I chuckled, shifting toward Lee.
“Double-checking that I wasn’t dreaming.” I lifted my arm to show him the tiny red welt. “It hurt and I’m still awake, so I guess this is real.”
Lee shut his eyes and laughed.
“Don’t scare me like that. And damn right, it’s real.”Lee’s gaze roamed over my body, a feral gleam in his eyes before he lay back down and yanked me closer. “Sure you’re feeling okay?”
How did I define okay? I was feelingtoo much. A palpable joy stirred in my belly along with a nagging undercurrent of doubt.
I’d woken tangled up with the man of my dreams, yet I wanted to jump out of bed and hide.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t believed him or that I hadn’t seen this coming. Maybe not exactly this, but the tension between us was obvious enough thatsomethinghad been about to happen. The only way I’d been able to stay friends with Lee was to accept that he wasn’t for me, not like that.
To have himchooseme? To race across a baseball field because he couldn’t handle losing me? The thought made me sneak my hand under the sheet to squeeze the raw skin under my arm again to make sure that it still hurt and that I wasn’t in some dream-altered reality.
“You’re beautiful in the morning.” Lee stroked his fingers through my hair.
“Right,” I said on a laugh. “I have a scrape across my cheek and a bruise on the side of my head. I must look like I got into a fight. Although a ball hurts less than a fist.”
I rubbed my nose on instinct. It had healed perfectly, according to the doctor I’d seen when I’d gotten to New York, but I still felt for a bump across the bridge of my nose whenever I’d think of it.
Lee’s jaw was tight as he cupped my cheek.
“If he ever comes near you again, I’ll show him what damage a fist can do.”
“Easy, tough guy.” I chuckled, running my fingers through his messy hair. “What I’m saying is, I’m fine.I won’t run a marathon or anything, but I’m okay to function and take care of Bennie when you leave.”
I turned to get off the bed, afraid I’d throw myself at him again or beg like I had before we’d gone to sleep. He pulled me back on the bed right before my feet touched the floor.
“You need better pajamas,” Lee said, his voice low and dangerous while he traced the strap of my tank top. “This top hangs off you. I bet if I pull just a little…” he said, winding the string around his finger.
“Like this?” I pulled the strap out of Lee’s hold and dragged it toward my elbow. I settled on my back as my breasts spilled out. The throb between my legs kept time with the heartbeat blasting in my ears. I’d wanted this so much, for so long, and I’d never in a million years thought I’d ever be half naked under Lee, offering him everything I never expected him to want from me.
It was as amazing as it was terrifying.
“Fuck, Stella,” he growled, his eyes tracking up and down my body, singeing my skin in their path. “So damn beautiful.”
He cupped my breast, tracing one nipple with his thumb while he sucked the other into his mouth.
The scrape of his beard combined with the wet warmth of his mouth—and that this was Lee, for fuck’s sake—had my body bowing off the bed as heat pooled between my legs.
“I thought…doctor’s orders were to take it easy. Ahh, right there…”
Lee moved his mouth to my other breast while he slipped his hand between my legs.
“Can I touch you? I need to touch you.”
Lee’s eyes were almost black when they met mine, his hand grazing the edge of my panties.
“Are you kidding me right now?” I grabbed his wrist and shoved it the rest of the way.
“You’re soaked. Jesus, Stella,” Lee said, tracing the swollen bump that had its own heartbeat. “I still shouldn’t, but fuck,” he growled into the crook of my shoulder before dragging his tongue up my throat, crashing his lips into mine.
“Yes, you absolutely should.” I spread my legs wider, my hips bucking off the bed while I chased the pattern of Lee’s fingers. It wasn’t the first time I’d been touched, but my body had never ignited like this before, my mind scrambling as it couldn’t handle both how good this was and whose fingers were about to push me over a cliff I’d probably never come back from.
And this was only his hand. His cock would probably kill me.
“You like this, sweetheart? Making a mess all over my fingers?”
