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“I—”
Lucas returned to me, big body looming in the darkness, face close to mine. He was everywhere. Surrounding me. And that was good. I was safe here. “You never have to apologize to me for this.” His voice was gentle, breath brushing my ear. “That you’re letting me touch you at all is a fucking honor.”
I realized then that I hadn’t really touched him. He’d touched me—I was letting him touch me. But I wanted that too. Reaching out, I pressed my palm to his cheek, ran my fingers through his hair. “I want to see you.”
Lucas shifted away, pulling his shirt over his head and revealing... everything. The body I’d found so overwhelming when I’d first seen him was even more overwhelming now. His entire torso was packed with muscle, built with a lifetime of military service and now work on the ranch.
He was beautiful.
Looking down at me, he searched my face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” I was a little breathless, being so close to him. He was raising feelings that had been dormant forever. I wanted.
A hand cupped my face. “If you need to stop, anytime, I will.” Another reassurance. I nodded, but he didn’t let go. “I have only one request.”
I raised my eyes to his in question.
“Let me take care of you, Evelyn. Let it just be the two of us in here. Right now, nothing exists outside of this room.”
He was right. I needed that. My scars were a part of me, and him seeing them... accepting them. That was everything. Enough of my life had been taken by the man that had given them to me. Tonight I would not even think his name.
“Just you and me,” I breathed.
Lucas’s mouth dropped to my skin once more, resuming the path that he’d started to draw. Goose bumps formed under his hands. His lips. Pleasure and heat, twisting and yearning. Need that rose to meet his touch. My eyes closed, enjoying the feel of him memorizing me.
That’s what it felt like he was doing—memorizing every inch of me with tongue and fingers until he’d drawn an entire map. When he reached the waistband of his too-big sweatpants, I hesitated. The scars below the belt weren’t any different, but I still cringed at the idea of him seeing them.
He hesitated too, and I knew he was waiting for me to tell him no.
I didn’t.
Big, strong hands slid down my hips, taking the fabric with it. My underwear. Everything was gone, and I shivered. Lucas’s hands moved back up my legs. I loved the warmth of his hands, the way he was taking me in. There was no hesitation or judgment—just a hunger on his face that made my breath short.
“I know it’s only the two of us,” I said. “I just—”
He pressed a kiss to my stomach. Slow. Drifting deliberately lower.
“You’re the first one since... everything happened.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. “For trusting me with that.”
He slipped between my legs, and that was the last thought I had about anything else other than the man touching me and his tongue. Slow. Luxurious. Pure pleasure. The shock that he would do that at all kept me from crying out—
I slammed the thought to a stop. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t liked doing that or that he’d only done it when I’d begged. All that mattered was that Lucas groaned as he licked into me, hands gathering me closer to him like I was a feast.
“I—”
Words were on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t know what words. I just needed to speak. “Are you sure?” The words were less than a breath and barely a question.
Lucas lifted his head for a moment. “I tried not to think of you like this. With everything you’d gone through, it felt like too much. Too far and not fair to you. But there were times I couldn’t stop.” A long, slow stroke of his tongue accompanied the words, and my whole body shuddered. “If you’re asking if I’m sure that I want to do this,” another slow caress, “then yes. I am very, very sure.”
Anything I might have said in response evaporated into mist. He memorized me with his tongue and his lips, savoring every part of me. He made small sounds of encouragement when I shook and arched, repeating those movements over and over until pleasure unfurled inside me, rising in a wave.
It was a bright star of sensation—a nova. A flare. It flashed through me like an explosion and vanished as quickly, leaving me breathless.
I had not thought about having an orgasm in a long time. There were... times that I had tried. And each of those times I’d been overcome with fear and shame and the feeling of invisible eyes stalking me. Eventually, I’d given up.
“I was worried,” I breathed. “That I couldn’t anymore.”
