Chapter Eight
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The fact that he was willing to wait with no recriminations, no hesitation, confirmed what she already knew in her heart and mind. Dean West was an incredible man.
Her hand tightened on his. “I am too. But I want to enjoy this journey as much as I possibly can. As long as you don’t mind me moving a little stiffly, I would like to explore the physical side of this relationship.”
Those normally joyful eyes looked at her with mild reproach. “As long as you realize that this won’t just be a physical relationship. I want more from you than that, Rachel.”
Rachel nodded, hoping he couldn’t see the devastation in her eyes. She’d never expected to find anything even resembling love and now he was almost offering it on a plate. Daring, she looked up at him with that hope in her eyes. “And I’m willing to give you damn near anything you want, Dean.”
That heart-flipping smile of his spread across his face as he leaned down to cover her mouth with his own. Rachel opened to him, both physically and emotionally.
Dean seemed to sense her new openness. He nibbled at her lips as he pulled her body close. Rachel gasped as his chest brushed against hers, back and forth, as if he were deliberately teasing her. But he wouldn’t do that, would he?
Arching her hips, she rubbed against the erection behind his jeans. Groaning, Dean pushed her back against the wall, rocking into the cradle of her hips. His mouth took on a new fervency, fitting to hers completely, his tongue gliding against hers. A wave of arousal ran down the center of her body to her clit and it was almost too much. She didn’t remember feeling this way with the other men she’d been with and it was a little disconcerting.
Not so disconcerting that she wanted to stop, though.
Rachel ran her hands across the expanse of his abdomen. Muscles flexed beneath her touch, taut and rippled. Her fingers sought for a way inside to his skin. Dean helped her by ripping the shirt over his head and tossing it away to land in a heap against the hallway wall.
Rachel lost her breath as she looked at the beauty in front of her. Broad and massively muscled, lean hipped, Dean looked like the ideal man to her. His touch was incredibly gentle as he burrowed his own hands under her shirt to rest against her skin. Rachel jerked, unused to feeling a man’s hand there, but quickly decided she liked it.
“Can we move to my bedroom?” she whispered.
Dean nodded but didn’t want to let her go, she could tell. Turning in his hold, she kept his hands on her as she led him to the room.
Rachel was not an interior designer, but of all the rooms in the house she liked to think this one probably gave the most insight into her personality. Though she’d only worn a few shades of military throughout her career, she loved bold colors, quirky objects and things that didn’t necessarily go together. The bedroom walls were painted deep blue and decorated with a few pieces of art she’d picked up from around the world, not very expensive things but expressive. There were pictures of a herd of elephants in a fog-laden field, a craggy mountain landscape with a single climber and her favorite, a view of the cloud tops from above. It reminded her of flying.
Dean glanced around the room with interest but he didn’t let it distract him from his goal. Rachel was nudged into the room, his erection cradled by her butt cheeks. Even before they undressed she could tell they were going to fit well.
Dean ran his thumbs under the elastic of her bra. Rachel stilled, barely daring to breathe. When his hands abruptly left she tried not to be disappointed but he only moved to unfasten her bra. It couldn’t go anywhere because it was still under her shirt, but it was now loose enough that he could cup her breasts in his hands. Rachel gasped, hard, at the abrupt feeling of his broad palms cupping her, and her body responded with a flood of moisture down low. “Oh,” she moaned.
Dean caressed the weight of her, then his thumbs and forefingers moved to her nipples. Rachel felt like she’d been hit with an electric charge, but he calmed her with kisses against her temple. “If it’s too much, let me know.”
She nodded because there was no way she could speak right then. Devastating hunger rocked her body and she wanted more, she just wasn’t sure how to articulate it. When his hands drifted away from her breasts to her sides and lifted her shirt away, her enjoyment abruptly chilled. Her scars were not pretty at the best of times and she hated that she couldn’t see his face.
“Oh, Rachel,” he sighed.
Then the most incredible thing happened. He began to drop kisses along the length of her spine. Goose bumps pebbled her flesh from his touch. “Are you sure they don’t bother you? I can wear a T-shirt if I need to.”
Her breath stalled in her lungs until he moved his head into her line of vision. “And why would I want you to do that?”
She shrugged, a little uncomfortable with the probing look. “Nobody’s seen them so I didn’t know if they would freak you out or anything,” she muttered lamely.
He moved even more in front of her. “What do you mean no one has seen these?”
God, did she really want to tell him? Not really, but she felt like she needed to. “No one other than medical personnel, that is. I haven’t been with anyone since I was injured.”
She could hear the ticking of the tiny travel alarm clock on her bedside table, and the slow crumbling of her heart as the time stretched out interminably.
When he moved in to kiss her, Rachel was surprised.
“I’m honored to be the only lover you’ve ever exposed your injury to, Rachel. Thank you.”
Those fucking tears were back and she didn’t know what to do with the battering emotions rocketing around inside her. Dean kissed her thoroughly, wiped her eyes then moved back around her. He kissed and accepted every inch of her incision scar in a way that she never expected any man would do.
Hell, maybe it was just a bigger deal to her and he was placating her for sex. As soon as she had the thought, though, she knew she had inadvertently cheapened what they were doing. Dean would never do that and she trusted herself enough to know what she was doing.
