“Vaughn? What are you doing out here all by yourself?” his mother asked as she looked into the barn stall where he was holed up with a sketchpad and a bad attitude.

“Nothing,” he mumbled.

“Didn’t T.J. come home with you?” she asked.

“No.”

She leaned her elbows on the edge of the gate and looked down at him where he slouched in a pile of hay, his head propped up against the side of the stall.

“You guys in an argument?”

He sighed. “No, she’s just been really…” He struggled to find a word that wouldn’t get him in trouble. “Cranky the last few days. It’s like anything I do or say is wrong, and she just keeps complaining she has a headache and she doesn’t want to hang out. Then today on the bus, she wouldn’t sit by me, and when we got to our stop, she got off and ran all the way to her driveway and just left me standing there.

Vaughn’s mother nodded. “Headaches, huh?”

“Yeah, and I’d swear she was crying when she got off the bus today too.”

“Honey. You and T.J. are thirteen now, you know.”

Vaughn looked at his mother with an expression that clearly said, Duh.

She chuckled. “What I’m saying is that certain things happen to girls at this age.”

Vaughn’s eyes widened in horror.

“It sounds to me like T.J. might have started her period, and she’s not feeling so hot. Maybe even a little embarrassed or confused about how to handle it.”

“Oh my God, Mom, stop!”

“Honey, it’s a fact of life, and when you have friends who are girls, and eventually when you have girlfriends, you’re going to have to get used to it and learn the warning signs.”

“I’m going to throw up,” Vaughn wailed as he rolled onto his side and buried his head in his hands.

His mother laughed at him, obviously completely unsympathetic to the distress she was causing her youngest son.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop torturing you, but here’s my advice for how to handle T.J. right now—be sweet. Instead of asking her to cliff jump at the pond with you, ask her if she wants to go get ice cream downtown. And maybe a night or two of watching movies instead of camping in the fields. You’d be surprised what a difference it’ll make if you just go easy on her for a few days. Then everything will go back to normal.”

Vaughn mumbled something into his arm, and his mother laughed again. “Okay, I think my work here is done. Now, why don’t you come inside and help me get dinner ready, then if you call T.J. and ask her to ice cream, I’ll drive you two downtown.”

He stood and brushed off the hay stuck to his clothes and hair.

“Ice cream?”

“Ice cream.”

He sighed. “All right. But I’d rather cliff jump.”

His mom wrapped an arm around his shoulders as he came out of the stall. “I know, but that’s why you have two older brothers. They’ll always cliff jump with you.”

* * *

When Vaughn pulled up to T.J.’s house first thing on Thursday morning, he couldn’t help but think that his luck had taken a distinct turn for the better. An entire week alone with T.J. on the road. They could go anywhere, do anything. And he realized in that moment that even a few weeks earlier and he would have shunned the chance to do this with her because of his leg. But he’d been swimming a few times, and he’d brought the running blade along, in case they wanted to work with it. With short rests every hour or so, he could walk long distances, and he’d even taken to wearing shorts sometimes around town. No one seemed to pay him much attention when he did.

Now he had the chance to spend his days and nights with the woman of his dreams, and he’d be damned if he’d let a missing limb keep him from it. Yes, things were looking up.

He knocked on her front door and heard her yell to come on in.

Inside her entryway, he found not one but two large suitcases.

“T.?” he called.

“Almost ready!” she answered from the back of the house where her bedroom was located.

“You know we’re only going for a week,” he yelled as he lifted both bags, deciding that being balanced, even if it was by what felt like bags of bricks, was better than being lopsided.

She was hollering something back when he walked out to the truck and loaded the bags in the backseat of his king cab. He turned to go back inside and there she was, standing on the porch in the tiniest pair of shorts he’d ever seen, a halter top that he was pretty sure didn’t include a bra underneath, and a smile.

He grinned back at her as his cock began to rise to the occasion. Damn, she was beautiful.

“Hi there,” he said, feeling like a lovesick teen. And he ought to know what that felt like, because he’d been one with this very woman.

