Dillon and I had kissed many times before, but it’d never felt quite like it did right then. He sparked emotions in me that I wasn’t certain how to deal with, but I knew I wanted to keep feeling them. And I didn’t want to hold back any longer. Not when we were alone in front of the prettiest Christmas tree I’d ever seen with the lights twinkling around us. After weeks of flirting, kissing, and making out, things were about to get real.

When I kicked my shoes off, Dillon followed suit and removed his too without breaking eye contact with me. Lifting my shirt and raising it over my head, I was anxious about getting topless with a guy...until he repeated the gesture. At that point, his naked chest and rippling muscles distracted me from my nervousness.

“I’ve wanted to see you with your shirt off ever since I saw you playing football in the quad my freshman year,” I whispered. “I could barely tear my eyes away from you to watch where I was walking.”

“I wish you’d have come up to me and introduced yourself back then.”

“Ummmm, no way.” I was still adjusting to life post-transplant and hadn’t been ready for him, but the timing was right for us now.

“I tend to forget that my tough girl is shy. Thank fuck I found you,” he rasped. “Because you can see me like this whenever you’d like. And touch me, baby. Any time. Anywhere. If you want me, then I’m all yours.”

I ran my fingertips along his warm skin, pressing a kiss to the long scar that ran down the left side of his rib cage and tracing the muscles along his abs. “You’re so gorgeous,” I murmured, filled with wonder that he wanted to be here with me.

“And you’re fucking perfect,” he replied. My head was shaking before I even realized it. “Faith, it’s true. You don’t see yourself the way everyone else does, but you’re beautiful.”

My hand moved to the scars that were covered by the camisole I still wore. The ones no guy had ever seen. The dark red slashes across my skin were the main reason I was so worried about Dillon seeing me naked, even though I knew he had scars of his own. Mine were still so ugly. I loved how he looked at me, and I didn’t want to change the way he saw me.

Be brave, I told myself as I slid my fingers lower and tugged him closer by hooking a finger in the waistband of his shorts. I let myself fall backwards onto the soft pile carpet, pulling Dillon with me so his body pressed against mine. Then I wrapped my arms around him. Dillon must have sensed my concern because he hugged me tightly to his body as he spoke.

“You’re insanely sexy. It’s not just the way you look. There’s just something about you that draws me in and I can’t look away,” he reassured me. “Wanting—no needing—to get closer to you has been driving me crazy ever since we met. I’ve only managed to hold back because I didn’t want to scare you. But don’t think, for even one moment, that it’s because I don’t want you.”

“I want you, too,” I admitted shyly.

“Only if you’re sure,” he whispered into my ear, the heat from his breath as he spoke sending shivers up my spine.

This was a big step for me, but I couldn’t imagine taking it with anyone other than Dillon. “I’m positive. I want you to make love to me.”

“I’ll make it so good for you, baby,” he murmured against my skin as his lips trailed down my neck.

When his fingers slid up from my waist and tugged on the material of my camisole to lift it over my head, I tensed. Our eyes met after he pulled it off, and I wished with all my heart that we could just keep looking at each other as we made love. His gaze was questioning, and I forced a smile on my face to let him know everything was okay. My desire for him was stronger than my fear, so I tried to let go of my worry as his fingers slid to the back of my bra while he captured my lips for a kiss.

Once it was off, he nibbled and kissed his way down my body. When his body tensed above mine, I knew he had seen my scars. His gaze flew up to mine, and instead of disgust or pity, I saw sadness and pain in his eyes. “The transplant?”

“Yeah, but it’s just scar tissue. I’m okay now.”

“Better than okay,” he corrected. “Perfect.”

I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was the moment I fell head over heels in love with Dillon. When I was at my most vulnerable, he accepted me exactly as I was. Scars and flaws included.

“Dillon,” I sighed as his tongue flicked over one of my nipples while his fingers plucked at the other. When he sucked one deep into his mouth, I felt the pull all the way down to my pussy and my back arched off the floor.

“My tough girl likes that, huh?” he murmured against my breast, his eyes burning into mine as he looked up at me.

“Yes,” I hissed out as his mouth moved to the other nipple, biting down gently and then licking the sting away. His hands pressed me against the floor as his lips moved down my stomach, stopping to kiss the scars on both sides of my body. As his tongue traced the puckered skin, it was the first time since my surgery that I didn’t hate knowing they were there.

When his hands swept farther down to caress my legs, my focus shifted to the goose-bumps that followed the trail of his fingers. I lifted my hips so he could tug my shorts off and when he spread my legs apart afterwards, all my thoughts scattered. As he held my hips so I couldn’t move, I felt his breath through my panties. He kissed around the edges, licking the skin where my upper thighs met my pelvis. I was so drenched that I could feel moisture dripping from me. I jerked against his hold when his finger traced over my pussy, finding the dampness through my panties.

“Lift up, baby,” he instructed as he tugged them down my legs.

“Oh my God!” I gasped when his fingers spread me open, and he flicked his tongue over my clit. My body nearly shattered at the feel of his warm mouth on me.

“You’re dripping wet for me,” he whispered, his breath hot against my pussy before he swept his tongue across my damp flesh.

“So amazing,” I moaned.

“Ready for more?”

“Yes.”

As soon as I answered, one of his fingers pressed against my opening and slowly slid inside. My legs instinctively widened farther, and I threw my head back against the pillows and moaned.

