Authors: Lindsay McKenna
“See? Not so bad, right?”
He’d tricked her by not removing the towel. He knew Lia was more jumpy about him seeing the scar than feeling it. At least, that’s what his intuition told him. And if that was true, she was going to relax right now.
And she did.
“See? Not so bad. Right?” he teased her gently.
“You’re right,” she whispered.
“The rest is easy, baby. I can feel your scar. It feels just like the other ones. There’s nothing different about this one,” and he eased his hand upward, allowing his fingers to trace the long scar that curved across her belly.
Cav could tell by the puckered skin, the rougher surface of the scar that if the blade had gone just a quarter inch deeper, those bastards would have gutted her, spilled her intestines. Closing his eyes, battling rage, he continued to move his fingers up and down the scar, getting her used to his touch, desensitizing her.
Lia had come dangerously close to being killed. He knew that now. The cut on her neck that had nicked her carotid artery had damned near bled her to death. It was clear to him that Schaefer and Dominguez wanted to murder Lia after she fought to escape them, and survived their assault.
“There. Is it so bad now?” he teased. “It feels like all the rest of them, Lia. No different. There’s no way I’m going to be surprised by it.”
His words had a powerful effect upon her, and Cav watched as her fingers relaxed against her throat, saw her swallow several times. He saw relief in her expression and he reveled in it. The worst was over. The rest would be easy.
“I’m going to open the towel now. I don’t expect to see anything that I haven’t already, Lia. Do you trust me to do this, baby?”
“Yes, I trust you, Cav…”
He placed his hand over the towel. “Open your eyes.” and he watched her lashes flutter, revealing her soft gray eyes to him. “I want you to watch my face, all right?” Cav knew he was asking for the ultimate gift from Lia, but she had to realize that the scar she thought was the worst wasn’t. And the only way she could believe it was to watch his expression.
He felt a shift within her. Saw her gray gaze turn softer, saw the love in them as he waited for her permission. Never had Cav loved her more than in this moment, the silence thick around them. He saw her give a slight tip of her head, her gaze clinging to his.
He opened the towel, pulling it aside. He did the same with the other end of it, fully exposing her abdomen. His palm was so wide that he actually laid it on the curls of her mound. There was the scent of her sweet body rising into his nostrils, the fragrance of her sex scent that powered through his lower body, thickening his erection that pressed heavily against the zipper of his jeans.
Cav pushed all of that away, keeping her gaze as he slowly lifted his hand away, fully exposing the pinkish scar. It was almost four inches in length, just below her belly button. And he’d been right: it looked like all the rest.
Leaning over, he cupped the sides of her belly with his hands, pressing a kiss at the top of the scar, licking it and then kissing it. He heard Lia’s sudden gasp, then felt her whole body tremble, and it wasn’t from fear. He continued to lick and then kiss the entire length of the scar, feeling her sink into the delicious sensations his tongue and lips were creating.
Cav wanted her to realize that she was so beautiful to him. He could love what she considered the most ugly part of her body—because it was a part of her.
Gasping, she abandoned her tension, her fears, and instead released a deep cry of pleasure. When he looked up at her through his lashes, he saw Lia’s head flung back, giving herself to the passions he was stirring in her.
And then, he felt her surrender utterly to him in every way. He was still dressed and she was nearly naked on the bed, writhing between his hands, those wonderful, low sounds in her throat telling Cav everything he ever wanted to know.
He moved his lips above her scar, continuing that slow line of licks and kisses up the center of her body. Her hand released the top of the towel and he felt feral pleasure as she pulled it aside, exposing her small, perfect breasts for him. Even better, those pink nipples were hard little points that invited him to lick them, and he allowed his lust to flow like molten fire through him.
Lifting his head, he looked into her half-closed eyes and said, more deeply aroused than ever before, “I need you, Lia.”
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, lifting her hands, sliding them around his face. “Don’t ever stop, Cav. I need you, too.”
