Chapter 15
Kat loved the feel of his firm lips against her own. She was afraid of hurting him. His stump was already sore, and she was in an awkward position, crushed half in his arms up against the lounge and half on the tile floor. But she didn’t want to move. This was just so special, actually making it to this point in the relationship. He’d come through such major awakenings.
She was so damn happy that he had decided to do the surgery. She understood his reticence with all the pain and the problems he’d had up until now. But there was a time to quit, and this wasn’t it.
She pulled her head back slowly, staring at him, her hand stroking alongside his face. “Wow. I wasn’t expecting that.”
He chuckled. “Maybe not, Doc. But resisting the urge was well beyond me.”
She leaned forward and kissed him gently. And then wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. Dotty, as if sensing what was coming, slid to the ground and moved to lie a few feet away. Badger pulled her into his lap, twisting her up so her legs were over the side. She frowned at him. “Will this hurt you?”
He shook his head. “No, your weight is on the good side.”
She smiled. “All right then.”
They sat in each other’s arms for a long moment. “I’ll have to give him a phone call in the morning,” he said.
She nodded. “You could be weeks getting a surgery date.”
“I’ll be lucky if it’s not months.”
She laughed. “True enough.” She sighed happily. “I really want to go back in the pool, but, at the same time, I don’t want to move.”
“Well, I’d offer to carry you …”
She laughed. “No, definitely not. Maybe when you get a new leg on that stump but not right now.” She disengaged her arms, sat up gently, and tried to keep the weight off his bad leg. She hopped to her feet and then held out a hand. “Maybe I can help you get to the water.”
He rolled his eyes at her, hopped up in one smooth movement until he stood on his one strong leg, and he looked at the distance between him and the edge of the pool and his crutches on the far side of the lounger, and then back at her.
She tilted an eyebrow. “It takes a strong man to accept help when it’s needed.”
“And it takes a strong woman to actually ask for help when she needs it,” he reminded her with a big grin. But his hand closed over hers.
Using her support, he made several hops to the edge of the pool and dove in. She followed at a slower pace. He was right. She’d had a hard time accepting any help several days ago. How soon she’d made major steps forward too.
When he broke the surface, she still stood poolside, minus her ivory leg, contemplating her own personal changes. He called out, “What’s the matter?”
She shook her head and jumped in. When she broke through the surface of the water to gasp for air, she said, “I think we must be good together. We’re certainly both growing and changing.”
“Oh, we’re definitely good together,” he said.
He grabbed her and pulled her toward him. He was standing upright, but the water was too deep here for her, so she couldn’t stand on her tiptoes. He wrapped her leg around his waist and tucked her up close. This time when he lowered his head, there was no exploratory tentativeness to his touch. He held her face, fingers firmly on either side of her head, as he kissed her. Heat sparked between them to a point she thought the temperature of the pool must be rising degree by degree.
She wrapped her arms around him and held him close, feeling his response at the heart of her. She’d never made love in a pool, but she couldn’t wait.
When he finally released her, she didn’t want to let go. She clung to his neck and kissed him back, her own need clawing inside her. She stroked her fingers through his hair, tugging as she twisted and slid her silky body in the water against his. Skin against skin, they stood for a long moment. When she came up for air, she gasped. “Wow.”
He laughed.
When he tossed something behind her, she twisted to look, realizing that somehow he’d managed to take her bikini top off, and she hadn’t even noticed. She stared down at her plump breasts pressed against his bare chest and smiled. “There is something lovely about a man who’s good in the water,” she said with arched eyebrows.
“You’ve seen nothing yet,” he murmured as he pulled her down for yet another kiss.
He stroked up her back and around her shoulders coming up to cup her breasts. The feel of his hands, hot and firm, so different from her own soft gentle skin. He was hard everywhere, just bones and planes and muscles, scar tissue, damaged body parts blended into healthy body parts. He was such a man of contrast. But there was no mistaking his intent or his passion.
She didn’t even realize when her bottoms came off. Or when he lost his own. But, when she slid her hands down his back to explore his buttocks, she slid one hand around to the front of him, finding just smooth skin and no material.
He twisted slightly to let her hand find his erection, hot, full and so damn big it was hard for her to do anything but stop in stunned amazement. She knew his physical dimensions almost as well as she knew her own. It was part of the research she had to do, part of the work she had to do to fit him properly for prosthetics. But at no point had there been anything sexual in her research. Now though …
By the low light, she slowly explored his full length, stroking, caressing, teasing, and when she finally slid her thumb over the slit at the top, he moaned in joy.
