Page 57 of Triple Threat

“Welcome back,” I whispered, and he leaned down carefully, brushing his lips against mine. I welcomed the light kiss and again, it was too short.

“Thank you,” he whispered back softly, and we re-situated ourselves. He pulled the throw off of the back of the couch and wrapped it around my shoulders, his hand smoothing against the skin of my exposed back beneath it, warm and heavy, a comforting weight.

TheBridge on the River Kwaiwas alongmovie, but it was a good one. By the end, I was awash in comfort and warmth and was drowsing mightily as the credits rolled. Roan shook me gently awake.

“Mm,” I murmured in protest.

“I think it’s bedtime for you, Poppet.”

“Mm-hm,” I agreed sleepily. “Your bed or mine?”

He hesitated, and I looked up at him, “Doesn’t have to be for sex,” I said hastily, in case he totally didn’t want me that way. Also, I didn’t want him to feel like I was throwing myself at him. I mean, yikes! Had I just screwed everything up? I swallowed hard, looking at him and murmured, “I just like cuddling with you.”

His smile was pleased when I said the last and I felt a tightness borne of anxiety ease in my chest. He said gently, “Mine if you don’t mind.”

I smiled back and said, “That’s why I asked.”

Chapter Seventeen

Roan…

As much as it would have pleased me, I couldn’t carry Sadie from the lounge to my bedroom. In fact, it rather pained me. The blow Lach had dealt to my leg in our fight had left more than just wounded pride.

She was going to be the death of me. I almost felt the fool as the two of us walked the short distance from where we had sat, cuddled, to where my bed was.Had she really kissed me?

She had. My lips tingled with the memory of it.

I was indeed a great giant fool, feeling like I was being tormented.

She kissed me.She kissed me and wanted to cuddle in my bed.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. This wasn’t the first time she had been there, but it was the first time she was going to my bed. She was there for me. My heart trembled, and my hands were filled with nervous energy. I drew the covers back, and she slipped underneath them at my urging. Her hair now loosed from its braid formed a glorious mane around her head, like a halo of beauty. I reached to turn off the bedside lamp, as she was pulling herself close to me.

“Leave it on, it’s not so bright,” Sadie murmured. She was warm and soft, pressed against me. I felt painfully aware of two things, the dead weight of the prosthetic, and how I was modestly erect. My cock wasn’t throbbing or fully hard yet, but it would be soon enough.

I removed the prosthetic and quietly let it slide to the floor. With that released from me, it was easier to move under the covers, and to return her embrace. I rested my face against the top of her head and softly inhaled her scent.

I let my hand trace the slope of her neck out to the point of her shoulder, a flawless line. I could feel her warm breath against my chest through the thin cotton of my tee, and the brush of her lips against my own shoulder. I eased my caress down her shoulder blade to run a course down her ribs, not so prominent as they had been when she’d first arrived, and down to her hip. There, my palm rested flat against her raised hip, and I contemplated following the natural line down her thigh to the knee, or a different direction. The other direction, my hand went there, caressing and cupping her bottom.

I felt the first aching throb between my legs. I wanted her.

I was no better than Lach with her, this vulnerable beautiful creature… I was quite simply not at all good enough, but was anyone? I felt her lips against my neck, and her small hands caressing against my own chest. She was exploring me just as I was touching her.

Did she actually desire me?

That was impossible, not with my scars, not with my old injuries.

She leaned her head back, and I felt drawn to her. Our lips met again, and there was another pulse of electricity through me. Her kiss was so soft, so warm. I could get deliriously lost in her kisses.

“What is that?” she whispered, and I jerked back, turning my hips slightly away from her. She pulled my shirt up, and rather than mocking modesty I let her help me pull it off.

“It’s nothing,” I said, and gave her another kiss.

“It felt like an awful lot to be nothing.” Her voice held an edge of a teasing smile as she caught my lower lip gently between her teeth for a second. I groaned, caught by her words, and still cupping her bottom in the palm of my hand.

“That’s more than cuddling,” I said softly.

“I really don’t mind,” she whispered, and her tone lost all of its levity of a moment before. I relaxed, slightly. I felt her lips on mine again, and it was bloody joyous. Her hands found themselves against my skin traveling over my abdominals and chest; intrepid little hands they were, sliding over slick scar tissue and whole flesh as though they were one and the same. I don’t know if it was her touch, or my own need but I let myself give in to desire, to touch something more than her bottom. I trailed my fingers from her hip upwards to find the glorious yielding softness of her breast.

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