Page 34 of Immortal Unveiled

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Kim stared at Manus. Regret? Did she regret having had sex with Manus? For the first time in a long time, she’d felt passion and desire. She’d felt lust. This wasn’t the lukewarm sex she and Todd had had in the months before the breakup. Todd had never taken her like this. Like he needed her, like he would die if he couldn’t have her. In Manus’s arms, she’d felt desired, wanted, needed.

“No. I don’t regret a single moment,” she said, meeting Manus’s penetrating look. She took a step toward him and placed her hands on his shirt.

“Good, because being inside you was mind-blowing,” Manus said with a soft smile.

Kim felt herself blush at the compliment and popped one button of his shirt open. “Well, then maybe we should repeat this.”

When she attempted to open the next button, he captured her hands. “Uh, Kim…”

Something in his tone made her breath hitch. “What?”

“I’m not perfect.”

“Nobody is,” she murmured. “Now, get out of those clothes.”

He kicked off his shoes and wiggled out of his pants, yet he didn’t let go of her hands.

“The shirt too,” she insisted.

“About that…”

“Oh, come on, what is it? You have a third nipple or something?” She chuckled and shook her head, then brushed his hand off and unbuttoned his shirt. He stood there like a statue, totally unmoving. When she peeled his damp shirt from his chest and down his shoulders, she knew why.

“Oh.” The sound escaped from her mouth before she could stop it.

Her eyes were drawn to the skin on his chest. He didn’t have a third nipple. In fact, he had no nipples at all. But she knew it wasn’t a birth defect because he’d had nipples once, she was sure of that. However, they were gone now. Burned away. In fact, his entire chest was covered with third-degree burn marks. Scars. He’d survived a fire, a devastating one. She remembered his words suddenly. It was an inferno. I got there too late. But then why…

He suddenly moved, and she realized it was to pull the shirt back over his shoulders and cover his chest. “I’d better go.”

The words sounded tight, and she recognized that sound. She’d hurt him by staring, by her shocked gasp.

She put her hands on his chest, gently but firmly, before he could cover it with the shirt. “No, don’t leave.” She lifted her head to look at his face. “Don’t you remember what you promised me? It was something along the lines of out-of-this-world, headboard-banging, chandelier-swinging sex. And what we just had was a nice start in the right direction, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think we’re done here.”

“We’re not?” he asked, his voice infused with doubt. He dropped his gaze to her hands on his chest to point out the obvious. “You can’t possibly want…”

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. She knew what he meant.

“That’s only on the outside.” She began to caress his chest, feeling the uneven ridges under her fingers. It was an odd feeling, something so different from what she’d ever felt before. But she wasn’t disgusted.

“You don’t have to touch me there,” he said, his voice still tight, still hesitant. “I know that it doesn’t feel good.”

“You mean you don’t like it when I touch you like this?”

He shook his head. “I do like it. But you don’t need to—”

“What if I want to?”

“I guess then I won’t stop you.”

She smiled, dipped her head to his chest, and pressed a kiss to it.

A sharp inhale was the answer.

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

“God, no,” he let out.