“Wow,” she exclaimed. “You just changed the documentary that plays in my head to a super-sexy fantasy.”
He lowered himself to all fours and kissed each of her taut, sensitive nipples. “Who says fantasy can’t also be a documentary?” he asked, his voice rough and aching with a need Willow guessed matched her own.
She reached up and unbuttoned his jeans, then carefully lowered the zipper over his thick, hard length and pulled the pants down to his thighs.
“I think you have your genre wires crossed,” she finally replied, her breath coming in short pants as he nipped gently at her hardened peaks.
He unbuttoned, unzipped, and helped her shimmy out of her own denim. Then she stared at his half-removed pants and raised her brows. “If I can’t wear anything but my undergarments, then the same goes for you.”
“I was hoping in a minute or two that you wouldn’t be wearinganything,” he replied, letting loose a soft growl that made Willow’s body hum.
He stood and let his jeans fall the rest of the way to the floor. Then he raised his brows and hookedhis thumbs behind the band of his black boxer briefs.
“Wait!” Willow cried, then scrambled to her feet, letting her unhooked bra fall where she lay. “I want to do it,” she told him.
Ash grinned and dropped his hands, but Willow stayed frozen where she stood.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, and she felt her smile fall.
She brushed her fingers over the fading yellow bruise covering his ribs, the one she’d failed to notice when he’d been looming over her looking like he wanted to devour her and she’d been all too willing to let him.
Ash flinched.
“Sorry!” she told him. “Does it still hurt?”
He shook his head. “You just surprised me.”
Willow tilted her head up to meet his inscrutable blue eyes. “Admit that it hurts,” she said.
His brows furrowed. “What?”
“Bruises hurt, Ash, and that one’s a doozy. So why won’t you admit it?”
He laughed, but she could hear the bitterness in his voice. “Uh…you’re kind of killing the mood, Morgan.”
Willow’s throat tightened, and she nodded. “I know. But if we’re going to really do this, I wantallof you, Ash. I don’t think that’s something I ever had before.” She realized now that despite the sweetthings he might have said to her when they were together, she only knew Ash the performer, the guy who was always a little bit stilloneven off the stage. “I want…” she continued, blowing out a long breath. “I want whatever is going on in your head…and…whatever you’re feeling in your heart.” She slid her arms around his waist and pulled his bare torso to hers. “Please?” she added.
Ash rested his chin on top of her head and exhaled. “I already told you I still loved you, and I meant it. What else do you need from me?”
“Everything,” she replied matter-of-factly. And Willow realized she wouldn’t settle for anything less. “But tonight…just two more things.”
He pulled back enough to look her in the eyes. “Name ’em. I’ve got nothing to hide from you.”
Willow both shivered from the breeze sneaking in from outside and crackled with electricity at being so close to Ash Murphy after all this time.
“Does the bruise hurt?” she whispered.
He nodded. “But only a little now that it’s had time to heal.”
“Do you think you deserve to be hurt by those who are supposed to love you?”
A muscle in his jaw pulsed. “Willow…” he whispered through gritted teeth. “I’ve seen what people say…about you being too smart to…” But his voice trailed off, and she could tell he was too scared to finish the thought, scared that he mightbe right.
“I don’t care what other people say.” Willow wanted to believe that was true, that she was stronger now than she was before. That her life washerlife despite so much of it being lived in the fishbowl of the public eye. She leaned up and pressed her lips to his—and felt him inhale a stuttering breath. “I forgive you,” she said softly, then kissed him again. “Your brothers arehappyyou’re home.” Another kiss. “Maybe it’s time you let yourself off the hook too.” She kissed his cheek, his mouth, his neck.
She felt him tremble beneath her touch, this big, strong man who was the boy she fell for one summer four years ago. Then she lowered his boxer briefs as he stepped out of both them and his jeans, and she took him into her hand, stroking him from root to tip.
Ash stumbled back a step before righting himself again.
