When his powerful arms cradle me to his hard chest, I don’t want to move. I don’t want tobreathewrong. It feels for a moment as if he is drawing strength from me. I want him to open up, to trust that someone gives a damn about his trauma. That someone wants him to have a chance to heal at last.
“You will tell me, won’t you?” I whisper softly, turning in his arms to face him, my touch gentle at the angrier scars. I expect him to flinch, but he doesn’t. No, he goes still, so still I am afraid of what door I just shoved open.
“No, I have no intention of telling you.” His voice is razor sharp.
Reece reaches past me to turn off the water, and I let out a sigh. He has shut himself down once again. He does not owe me anything, of course. I am not entitled to his pain if he doesn’t want to share it. But I thought...well, I had hoped after last night he might be willing to.
Last night was one of the most amazing nights of my life. I am tired in the best way. My body aches in the most intimate places, his beard and his fingertips left marks I hope linger. Reece was careful to dodge questions about why came here to hide out or how I can get him to start living again.
I’ve never slept with a man before. We slept through the night, cuddled up in his big bed as if it were perfectly natural. Besides making me come half a dozen times, he fed me leftover lasagna in bed, made me laugh harder than I have in a long time, and before I fell asleep, he pressed a tender kiss to my forehead as his strong arms wrapped me up tight. I have never felt safter or more at home in my life.
Still, I know nothing about him or how to heal his wounds.
“Come on, princess, I cleaned up my mess,” Reece calls, holding his hand out.
Blinking from my thoughts, I realize he is out of the shower, a towel wrapped around him. Just the way I found him the day we met. It does feel as if suddenly, we’re right back there again. At the start, total strangers. And I guess we have done nothing to make us anything different. Strangers can share a drink, share a meal, and share their bodies without ever giving a piece of themselves.
“Reece…I came up here because without even meeting you, I knew there was something about you that was…damaged. Something that was not…not broken, but that needed someone to look after it. Because you refused to by coming up here. Whatever hurt you, whatever left you with damages, you should stop running from it.”
Reece turns, a bare and beautiful beast, his face twisted up, dark eyes storming. For the very first time since I met him, I am a little afraid. Not of him. Not that he would ever hurt me. No, he would never put his hands on me or take something from me. But he could wreck me by keeping me out. By refusing to let me ease some of the pain that he has been dealt.
“Why does it matter what sent me running or how long I stay hidden up here? I am nothing to no one, Rain. I made sure of that.”
“What about me?”
Turning more, he stares at me for a moment. More than once, he has looked at me as if he’s surprised I am still here. I am not sure why I’ve stayed either. But I cannot just walk out on him. Not after the night we shared, not after the connection I know we both felt between us.
“Rain,” he sighs my name as he closes the distance between us. Though even as he gathers me close, we both know there isstill a distance he may not want to close. “I told you from the start, I don’t deserve a second chance.”
Moving closer, I press my wet body against his. I glance past his shoulder at the big oval mirror behind him. That mirror is why everything went wrong. We were having a good morning—until he caught sight of himself in that damned mirror. Immediately, the air changed. Reece was still with me, but he wasn’t present the way he had been last night.
“You don’t mean that,” I whisper as his entire body tenses against me. His arms stay at his sides until suddenly, he moves, picking me up as her turns. I let out a sound of surprise as he sets me down on the granite counter.
“Idomean it, Rain. I am not a diamond in the rough, I am not some lost, unfortunate soul, not some beast that beauty can tame. I am damaged goods. All that is left of me is not enough for you or for anyone.”
Reece towers over me, body still coiled tight, dark eyes storming. I reach between us, pulling at his towel. It drops to the floor with a soft sound that sends heat racing up my spine. I spread my legs wider, hooking a foot around his thigh to pull him closer. We share a sound when his jutting cock presses against my bare sex—both of us clean from the sticky mess.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to make a mess of me again?” I whisper, falling back a little so I can get a view of him between my thighs.
Letting out a low growl, his hands grip my hips tightly, tilting me. I cry out when he rocks his hips forward to rub the tip of his cock between my folds. Sensation washes over me as hot as that shower. I stare up at him, locking my legs around him again.
“Reece, you can’t make a mess so bad we can’t clean it up together.”
“No, the mess I could make of you, it would wreck me. If I hurt you...I don’t know if I could survive it, Rain. I’ve hurt others enough.”
“You won’t hurt me,” I whisper, even if I am not sure I believe it. He wants to hurt me. To push me out of his head, out of his cabin. As much as he wants me gone, wants me to give up my plans to bring him back to life, he also wants me here.
“Iwillhurt you, princess. It is what I do. Not just in bed, where I will mark your body with my hands, with my mouth. I will fuck you raw and make it hurt so you never forget me. Then I will make you leave, tell you not to come back because I’ve taken my fill of you. I won’t give you more or make promises I will never keep.”
With his harsh speech delivered, his fingers bruise my hips as he drags me to the edge of the vanity. I gasp when he pushes himself inside me just a little. Just enough that I can feel him. I claw at his chest, the mix of pain and pleasure more than I expect. Determined not to let him end things this way, I shift my hips in a circle, letting him dive a little deeper inside me.
“Fuck. Such a tease. You don’t want me to fuck you the way I want to. You want me to be sweet, to be gentle. To make you come so pretty, it gets to a part of me I shut off a long time ago. Not gonna happen, Rain.”
“No. I want you to fuck me the way you want to,” I rasp, rubbing myself shamelessly against his shaft. “After you see it doesn’t scare me away, you can fuck me howwewant.”
I do believe I am as stunned by my filthy words as he is. Reece stares down at me, silent for a long moment. His fingers dig into my hips as he drags me closer again. I ignore the pain, humming when a little rock of his hips teases my aching sex. I move my own hips, letting him sink further.
“Stop it,” he growls, his forehead pressed against mine, gazed fixed between my legs where he pushes inside of me. “Youdon’t mean it. If you do, I will bend you over the bed and fuck you raw while I redden that ass of yours. Let you choke on my cock until you can’t breathe. I will mark your pretty princess pussy with my cum. But I don’t want to breed you or keep you here, Rain. I just want to use you to get off. Because ain’t that why you’re here? To use me to get what you want?”
