Page 75 of Craving Dahlia

He swallows hard. “I gave you plenty of reasons to. Reason to hate me, to not protect me?—”

“That’s between us,” I tell him firmly. “I’d never turn you over to people who want to hurt you. Who hurtmeto get to you. Alek—before you said those things, before I left…I thought I was falling for you, despite everything. You kept slipping under my defenses, giving me these glimpses of a man that I wanted to believe was there, fully. I only left because I couldn’t stay with a man who I felt that way for if he wouldn’t open up to me and couldn’t feel the same. And now—” I brush my fingers over his cheek again, down to his jaw, where I feel the rasp of stubble. “Now it’s different. Now I see what I wanted to see all along. So let me see the rest. Please.”

His jaw tightens, working, the small muscle in his cheek jumping. And then he nods, tightly, and stands up from the bed.

I watch him go to the door, flicking the lock closed. And then he walks back, slowly, every movement tight and hesitant, back to the edge of my bed.

“I promise,” I whisper, looking up at him as I push the blankets back, rising up on my knees to reach for him. “I promise I will still want you.”

26

ALEK

I’ve felt fear a number of times before in my life. It’s impossible to have lived the life I had, even before, and not. I’ve been on the wrong end of a gun more times than I can count, been outnumbered in fights, felt my motorcycle slip on an icy road. I know fear—and yet, nothing compares to the fear coursing through me as I look at my wife’s earnest expression, full of pleading and desire, and wonder how she can promise me that when she doesn’t know what’s underneath my clothes.

I won’t pretend I’m not a vain man—or that I wasn’t, before this. I know what I look like, the reaction women have to my face—and to my body, before. I’ve been desired often enough in my life for that.

But it’s different now. I haven’t let a woman see me naked in nearly six years, not since Elia. Not sincebefore. And I don’t know how I’ll bear to see the disappointment, the disgust on Dahlia’s face when she sees what I am now.

If I say no, though, it’s all but telling her that I still don’t trust her. That I don’t believe her when she promises me she’ll want me all the same. And I can’t bear that, either. Not after how close I came to losing her.

“Alek.” She whispers my name, trailing her fingers through my hair, and my cock twitches, already half hard. I want her desperately. I want to fall on her and devour her, to skip past this part that feels as if it’s tearing me in two, and sink into her before she has a chance to see me.

Instead, I reach for the hem of my shirt. I half-wish I’d worn a button-down, just so I’d have more time before I’m fully revealed. But I’m wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt, and there’s nothing to do but take it off.

Swallowing hard, fear like ice in my veins, I ball my hands in the material and pull it up and over my head, throwing it to one side before I can clutch it to my chest like a shield.

“Oh, Alek.” Dahlia whispers my name again, and it’s only then that I realize I have my eyes tightly shut. There’s pity in her voice—it’s unavoidable—but I think I hear desire there, too.Need, even, despite everything—and all I can think is that I’m fooling myself. “Alek, look at me.”

It’s difficult to force myself to open my eyes. But I do, slowly, and what I see on her face takes my breath away.

Her gaze is sweeping over my chest, my arms, taking in the map of scarring that covers my body. Long, thin lines and thick twisted ridges, patches of burns where the skin is shiny and wrinkled now, stretches where they peeled the skin away and left it to scab over raw. And to my shock and disbelief—I see sorrow in her eyes, pain…but also desire, too. She’s still looking at me as if I’m something she’s dying to have.

“Can I touch you?” she whispers, and I swallow hard, nodding. She reaches out, her fingers brushing along the scars just beneath my collarbone, and a shudder runs through my entire body. When her fingers drag lower, skimming over the scars on my chest, my cock hardens instantly despite all my fears that I wouldn’t be able to get aroused with her looking at me like this.

“Dahlia—” I grind out her name between my teeth, the desire pounding through me suddenly unbearable.

“Come here.” She presses her palm to my chest, over one of the burns, and her other hand slides behind my head, pulling me down to her.

I go, willingly. I tumble onto the bed with her, my mouth pressed to hers, and the way she gasps against my lips is a sound that I think I’ll savor for the rest of my life. I reach for the silky tank top she’s wearing, yanking it up over her head as I fill my hands with her bare breasts, and Dahlia moans against my lips before she pushes at me, rolling me over onto my back.

“You’re beautiful,” she whispers, as if she’s echoing what I said to her earlier. “Scars and all. Let me—” her lips drag to my jaw as she whispers it, down my throat, her hands skimming down my sides. I groan as her mouth finds its way to my chest, as she kisses along the map of scars, all the way down my taut abdomen to the edge of my jeans. Her fingers skim along my ribs, mapping the scars there, down my sides, and she tugs the button of my jeans open, dragging them and my boxers down my hips as my cock slaps against my abdomen, springing free thick and hard.

Dahliamoanswhen she sees my cock, her eyes fixed on the throbbing length, and for a brief moment, I think I might come just from that sound alone. My cock pulses, pre-cum dripping down the shaft, and her hand wraps around me, guiding the swollen tip to her lips as my head falls back against the pillows.

“Ohgod, Dahlia—” Her mouth is warm and wet, sucking tightly around my sensitive length, sliding all the way down to the base and back up again. Her other hand slides under my balls, cupping me, fingers stroking the taut flesh as she licks and sucks my cock until I feel like I’m going to explode at any moment, my muscles wound tight with pleasure. It feels sofucking good, and I want to come down her throat—but I want something else, too.

“Come here.” I reach for her, my fingers tugging her silky shorts down her thighs. She’s bare underneath, and I groan when I slip my fingers between her folds, finding her wet and hot and dripping for me. More pre-cum spills onto her tongue as I throb in her mouth, and I gasp, struggling for control. “Come sit on my face while I fill up your mouth,zhena.”

Dahlia moans, letting go of my cock for only a moment as she slides up my body. She settles over my face, her thighs on either side as the wet folds of her pussy brush against my lips, and I waste no time sliding my tongue over her swollen clit as she slips my cock back into her mouth.

I’m not going to last long like this. Her hips roll against my mouth, riding my tongue, and the taste of her combined with the feeling of her lips wrapped around my cock again drive me to the edge in seconds. I lap desperately at her clit, wanting her orgasm, wanting to feel her come on my face as I fill up her mouth with my cum, and I can tell that she’s close, too. She moans desperately around me, grinding against my tongue, and I want to tell her that I’m about to come, but I can’t stop long enough to say anything at all.

I grab her hips instead, pulling her roughly down harder onto my mouth, sucking at her clit the way she’s sucking my cock. I hear her cry out the instant before I feel her buck against my face, her rhythm breaking as she moans and shudders, her grip on my cock tightening even as her sucking becomes erratic.

I don’t care. Nothing could stop the orgasm coiling at the base of my spine, the white-hot pleasure that courses through me as I feel her arousal spill over my tongue, soaking my face an instant before the first hot spurt of my cum erupts and hits the back of her throat. I thrust my hips upwards, fucking her mouth as she grinds against mine, both of us clinging to each other as Iflutter my tongue against her clit, wanting to prolong her orgasm as long as possible.

The instant I feel her relax against me, I grab her, rolling her onto her back as I lean over her, my knee spreading her thighs. Dahlia’s eyes go wide as she feels my cock brush against her thigh.

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