AllFreeNovel
Share Us
From her position across the courtyard, Nina figured out how the Jefferson’s relationship differed from any other she’d ever witnessed.
Bennett’s heart condition meant he couldn’t risk elevating his blood pressure foranyreason - not even to make love to the woman he clearly adored...and who loved him back just as much.
Softly, she murmured, “Oh,Rowan...how selfless you are.”
Gage looked at her with a frown and she shook her head slowly, staring at the pavers beneath her feet. She’d never confess such an intimate observation to the man who still loved Rowan to distraction.
The differences between them - the ones that hadalwaysexisted between Rowan and Nina - were never more glaringly obvious. It made Nina’s heart hurt, her mind blank, and her body shake.
The realization filled her with shame.
As the first fireworks exploded overhead, Nina slipped away.
Finding a bench in deep shadow, she lowered to it and put her face in her hands. The scent of James registered before the warmth of his body settled at her side.
His arm wrapped around her, holding her against him. “It’s alright that you’re not the same, Nina. It’s what made you such good friends. It’s what will make your future friendship so strong.”
Weeping painfully but silently as she’d learned to do when she was a child, she couldn’t look at him. She worried about contaminating him where he touched her.
Her darkness wouldobliteratehis light.
As if he could read her mind, James lifted Nina fully to his lap and held her harder. Flashes of light from the fireworks flickered over the space every few seconds and he forced her face up to look at him.
Wiping her tears with his thumb, he whispered, “Let me help, Nina.”
He didn’t look away from her face as his hand explored her. Lightly skimming his fingertips over her face, he stroked them through her hair. Along the column of her neck to her shoulder, down to cup her breast, his thumb rubbed across her nipple gently. His hand curved along her ribs and down to her waist where he delivered a careful squeeze.
“A lesser woman wouldn’t have come here, wouldn’t have faced the friend she hurt. Rowan needs you in her life and she’ll need you more as time goes on.”
Nina sniffed quietly and couldn’t look away from his face as multi-colored lights gave her glimpses of him.
“She’ll cling to you as the worldly older sister who never pulls her punches. Right now, you’re off-balance, feeling shame for a mistake made so long ago, and comparing yourself to a person whose lifewas notthe same, Nina. Rowan’s life was not like yours...and she knows that. It’s why she felt more hurt than anger when everything happened between you. Let her forgive you. Let her lean on you, and along the way, maybe you can forgive yourself.”
His palm slipped over her hip to her upper thigh. Nina held her breath. James cradled Nina against him, held her in the bend of his arm, and delivered a kiss that was as powerful as it was delicate.
“One touch at a time. One word at a time. That’s what it will take to close the wounds that have bled inside you all your life. First, we close them,” he kissed her again, “then we let them scar over,” another kiss, “then we work on getting you accustomed to less pain.”
“That...could take years,” she whispered.
“I’m a patient man, Nina.” Devouring her lips, he slipped his hand beneath her dress and into her panties.
She moaned into his mouth and he drank down the sound. Fondling her gently, he let his fingertips coast over flesh still hypersensitive from his earlier attention.
Panting, she accepted the pleasure he offered and let her mind blank. Dropping one of her feet to the pavement beneath the bench, she opened her body more fully and worked herself against his hand.
Breaking the kiss, he stared into her eyes as she chased what she needed. “Take it, sweetheart. Take what you need.”
The climax exploded and her body arched in his arms. He never stopped moving over the tight bundle of nerves as the orgasm rippled over her skin and dug deep.
As it let her go a minute later, she went limp against him breathing heavily.
“I could become addicted to watching you come,” he told her softly, his palm cupping her folds.
Raising her again, he made love to her mouth and it was the first time Nina understood the expression.
Soaking up the warmth, strength, and stillness of a man she never expected to touch someone like her, Nina sipped, sipped, sipped from him.
Taking as she always took.
