"He's resting, so we'll need to be quiet," whispered Sydney, greeting Kylie in the living.

Kylie looked down the hallway. "It's late. I'm going to go to bed."

Sydney hugged her sister. "The kids were good?"

"Yeah, but..." Kylie leaned in closer. "Dinner at Johanna and Chief's house was weird."

"How so?"

"I don't know, it was awkward, and usually it's not. Chief ate in silence and Johanna was preoccupied as if she was worried about him," said Kylie.

Sydney whispered, "I think they're just dealing with Jett coming home and the changes in him."

"Maybe." Kylie shrugged. "I just want to go to sleep and forget the whole day."

"I'll see you in the morning," whispered Sydney.

Kylie frowned, studying her. "Everything is okay with you and Jett?"

"I guess. He got home around five o'clock. I think he's in pain, but he hasn't talked much." Sydney rubbed her sister's arm. "I better get back in the bedroom before he wakes up alone."

Careful not to make any noise, she opened the bedroom door and tiptoed on bare feet to the bed in the dark. Laying down, she slowly moved her hand toward Jett when the lamp on the nightstand came on. She lifted her head.

Jett sat propped against the headboard looking at her.

"I was trying not to wake you." She looked down at his wrapped hand. "Are you hurting?"

"What were you doing?" he asked, ignoring her question.

"Kylie came home." She sat up in bed. "I was letting her know to be quiet so you could sleep, and she said she was going to bed."

While she talked, his gaze dropped to her breasts. Her nipples peaked against the old, thin shirt of Jett's she wore to bed. She had no idea how to stop her body from reacting to him. The last thing he'd need to deal with while recuperating was her attraction to him. Afraid of bumping his hand, she hadn't rested while snuggled up to him all evening.

"Are you cold or am I doing that to you?" He reached out with his good hand and skimmed her nipple.

A shock of pleasure curled in her stomach. The combination of sitting in his bed with him, having that intimacy before he was imprisoned, to being nervous and feeling like they'd both changed during their time apart made her shy.

"Answer me, Syd," he said.

She looked away and moistened her lips. "You," she whispered, knowing her answer only added on to the things he couldn't do because of his hand.

He hooked his finger under the neck of the shirt and pulled her forward. "Give me your lips."

"I don't want to hurt you." She struggled to hold herself braced on her arms without touching him.

"You won't." He leaned forward and captured her lips.

She closed her eyes wanting him back. Not this awkwardness or the lack of talking to each other. Even being in bed together was different. His strong arms weren't around her.

He pulled away, staring into her eyes. At a loss of how to communicate or show him how much she loved him, she tilted her face to kiss him again, and he leaned back, putting more distance between them.

"Sit on my legs facing me." He held his injured hand up out of the way.

"You're sure?" She got on her knees. "Tell me if I hurt you, okay?"

She lowered herself onto his thighs, catching a glimpse of his hardness pressing against his boxers. Somehow, even though she thought about him constantly, including every little detail about him, his size seemed bigger than she remembered.

He picked up her pillow and tossed it behind her and between his calves. "Lay down." She started to get up, and he shook his head. "Keep your ass on my lap and lean back. Put your head on the pillow."

She shivered and leaned back until she was laying on her back between his outstretched legs. Watching him, she lifted her feet off the bed and pressed her knees together, feeling vulnerable with her legs wide open in front of him on his lap.

He put his hand between her knees. "Put your feet back on the bed."

She forced her legs apart again. Embarrassed, she covered her face with her hands. If her shorts were gone, he'd be looking right at her pussy.

"Syd?"

"What?" she mumbled through her hands, unable to look at him.

"You're going to have to get used to me. I won't settle with a woman who doesn't enjoy sex." He stroked the outside of her leg, softening his demands.

She lowered her hands and lifted her head, looking at him. "How am I supposed to know if I like sex if I've never had it before?"

"You want it?"

"I do but to be honest...I've never even thought of this position." She let her head fall back on the pillow at her outburst and stared up at the ceiling. "I feel extremely weird right now," she muttered.

A click sounded, and the room went dark. She lifted her head, unable to see him. "Why'd you shut off the light?"

"Trust me to know what you need."

She shivered in the dark. That was the man she remembered. The one who led and took the decisions out of her hands. Decisions she had no experience making and knowing what she needed.

Darkness.

She inhaled deeply. He couldn't see her inexperience.

"Lift your ass," he said.

She pressed her feet down on the mattress. He tugged at her shorts, only one side going over her hip.

"Damnit." He grumbled and said, "Help me take your shorts off."

His heavy breathing showcased his frustration level only having one hand to use, and she shimmied the material over her butt, lifted her feet in the air, and removed her shorts.

Bare from the waist down, in the dark where he couldn't see her, she let her knees fall to the side and squeezed her eyes shut. Goosebumps tingled her skin. No one had ever seen her naked before.

Not that he could see her now.

She sighed, thankful he shut off the light.

Jett ran his hand up the inside of her thigh. She trembled under the force it took her not to clamp her legs together. She wanted to let him do whatever he wanted with her. But, wanting and doing were causing a war inside of her.

"You'll get used to me touching you." His deep voice settled over her. "I expect this will be your only time where you ride the fence."

Ride the fence? She stared into the dark, all her senses paying attention to his voice, his touch. If he meant she wanted him to touch her, but she didn't want him to touch—he was right. That's exactly how she was feeling.

The quiver in her stomach scared her as if she might hurl and yet, his fingers crept closer between her legs every time he caressed her, and she kept hoping he'd make the feeling keep going. Her hard nipples tightened even more. She touched her breasts under cover of darkness and the excitement in her body deepened.

Jett's hand cupped her pussy. Unable to keep from closing her legs at the shock of arousal, she lowered her hands and grabbed on to his thighs.

"Relax." He rubbed his palm over her.

From the sound, her wetness got on his hand. She swallowed hard, her heart racing. It wasn't as if she had no idea what would happen but doing it to herself was different than letting Jett do it for her.

Though from her position on her back between his legs, she couldn't do anything. "Shouldn't I be, um, touching you?" she whispered.

"Not now." His fingers parted her lower lips.

Her legs quivered from that one touch of pleasure. She raised her hips, realizing afterward that he'd taken that as encouragement because he circled her clit. Maybe all he wanted her to do was let herself feel.

She could do that.

Yeah, she could feel.

All her life she'd wanted a kind touch, a loving touch. All her life she'd wished and dreamed for someone to keep her and love her.

She couldn't ask him if he loved her. Not now when she was feeling wanted.

He slid the tip of his finger inside of her. She gasped, prepared for pain.

"Never going to hurt you, Syd." He left his finger inside of her and used his thumb to circle her clit.

She bit down on her lip, stifling her moan. Her pleasure manipulated by him, she couldn't hold back the way her pelvis tilted, pressing against his hand. Raising her hands, she cupped her breasts. Her eyes closed and the noises coming from her were unstoppable.

He continued to make the same circle and pumped with the same speed.

She no longer cared that she was spread-eagled on his lap or that she'd never had sex or that his fingers slid over her because he drove her wild. It no longer mattered that he only had one hand to use or that she couldn't touch him.

She belonged to him.

Jett gave her what no one else had ever given her.

Love.

Love exploded inside of her