Chapter 21

Of course, she loved him. Lea wasn’t sure when it had started. It had been a gradual awakening, a slow burn of interest and attraction that had morphed into a persistent and powerful emotion.

Dave laid her down on the bed and came down beside her. He slowly undid the buttons on the front of her pyjama jacket, the feel of his fingers against her bare skin making her shiver in anticipation. He peeled the silky jacket from her shoulders, and his breath audibly hitched. ‘You’re so perfect, so beautiful…’ he said, his hand cupping her right breast and his touch sending tingles shooting through her body.

Perfect? That was a word Lea wasn’t used to associating with herself. Neither was the word beautiful, but right then she felt like a beautiful woman. A beautiful, desirable woman who was embracing her sexual power for the first time.

She explored the toned muscles of his chest, her fingers finding his hard, flat male nipples. His chest was lightly dusted with dark hair that narrowed down to a tantalising trail that disappeared below the waistband of his boxer shorts.

Dave brought his mouth to her breast, closing his lips over her budded nipple, his tongue flicking the sensitised nub. It was pleasurable torture, the sensation of his warm mouth and raspy tongue sending her into raptures of delight.

Until now, her breasts had been nothing but breasts. On the small side, occasionally a little tender around period time, but just breasts. No more, no less.

Now they were an erogenous zone—an intense pleasure spot that made her proud to be a woman.

Lea shuddered when he took her other breast in his mouth, the same riotous sensations shooting through her body from chest to core and back again. A hollow ache began spreading in her lower limbs, a heavy, dragging sense of need.

“I want you." Her voice was a breathless plea, her hands instinctively reaching between them for the jut of his erection.

‘Same goes.’ He groaned and brought his mouth back to hers in a kiss that spoke of burning, building, blatant passion.

One of his hands began to slide her pyjama trousers down, but Lea suddenly froze, placing her hand over his.

“W-wait.” The room was brightly lit now with morning sunshine. The water in the pool yesterday had provided a bit of a cover—not much, but a bit. But now there was nowhere to hide. Even with the blinds and curtains drawn, her scars would be clearly visible.

He frowned at her in concern. “Did I go too fast? Do you want to stop?”

She swallowed and pressed her lips together, not quite able to hold his gaze. “I don’t want to stop, but I’m worried you will want to when you see my scars up close.”

“Oh, Lea, sweetheart..." His breath came out on a jagged sigh. “Do you really think I would be so insensitive?”

She gave a half-shrug. “My scars have turned off men before.” Only one, but it had been enough to stop her dating since.

His frown deepened. “Then you’ve been dating the wrong men. You’re a beautiful young woman who’s survived a terrible car crash. No one should judge or shame you for bearing the scars of a tragedy you were caught up in. If they do, then it says more about them than it does you.”

Lea knew what he said was intellectually sound, but she had lived experience of being judged and shamed by people who couldn’t stomach her scars. There were times when she couldn’t stomach them herself. She had spent years of her life avoiding intimacy, making excuses not to get into the dating scene—she was always too busy with work and too tired to indulge in late nights at clubs or parties.

But the real reason was what her scars represented. Not just the culmination of years of abuse and neglect now worn on her body like an indelible brand. Those scars represented her guilty secret—the secret relief that she had lost her parents and not her leg.

How could she ever tell anyone?

“It’s just hard, you know?” Lea blinked away the sting of tears. “Everywhere I look, I see perfect bodies, especially in a place like Hawaii. Before yesterday, I hadn’t been in a swimsuit since I was at the rehab clinic. I used to love swimming, but even at the clinic therapy pool, other patients stared at me like I was some sort of freak show.”

Dave brushed some strands of hair off her face, his gaze grave and yet tender. “Your scars are a part of you, but they aren’t you. You are so much more than that. So much more.”

Lea touched his mouth with her fingers. “Kiss me. Make love to me. Please?”

His mouth tilted in a slow, sexy smile. “With pleasure.”

Dave's mouth came back to hers in a kiss that melted away Lea’s lingering doubts and fears. It was almost worth the long years of celibacy to have Dave be the first one to introduce her to the delights of the flesh. He moved from her mouth back to her breasts, caressing each one until her back was arching off the bed. He drew her pyjama trousers down, leaving a trail of kisses on each part of her exposed flesh. When he came to the jagged scars that were carved like runnels in her flesh, he was especially tender, and it made tears spout in her eyes and her throat tighten with emotion.

He traced the feminine seam of her body with a lazy finger, his eyes glittering darkly with lust.

“Tell me if I do anything you don’t like or don’t feel comfortable doing.”

“I love what you’re doing.” Lea could barely speak for the sensations rippling through her.

He kissed his way down her body, from her breasts to the swell of her mound. She sucked in a breath, her legs turning to water as his lips gently parted her tender folds. Lea was in two minds—one to stop him out of her shyness at such an intimate caress and the other to just lie back and enjoy every pulse-racing moment. She chose the latter. His lips and tongue sent her on a sensual roller-coaster that catapulted her into a vortex of dizzying sensations. Sensations that coursed through her body in waves and pulses and delicious flickers, finally leaving her in a state of utter bliss and relaxation.

Never had she felt so in tune with herself, so free of the burdensome worry of how her broken body looked. Her body felt amazing, beautiful, sexy, and capable of giving and receiving pleasure.

How could she not be thrilled it was Dave who had transformed her, awakened her to her sensual potential?

“Oh, wow," Lea said with a breathless sigh.

