“Me, I guess.” She gave him a rueful smile, watching his mouth curve faintly upward. “There’s something good between us, Reese. I want the chance to explore it with you.” Her voice lowered with feeling. “You’re more than enough for me just as you are right now.” She saw her boldness tearing away all the damage Reese had undergone for the last two years. Shay turned and got up on her knees, pressing her breasts against his arm. “I see you so differently than you see yourself, Reese. I like the man who is here, now, with me. I’ve watched you reclaim yourself, you’ve regained all your lost weight and”—she smiled deeply into his eyes—“I like the way you look . . .” She leaned down, caressing his lips, hearing him groan, his hand gripping her shoulder, hauling her against him more securely.
Just getting to be intimate with Reese, to move her fingers across his damp skin, inhale his male scent, feel him ardently returning her kiss, set Shay on fire. He eased away just enough to break their kiss, their lips less than an inch apart, their breathing unsteady.
“I don’t have a condom on me, Shay,” he rasped. “I never thought I’d need one . . .”
Her heart winced with pain as she saw the regret in his eyes, the loss, the need for nurturing, needing her love and knowing he might not be able to consummate what they both wanted so badly.
“It doesn’t matter,” she whispered, her lips grazing the taut line of his mouth. She felt the tension he carried dissolve. “I’m on the pill.” And then she broke their kiss, smiling into his hooded eyes. “I’m clean, no diseases. You?”
“Same,” he answered in a guttural growl. And he took her as if she weighed nothing, positioning her onto the middle of the bed, on her back. Reese took the towel off, dropping it to the floor, laying his long body alongside hers. “It’s been a long time for me, Shay. Two years . . .”
“Two years for me, too,” she whispered, sliding her hand along his jaw.
“Sweetheart, I’m afraid I won’t last for you . . .”
She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. We’re both a little rusty at this. And I want you inside me, Reese. I don’t care if you come sooner than you wanted. It has been two years . . .” She gave him a smile she hoped would ease his worry.
Moving his hand lightly down her arm, cupping her breast, he nodded. “I’ll do my best to please you, Shay.”
Her flesh tightened beneath his large hand teasing her flesh. “Then, we’ll just have to wait and let you rest up a little bit and try it again, if it happens.” She saw the relief in his eyes that she understood his concern that he might lose control. Reese wasn’t selfish. By the way he was caressing the curve of her breast, he wanted to pleasure her first. Shay felt him relax and she saw it reflected in his eyes as well. All she wanted to do was love him. That knowledge gave Shay the courage she needed to move beyond her own realm of experience, to trust her heart, because she was falling in love with this man. She knew she wasn’t any consummate lover, did not have the experience or skills, but it didn’t matter. Shay could love him, regardless. Because love wasn’t about experience, it was about sharing how she felt about him.
*
Reese was pleasantly surprised once again as Shay flowed like liquid fire into his arms and opening hands. There was an innocence about her that made him go hard and achy. Her lips caressed his at the same moment his thumb brushed across her tightened nipple. The sound that caught in her throat told him unequivocally that she enjoyed it, her hips insistent against his, her warmth against the steel of his erection trapped between them. More than anything, he wanted to please Shay, to give back to her first. He felt so close to exploding, he doubted he could stop it once he entered her. She deserved to be brought along with him, not left behind. Yet, the years without the warmth of a woman, the softness of Shay’s arms surrounding him, her lips dismantling him because he was so starved for exactly this, left him vulnerable.