He captured one of her hands, kissing the palm, heard her swift intake of breath as he moved his tongue into the center of it and then kissed it afterward. He wasn’t going to mention the scar unless she brought up. Gauging from the look over her smoldering gray eyes, she yearned for more of what he was sharing with her, Cav said, “I need to get undressed. Are you protected, Lia? I’m completely healthy.”
“I’m just over my period by four days. And I’m clean, too.”
He grimaced. “I don’t have any condoms on me.” He saw her give him a tender look.
“That’s nice to hear. Don’t worry, I’m fine without one.”
So was he. “Stay where you are,” he commanded gruffly, standing.
Lia lay back, enjoying watching Cav undress. His movements were always spare, his muscles lean, tight and ropy. Watching him pull the polo shirt over his head, she appreciated the dusting of dark hair across his massive chest, and how the clean lines of his collarbones exposed his broad shoulders.
But her whole body went on red-hot alert when he quickly climbed out of his boots, jeans and boxer shorts. A pleasant kind of shock, a yearning, filled her as she saw the length and hardness of his erection.
She felt her juices flowing with just the thought of him inside her, filling her, giving her excruciating pleasure. And Lia knew Cav would do all of this because he was a tender, considerate lover, unlike any she had ever known.
As he came and leaned over her, helping to remove the towel from beneath her, she felt her thighs becoming damp, imagining him filling her with his power, his masculinity, his care and love. As she shifted and got to her knees in the center of the bed, holding his narrowed green and gold gaze, she smiled up at him.
Cav came and sat on the edge of the bed. Lia slid her arms around his shoulders, drawing near, her nipples brushing his chest, making him tense. Her scent filled his flaring nostrils and he smelled her sex fully this time, his hands moving to her hips, sliding down her thighs, his fingers brushing around their curves, meeting her juices flowing down them. His erection throbbed.
Instantly, Cav exerted steely control over his body. He liked Lia’s unexpected boldness, liked that she wasn’t afraid to show him that she wanted him. As fearful as she had been, she was now the opposite, which delighted and relieved him. He knew Lia was a fighter at heart and she could be bold and even brazen if she was given a chance. And Cav was going to give her all the chances she wanted.
Her eyes closed, her arms tightening around him, drawing his lips closer to her breasts as he continued to slowly slide his long fingers along her inner thighs, so close to her entrance.
She quivered and he smiled. “You’re so wet…so ready…” He closed his lips around a pleading nipple, suckling her slowly, deeply. She began to come apart, a little cry escaped her as she tipped her head back, her body curving into his, her fingers digging frantically into his strong shoulders.
Cav smiled and released the nipple, tasting her, breathing in her fragrance, and then, cradling her head in one of his hands and with the other, guiding her down onto the bed beside him. She lay on her back, staring up at him, her breath ragged.
“How long has it been for you?” he asked, skating his hand lightly across her hip and down her firm thigh.
“A long, long time,” she gasped, arching as he began pulling her thigh a little wider, giving him access to her.
“Then,” he growled, moving his lips across her parted ones, “I’m going to go slow. You tell me if it hurts, all right?” He lifted his head, his eyes fixed on her smoky gaze.
“I will…it all feels so wonderful, Cav…and I want to please you, too…”
He caressed the side of her breasts, watching her expression turn to utter pleasure. “In time,” he rasped, “it will happen, baby. Right now, let me love you, introduce myself to you. We have the whole night in front of us and I intend to know your incredibly loving heart and beautiful body intimately.
L
ia dazedly wondered
why in the world she had made such a big deal about her belly scar. Cav was lying beside her, his leg across hers, gently opening her thighs and exposing her sacredness, the heat and love of his hand lingering on her torso, moving across her belly, ignited with nothing but sheer, ongoing fire, transforming into pleasure for her.
She had wanted to be a full partner with him, but he wasn’t allowing her to right now, his arm beneath her neck, holding her against him. A current of pure tenderness blazed from his eyes as he swept his hand across her body, down her hips. She was drowning in pleasure, all her objections dissolving beneath his touch.
Sounds caught in her throat as she leaned closer to him, feeling his fingers touch her wetness, moving closer to her arching entry. She lay there, eyes closed, lost in the powerful heat rising between them.