“Can you come get something down from the shelf in the closet for me?” she asked. “My mother has my stepladder, and I don’t feel like dragging a dining room chair into the closet.”

“Anything you want, beautiful,” he said as he climbed the stairs and wound an arm around her waist.

She pressed her palm to his scruffy cheek and kissed his lips. “I can’t wait to be alone together,” she whispered.

“Truer words,” he murmured back. “Now ”—he smacked her on the ass making her squeal—“let’s get moving before I decide to have a staycation right here in your bed.”

* * *

“We need to go over the ground rules,” T.J. said as they started driving north on Highway One. The day was a brilliant one, the morning fog having burned off early. The sun shone on the waves that crashed onto the shore below them, and Vaughn felt as though he were seeing it all for the first time. Or maybe it was simply that he was really looking for the first time in a long while.

“You know I’m not very good at following rules,” he told her with a wink and squeeze to her knee.

She squirmed but wouldn’t be deterred.

“Only a couple, I promise.”

“Lay ’em on me.”

“No talking about what we used to do. No reminiscing or trying to recreate old habits.”

He nodded. While he loved some of their traditions, he understood why she was making the rule. They needed to leave that part of themselves behind, and they wouldn’t be able to do it if they were constantly reminding each other of who and what they used to be.

“All right, I solemnly swear no walks down memory lane.”

“And second, we have to try something new every day.”

“Does it have to be the same thing for both of us, or we can each have our own thing?”

She thought on that for a moment as Vaughn’s mind spun through several different sexual positions that he was willing to bet T.J. had never tried and he’d be happy to introduce her to.

“We can each have our own, but the other person needs to be involved somehow.”

He grinned. “Deal.”

“Why do I get a bad feeling from the way you said that?”

He just smiled some more. “Don’t you worry a bit, baby. If you need suggestions for new things to try, I’m logging some suggestions for you. I want to make sure to be helpful.”

She grunted, but he could see the barest hint of a smile trying to curl up the corners of her lips. Yes, this trip was going to be epic. A whole new beginning indeed.

* * *

They stopped for lunch and a swim at a small town on the coast and then continued their drive north, ending up in San Francisco by the end of the day. T.J. was amazed at how comfortable Vaughn seemed when he changed out his prosthesis at the beach when they stopped to swim. He stuck close to her in the water, and the new adjustments to his aqua leg seemed to have fixed the fit.

T.J. chose a small boutique hotel near Chinatown and they grabbed dinner in the pub on the main floor before heading up to their room.

When they arrived at the room, Vaughn set their bags down inside the door and stood looking around. It was small. One bed, a dresser, closet, and bathroom. And suddenly, he realized that this was it. Not a quickie in a greenhouse fueled by beer and frustration, but a night together, what he hoped would be the first night of the rest of their lives.

And just like that, he was so grateful that he nearly fell to his knees and thanked the universe. Because he realized that for seven long years, he had longed for this, craved it, missed it so fucking much he didn’t know how he’d managed to make it through all those days.

He turned to face her as she stood just inside the door. She looked uncomfortable, and that was when he knew that this really was a fresh start for them, because Vaughn and T.J. didn’t do uncomfortable. Silly, angry, hurt, relaxed. They did all that because they’d been doing it for as long as either of them could remember. But they never did uncomfortable. Even after they’d broken up in twelfth grade there had been hurt and confusion, and anger, but they were never uncomfortable.

No, uncomfortable was for people who were getting to know one another. Couples who had just started dating, who didn’t know how the other person was going to react.

T.J. was uncomfortable, and Vaughn thought that might be the best thing he’d seen all week. This was their fresh start. This was his chance to show her that he was what she needed—not yesterday or last year, but tomorrow and a decade from now. He wasn’t only the boy of her past, he was the man of her future.

“So,” he said, moving closer to her. “It’s been a long day.”

She nodded. “But a good one.”

That made him smile. He loved that she thought a day spent with him was good.

“I bet you’d like to get all that salt water rinsed off. How about I run you a bath?”

