Page 65 of Tactical Lies

“Okay,” she agreed.

Picking her up, Connor laid her out on the bed, then scooped up the ribbons. With gentle fingers, he bound first one wrist to the bedpost, then the other. After tying her right leg to the bedpost, he held up the fourth ribbon. “Can I take your foot off, baby? I want to see all of you tonight.”

“Yes.” There was no need to hide from Connor. Besides, he’d seen the wounds when they were ugly and raw, they’d healed a lot over the last decade and looked a whole lot better than how he likely remembered them.

His smile was soft as he removed her prosthetic and set it on the floor. Then he knelt at the end of the bed and touched his lips so gently to her stump. It felt weird, her skin didn't feel normal there, not the way the rest of her skin did, but she felt the kiss, felt the love pouring from it, and when he moved on to find her next scar, tears burned her eyes.

By the time he’d kissed his way along every scar on her body, worshiping them with his lips and his tongue, she was crying.

Happy tears though.

Because he made her feel so accepted, so beautiful.

Just because she never acted self-conscious about the scars her ordeal had left behind didn't mean they never made her feel less beautiful.

They did.

Especially the way Toby used to pretend they didn't exist. Like she didn't have scars and a missing foot.

But Connor had never shied away from them, not even in the beginning when they were painful and so very obvious. He’d just accepted them as a part of her.

Now he touched kisses to her cheeks, catching her tears.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Hey now, if I'm not allowed to say sorry for hurting you then you're not allowed to thank me for loving you. I couldn’t not love you if I tried, Becca.”

She believed those words.

With every fiber of her being.

Connor’s dark head settled between her legs, and there was not an ounce of fear at her body bared and vulnerable before him. She was so secure in the knowledge that she was safe, that Becca was able to turn her brain off as his tongue swiped along her center.

Safe.

Safe to give up control and just feel.

Like his fingers had done by the firepit outside, his mouth worked her higher now. It teased her, alternating between plunging his tongue inside her and closing his lips around her bud, suckling hard as his tongue flicked at her, driving her wild.

Her fingers clutched the sheets, her head thrashed from side to side, her body squirmed as he worked her higher and higher, higher than she’d ever climbed before. It was going to be one heck of a fall when he had her tumbling over the edge.

Every time she was sure she’d reached the peak, Connor seemed to manage to push her higher still.

Then just when she thought she couldn’t take a single second longer, it rushed through her. A wave of pleasure unlike anything she had ever experienced before tore through her as she screamed Connor’s name. It touched every cell of her body, cleansing her of old fears, purging all the bad from her soul, and leaving her feeling fresh and clean again for the first time in over a decade.

There was a smug smile on Connor’s face when she blinked open heavy eyes to find him kneeling between her legs.

“You look pretty pleased with yourself,” she mumbled.

“You look thoroughly loved,” he shot back.

“Not thoroughly, not yet. Hurry up and get inside me. I’m on birth control so you don’t need a condom.”

Nothing between them tonight.

Just the two of them getting back to where they belonged.

He was already hard, and he sheathed himself inside her in one smooth thrust, filling her to completion and giving her back the part of herself that had been missing ever since he left.

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