“You jumped when I first touched you.”
“You startled me.” He still was facing away from her. Exposing his bare back. He felt more naked and vulnerable than when she had seen him fully nude before.
“Does it often cause you pain?” Now both her hands were running over his back and shoulders. She got up on her knees and draped her lovely body over his. He nearly forgot the question at the sensation of her naked flesh against his.
“Not often. Sometimes when I walk or ride too much it aches. A few times I have gotten more acute pain that feels like a sharp stabbing when I do certain movements. But they usually improve and go away in a few days.”
“But most days you feel well?”
“Yes.” Why was she asking all these questions? “The exercises and stretches help me keep my spine as healthy as can be, under the circumstances.”
“Good.” she said, sliding down and placing a kiss in the center of his back. It felt like a brand. “I wouldn’t want you to be in pain.”
He finally turned around and took her in his arms, bending down to seal his lips over hers. She moaned softly and his cock stirred to attention immediately.
“It is not that bad, you know,” she breathed against his ear as he nuzzled her neck.
“Hmm?”
“Your back.” She gasped as he sucked one nipple, but then regrouped. “It doesn’t look as bad as you seem to think.”
“My back is an ugly, twisted mess.” He said going to play with the other nipple because he wanted to stop the conversation about his misshapen back.
She was having none of it. It seemed she wanted to make a point and nothing, not even the promise of sensual pleasure, was going to distract her. She grabbed his face and turned it up to hers. He sighed. So be it. They’d have to talk about it at some point.
“No, it is not.” Abigail said seriously, looking into his eyes. “Yes, there’s some asymmetry. One shoulder blade and the ribs on that side seem to stick out more than the other side. The... hump gets more pronounced when you bend forward. But that hardly makes it a twisted mess. That is why I asked you about the pain. That is the only thing that would matter to me. As long as you feel well, your back matters not at all to me. I truly can not understand why you have made such a big deal out of it and even prevented me from embracing you for so long.”
He remained silent. How to explain the years of wearing an uncomfortable, unsightly brace? The contemptuous or pitying looks he had received? The deep-seated knowledge of feeling like a freak? The shame of being ridiculed for his deformity? Did he even want to go into that?
“Colin. Talk to me.” She insisted, pinning him with her blue-gray eyes.
He sucked in a fortifying breath, slowly let it out, “I have been dealing with this from the age of eleven or twelve. It blighted my childhood. Affected my parent’s marriage, and my relationship with my father. I spent all my youth going to doctors and trying treatment after treatment to improve my deformity.”
“I didn’t know it was that bad.”
“It was just... overwhelming. All-encompassing. There was no escaping it. I was required to wear an iron brace day and night. It was uncomfortable and sometimes even painful. But the worst part was that it made me look like a freak. I didn’t like to go out, and when I had to, I would bundle myself in too big clothes and a cloak to hide the brace.”
He could see the pity in her eyes, and he didn’t want pity, but now that he had started the story, he found he wanted to finish it. To invite her into every part of his life. Lay it all out in the open. Let her know the events that had shaped him into what he was - both literally and figuratively. So he went on.
“Other children tormented me because of this. One time, at Eton, a few kids grabbed me, tied me up and dressed me in women’s clothing, saying that the brace was a corset. They made fun of me in front of the entire school.” Remembering that day, even over twenty years later, made him shudder with old shame.
“That is just horrible!”
He looked at her. “The leader of that band of brutes was Quimby.”
Her eyes widened in comprehension.
“At least something good came of that. That was the day I met Gabriel. He was the only one who stood up for me. After that incident, I ran away from school and my mother eventually took me out of the country. She was a fierce lady. Dragged me to doctor after doctor in the continent and America. Looking for a solution. They all offered different variations of the same.”
“What were the treatments offered, other than the brace?”
“Oh, I would have to go in periodically to stretch. That involved pulling me on a bed that resembled a medieval torture rack or hanging me by my neck.” His lips twisted sardonically. “Yes, almost like a condemned man at the gallows. That is why you screamed when you saw me that day, is it not? You thought I had hanged myself.”
“I-I don’t know what I thought, but it looked disturbing.”
He chuckled softly. “Most of the apparatuses used in the treatment of scoliosis resemble torture devices. They actually look worse than they are. I still use several of them. It is not comfortable, especially for long periods of time, but I’ve found that stretching regularly helps me.”
“I see. But you don’t wear the brace anymore?”
