“I need to be very clear, Diana—I want you. I want to make love to you. And under normal circumstances, I’d take the lead until you were begging beneath me. But such as I am—”
She lifted up on her tiptoes and pressed two fingers to his lips to silence him. “I know what to do,” she whispered as she reached around him to open the door.
His eyes grew wide, but he didn’t question as she backed him into the room, across it to the bed. He stopped there and winced as he reached up to remove his shirt. She stepped up to push his hands away and did it herself, unfastening and sliding the fabric gently from his shoulders until it fell behind him on the floor. She followed with his trousers, thankful that he was barefoot so they wouldn’t be impeded by her removing his boots.
And then he was naked, standing before her, and she stopped breathing.
She stared at him, just as she had every time she’d seen him this way. The first time she’d tried, and perhaps failed, to look at him with the eyes of a physician. Tried to see him as a body she was meant to repair.
Tonight she stared at him as a woman was meant to stare a man she would have as her own. She drank him in slowly, enjoying every inch of toned flesh, even the damaged ones that were hidden behind the bandage she had wrapped earlier. Her gaze flitted to the flat stomach, the narrow hips, and at last she settled on the hard cock that flared up in desire.
“I have not been touched by anyone but those meant to heal me in a very long time, Diana,” he whispered, his voice rough with emotion as well as desire. “Please.”
She swallowed, for his words struck far too close to the core of her. She, too, had missed the touch of another person. A touch of love or desire or pleasure. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it until the night he held her while she wept and reawakened all the desires she’d tried to pack away.
There was more than one way to heal, wasn’t there?
She moved forward, holding his gaze as she placed her hands flat against his chest. He hissed out a sound of pleasure, tracking her movements as she glided her fingers down his flesh, letting her thumbs flick at his flat nipples before she stroked them over his stomach.
“God’s teeth,” he grunted, dipping his head back as he used his good hand to balance himself on the bed.
She swelled with feminine power at the reaction. She liked making this powerful man tremble as he trembled now when she stroked just one fingertip along the length of his hard cock.
His eyes came open, spearing her with his gaze once more. As she teased him, he lifted his hands and unbuttoned her gown in a few deft motions that gave her a glimpse, once more, of what this man had been like before injury. She shuddered as he pushed the gown open and tugged it over her arms until it collapsed on the floor beneath her feet.
Her undergarments were simple, a short chemise over a pair of drawers. For once in her life, she wished she collected pretty underthings, but the plain cotton that separated her from him seemed not to bother him. He just stared at her, his pupils dilating until there was almost no brown left, his hands shaking as he slipped them under the straps of her chemise and pushed it down, lower and lower until her breasts were bared.
“Diana was a goddess,” he whispered as he bent his head and blew warm air against her nipples. They hardened, and sensation rushed through her as she thrust her fingers into his hair and tangled them into the unruly curls.
“Y-yes,” she said, her voice breaking.
“You are aptly named,” he murmured before he darted his tongue out and traced the hard peak of her nipple. He swirled his tongue around and around, and her knees nearly buckled at the pleasure. She found herself tugging him closer, holding him against her in a silent demand for more. For everything.
He chuckled against her flesh and looked up at her. “Shall we continue this on the bed?”
She nodded and watched as he took his place against the pillows. He lay on his good arm, propping himself up as he left a spot for her to join him.
She drew a long breath. Here was another of those chances to run away from this. From him. But she didn’t. Instead, she shimmied her drooping chemise away. He sat up a little more, stalking her with his gaze as she untied the bow at the waist of her drawers and slowly slid them down around her ankles, as well.
She was naked.Theywere naked. Once she got onto that bed with him, there would be no going back. He would touch her and she would touch him and everything would become moonlight and foggy pleasure. It would change everything about what she had agreed to do to help him.
And she wanted to do it despite all that.
She wanted to do itbecauseof it. And because she had been alone and hurting for so long. Didn’t she deserve the pleasure this man promised with every turn of his head and blink of his eyes?
“Changing your mind?” he drawled.
She blinked and realized she’d been standing naked before him, musing on what would happen next. He didn’t look perturbed, though.
“Not that I don’t enjoy the view,” he continued. “But I do not take what isn’t fully and happily given, Diana. Once we do this, it cannot be taken back. And I can make no promises along with it. Not with my profession.”
She drew in a long breath. “I appreciate that honesty, Lucas. But I do not hesitate because I want promises. I would not ask for them, nor would I accept them if they were made.”
He examined her for a moment, then held out his hand. “Then we are of a mind.”
She nodded, and her own hand shook as she took his and joined him at last on the bed. She settled onto the pillows on her back beside him. For a moment he did nothing but look at her.
“I was not entirely honest,” he said at last.