Before she realized it, he gripped her by the hips and shifted his position so she was now straddling him fully. With him placed at the heart of her, he slowly lowered her onto him. She gasped and froze, her body arching backward in the water as the waves lapped around them.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. But trying to speak and breathe appeared to be too much. She sighed in joy. “I’m more than fine.”
Instead of him controlling the motion, she slowly slid all the way down his shaft until he was seated deep inside her. The two of them sighed and moaned as she was sealed against him. She leaned forward until her breasts were pushed up against his chest. And she kissed him, her fingers stroking through his hair, rich, thick, lovingly caressing the curls, pulling them back off his face. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, letting the joy of being together overwhelm them both.
Slowly he stroked her back, her hips, her thigh, exploring the soft flesh in his arms. She leaned back, dropped her arms around his neck and smiled. “Can’t say I have ever tried it this way,” she murmured.
“We’ll make it work,” he promised.
She let her head fall back, her face tilted to the evening sky and started to ride. She moaned, her breath catching in the back of her throat with each stroke and slide as her hips rose and fell, a sweet delicious torment building inside.
And finally he pinned her up against the pool wall. “Sorry, I can’t wait.” He took over control, slamming into her over and over again until she was whimpering, helplessly caught in the throes of passion. Her climax broke, her cries flying free through the silent night. And still he drove deeper and deeper and deeper, riding her through her own orgasm until his body stiffened, his fingers on her hips clenched tight, and he ground himself against her, a long guttural sound filling the air.
He sagged onto her, his arms coming around to protect her from the cement on her back. She knew there’d be scrapes, and she didn’t care one bit. It was worth it. It was all worth it. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissed his cheek and just cuddled him close. Togetherness like this was worth everything.
Against her ear he whispered, “Okay?”
She leaned forward, smiled up at the worry in his dark gaze and nodded. “Never better.”
He grinned, kissed her again and said, “Now this is something I could get used to.”
“I was just thinking that.” And she laughed. The sound free and easy. And she knew they’d taken a corner she hadn’t dared hope for. But she was so damn happy. She wrapped her arms around his back and lay her head against his heart. “I’m really happy right now.”
He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her against his chest. “You and me both.”
Badger wanted to pick her up and carry her to his room and make love to her over and over again. But the sad reality was, that wouldn’t happen. Until he got his leg fixed and could wear a prosthetic properly, such debonair moves were beyond him. He knew it wouldn’t matter to her, but he wasn’t the man he wanted to be.
When he was whole and healthy, he could have carried her to his bed with no problem. Making love like this would show every unpleasant defect he could possibly have. That she’d already seen his records and most of his body didn’t seem to make one bit of difference when it came to intimacy at this level.
He slowly separated from her. “Do you want to stay down here or go up to my room?”
“Let’s go to your room,” she said quietly. And, as if understanding his discomfort, she made her way out of the pool and grabbed the towel again. He watched as she slipped on the beautiful ivory leg. He’d seen her casualness, her acceptance of her physical state and knew he had a long way to go in that regard. But, with her here, to keep it real, he knew he’d get there. She dried off and collected the dishes. “I’ll take these into the kitchen.”
He made his way out of the pool, sat down on the side of the lounge and dried off. Then he grabbed his crutches, the towel she’d forgotten and his towel, and made his way inside. He leaned against the countertop and stared at her as she deliberately avoided looking at him. “Doesn’t look quite the same in the light of day, does it?”
She turned to look at him in surprise. “What?”
He motioned to his leg and the crutches.
She stopped and stared at him for a long moment. “Do you think for one moment I give a damn?”
There was a steely hurt tone to her voice, and he realized he’d let his own insecurity be the filter by which he had judged her. He shook his head. “It’s not you. It’s me.” And he gave her a lopsided grin.
She took several steps forward and glared up at him. “Don’t. Don’t make fun of this. I won’t make fun of your wounds, your injuries, the pain you’ve been through. But neither do I intend to knock the man you have become because of it. This”—she waved at his new form—“is beautiful, with or without the second leg. And don’t ever forget that.”
She reached up and kissed him hard, adding, “And don’t ever say that again.”