Leave a Mark (27 page)

Wren began unbuttoning his shirt, and it fell open to reveal his tattoo. She looked down at it before glancing back at him with a questioning smile. “Any regrets?”

“Hell, no,” he said with conviction. “Best decision I ever made.”

Her smile grew, though she seemed to try to hide it.

Lee reached up and took the bottom button of her shirt between his fingers. He locked eyes with her and gave her every opportunity to say no, but she only held his gaze, steady, if not quite sure.

He undid the first button…

Taking his time, waiting patiently at each to give her the chance to protest, Lee made it to the top and then ran his fingers down her adorned sternum, hints of reds and oranges peeking between the edges of the fabric.

At his touch, Wren slowly closed her eyes. Even though she sat astride him, she was still too far away.

Lee pushed himself up and kept her in his lap. He freed her shoulders from her shirt, and the words freed themselves. “My God, you are so beautiful.” His voice sounded strange to his ears. Deeper, more animal.

Her bikini top still covered her, but seeing the beauty of her body and her art was like a religious experience. A phoenix rose between her breasts, its wings disappearing behind the triangles of her top. The phoenix’s tail segmented into elaborate swirls of flame, dark red and black. Sparks from the left side of the tail became the Red-winged Blackbirds Lee had seen before. Embers on the right grew into branches and cherry blossoms on her tree. The transition from earthly to mythical was seamless, flawless.

Lee reached behind her neck and grasped the tie of her bikini. “May I?”

Wren nodded, but when she raised her hands to lift her hair, Lee saw that she trembled. Instead of releasing the tie, he pulled her to him and kissed her again. He kissed her lips… and her chin… and her jaw… and her neck…

“When you’re ready,” he murmured against the slope of her neck. “You untie it.”

At his words, her hands cupped his face, and she brought him back to her lips. She kissed him fiercely, and he let his hands roam her back. When she pulled back, Wren swept up her blue-black hair in one hand and pulled the tie with the other. She caught the fabric at her breasts and kept them covered.

Lee could see now the phoenix wings spanning the top of each breast and how, just like from the tail, embers soared up from its wingtips. Heat from the mythical creature seeming to create an updraft for another stunning bird Lee didn’t recognize. It was the most colorful creature he’d ever seen with a red face, a green head and wings, a purple chest, and a light blue tail. This beauty soared above her right breast.

By contrast, a speckled wren, simple and earthy, hid in the hollow of a nest above her left, one eye peering out onto the world. The detail of the feathers struck him. The bird looked wet, its down almost fuzzy as it took shelter.

Lee felt the urge to reach out and touch it. He found himself moving slowly so that he wouldn’t spook the frightened bird. When his fingers settled on her skin, Wren sucked in a jagged breath, and he looked up into her eyes to find her surprised.

She didn’t have to explain that her ink told a story. Somehow, the phoenix connected everything. She’d been burned to ashes, and she lived to tell the tale. But Lee could see she was still that frightened bird.

He felt himself smile, because if she’d let him get this close, they had a chance.

THE ROOM WAS
so bright, and she had no place to hide. Lee’s eyes seemed to consume her.

“I love them all, but this one’s my favorite,” Lee whispered before kissing the wren over her heart.

It was the least sexy, the least colorful of her tattoos, but when he kissed it, her heart skittered. Wren swallowed at the sensation. “Why is it your favorite?” she managed, trying to force down her fear.

Lee’s eyes shifted up to hers, but his lips never left her skin. “Because it’s honest.”

She sucked in a breath before recovering. “They’re all honest.” It was true. All of her tats meant something, even if she was the only one who knew their secrets.

A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. “It’s the most honest.”

His mouth was just an inch above her nipple, and though her bikini still covered her, the flesh pebbled under his touch.

It scared her that he could read her so well. But it felt wonderful, too. It made her soften, like she did when he kissed her.

Lee’s hands found their way to her hips and gripped tightly. She held her top with one hand and ran her fingers through his thick hair with the other.

Lee moaned, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, he stared into hers, watching her as he lowered his chin and nudged against her bikini top, silently asking permission.