Some part of her functioning brain understood how Cav felt at this moment—his fierce, undying love for her aroused as never before. She was completely open to his desire to make love to her, and to put her on the receiving end first, rather than second. He was so unlike most men she’d know, who expected to get satisfied first.
With Cav, everything was different. New. Wonderful.
And Lia surrendered to him in every way because she knew that some point, he would allow her full access to him, too. And she loved him enough to compromise because ultimately, they would both be gifted with one another.
Now, as he moved to take her mouth, he eased his fingers against that swollen, throbbing knot just inside her entrance. Her hips bucked as the extreme contraction, the fire, licked upward into her, and she cried out. His mouth curved hotly upon hers, intensifying the tightening within her, his fingers sending wave after wave of lust within her. The moment his tongue tangled with hers, a violent, almost painful release flooded her channel.
Her scream was caught and absorbed by Cav as he continued to milk her willing, opened, trusting body. Lia felt as if her entire being was coming apart as he held her tight, his captive, not allowing her anything but sizzling, deepening pleasure. Her entire world burned up and transformed. The orgasm undulated through her, sending her into a world she’d never entered before.
She nearly lost consciousness as she floated in that world, feeling her body respond to Cav’s passionate ministrations. Whimpers caught in her throat as he continued to ask her body to give him more, and it did. She was hurled out into a cloud of burning heat, barely aware of anything but him, his mouth taking hers, his fingers coaxing her hungry body.
Lia had no idea of how long she floated, the ripples of gratification moving in every direction within her. Cav was giving her such intense satisfaction that as he left her wet lips, all she could do was sigh, the corners of her mouth curving upward as she lingered in this hot zone. She felt him release her, felt him kneeling between her parted thighs, and slowly opened her eyes, once more drowning in the gold and green of his gaze.
Weakly lifting her arms, she tugged him forward, wanting him to enter her. She saw the tension in his face as he grazed her entrance, the pressure moving slowly within her. He was now stroking the knot within her, on fire with wanting, needing satisfaction.
He had been right, she realized, closing her eyes. She was so tight and small. But he wasn’t an ordinary man, either, and she felt him grip the covers on either side of her head, the warmth of his body hovering across hers as he continued to introduce himself into her. With every stroke, quivers of raw pleasure moved through her. Cav filled her. She knew he was monitoring her every sound and movement. Sensing the brute power under his control, she wanted that part of him, too, but her body had to be able to accommodate him. He leaned over, capturing one of her nipples, she groaned, arching upward, drawing him even deeper into herself, the fanning of the flames arcing from where he suckled her, straight down into her filling channel.
She felt a momentary burning, and he stopped to allow her body to compensate for his size, but he never stopped suckling her nipples. Lia urgently lifted her hips, taking him deeper inside her, despite the momentary discomfort. It was swiftly replaced with pleasure, and she eagerly met him, moving her hips in slow rhythm with his.
As he left one nipple, capturing the other, the scalding sensations increased and she gripped his narrow hips, driving him as far into her as he could go. Sounds of joy flowed from her as her back arched, hips fused with his, luxuriating in him in every possible way. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, her body alive as Cav began a new, loving assault upon her, stroking in and out slowly, accustoming her awakened body, engaging it now on every level.
The pleasure increased tenfold for Lia, and she once more felt that building pressure within her. He must have sensed her needs, because he moved powerfully against her, sliding one hand beneath her hips. As soon as he angled her against him, Lia cried out, awash with another intense orgasm that swept through her, constricting around Cav. She felt the hot release of fluids coating him within her. This time, she was hurled out so swiftly into that delicious pleasure zone that she nearly fainted. Never had she felt such driving, deep satisfaction as he was presently giving her.
Lia felt Cav tense and heard him breathe deeply as he covered her with his sleek, powerful body. She could feel him trying to hold off, but she wanted to give him equal satisfaction and wrapped her legs around his hips, moving strongly against him, increasing their connection, wanting to break through his control, wanting to give back to him, wanting to love him as much as he was loving her.