Her lip was trembling and her eyes were filled with tears. “How do I…” She swallowed. “How do I look?”
And I realized that she hadn’t seen herself, yet. The mirror in the bathroom broke a long time ago, after I—
Well. It broke.
The only mirror is in the living room, and she couldn’t see it from where she was. And I’d hustled her straight through to the bathroom when we arrived. She hadn’t seen the damage, yet.
“It’s not so bad,” I told her. I got up slowly and walked across to her, grabbing the best towel I had. She hesitantly released her grip on the door and I slowly opened it and wrapped the towel around her like a dress.
I guided her to the mirror, stepping behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist for support. Her steps got smaller and smaller as she approached. When she saw her face, I saw her go pale. I thought she was going to be sick.
“It’ll heal,” I told her as she touched her cheek.She’s never been hurt before, you feckin’ idiot,I told myself. I was used to coming home with a broken nose or a mashed-up lip, back in the day. But she’d always known the same face in the mirror. Now it had suddenly changed. She must not feel likeheranymore.
I lifted my arms and wrapped them tighter around her, hugging her close to my chest. “You’re beautiful,” I told her.
She shook her head and I heard her breath catch. She was on the edge of tears.
“Beautiful,”I said. And she was. It broke my heart to see her hurt like this. But it didn’t for one second change the way I felt about her.
And for the first time, I felt that deep lurch inside, the one where you feel like the floor’s just been pulled out from under you. I’d been thinking about how much I wanted her, but I’d been skating around the other stuff: how much I liked talking to her; how she made me laugh like no one else did; how I’d wanted to protect her from the first moment I met her.
No. No way. Jesus, look at me—look at my shitty apartment. Look at what I am. She deserves a hell of a lot better than me.
She turned around, wincing as she moved her hip. “Thank you,” she whispered. And she drew me down into a soft, tender kiss. And for a little while, I let my doubts go and allowed myself to pretend we could actually be together, long term.
I could feel her naked body through the towel, cool and deliciously soft against me. But before things went any further, there was something I needed to do. I picked her up and lifted her onto the bed on her back. Then I unwrapped the towel, leaving her naked.
Her eyes widened.
I held up my hands in defense. “I’m not—Notthat.I gotta check the rest of you.”
She looked chastened...and a little disappointed. “Oh.”
The way she said it made my cock twitch and strain against my thigh. Damn, but this girl turned me on. “Not that we can’t do that too,” I growled.
Her voice changed again, a nervous little laugh creeping in. “Oh!”
I looked down at her. The most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen, naked on my bed, and I had to be halfway professional, at least until I’d checked her over. I took a look at her hip, where she’d whacked it against the wall. There was one hell of an ugly bruise there, purple and green and spreading to cover an area the size of my hand.Ouch.
I took her ankle in my hand and tried lifting her leg a little, then bending it. She winced, but everything seemed to move okay. I’d been worried she might have fractured something. I tried rotating the joint a little and that seemed okay, too.
It was difficult to ignore the fact that I’d just opened her legs, and that her naked pussy was right there in front of me.
We stared at one another.
She pressed her thighs together. “I want to,” she said quietly. “But I’m not sure I can. I’m too banged up.”
I nodded quickly. “Gotcha.” And I started to cover her up. Then I saw her blink a couple of times, not quite crying but on the verge. She thought I didn’t want to. She wasn’t up to sex, but she needed that reassurance. She needed to know that I still found her beautiful.
“There is something we can do,” I said. “Without you moving.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked softly. “What?”
I opened the towel again. Her legs were still a little way apart. I climbed onto the bed and lowered my head between her thighs.
She drew in a huge, startled gasp of air as my tongue touched her lips and flicked up the line between them. I’d always loved going down on a woman and Sylvie had the sweetest, most perfect pussy of them all. Up on the roof had been great but here, with her lying on a bed, I could really go to town.
I had to be careful to avoid touching her hip, or moving her legs. I didn’t want any pain to distract from the pleasure. I slid my hands up to her breasts and began to gently stroke them, and she groaned. God, they felt so good under my palms, full and soft and with the nipples already hardening to warm, stiff buds between my fingers.