When he tugged at the button on her jeans, she was more than happy to help him, shrugging her bra away in the process. Rachel had a process for getting her panties down without bending over very much but Dean took care of that for her, kneeling in front of her with no hesitation. He tugged the lacy pink panties down her legs, sighing as he revealed the moist juncture of her thighs. Nudging her back against the mattress, she rocked onto her back, hands over her head. Dean parted her thighs and leaned between them. Before Rachel had a chance to say anything, he’d buried his mouth against her.
Incredible euphoria stole her breath as he touched her, tongued her, in a place no one ever had before. The hours of arousal watching him, listening to him, smelling him, avalanched over her. With just a couple of strokes from his talented tongue, Dean gave her more pleasure than she’d ever felt in her life.
Rachel screamed, then slammed a hand against her mouth, some inner sense of caution warning her that Mrs. Lightner would call the cops if she thought she was in trouble.
Dean pulled away from her quivering flesh, giving her a grin, and stood up to remove his clothes. Rachel watched dazedly as he shucked everything to the floor, then ripped open a condom to sheathe his extraordinary erection. Rachel had a moment of worry as she caught sight of his incredible body, muscles delineated after many hundreds of hours in gyms. The man could probably bench press a car, but he used incredible care as he settled between her thighs. “Should I let you ride me,” he asked.
Rachel gave the question serious thought. “No, I want you inside me just like this. If I’m uncomfortable, I’ll let you know.”
He needed no further encouragement. Using one hand to guide the head of his cock inside her, he used the other to brace his body over top of her. Rachel lifted her thighs to rest outside his lean hips and she felt the stretch in her back and hips, but no pain.
Dean slid inside her slowly, carefully, as if afraid she were made of glass. “You’re not hurting me, Dean. I promise.”
Nuzzling his lips into her ear, he sighed. “Okay. Good. I’m just savoring the feel of you. I want to remember everything about our first time together.”
She choked out a laugh, her heart shuddering all over again. He knew exactly what to say to her to make her emotions go haywire.
Dean sighed as he reached the edge of her cervix, as deep inside her as he could get. Rachel pulsed around him, still recovering from her initial orgasm. Another quivered deep in her body as he began to move. That nebulous feeling began to build again. “Oh, Dean, you feel so damn good.”
He bowed his head and kissed her, nibbling softly at her lips, then up her cheeks to her temple. When he reached the bruise at her hairline he skimmed a gentle kiss there as well. “You do too, sweetheart. You fit me as if we were made for each other.”
They did. Hip to hip, chest to ribs, he was just big enough that she would curl perfectly beneath his chin.
After the sex.
He seemed to realize there was more fun to be had because he started flexing his hips into her, then retreating. The long glide of his dick over her sensitive tissues made her frantic to reach that next pinnacle. She clutched at his ass, trying to bring him ever closer.
Dean’s movements took on a determination that she could feel to the depths of her being. He planned on making her come again, she could tell, because he was kissing her mouth, then plumping her breasts with one hand. Dean’s pleasure soon began to drive the bus, though. She could tell by the way he had begun to shudder, his hips shoving convulsively as if he were unable to curb their movements.
Then he lifted up onto his arms and looked down at her, his stunning eyes half-lidded, hips surging, face slack with pleasure, and she watched and felt him orgasm. His face turned fierce with gratification. The pumping of his hips reached a frenzy, then dramatically slowed as he arched into her.
Rachel thrilled at the look on his face, the enjoyment he was taking from her body. And that satisfaction stoked her own fire and pushed her over the edge. It was as if she had needed him to find release so that she could find her own. The room around them faded away as her world went supernova.
* * *
Dean knew he had to move. He needed to dispose of the condom and they needed to get situated on the bed a little better. Rallying his strength, he pushed up on quivering arms. Rachel stared up at him, a fuzzy, warm, and maybe even loving expression on her face. Her hands tightened on his shoulders as if she was reluctant to release him. Leaning down he kissed her plump lips, unwilling to break the connection they had. “Are you okay? I know I kind of lost control there at the end.”
She blinked at him, brows pulling together. “You can lose control like that anytime. My neck is completely fine. You didn’t hurt me at all.”
Dean grinned, replete, as he began to pull out of her. Even that felt incredible. He sighed as he pushed himself up from her, then he had to pause to etch the way she looked in his memory. Her hair was rumpled but it told him exactly how much he’d pleasured her. Her caramel colored eyes were slumberous and the smile on her lips told him she was as replete as he was. But her spanking hot body drew his gaze.
Rachel drew her thighs together and laid them to the side, creating an elegant curve to her lean frame, one hard-nippled breast pointed toward the ceiling. There were certain things guys just didn’t do, especially right after sex. Dropping to the floor in front of her and telling her that he’d just had the best orgasm ever, hands down, would not impress her with his manliness… but that’s exactly what he wanted to do.
Instead, he turned for the bathroom to dispose of the condom.
When he returned a few minutes later her eyes had drifted shut. Crawling onto the mattress behind her, he pulled her into the curve of his body, one arm going under her head and the other across her hips.
“Mm,” she sighed.
Dean took a deep breath, emotion damn near choking him. “You are incredible, Rachel. I’m sorry you crashed but I’m so thankful I’ve met you. My heart is fuller than it’s ever been. Now that I have you, I don’t think I can ever let you go.”
Her breath stalled in her chest for a moment, then eased out of her. Her body relaxed against his. “That is my secret wish,” she whispered, and he felt tears drip onto his arm. His own eyes blurring, he pulled her tighter against his heart, vowing to be more than she’d ever hoped for.