“Do you want me, Ami? Do you want to see me naked the same way you are now?”
Fuck, yes.
I clear my throat and manage to ram the overeager, far too tactless words back down my throat. I know how difficult this is for me. How my heart feels like it’s going to beat through my chest. How my veins feel like they’re going to tear open, somuch feeling is tearing through them. How my blood surges and my body is overwarm. How the terror of my past threatens that golden warmth enveloping me, nipping at my heels like a rabid beast.
“Yes. Yes, I’d like to see you.” My stomach grips tight in anticipation.
I expect him to shed his clothing like he did in the kitchen, quick and methodical, but he surprises me. I should have known. He doesn’t do anything that I’ve ever expected. Gage isn’t like any other man I’ve ever known.
“Then come here. I want you to undress me. I want you to see what other parts of my body appreciate your body and your spirit. I want you to look at me and know that I might be giving commands, that I might be physically stronger than you, that I might be rough and hard, but that it’s you who has all the power.”
Power. It’s a heady thought. I never would have thought a man like him would say something like that. Would admit it, so readily and easily, like it gives him joy. And not just my body. But myspirit. As if he can see it as easily as the rest of me. As if I’m not just a collection of parts, but a person.
God.
I blink hard, but force my stone like feet from where I’m frozen to the floor. I want this. I want him. More than anything, I want him to feel that warmth that he gave me, just by not shying away from my greatest shame. From what should have repulsed him.
For finding beauty in the ugly and the harsh.
Chapter 16
Gage
My goddess comes to me, trembling with uncertainty and maybe even fear. I want to wash away her apprehension, but as she drops to her knees in front of me, her shaking hands at my jeans, I notice that she slams her legs together, and when she does, she rubs her thighs, as though trying to banish the ache burning there, deep within the center of her, and I realize that maybe those vibrations aren’t all fear.
I want to touch her more than anything, to do a thousand filthy things to her, to throw her onto that bed and spread her thighs and dive between them, to dine on her cunt for the rest of the night, until I’ve broken her fear like a fucking fairy tale prince breaks some curse. I’d flip her over after, and eat her delicious ass until she came a few more times, before I’d ever even think of having her ride my cock.
While she doesn’t appear skittish as her hands quickly undo the button at my jeans and my fly gives way after, I know that she’s new to this. All of this. That her first time, fuck, her only time, was a time she can’t remember, with a bastard thief who stole from her and maimed her.
I want to touch her, to cup her breasts and suck on her sweet, pert nipples. To watch her moan and writhe with every flick of my tongue. I want to pinch her and nip her before I go on to worship the rest of her gorgeous, goddess form. Those shapely limbs, the sweet curl of her hips, her flat belly, and her swollenheat. I want it all, but I know that one touch could ruin her. One touch could shatter and destroy her, so I’ll let her explore me instead. I’ll give her that power, the power to see and touch what no other person has ever discovered. Not that I’m some fucking prize, but this is what we both need.
Two damaged people.
Survivors of the most brutal violence. We bear the scars of our past, the shame and the horror and the guilt, all wrapped up into nightmares and memories we wish we could erase from our minds.
Ami’s eyes widen in surprise when she realizes that I have an undying hatred for underwear of any kind. Then sucks in a harsh breath, but her hands don’t stop. She explores me, carefully pushing my jeans away from my hips, over my ass, her warm hands on my scarred flesh enough to make me want to shoot my load right there.
I grind my teeth to powder and just hope that the ache in my balls isn’t actually enough to kill me. I’d like to have more control than a horny thirteen year old.
I’m so fucking hard that when I glance down at her and find her electric eyes sparking back up at me, I also stare straight at the head of my cock, which is sticking straight up, even with my jeans still half on.
I don’t help her. I don’t move a muscle, even though I feel like someone opened up my skin and stuffed electric prods below the surface. I let her take her time. I let her hands explore me, so tentative and shy that my cock throbs with every single movement and my nerve endings turn to white hot fire.
Ami works my jeans the rest of the way down my legs. I step from them for her, and let her place them carefully aside after, like that denim is made of gold and not old and worn out and stained with motor oil and grease.
She falters back after, resting on her heels, crouched before me, taking all of me in. Her eyes roam hotly over my limbs, a burning caress that makes my balls tighten. Somehow, just that slow perusal is the sexiest thing that I’ve ever seen. My cock agrees, bobbing violently as it stands straight against my stomach.
“Would you like to touch me?” I make my voice hard, so that she can’t tell just how fucking hard it is for me to stand there like I am. With every single scar and mar on display. I’ve never bared myself to another person.
Ami’s head jerks up and those obsidian orbs meet mine. She doesn’t hesitate before she inclines her head. Even though she downplays the raw desire, I see it burning in her eyes, naked and unfettered.
She stumbles forward until she’s kneeling before me again. Slowly, she reaches out and grazes her fingers down the striated muscle of my thigh. It’s not what I thought she’d choose to caress, and those tiny fingertips splayed against my leg are somehow more sexual than if she’d grabbed my dick in her fist and pumped it.
I stand stock still, trying to drag air into my lungs, which feel like they’ve collapsed, when Ami leans in. She rests her face against the juncture of my thigh and pelvis, bends her head and inhales.
It should be fucking weird.
It’s the exact opposite.