Dave planted a soft kiss on her lips and then lifted off to mesh his gaze with hers. “It will only get better once we get used to each other.” He kissed his way from her neck to her breasts, stroking her with his tongue and grazing her with the gentle tug of his teeth, sending her senses into another rapturous tailspin.

Lea explored him with her hands, shy at first but becoming more comfortable with the hard contours of his body that were so exotically and erotically different from her own. His arousal was thickened with the same need she could feel throbbing in her own body.

His breathing became more hectic under her touch, and his eyes became dark and lustrous with desire. He positioned himself between her legs, taking his own weight on his elbows, his body poised to possess her. “It’s not too late for second thoughts. We can stop if you don’t want to go any—”

Lea pushed her finger against his lips to stop him from speaking. To stop him from talking himself out of making love to her. “I don’t want to stop. I want you to make love to me. You want to, don’t you?’

His mouth came up in a rueful half-smile. ‘You surely don’t doubt it? Can’t you feel what you do to me?”

She could, and she loved feeling it. Loved feeling desirable, feminine, and sensually powerful for the first time in her life. “Don’t leave me hanging like this,” she whispered against his mouth. “I need you.”

Dave made a sound deep in his throat and captured her mouth with a kiss that spoke of the feral rumble of passion throbbing in his blood. The same passionate throb she could feel in her lower body, the ache and drag of tender muscles crying out for intimate friction. His body nudged her entrance, gently parting her, and she opened herself to him, her shyness falling away, replaced by her escalating need to feel him inside her. His first thrust was shallow, restrained, and careful, as if he were reluctant to allow his desire too much freedom.

Lea arched her spine, welcoming him deeper into her body by placing her hands on his toned buttocks. He thrust into her with a guttural groan, his pelvis moving in primal motion with hers. She felt a tiny sting of pain and a slight tug of resistance when he went deeper, and she suppressed a gasp, hoping he hadn’t noticed.

He suddenly stopped his movements. “Did I hurt you?” His voice contained a deep chord of concern; his gaze searched hers.

“Of course not.” Lea smiled and stroked the side of his face with her hand. “I’m just getting used to the feel of you.” She held her breath, hoping he wouldn’t see through her little white lie. She didn’t want him to stop making love to her, not while her body was aching and throbbing for more stimulation.

His eyes moved between each of hers, dipping every now and again into her mouth, his breathing still uneven and his body still encased in hers. “I’ll take it a little more slowly. But tell me if you’re not comfortable at any time.”

“Dave, please. I’m perfectly comfortable.” Lea moved beneath him, rocking her body to encourage him to keep moving. Her body was used to him now, her intimate muscles wrapping around him, welcoming him and delighting in his strength and potency.

He slowly began to thrust, his movements measured and controlled. Lea’s excitement grew as his body within hers triggered flickers of heat through her female flesh. The erotic motion of their bodies working together in perfect harmony was like a complicated but beautiful dance she hadn’t realised she had known the steps to until now. The choreography of their movements was instinctive, intuitive, and intensely arousing. Her senses soared, her desire leapt, and her blood hummed and thrummed like the rhythmic backbeat of a musical score.

His mouth came back to hers in a long, drugging kiss that ramped up her passion for him like fuel flung on a naked flame. Their tongues met, tangled, mated, and moved with the same perfect symmetry as their bodies. His hands caressed the swell of her breast, the curve of her waist, and her thigh, and then he found the slippery secret heart of her. The soft stroking of his fingers on her most intimate flesh made her gasp, writhe, and shudder as the orgasm swept over her in pulsating waves. Waves that fanned out from her core to the far reaches of her body made every cell of her body vibrate with aftershocks of pleasure.

Dave’s release followed hers with a series of deep, urgent thrusts, his face buried into the side of her neck, his breathing as erratic as hers. He groaned, and the tension in his body left him, making him slump against her.

Lea held him to her, not wanting him to pull away but wanting and needing to feel the warm embrace of his body for as long as possible. Their breathing came back to normal almost in unison, their entwined limbs rearranging themselves as if they had been doing it since time began.

After a long moment, Dave raised himself on one elbow to look down at her, his fingers idly playing with some tendrils of her hair. His features were cast in relaxation and the afterglow of pleasure, and she had never seen him look more heart-stoppingly attractive.

“I’m having my own Oh, wow moment here.” His eyes were dark and warm, his voice pitched low, a lazy smile tilting his mouth. “Make that, oh, wow, to the power of ten.”

An internal glow radiated through Lea’s body at his words. She drew a line from the bridge of his nose to the well-defined philtrum ridge below and then traced his mouth. “It was pretty amazing, wasn’t it? Or maybe it’s always amazing for you?”

He coiled a tendril of her hair around his finger, releasing it so it bounced against her cheek. He tucked the curl behind her ear, his expression undergoing a subtle change like the slow drift of clouds across the sky.

“I’m not the sort of man to kiss and tell, but sometimes sex works well and other times..." he twisted his mouth, "it's best left as a one-off.” He eased away to dispose of the condom in the bathroom, and Lea rolled onto her side, her eyes drinking in the long lean line of his back and taut buttocks and strong thighs.

She sighed and stretched like a sleepy cat, her limbs feeling so relaxed that it was as if her bones had been removed. But then she happened to notice a mark on the bedline where she had been lying, and her heart came to a screeching halt. She scrambled into a sitting position, hauling the bedcovers up to cover the bloodstain and her nakedness, just as Dave came back into the bedroom.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, frowning.