“Will you kiss me again?”Delilah’s voice was soft, but he couldn’t miss it, especially when she was so close.
“Are you sure, little dove?”
She nodded.“You think you’re not a good man, but I see it differently.”
“What do you see?”Hawkeye couldn’t help but want to hear her perspective.
“I see a man who says he’s not a good man but came in to where I was being held and saved us.He made sure the women who’d been mistreated were taken somewhere that could help them.He didn’t ignore it when those same women threatened another, he just found another way to deal with it.I see someone who’s had several opportunities to do anything he wanted to me, but he’s been kind and gentle.He’s taken care of me, made sure I eat and sleep.”
Her lashes lowered and she kept talking.“I see someone who makes me feel things I’ve never felt before.I see someone who says he’s no angel but wears a haloed skull on his back.I see someone who says he’s no angel but to me angels are not superior beings, they’re not saintly creatures.Angels are the Lord’s warriors.”
A small smile curved her lips as she opened her eyes and looked back up at him.“I might have been raised in a sheltered and controlled community, but even I know that warriors have to get their hands dirty.Sometimes they have to shed blood.That doesn’t make them wrong or bad.It makes them stronger.I see a man who thinks he’s no angel, but I see it up there.It might be a little twisted and tarnished, but it’s there.”
Hawkeye opened his mouth to argue, to tell her she was wrong.But was she?His chest ached as he listened to everything she said.She wasn’t wrong, and he couldn’t tell her she was, even if he didn’t believe her.Not knowing what else to do or say, he gave her what she wanted.He leaned down and brushed his lips across hers.He didn’t want to move too fast.She needed to be in control as from what he could tell, she’d had far too few options or choices in her life.
Delilah made a soft sound, parted her lips and pressed closer.
Hawkeye laid one hand gently on her hip as he tasted her.His cock thickened, making his jeans more uncomfortable.She laid a hand against his chest.He tensed for a moment, knowing she was about to push him away.But she didn’t.Instead she clung to him.Her hand fisted in his shirt, then tugged him closer.He was rock hard now and swore he was going to have the imprint of his zipper on his cock for the rest of his life if he didn’t find a way to relieve the pressure soon.Hell, even opening the fly would help ...but he wouldn’t do it.He wouldn’t push her like that.He fought to keep from rolling her onto her back and taking what he wanted.Only remembering that she’d been abused kept him where he was.
When he lifted his head and looked down at her, she watched him with eyes dilated with pleasure.That stirred something inside him, making him even harder.
“Show me,” she whispered.
“Show you what, little dove?”
“Show me why some of the women like sex.I’ve heard enough of the women with the Crows talking to know not everyone treats it like the duty I was taught.I listened when I could when they spoke of how wonderful it felt.”She looked down, avoiding his gaze.
He fought the urge to tilt her head back up so she would look at him and waited instead.She wasn’t done and he wanted to give her all the time she needed to say what she wanted.
“Can you show me what they mean?Show me what I’m missing?Please?”She looked back up at him, her eyes round and pleading.
He could have held back, was ready to tell her no.Not because he didn’t want to.Just the opposite, he wanted her so badly.But he didn’t want to pressure her into something she wasn’t ready for.But thatplease, that single, whispered, desperate plea did something he hadn’t known possible.It slipped right past his good intentions and shattered his ability to tell her no.Still, he wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want.He also didn’t plan to go all the way.Because he’d meant it when he’d told her once he was inside her, she was his.
“I’ll show you why they like it, but I need something from you first.”
“What?”
“Tell me if I hurt you.Tell me if I scare you.I want you to enjoy this, not just lay back and endure like you had to for years.”
She watched him for a moment then nodded.“I can do that.I’ll say something if you hurt or scare me.What else?”
“Nothing, little dove.Now I get to touch you and show you the joy between the right man and the right woman.”From the way her kisses made him lose track of the rest of the world he had no doubt that everything else between them would be just as consuming.
He skimmed his hand up her torso, letting his fingers caress her curves over her clothes to see how determined she was.Would she flinch away from his touch?He didn’t know how he would handle it if she did.
When she arched into his touch, her fist in his shirt pulling him closer, he realized he’d worried for nothing.Now to see how she’d react when he started peeling off her clothes.
