Page 86 of Everlasting Love

Her smile is vibrant. “Thank you, but I’m far from perfect.”

I slip my hands up the back of her thighs, sliding them up the smooth muscle until I cup her silky-covered ass. Her hands drop to my shoulders, her fingers spreading across the muscle, and I cringe when she finds the divots there. She leans down and kisses the top of one shoulder, her breath brushing against my heated skin, and then she moves across and repeats the process on my other shoulder. Her kisses fill me with tenderness, love, and care. “It feels so good to have your hands on me,” I breathe.

“If you’ll let me, I’ll keep my hands on you forever.” Her hands slide down my arms, over the five-inch scar where I have missing muscle thanks to shrapnel from the IED that stole Wyatt’s life. I suck in a sharp breath. “Are you okay?”

I nod sharply as the wind picks up outside and rain taps angrily against the window. “Yeah.”

She moves and climbs onto the bed behind me. I hear her suck in a sharp breath, then she whispers, “Oh, Shane.” Her fingers feather over my skin, tracing from one scar to the next, her lips following the path, pressing healing kisses to each reminder permanently marked on my flesh. Her shaky finger traces the two-inch scar about halfway down my spine. “Can you tell me about this?”

I swallow past the lump that’s growing in my throat as my mind flashes back to the blast.

The force of pressure.

The pain.

The heat.

Being thrown forward.

Hitting the ground … then nothing.

“It was a result of an IED. I was walking away, so I had my back to the blast. As a result, my T10 vertebra suffereda compression fracture, so the doctors had to operate. They injected cement to restore the bone to its correct height, then stitched me back together.”

Her hair brushes my spine and then her lips brush my skin. “Does it still hurt?” she murmurs.

“It aches when it’s cold.” Goosebumps radiate from where her fingers ghost across my scars like she’s tracing the constellations in the night sky.

“And what about all of these scars?” Her fingers glide across my pockmarked skin.

I shrug. “Shrapnel.”

“Do they hurt?”

I swallow and nod slowly. “Yeah.” But it’s my reminder. I’ll take the pain because I got off lightly compared to Wyatt.

The bed creaks, and then Vi’s soft lips press against my skin. She does it again and again until she’s kissed every mark she can reach on my back and arms for a second time. My stomach twists, and it’s difficult to swallow past the lump that’s blocking my throat. My nose tingles and the backs of my eyes sting so I blink quickly. Her hands wrap around my middle and she rests her damp cheek against my shoulder blade—she’s been crying. Crying forme. “I’m so glad you’re still here,” she whispers.

I exhale a long breath and press my thumb and forefinger to my eyes as I cover her hand with mine and tangle our fingers together. The feel of her soft cheek against my back, her silky hair on my skin, her breath warming me is messing with my mind. I’m so close to crying like a damn baby, and it’s all because I can’t remember the last time someone touched my bare skin with affection. After the blast, the touches were purposeful and impersonal. Their perfunctory application of bandages and ointments was only to heal the wounds on a superficial level. But Vi’s touch istrulyhealing. It’s doing something to me on a more fundamental level than that of my epidermis.

I bring her hand up to my lips and press a kiss to her knuckles. “I’m glad I’m still here, too.” I’ve thought it before in passing, but this is the first time I’ve truly meant it. Through my darkest days, I was angry I’d survived. I felt undeserving and that feeling only deepened into self-hate. But I see now that I had to go through that to understand this beautiful moment with the woman at my back.

She lifts her head away and glides her hand down my spine, over the scar from my spinal surgery and I use our tangled hands to pull her around to my front so she can straddle my lap. Cupping her face, I wipe away her tears with my thumbs. “Don’t cry for me.” Before she can argue, I guide her mouth to mine and kiss her deeply. I kiss her in a way I hope expresses how much I appreciate her comfort and acceptance. She gave no indication of being turned off by my scarred back, in fact, the way she kissed each scar, with so much reverence and compassion made me fall deeper in love with her. I slide my tongue against hers in a dance that’s quickly become familiar to us.

Weaving one hand into her hair, I hold her in place as her hands smooth over my chest and loop around my shoulders to play with the short strands of my hair. I will be forever grateful to have her hands on me after such a long hiatus from human touch. I really don’t know how I ever survived. She grinds down on my dick, and the heat of her pussy is sensational. Falling backward, I take her with me, then roll over, so I’m balancing over her on my forearms. When I gentle our kiss and pull back, Vi’s eyes flutter open slowly, the blue almost completely swallowed by the black of her pupils. I dip down and kiss the tip of her nose then whisper gruffly in her ear, “Move up to the middle of the bed for me, Blue.” I watch her throat bob as she swallows, but she does as I ask. “Such a good girl.”

Once she’s exactly where I want her, I peel her panties down her sexy legs, then push her knees up, placing her feet flat onthe bed. Thunder cracks in the distance followed by a lightning flash. My hand trembles slightly as I make contact with her smooth skin but steadies instantly when I feel her warmth. Sliding my palm along her shin, to her knee, I follow my path with light kisses. Vi trembles beneath my touch and when I look up at her, she’s watching me with a heavy-lidded gaze while she presses her teeth into her bottom lip. “You’re so damn beautiful, Violet.”

Her lips tip up. “Not as beautiful as you.”

I huff out a laugh. “I’m far from beautiful. You’ve seen the mess.”

“As I said, beautiful. The scars you wear don’t detract from that.” Her fingers slide into my hair, sending tingles down my spine.

I nip the inside of her knee as my stomach flips at her compliment. I guess I should be offended that she called me beautiful instead of handsome or even hot but I’m not. She likes what she sees and accepts all of the ugly parts as well as the parts of me that came out unscathed. Moving up the inside of her thigh, the scent of her arousal fills my nose and I suck in a long breath to take the sweet aroma deep into my lungs. When I get to the apex of her thighs, I bury my nose in her pussy, then swipe my tongue through her lips making her shiver and her fingers tighten in my hair. “You always smell so damn good,” I say, smiling against her sensitive flesh, then swipe my tongue up and around her clit in a light, teasing stroke. Wrapping my hands around her thighs, I open her wider and feast. Like a man who hasn’t had sustenance for weeks.

Her moans and sighs fill my temporary bedroom and as she pushes her hips into my face, I revel in her taste, her scent, her obvious enjoyment of what I’m doing to her. I pulse my tongue against her clit and her hips fly from the bed.

“Shaaaane! God, that feels so good. I’m not gonna last much longer.”

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