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“Love me, take me, need me.” Those phrases implied neediness in the extreme, but they were apt. It was what they yearned for, she knew, but never dared to say.
    Now Claus bent down to ghost a kiss across her forehead, telling her all the things she knew deep down. All this time, he just hadn’t had a clue how to say it. Yes, he wanted her, too. She could feel it radiating off him. There’d been nothing overtly sexual about the caress of lips, yet it was very unlike all the other casual caresses or chaste pecks he’d given her. There was intent there now, a promise. Claus was giving himself permission to be with her. Alicia knew for him, that was a very big deal.
    After all this time, finally. There was fear, of course. This would be the first time in her adult life she had ever chosen to be with anyone. And this was all about her choice. He hadn’t saved her from pity—he really did want her. That he had waited two years for this was a staggering thought. And now here was the time. The weight of the moment made her heart thunder. Claus would be hers, and she would be his. She knew that afterwards, her entire world would change.
    But hadn’t it already?
    “Come.” His deep voice vibrated low in her ear, sinking down into her marrow. Strong arms urged her forward toward the rest of her life. “We will have dinner and…” Instead of finishing the sentence he ran his lip gently behind her ear. Oh, God, oh, God, she was going to melt right then and there. “Wear the white dress for me?”
    “Of course,” she breathed out in relief.
    Finally. Finally.

Chapter Five
     
    I am no child. I am a man . Claus repeated the litany in his head over and over again. The words did nothing to stop his palms from sweating thinking about running his hands over her flesh, or his mouth from watering thinking of tasting her lips, the sweetness between her thighs, drinking in her cries of bliss. The throbbing in his cock had become a persistent, drumming ache just watching her, the way she moved when she spoke, graceful hands every now and again waving in the air. It was hard not to groan every time her mouth opened to take in a bite of food. He caught himself staring at her lips as he imagined what they would feel like. Every time she brought the fork up to her mouth, he could see her welcoming his dick inside that warm, wet cavern. Watching Alicia do much of anything was like watching living art. It was something he’d thought maybe one day he would get used to, but he never had. She was the one and only star of every fantasy he’d had since he met her, whether dreaming or awake.
    Even now, he wasn’t sure her attraction to him wasn’t in part gratitude, but there was no longer any denying the pull between them. The way she’d yielded in his arms earlier— scheiße ! It was a miracle he hadn’t taken her right there in the fucking store. For so long he had held back, waited, watched. The last thing he wanted to do was move right in where a monster had formerly dwelled. He wanted so much better for her. Better than him, even, but he was far too selfishly human to allow that. Maybe if she had expressed interest in getting away, of being elsewhere, somewhere away from him, he could have. Then again, maybe not.
    What was clear to him was that life owed her more than what she’d gotten thus far. As far as Claus was concerned, she would get that, one way or another. In his mind, it was his responsibility to make sure she experienced all the passion, and yet all the gentleness possible. No one, in his opinion, deserved it more. But God knows, he was not a gentle man. Perhaps it would be more honest to say he had held back from her because he was afraid he could never be what she deserved. That didn’t matter now though. He was going to have to be it. It might take all the strength he had, but there was no alternative. She was his.
    Because romance was so far outside anything he knew, he had been studying for some time now. Just