Page 96 of Thick & Thin

I pulled back, stopping his hand before he could get any farther.

“We can’t do this.”

“But we already have.” He grinned, his sexy lips slanting.

“No. I mean, I can’t do this.”

“You can,” he said, moving in to kiss me again.

His hands moved up my thighs, and all I could think about was him thinking about how thick my thighs were. How heavy I must have been when he lifted me onto the kitchen table the last time we had sex. I was fat, and honestly, I didn’t have the confidence I pretended to have.

“Stop, Josh,” I said, moving his hands from my body. “I just can’t, okay?”

He backed away from me, his breathing hard, and the tent in his jeans letting me know his dick was even harder.

“Did I do something?” he asked, showing his uncertainty for the first time.

“No. I mean … yes. It’s embarrassing.”

“What is? What did I do?”

“I don’t want you to see me, okay? I know what you think, and I know I’m not skinny anymore. I’ve gained weight. I’ve had a baby. My body isn’t what it used to be, and it’ll never be that again. I don’t want you to see me naked, Josh. I can’t handle another comment from you about my weight.”

His eyes grew wide, and for a moment, his expression shifted, and he was the Josh I grew up with. The Josh I fell in love with. He was hard for everyone else but soft for me, letting me see how sweet and insecure he could really be while the rest of the town only saw his star football player confidence.

“Jenny,” he whispered my name as his hands dropped to his side.

He moved closer again, grasping my cheeks to make sure I didn’t look away from him. His eyes clashed with mine, and he swallowed as if what he was about to say was taking all his energy.

“When I first saw you sitting behind that bar, my heart dropped. I knew I would see you again, but I wasn’t sure how I would respond. You were everything to me, Jenny. I gave you all of myself, and then I pushed you away because I was a mess. But you let me push you away. You ran off to Texas, leaving me behind and forgetting about me.”

I could hardly believe his words.

“But I didn’t. I—” I tried to correct him, but he placed a finger over my lips, stopping me.

“Let me finish. The point is, I expected to see the girl I grew up with, and instead, I found you. A grown-ass woman with a curvy body that made and birthed a miracle. Your body is beautiful, Jenny, and what I said at the bar was just me lashing out because seeing you again hurt so fucking badly. The truth is, the moment I saw you and saw how you had filled out here,” he said, reaching out and grabbing handfuls of my ass. “And here.” He moved his hands and filled his large hands with my breasts. “I was done for. You’re even sexier now. Thick in all the right places and so fucking soft and sweet, I feel like falling to my knees in front of you.”

He pulled me into his arms and placed a soft kiss on the side of my lips.

“Never hide from me because I think you’re perfect exactly as you are.”

His fingers toyed with the bottom of my shirt before he slowly began to lift it from my body.

“I want to see every part of you,” he said, placing a kiss on the opposite side of my lips. “Worship every part of you.” He slipped his tongue along the seam of my lips, and I gasped, letting him kiss me deep and hard.

And when he continued to lift my shirt and pull it over my head, I let him.

The fabric of my T-shirt fell from his fingers and pooled at the floor beside my feet. His eyes held mine before they dropped, taking in my naked body except for my old sports bra and my jeans. I closed my eyes, wishing I could feel more comfortable with what he was seeing.

His fingers brushed my stomach, tracing what I knew were my stretch marks from carrying Caleb, and I clenched my eyes in embarrassment.

“These are beautiful,” he whispered, making me open my eyes to see if his expression was one of honesty.

He stared down at my stomach, his finger sliding over my plump flesh as he continued to trace my stretchmarks.

“They aren’t,” I disagreed.

His eyes moved up to meet mine, and he frowned.

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