“Hope so,” she smiled up at him.
He caught her wrist to prevent her from flipping on the overhead light switch. He didn’t want to see his body. Why would anyone else? Yet, desire tussled with self-protection and its resulting abstinence.
He leaned down to touch lips to hers. “I haven’t been with anyone since the accident,” he murmured between kisses. He kept his voice even but he could feel the tightening of fear in his throat.Where will this lead? Rejection? Repulsion?
“Sounds like it’s about time then.” Rina wriggled free and stepped farther into the room, looking back to watch him following her. She peeled off her slate-gray jacket. “Your driver okay?” She slung the jacket over a chair.
“Yeah, I’m sure he can wait.” He watched Rina unfastening the pearl orbs holding her silk blouse together.
“You joining me?” she asked, as she revealed pale skin against a petal pink bra. She placed the top over the blazer. Her pants followed.She’s really very pretty.
Phoenix walked over to the side table and placed the condoms onto a pile of business books. “Are you sure about this?”
She slipped over to face him and reached out, grasping his arm and his hand. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Why not? I can give her reasons. Two, to be exact.
“Of course, my trained actuary, you’re pretty sure about everything, aren’t you?” He stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around her naked waist, one side not reaching all the way around.
“I’m going with fifty-fifty odds on that,” she retorted, slipping his buttons out of their openings until she reached his waistband and stripped away his shirt. He avoided his reflection in her bureau mirror.
He buried his face into her hair. “You smell great,” he said. He kissed her, and threaded fingers through her hair. He let the silky strands flow through his grasp.
“You smell amazing, too,” she confessed, her expression softer than it seemed in her business attire.
He stepped back to loosen his pants and let them fall to the floor. Rina’s gaze slid down his body to the carbon fitting holding him up. He pictured what she was seeing. The stretchy fabric of his liner reached up his thigh. Below his knee, a tapered metal cylinder attached to a metal pole.
He felt shame flame his cheeks and threw a glance at the bedspread, seeking a way to cover himself.Aw, shit. Abort mission.
“Maybe I should take you up on that crème de menthe after all. Any booze will do.”
She closed the small distance between them. “Hey, Walker, did I ever tell you that you’re the hottest guy I know?” She touched a finger to one shoulder and sprang back with a smile. “Ouch!”
She ran a finger down his truncated arm. “You let me know if you need me to do something or not do something, okay?”
“I would, except I have to tell you, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
“Me either. I’m a virgin.”
“Really?” His mind backed up, how was he going to figure out how to move his unbalanced form and teach her at the same time?
“I’m kidding.”
“That’s a relief. I wish I was joking about not knowing what I’m doing.”
She pointed at the bed. “You want to give it a try?”
“Um, you know walking with a prosthesis has given me a really strong butt?”
“I’m already sold.” She glared at him.
He sat and tugged off his artificial leg and prosthetic sock, avoiding her gaze. What the hell could any sane woman be thinking, seeing his body, malformed like an unfinished painting?
Screw it.He pulled them both onto the soft expanse of the mattress.
In one hasty motion, Rina stripped off her petal-pink panties. His body responded to the satin of her flesh. He leaned on an elbow and rolled on a condom, slowed by the awkwardness of performing a new task one-handed.
“You want me on the bottom?” she asked.
