Page 59 of Building Courage

He was lean and muscular, sculpted by arduous physical activity and conditioning, but she had already known that. A thin line of hair arrowed down the center of his stomach, between the six-pack of muscle there. His erection thrust bold and ready out of a thatch of dark brown hair. Just seeing him like that had everything tightening down below.

“I hope you bought some condoms,” he said huskily.

She rolled toward the nightstand drawer, opened it, and tore open the box with an impatience that had him chuckling. He grinned when she handed him the small package.

When his mouth captured hers, she hummed with pleasure and pressed close. His skin was hot to the touch as she ran her hands down his chest. He slid downward to capture her nipple and sucked. She dragged in a shaking breath as the warm ache already building intensified. As he switched to the other breast, his beard prickled her skin, adding another dimension to the sensation. She ran her fingers through the thick curling hair at the back of his head and caressed the slope of his shoulders.

He drew back up to look down at her, and his eyes looked dark and intense, the sea-green almost swallowed by his pupils. His mouth moved with tempting hunger over hers as his hand followed the curve of her hip then caressed her thigh, and she parted her legs. He found her with his fingertips. He tempted and teased until she strained against his touch for more, her hips rising as her need reached a fevered peak. When he thrust one finger inside her, she climaxed, her hips jerking with the pleasure of it.

She wasn’t even close to recovering when he covered himself with the condom, rose over her, and pushed inside her. She’d imagined how they’d be together, but as he moved, nothing compared to the reality. Pleasure built again with every thrust, every touch, every kiss, and she lost herself to it. The sensation built until she could barely breathe as she rose to meet him over and over. The next climax swept through her like a brush fire, and she cried out. As she felt the answering throb of his release, intimate and deep. She held him close as they both worked to catch their breath.

He raised his head to look down at her, and the tension had left his expression, but something more vulnerable had taken its place.

She smoothed his hair where she had ruffed it into spikes.

He kissed her slowly, tenderly, and once again, the tingling heat raced through her. When he started to leave her, she sighed with regret.

“I’ll be right back.” He shoved off the bed to go into the bathroom.

Even from the back, he could trip her heart into a gallop, but without his body heat, the air conditioning was chilly, and she drew up the sheet but looped one leg over it.

He paused in the doorway of the bathroom to study her. “I could spend hours just looking at you.” Comfortable with his nudity he strode back to the bed. She raised the sheet, and he slipped in beside her and turned to face her. He tucked a long strand of streaked hair behind her ear. “I thought about you while I was gone.”

“I thought about you, too. I kept waiting for my phone to ring. And I kept thinking about the night before you left.” Just knowing he was out of touch had driven her crazy… But he didn’t need to hear that.

“I gave Knotty your number to call if something…came up, and I gave it to Dad.”

“Your Dad?”

“Yeah.”

She supposed it had to be someone, but telling his dad to call her… What would he think? Would he wonder about their relationship? She had wondered enough about it while he’d been gone. And if something…had come up, would he have been in any shape to call?

She didn’t know anyone Tucker was close to. She’d only heard him talk about them. With her issues, would he ever feel comfortable introducing her to them?

“Dad and Knotty are my go-to guys.”

“Knotty?”

“Frank Denotti. He and I are teammates. We look out for each other.”

“Natalie told me about him when she first talked to me about the scuba lessons.”

“She did?”

“Yes. Dark hair, shoulders as wide as a door, and looks like a Roman gladiator who time-traveled to current times.”

Tucker laughed. “I’ll have to tell him what she said. He’ll eat that up.”

He brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. “I know this change didn’t come about just because I was gone, Brynn.”

“No.” She drew a deep breath and then moistened her lips. “The only person who knew what happened to me was Natalie. She was like all the rest, trying to pump me for more information and use me, but I shut her down. Martin had guessed some things, and he’s so nosy I knew he’d look things up, but we never talked about it. He was smart enough to leave it alone.

“Jess has been my neighbor since I first moved here. I just recently told her a little about it. But talking to you, telling you the whole story, knowing I could trust you with it all, helped me release some of what I’ve been carrying since it all happened.”

“Good.” He urged her closer.

“It’s been more than three years since I’ve been held or touched.”

---