Page 79 of Keepsake
Her smile was sweet. “Well, don’t just stand there. Get in.”
Maybe I’d been too quick to judge this hotel.
I shucked off my sweatshirt and then the flannel shirt beneath it. Lark’s eyes followed my every movement, and it made me a little self-conscious. I toed off my socks, then popped the button on my shorts. She licked her lips.
My increasingly dirty ideas about how this might play out were made obvious by the bulge in my boxer briefs. I’d certainly never stripped for a woman before, so pushing those underwear down was a unique experience. My cock popped straight up, and there was no disguising my desire.
I’d never been so naked before now.
“God, you’re beautiful,” she said on a gusty exhale. “It’s not even fair.”
Her words hit me like a warm breeze, tightening my balls, bringing goosebumps to my flesh. Every inch of me felt alive with yearning.
“Turn around,” she whispered. “I want to see all of you.”
But I hesitated. “There are scars. It’s not the best-looking part of me.”
Her head tipped to the side, and her gaze was soft. “I know, cutie. I felt them. But there is no ugly part of you.”
Feeling a little self-conscious, I did what she asked, rotating slowly. I tried never to let anyone see the results of the beating I got on my last day at Paradise Ranch. But I showed her now, because she was going to see anyway.
I heard the sound of water sloshing, and then a wet hand skimmed over my ass cheek. “This is very ‘Outlander,’ you know. You’re almost fashionable.”
My laugh was a snort. The next thing I felt was the brush of her lips back there. She kissed my scars—actually kissed them.
You can bet nobody ever did that before.
“Now get in here,” she said.
When I’d turned around, she bent her knees to make room for me. I stepped in, then sank down slowly, the hot water embracing me. When my ass found the porcelain, I took Lark’s ankles in my hands and stretched her legs out, sinking mine below the surface. She wiggled, making room for me to unfurl, lengthening her limbs over mine.
“I have scars,” she said quietly. “Mine don’t show.”
“I know,” I whispered, stroking her foot. “I hope they heal up so you can’t feel them anymore. Mine don’t hurt now. I never think about them.”
Her beautiful face became thoughtful. “Do you ever wish you’d gone to the police? Beating you was illegal. Assault and battery.”
“Nobody ever went to the police. The boys who walk away from that place are too ashamed. They’re convinced they did something wrong.” No matter that my ass bled for days. I got a new pair of pants at a homeless shelter in Omaha, but I didn’t admit that the blood on the old ones belonged to me. “I’m so happy to be gone from there now, I just try not to think about it.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Isaac and Leah have a friend—Maggie—she lives in Massachusetts now. She ran away, too. She took Isaac and Leah’s advice and gave her farm a name that’ll help people find her. Isaac and Leah say that helping others is the best kind of revenge.”
The look Lark gave me then was so heavy with love that it stopped me from breathing. “What?” I finally asked when she’d been studying me for long enough to heat my cheeks.
“I really want to crawl over there and kiss you.”
My cock pulsed underwater. “What’s stopping you?”
The next thing I knew I had a lap full of Lark. I pulled her wet, seal-like body onto mine and our mouths fused immediately. Each pull of her tongue made me moan. Each slide of her sleek skin against my cock made me crazier than the last.
My hands wandered her body unbidden. I cupped her heavy breasts in my palms and slid my fingers everywhere. When I dipped between her legs to stroke her, she moaned into my mouth.
“Need you so bad,” I panted between kisses.
“Tell me what you want,” she whispered.
“Everything.”
