Page 31 of Safe With Me

The bra she wore was made of pretty peach lace. She held his gaze as she kicked off her shoes and pushed the green sweatpants down to the floor. More peach lace. Scraps of it. He wondered briefly if she wore that kind of lingerie all the time.

“You like this?”

“The underwear or you stripping for me?”

“Both.” Without waiting for an answer, she unclasped the bra and pushed down her panties. Then went to pull him up. “Your turn.”

“Not tonight, sweetheart. I’m too aroused.”

She pouted. “No fair.”

“Next time.” He stood and whipped off his clothes.

Steph was surprised when he sat back down and eased her onto his lap. She kissed him generously. Then she reached over and rummaged in her nightstand and came back with a condom. “I wanna put this on you.”

“Not that either.” He cleared his throat then whispered, “Take pity on me. It’s been two years since I’ve done this.”

“Pax.” She pulled his head close to her breasts and held it there. “You can take over.”

He looked up and smiled. “Thanks.” Without warning he flipped her on the bed and she stretched out. He donned the protection, laid down and he braced his arms over her. “How do you want to do this?”

She was so aroused herself, she said, “I don’t care. You pick.”

He laid back on his side, scissored her legs and plunged into her. She felt a small jolt of pain, then nothing but pleasure building within her. When she hit the peak in a fireworks of sensation, he came with her. Pleasure eclipsed everything else.

When he could move, he laid back, breathing like bellows. He glanced over at her. She was beautiful and mussed from his hands. He nestled her in the crook of his arm. She nuzzled into him.

She said, “Please don’t say this was a mistake.”

“Of course I won’t say that. I don’t feel that way.” He waited. “Steph, did someone do that to you?”

She only nodded and nuzzled even more.

“Who?”

She came up on her arms then. “You don’t want to talk about this now.”

“I want to know everything about you.”

She sighed and laid her head on his chest. His hand went to her hair. “I spent a year in the Secret Service. I don’t publicize that.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to be asked about it. But I’ll tell you. I fell in love with one of my colleagues. His name was Don. He’d been there longer. We both held off expressing our feelings, but one night after a particularly bad incident, we gave in. After we made love, he said it was a mistake. It crushed me. I tried to keep working with him, but I couldn’t so I quit.”

“Could you have put in for a transfer?”

“I would have had to give a reason. And I didn’t want him to suffer. I…cared about him. Later, I found out he was seeing other women. The whole incident made me realize I’d have to put everything else in my life on hold while I was there, so I quit. I’d known Will peripherally and he hired me right away. Which brings us to now.”

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry you were hurt. But I’m not Don.”

“I know.”

“Let’s stay like this for a while. I have to go home to let Mutt out and feed him, but not for a bit.”

“I want to. But I have one question. Why two years since you had sex?”

Pax blew out a heavy breath. “First off, I hit the skids drinking after that fateful day. When I sobered up, the AA program I went to recommended not getting involved with someone romantically. I didn’t because of that and because I didn’t want any attachments. I learned in AA that I was probably punishing myself.”

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