He promised not to hurt me,
she reminded herself.

Wren dropped the fabric, and, with a satisfied grunt, Lee took her left nipple in his mouth. Her gasp tore through the room. She felt him untie the knot in the middle of her back, and the bikini top fell away.

“Oh my God…” How could his touch feel so good? She’d nearly come apart when he’d kissed the back of her knee. When he let his teeth graze her nipple, Wren started to collapse.

Lee caught her against him and eased her back toward the bed, following her down.

She ran her hands over his shoulders and down his back, feeling the terrain of his muscles. How often did he go kayaking to earn muscles like that? Lee moved to her right breast, and her question got lost in a gasp.

“Lee…” Wren wanted to surrender. She wanted to tell him that he had conquered her resistance. There were reasons she shouldn’t be with him, but, at the moment, she couldn’t remember what they were. All that mattered was that he wanted her, and she desired only to give in.

So, when she felt his hands at the button of her shorts, and he whispered “May I?” in her ear, she only had one answer.

A moment later, the rest of their clothes were on the floor, and the room echoed with Lee’s praise.

“Look at you. My God…” He planted kisses along her ribs and down to her navel. “… so beautiful."

Wren heard him, but the words lost their sense. All she could take in was the sight of him. His lean thighs. The heart-stopping muscles that formed a V below his waist. The tight, impossibly dark, secret curls.

The undeniable state of his desire.

Nothing in her life had prepared her for Lee Hawthorne. The way he touched her was unlike anything she’d ever known. He touched her, not only with his hands and lips, but with his heart. Lee didn’t hide what he felt. Not ever. In his caress, even in his breath, Lee was fearless. He showed her everything.

“I want to be like you,” she whispered.

Did I just say that out loud?

He laughed gently, his lips moving against the curve of her hip. “We’re both naked, babe. You’re exactly like me.”

She started to correct him, but then he kissed the top of her thigh, and her thoughts vanished. When Lee slipped his hand between her legs, a wave of pleasure nearly took her under.

“Wren, you’re so wet.”

At once, Wren pulled away, snapped her legs shut, and covered her face with her hands. “God, kill me now,” she groaned.

In an instant, Lee’s lips were at her ear, his body covering hers. “No, no,” he whispered, “don’t run away.” He kissed her cheek and tried to nudge her hands aside. Lee kept his hand on her thigh, urging her to open again.

“Wren, I want you wet for me,” he breathed. “That makes my fucking day… Let me in, baby.”

Her body had coiled tight with shame, but his warmth and his words started to soak into her.

“Look at me.”

He kissed the back of her hands still covering her face, and Wren marshalled the courage to peek up at him beneath her fingers. Lee’s deep blue eyes and gentle smile stilled her breath.

“I am so into you, Wren. I want nothing else. Just you.”

From head to toe, she felt her body give. Lee felt it, too, because the smile in his eyes grew. His hand at her thigh stirred again, asking, seeking. When she opened just a little, Lee cradled her in one arm and stroked her with the hand of the other.

Her shallow breath shook between them.

He pressed his lips to hers, his fingers swirling her into a dizzy bliss. “Tell me how you feel about me,” he whispered.

Wren closed her eyes and panted, but she shook her head.

“Yes,” he countered, slipping his fingers into her heat and setting her heart at a galloping pace. “It’s only fair. You know how I feel… Tell me.”

“I can’t…” But even as she whimpered, her grip was slipping. The truth wanted to launch itself from her lips. She’d never felt anything like this, and it scared the hell out of her.

Lee moved down her body, and the next thing she knew, he’d spread her legs wide.

“Tell me.”

“Lee…” she begged. “…I feel too much.”

His mouth was on her in the next second, and the room started spinning. His satisfied moan nearly sent her over the edge. She was going to come. Around his fingers and against his tongue. There was nothing she could do to stop it.

“Enough,” she said, pushing his head away and fighting for control.

Lee grabbed her wrists and anchored them to the mattress. “More,” he growled before taking her again.

Lost to the sensation, Wren bucked against him, and the hands that held her shifted. His palms met hers, and their fingers entwined. It was a tender gesture, a loving gesture, and it nearly shattered her.

