I can’t form the word yes right now, or any word at all. She wants to put her hands on the thing I hate most about myself? The desire to run and hide is overpowering every other instinct and primal urge, but I tell myself Elle’s different. This isn’t some freakish curiosity. She’s not asking to do this to be polite. She can’t be, because to me, she’s the most authentic human being I’ve met in years.

So I nod my agreement.

Smiling softly, her palm makes contact with my jaw first. My eyes seal shut as she slowly skims her fingertips along the rough surface. Her skin is so soft, so warm as she traces over mine lightly. Yet it’s packed with power and sends sparks of electricity across my entire body. What she’s doing to me, it’s therapeutic, healing me from the outside in, one soft move at a time. I hear the moan she lets out as her thumb slides down past my collarbone to the seam of my t-shirt under my open flannel shirt.

I’m so fucking tempted.

What I want to do is open my eyes and take advantage of this proximity, to drag her into my arms, hold her, kiss her, claim her for myself. But I refuse to push my luck. I won’t be the reason this moment ends, so I let her continue.

Even if my dick is probably tented in my pants right now, betraying the elicit thoughts in my head and the raging desire lurking under the surface of every square inch of my skin from the way she’s caressing my scar right now.

I fucking want her. I’m tormented by the need to touch her, and not just on her face or neck. Everywhere my hands and fingers can reach.

And apparently, Elle wants more too.

The bed creaks slightly, and from the movement of electrified air between us, I can tell that her body is shifting around. Then she stops. Her hand does too, resting in the same spot at my neck and collarbone. The room stills. She’s barely breathing. I bring up a mental picture of what she must look like this very second, her blonde hair drapes around her face, her hazel eyes piercing mine, her small frame seeming to drown inside my flannel shirt, her body facing mine, utterly dwarfed by my large size. But my eyes stay shut. This is her moment, her experience of me. I don’t want it to end on my account.

Then I feel her mouth against mine.

She kisses me.

She kisses me. The tormented, unlovable beast.

I can’t deny I’ve been wondering for months what her lips taste like. Now, they’re pressed against mine, drowning out every thought except for one. I won’t let this chance slip by me. Lifting my hands, I move one to her upper arm, and the other buries into her hair as I return her soft kiss with a hard, demanding one of my own. Her arms wrap tightly around my chest. I part her lips with a brush of my tongue at the seam, bringing forth a moan from her that vibrates between our lips, and teeth, and tongues.

This kiss is just the start, something I’ve pictured in my mind since the first day I saw her, and now it’s happening. The heat between our bodies only causes me to want more. Slipping my hand down from her upper arm, I rest it on one of hers and curl my fingers around to tuck it into the warmth of her palms. Everywhere on her body is fair game, but I hold on to the belief that there’ll be more than enough time for that, after I make this moment, this kiss memorable for her.

Before I make another move, Elle climbs into my lap without ending the contact between our mouths, each knee on either side of my legs. I can feel the wicked heat come off of her from between her legs, from that space that’s waiting to be filled by my growing erection. Every part of me rages with the urgent need to rip my shirt off her body and sink my cock into her.

But there’s a piece of this puzzle missing.

I’ve kissed her, and that’s bad enough as it is, but if I touch this woman any longer, if I fuck her without Samuel getting to be a part of it, I’m as good as dead.

He’ll fucking kill me.

And I’ll deserve it too. We’re supposed to share. I owe him that, after practically forcing him to wait for years before this day came.

Yes.

He could’ve found a lot of women for us. And he did, but I kept turning down each and every chance. I didn’t want any woman to see me, let alone fuck them. I couldn’t bear the thought that I’d look into their eyes while fucking them and find them staring back at me with disgust or pity. Or unable to look at me at all. I said no to every woman Samuel suggested. And he walked away from them too. The man gave up a hell of a lot for me. Now that I have Elle in my bed, ready, willing, wanting me, I owe it to Samuel. I have to share her.

Slipping my hand from her hair, I cup her chin and pull back a little, ending that perfect first kiss.

Her long, thick eyelashes part as she opens her eyes and meets mine. “Sorry if I got a little ahead of myself. I’m not usually this forward,” she confesses.

“You have nothing to apologize for. I felt that…whatever that is between us that draws me to you. I felt it the second I pulled you away from the collapsing roof.”

“I did too.”

“I’d continue kissing you all day long if you let me. And more.”

She smiles and brings her hands up to my shoulders again, reaching them backward until her fingers join and lace together at the nape of my neck. “Me too.”

“I want you so fucking bad right now, Elle,” I admit. “We just can’t go any further…not without Samuel.”

She swallows hard at the suggestion. “I’ve never done…been with two guys at once.”

I nod. “All I can say is if you let us share you, you won’t regret it. We’ll take care of everything.” I trace the rough pads of my fingers down past her collarbone, over to the top of her breasts, and see her breathing heave as she waits for me to move further, but I don’t. “Just imagine us pleasing every part of you.”

“Okay,” she says in a raspy moan from her throat. “Yes. I want you both. I want you to share me.”

I push her hair to one side and kiss the spot below her earlobe. “You’re going to enjoy this,” I whisper. “Give me a second to call Samuel.”

“No need,” I hear the gruff voice come from the doorway, and we both turn to look at Samuel.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough.” He walks over to the other side of the bed and takes a seat with one leg on the floor and the other stretched out a few feet from me. “I was just waiting to see how far you’d go without me.”

That comment is only for me, not for Elle. But she hears it, and a shy yet unapologetic smile rises up her face. “As long as the two of you know that I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m game to try.”

“You’re into both of us?” Samuel asks her.

Her eyes dart to mine then return to him. “What woman wouldn’t be? Don’t blame a girl for being curious. I admit I’m not the type that would instantly go for something like this, but… life is short. I’m not going to feel guilty for saying yes to what can be the best thing I’ve ever done for my nonexistent…social life. And you know what else?”

“What?” we both ask at the same time, causing her to grin.

She loosens her hands from my neck and runs her fingers across Samuel’s cheek. “Let’s please all stop talking before I lose my nerve.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Samuel answers, pulling her from my lap until her ass is resting on him.

I didn’t expect anything like this to happen so fast. But hell, if she’s willing, I’m more than ready.