Page 93 of Fallen Hero

Now that the desire was at a simmer instead of a rolling boil ready to scald me, it was easy to remember up until a little bit ago, I’d been a virgin. And just because I no longer carried that particular card, I still had no experience in what happened next.

Mason swept his thumb over my cheek. “Trust me, sweetness, the last thing I want is to lose your tight, wet heat. But I’ve got a few more seconds before I’m hard again.”

That didn’t sound like a bad thing. “And?”

A slow, lazy smile formed. No, a slow, lazy, satisfied smirk formed.

He didn’t answer. Instead, he told me, “You’re crazy beautiful, Calista.”

“You’re crazy hot, Mason,” I returned.

“I took—”

All right. Enough was enough.

“You didn’t take anything,” I interrupted. “It was mine to give, and I gave it to you. You didn’t hurt me.”

“Baby, your scream said otherwise. And if that didn’t do it, the tears brimming in your eyes would’ve.”

I had to give him that.

“It was a shock. A pinch of pain. But you didn’t hurt me.” He looked unconvinced, so I added, “I promise, Mason.”

“Okay, Calli. You trusted me with that, now I need you to trust me again and unwrap so I can see to you.”

That sounded scary. But I unlocked my ankles. He slowly slid out. I groaned. He moaned. As soon as I lost him, he scooted down and pressed his mouth between my breasts, then another to my belly, and one more lower still, right above where my panties would’ve been if I’d been wearing them.

I felt that in my womb.

“Be back,” he told me, as he exited the bed and hitched up his sweats. But he didn’t walk away until he yanked the corner of the comforter up and covered my naked body.

I watched him disappear into the bathroom, thinking there was something erotic about me being fully nude, while he’d only had me pull his sweats down far enough to free his cock.

I’d had sex with Mason with his pants pulled down to his thighs.

Frantic. Desperate. Desire fueled.

Now that was the way to lose your virginity.

Mason came back into the room, his lean hips and six-pack on display. All of that was hot, but it was his chest and shoulders that had me enthralled. And his biceps. He was muscled and cut all over, but I had a special affinity for his chest and arms; the former was the first part of him I’d touched. And those arms had carried me to bed—twice now.

Two times I’d been carried by Mason—two times I’d been safe there.

He stopped by the side of the bed, stared down at me but didn’t speak. I gave him a few seconds of silence before fear inched in.

The slap of reality hit me.

I haven’t fucked a woman in ten years.

Just because I didn’t regret what we’d done didn’t mean he didn’t.

“Everything okay?” I whispered.

“Better than a dream,” he mumbled, like he wasn’t talking to me. “You ready to trust me some more?”

“Yes.”

Without preamble, the covers were thrown off me. Mason scooped me up off the mattress. My arms went around his neck, and he made his way into the bathroom.