“Tight,” he groaned as he stopped the progress of his finger and didn’t move any deeper.

Although I felt stretched at his invasion, it still felt so damn good. “Please don’t stop,” I begged.

His dark chuckle probably should have scared me, but it just added to my excitement. I watched as he lowered his head and his tongue flicked out to stroke my clit. Clenching his hair in my hands, I drew him closer in the hope that he would never stop. When he slid his finger out and buried his tongue deep inside me, it drove me out of my mind with need.

I was writhing on the floor beneath him, my legs clenching as an orgasm started to build. The first one that I wouldn’t give myself. I whimpered when he pulled his tongue from my body, but then he replaced it with his finger again. This time it slid more easily inside and my body started to shudder when he twisted it around and rubbed my G-spot. Then he licked my clit and my trembling increased. When he sucked it hard into his mouth, I felt like a tidal wave came crashing down over my body as my orgasm hit.

“Dillon!” I screamed his name hoarsely, my hips bucking of their own accord and my nails digging into his scalp.

“Mm,” he hummed, and the vibrations against my skin sparked another mini-orgasm.

When he finally pulled away from my body, I was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and I was so relaxed I felt like a limp noodle. Dillon kissed his way back up my body and as he held himself above me, I could see some of my wetness still coating his chin. He licked his lips and then kissed me, and I could taste myself on him.

“So fucking perfect,” he groaned. “Don’t move an inch.”

I heard the rustle of his shorts as he kicked them off, and I turned my head to see him kneeling completely naked in front of me. His dick jutted from his body, hard and long. It was so big that I wasn’t sure it would fit inside my body. I gulped at the thought of the pain I would probably feel as he reached over to retrieve a condom from his shorts.

“You drive me so crazy, I almost forgot this,” he murmured before he ripped the foil package open and rolled it onto his hardened length. When he was done and his eyes met mine again, his expression softened as he took in my fearful look. “There’s nothing to be scared of, baby.”

“Are you sure it’ll fit?” I asked.

Although the question had slipped out when I didn’t mean to say it, it seemed like a valid concern until he started laughing. “Yes, Faith. I’ll fit inside you because you were made for me.”

With those words, the anger which had started to build because of his laughter faded. The idea that this amazing guy thought I was made for him was enough to make my heart melt and to give me the courage I needed to go through with this.

“Then I guess you’d better show me, huh?” I replied, opening my legs to make room for him as he crawled between them.

“I guess so,” he said, his eyes smiling down at me as he pressed the tip of his hard-on against my opening. When he inched inside, his gaze turned serious.

“Now,” I whispered.

“Tell me if it hurts too much,” he instructed right before he thrust deep, tearing through the proof of my virginity and not stopping until he was deep inside my body.

My eyes slammed shut at the stabbing pain and tears slid down my cheeks. It took me a moment to breathe through the burn until it passed and by then, Dillon started to pull out. “I’m okay,” I reassured him, sliding my hands down his back—after I removed my nails from his skin since I’d dug them in without even realizing it.

“Fuck, baby,” he groaned. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, honey. It had to be done.”

He buried his head against my neck and mumbled against my skin. “Seeing you in pain is not okay with me.”

“Look at me,” I ordered and waited until he lifted his head and his eyes locked with mine. “Do I look like I’m in pain anymore?”

A slight sting was still there, but the arousal I had felt earlier was building again as I adjusted to the sensation of having him inside me. Seeing the doubt in his eyes, I wiggled my hips experimentally and felt my pussy flutter against him as the movement sent him deeper. I locked my legs around his hips and circled my own, and the answering wetness made his invasion even easier. As he felt the moisture from my body, he finally relaxed.

“No, baby. You don’t look like you’re in pain anymore,” he rasped before pulling out slowly and inching his way back inside. “And you feel fucking perfect. Just like I knew you would.”

I lifted my hips, trying to get him to move a little faster. “Dillon,” I moaned.

“Gonna make it so good for you,” he promised. “And make you forget about the pain.”

He pulled out and plunged back in on a hard stroke that drove my body into the floor. I gripped the taut skin of his back and held on as he picked up speed. Without realizing what I was doing, I raked my nails down his back as he continued to thrust into me. As waves of pleasure rolled over my body, my eyes drifted shut.

“I’m so close,” I moaned, my body starting to shake again.

Dillon’s hips began to thrust faster as he drove himself in and out of my body. I felt like I was suspended on a razor’s edge as my pussy clenched against his cock. He leaned down until his lips hovered over my ear.

“Come for me now,” he whispered on a puff of hot air as his finger found my clit. The combination of his cock deep inside me, his lips on my ear, and his finger teasing my clit sent me over the edge, and I convulsed around him. He gentled his strokes and stiffened when his own orgasm washed through him. His cock throbbed deep inside me, and I felt the heat of his semen as it spurted into the condom.

When my body went limp under his, he rolled onto the carpet beside me and pulled me into his arms. “Even more perfect than I thought it would be,” he murmured against the top of my head.

“Yeah.”

“You okay?” He squeezed my body tightly.

“I’m perfect.” Really, truly perfect.

It wasn’t until he chuckled that I realized I’d borrowed his word. “I’m glad you finally agree with me.”

“Just so long as you don’t think it’s going to happen all the time,” I joked, my lips curving into a smile as I cuddled against him. I’d never felt closer to another person in all my life, and it scared me a little to know the power he held over me now.