Page 24 of Snagged By Hook

She cupped his cheeks with her healing hands and stared into his very soul. He was sure the secrets she saw there would disgust her. The demons dancing and writhing and fucking and singing false praises, but if she did, she didn’t react. He couldn’t help but turn his lips into her hand.

“Jeremy.” The sound damn near broke him, but in the best possible way.

“Fuck, woman,” he grit out almost silently as he released her hips and shifted their bodies.

Removing her hands from his cheeks, he laced their fingers together. Using their shared hold to gain traction on the sheets, Jeremy Hook Waters made love to a woman for the first time in his thirty-four years.

When Nova went over the edge again, he followed her into a place he’d never considered special before. A place that was usually followed by disgust and self-loathing, but instead, it was peaceful.

Nova shivered. That small motion made him aware of the fact he’d slipped from her body, and their drying sweat was quite chilly under the breeze from the ceiling fan.

Reluctantly, he rolled off her, and she burrowed under the covers, tucking them all the way up to her chin. The demons that had been surprisingly quiet decided to make their presence known. Nova hadn’t completely banished them, but they did feel less powerful than before. It was their thoughts, not his own, that her shiver was one of disgust rather than chill.

An apology was poised on his tongue as he stood. But Nova surprised him yet again by flipping the covers back he’d just risen from on top of and beckoning him to join her.

“Hurry.” She made an exaggerated shiver. He stood still. When the smile slipped from her eyes, he cursed himself for the fool he was.

“Not a cuddler?” She dropped the blanket in disappointment. “That’s okay. I get it.” Pulling the blanket with her, she made to stand. Hook leaned over and yanked at the blanket. She came with it because of the death grip she held it in. He climbed into the bed, and Nova relaxed. Turning into him, she repositioned the blanket to cover them, but kept it mostly to herself. Hook hated that. Not because he begrudged her warmth, but because it was like armor now.

Reaching under her shoulders, she came willingly into his embrace but barely rested her hand at the side of his pec. Almost like she was scared to touch him.

Fuck that bullshit.

Hook grabbed her hand in his and laid it on his stomach, resting his on top.

Taking a deep breath, he shared something he hadn’t expected to.

“It’s never been cuddling to me, but a means of manipulation.” He paused to give his brain a chance to catch up with his mouth. He didn’t want to say too much, especially right on the heels of mind-blowing sex, but there he was, spilling secrets. “So, bear with me while I learn.”

“Oh, I didn’t…I mean, I don’t want you to think—” He felt her muscles engage. She was going to pull away, and he didn’t want that. Couldn’t bear it, so he tightened his arms to keep her there.

“No, I don’t think anything, babe, other than this feels…different. Good.”

He swallowed therightbefore he could say it. He didn’t want to put so much weight on the moment that it pressured her. Hook knew that feeling all too well.

Using the ensuing silence, he inventoried the experience in intricate detail.

Her breath, even and warm, teasing the hair on his chest with each exhale, causing his skin to pebble.

The way she rhythmically brushed her hand lazily back and forth, ever so slightly, on his abdomen was delicious.

The smooth silk of her inner thigh resting atop his coarse, hairy one was a juxtaposition that fascinated him.

Even the smell of her hair, a warm vanilla, wasn’t dulled by their combined sweat. Hook stopped fighting the urge to bury his nose in it.

Every detail of the moment, combined with the way she so freely shared her body with him for their mutual pleasure and no hidden agenda, loosened his tongue.

“I was in the system until three of us ran away. We thought we’d be better on our own.” He took a deep breath. “We weren’t.”

Hook questioned his own sanity at bringing all that long past shit to the surface. Not really to the surface. June’s confessionhad brought it to the surface. But, him talking about it, to Nova no less, that was the epitome of insanity. No one knew his past, not in its entirety anyway. Zombie knew bits and pieces, so did Squatch, and Croon. Gwen a little.

Not one person knew the same bits and pieces, but if they all got together, they could probably puzzle out most of his story. A few key details were missing from all their information, though. Details he was on the verge of telling Nova.

A spike of vulnerability shot through him. If he told her everything, it would connect them in a way he couldn’t explain or sever. And if the information pushed her away, it would destroy him. But he’d made a promise to himself long ago that if he ever did want a relationship with a woman, he wouldn’t hide those parts of himself.

That was never an issue, as he was positive, at least until he met Nova, that would never be something he desired.

But with her...he wanted everything.

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