Page 25 of No Fear
“What?”
“You are scared of me, Rach. You can deny it but I can see it in the way you look at me sometimes.”
She shook her head immediately, “I don’t think you’d ever hurt me.”
“There may not be any reason for you to believe I’d hurt you but that doesn’t mean you trust that I won’t either.” He held up his free hand when she opened her mouth, “I’m not saying I’m special. I think you’re scared of all men. Not just me.”
“I’m not scared of you, Remy. I-I-I…” She groaned when her words began to run together and stutter. No. She couldn’t start stuttering now. Not now. Not with Remy. Not when she needed the words so badly.
“See. You’re stuttering. You only stutter when you’re scared.”
She grit her teeth. He knew her too damn well for a man that she’d known a little over a month. He knew that her stutter was related to her nerves, related to her fear. But what they were talking about did make her nervous. They were talking about how she felt about him.
“I’m not scared of you!” The words came out like bullets so that she didn’t stutter and her face flamed hot as she lowered her voice, “I’m n-not scared of you. I’m s-s-scared of how you make me feel.”
Remy studied her for a moment and his face softened. His thumb stroked over her wrist and she knew he could feel her pulse pounding. She didn’t know if he did it on purpose, if he even knew that he did it, but he tugged her even closer, until their hips were flush and his voice was low and husky when he spoke again.
“How do I make you feel, Rachel?”
“Wanted.” She admitted softly, “Desired. Beautiful. Special. Nobody’s ever looked at me like you do.”
“Baby, you’re beautiful. Don’t tell me other men haven’t wanted you. Unless they’re all deaf, dumb and blind, I don’t see how it could be true.”
She frowned when he made light of something she took so seriously, “Not like you. They… they… They looked at me like… not like you. They… They didn’t make me feel like this. You make me feel safe. I trust you and I want you.”
“God, Rach…” He winced as if her words struck him and she swallowed hard.
“What?”
“You have no idea what you do to me, do you?” Remy wrapped his free arm around her waist, his hand settling at the small of her back as his intense, dark blue eyes stroked over her face, “When you say things like that, all I want to do is kiss you.”
She bit her lip and he groaned. Slowly, so slowly that she knew, again, that he was trying not to scare her, he raised his hand and stroked his thumb over the swell. He popped her lip from between her teeth and when she instinctively licked her lips and her tongue grazed his finger he sucked in a rough breath.
“Can I kiss you Rachel?”
Her blood was pounding in her ears but she heard him, somehow. Heaskedand her heart swelled in her chest. This was why it had been so easy to trust him from the start. He was so careful with her. As if she were precious. And she knew right then, at that moment, that she wasn’t just half in love with him.
He had her whole heart. It was his to break. She could only hope he would be as careful with it as he was being with her body.
She nodded.
“I need to hear you say it.”
Her voice was barely a whisper, “Yes.”
Remy lowered his head, his eyes open and pinned to hers. Slowly, carefully, he pressed his lips to hers and at the first contact her lids slid shut. Warmth suffused her veins as he gently worked his lips against hers. His touch wasn’t tentative. He knew what he was doing but he went slowly, for her, and knowing he cared enough not to press too hard, too fast, was her undoing.
Rachel moaned and melted against him. The butterflies in her stomach did somersaults and her head felt foggy. Reality slipped away and her entire world was reduced to nothing but this amazing man and the way he kissed her.
Warm, wet lips sliding together. A slip of a smooth tongue, teasing against her upper lip, making her gasp and then groan as he tasted her. He took long, deep sips of her mouth, coaxing her into responding in ways she didn’t even know she could. Her own tongue slid forward to find his and earned her a rumble from somewhere deep in that beautiful chest of his. The sound of his pleasure made her bolder and she wrapped her arms around him, pressed closer to him, wanted to meld them together so that nothing could ever tear them apart.
Her first kiss, her first real kiss, and it was perfect. It went on and on for what felt like forever and it still wasn’t long enough. He pulled back as slowly as he had started it, in increments, as if he knew that taking away all of him after something so overwhelming would be too much for her already overheated and overpowered body and mind.
Finally, Remy broke the kiss when she never would have been able to and dropped his forehead against hers. He was breathing hard and dimly she realized that she was too. They were both panting as if they’d forgotten to come up for air and wow, maybe they had because she certainly felt oxygen deprived. Foggy, weightless, as if she was floating on the simple pleasure of his kiss.
Their eyes met and she shivered at the desire he didn’t try to hide. He wanted her. He’d kissed her as if he needed her and she knew she couldn’t hide what she was feeling in that moment. It was too much, too powerful and she had no experience with this kind of impossible longing.
She wanted more, so much more.
Remy groaned as he held her close, his rough fingers stroking across her cheek, “God, Rach… what am I gonna do with you?”
“Protect me?” She whispered softly, needy.
Remy smiled at that, “Always.”