“Lee, please,” she cried, giving up. “I want you inside me when I come.”

The speed at which he moved almost scared her. Lee was above her again, and, somehow, he’d produced a condom that he deftly tore open.

“All you had to do was ask,” he said, panting. He settled between her legs, but then his eyes locked with hers, and he stilled. “Promise me you won’t look away.”

Wren reached up and buried her fingers in his hair. “What if I can’t?”

Lee pressed himself against her. “Promise me you’ll try."

She looked into his eyes. Their color was the midnight sky. An endless blue. She could fall all the way in. “I promise I’ll try.”

And then, in one push, he was inside her. The exquisite force of him made her run her hands from his hair down to his back so she could hold on for dear life.

“Oh, God, Lee,” she heard herself say.

His beautiful face swam above her, and she wanted to shut her eyes and hide from him. But then he started to move, and the look in his eyes changed.

And Wren forgot all about herself.

She found herself looking at a man who clearly had discovered the secrets of the universe. A look made of awe and wonder and rapture claimed his whole face. And Wren realized she wasn’t surprised at all, because if anyone on earth deserved to be filled with an infinite joy, it was Lee Hawthorne.

“I’m so lucky to be with you,” she said, drawing a hand up and laying it on his cheek. “You’re so alive.”

Lee breathed a jagged breath. “Wren.”

At the sound of her name on his lips, understanding dawned. The ardent look he wore wasn’t because he knew the secrets of life. It was for her.

“Lee.” She looked into that midnight blue and started to fall.

He reached up and caught both her hands again, drawing them above her head as he drove deeper. Wren wrapped her legs around his hips, matching him drive for drive. At this, Lee gritted his teeth, and the muscles in his neck stood out.

Falling became plummeting. Her entire body was racing toward an event horizon that promised to swallow her whole. And when it did — when she crested again and again — Wren never took her eyes off his.

And Lee never blinked. He shook the bed with his thrusts, and he filled the room with her name, but he held her gaze without fail. He came watching her face, and it was the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.

He kissed her as their bodies slowed. A deep kiss. One that vowed to return them to this place. One that claimed it as theirs.

When their bodies stilled, and their lungs demanded recovery, Lee panted above her and brushed a stray lock of blue from her face.

“That was…
incredible
.”

Wren managed to nod. She was glad she wasn’t alone, that it had touched him, too.

And then she did something she’d never had a reason to do. She revealed. “Incredible doesn’t quite cover it,” she said, her voice shaking a little as she felt herself step out on a limb. “It was… life-changing.”

Her reward was immediate. Lee’s smile — and it was a killer smile — overtook him.

“Yes. It was.”

Wren drew in a deep breath, and Lee shifted above her. “I’m crushing you.”

She shrugged. “Only in the best possible way.”

Lee laughed and pushed himself up on his hands. Even though she was completely sated, the sight of his muscled shoulders and chest above her made her swallow, and she absently raised a hand and let her fingers trail down his torso.

Lee’s smile lit with mischief. “You’re trying to kill me.”

It was her turn to laugh. “Only in the best possible way,” she said again, and he tipped his head back and laughed with her.

He lowered himself down and brushed his lips against hers. “You’re fun." He pushed himself up again. “Stay right here. I’ll be right back.”

And then, gently, he pulled out and moved off her. Even as she watched his perfect backside retreat toward the bathroom, she shivered. The sunlight coming in through his windows had softened, and the house had cooled.

When he returned to her, she had wrapped her arms around herself and curled onto her side.

“Are you cold?” he asked, climbing back onto the bed. “Here.”

Lee reached up under his pillows and pulled down the sheets. “Get in.”

They hadn’t bothered to get under the covers yet, but Wren did not hesitate to slip into them now. She was cold, and she was also very aware of her nakedness. But, as soon as Lee got in bed beside her and pulled her into his arms, her sense of ease returned.

He nestled her into the crook of his left arm, and she rested her head against his shoulder. Apparently, this didn’t satisfy him. Lee reached down under the covers and hooked her knee with his right hand and placed it over his hip, cinching her closer to him.