, deep love.

"I love you too." I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer for a deep and longing kiss. A deliberating kiss that took off all the weight from my shoulders and erased all the bad memories and left nothing but the happy moments between us.

There was nothing left to think of, discuss, or argue about the past. My true feelings for him, too, just bubbled up from my heart in complete disregard of what had happened because I knew Keane would never again mistrust me. His face said it, his whole demeanor and body, too.

I had forgiven him the moment I laid eyes on him.

A short thought crossed my mind in that moment. Finally, we are brave enough to love again.

*

The End