She blinked at him. “Um, okay?”

“Good. I’ll get it all set up. Do you want the dresser drawers for your stuff?”

“I just need one. You can have the other.”

He nodded, then went into the bathroom. The hotel had been kind enough to leave a small bath bomb, and thanks to the addition of Cade’s girlfriend to their home, he knew what the hell the things were. He filled the tub with steamy water and dropped the lavender-scented ball in, watching it fizz and dissolve for a moment. Then he turned off the overhead light and left only the decorative one over the mirror on.

“You ready?” he called out the door.

She walked in and took a deep breath. “Is there lavender in there?”

“Bath bomb. The hotel was equipped.”

She smiled shyly at him, and his cock stiffened. She was wearing that halter top over her bikini top and a pair of cargo shorts she’d donned after swimming. Such ordinary clothes, but so very appealing on her.

“Well, you just relax and let me know if you need anything,” he said, willing himself to get out of her way and be a gentleman when all he really wanted to do was strip her down and bathe her with his tongue.

He was halfway out the door when she spoke.

“You must need to rinse off too,” she said.

“I can grab a shower after you’re done.”

She chewed on her lip for a moment. “Or you could join me?”

His heart skipped a beat, and he cleared his throat. “You sure about that?”

She nodded.

“I…um…” How the hell did he handle this? He’d thought about it a lot—knew that at bedtime he’d have to face up to it, but under the cover of dark was a far cry from being in a bathtub together.

“In case you hadn’t realized, I only have half a leg,” he tried to joke. “It’s not the prettiest thing in the world. You might not want that in the bathtub with you.”

She gazed at him with big, serious eyes. “I’ve seen your leg. You changed from one prosthetic to another just today at the beach.”

He scratched his head. “That wasn’t really up close and personal, though. I mean this bath’s not a huge space.”

“Yeah. And we’ll be naked. That’s usually a plus for most guys.”

“Oh, trust me, it’s definitely a plus in my book. I just wanted to make sure you’re all right with it.”

“I wouldn’t have suggested it if I wasn’t.”

He nodded. Okay, then. A bath. Together. His breathing kicked up a notch. The combination of arousal and anxiety was a strange mixture.

“Come here,” she said softly. So he did.

Once he reached her, she gazed at him, her face soft and open. And her eyes stayed on his as she reached down and lifted the hem of his T-shirt, slowly pulling it over his head. His cock hardened exponentially, and he moaned softly as her sweet hands skated over the skin of his chest and abs.

Her head dipped, and she kissed across his pecs, her tongue slipping out to circle his nipples.

“Fuck,” he hissed in pleasure.

He dug his fingers into her hair and lifted her face to his before crushing their lips together. His tongue wound its way into her hot, seeking mouth, and fire spread through his veins.

It was a marvel really, that in all the other times with all the other women, Vaughn had never felt this sense of urgency, this pounding need and overwhelming want. Touching T.J. was like touching a live wire, and she held him captive, just as an electrical current would. Sometimes he thought she might do as much damage as the current as well. But he was beyond caring anymore. Let her destroy him, let it burn him alive. As long as he got to touch her in the meantime, that was all that mattered.

Their kisses grew more frantic, heated, and needy. He pulled back just long enough to tug her halter top off, then his mouth fused to hers as his hands began a thorough exploration of her skin. Soft, smooth, hot. He reached the Lycra of her bikini, and the breath left his body, his cock becoming even harder, something he hadn’t thought possible.

He took her nipples and pinched them through the fabric. Her answering whimper was enough to snap whatever self-control he had left.

“Get rid of all this,” he growled before stepping away.

She watched him with her dark eyes as she untied the top and dropped it to the floor before stripping off her shorts and the bottom half of the bikini. Then she stood in front of him, and it was more beauty than any man had a right to look at.

“Bath,” he instructed her, and she turned and stepped into the cast-iron tub before lowering herself into it. The steam that rose from the surface quickly turned her skin rosy and damp, giving him the urge to lick the moisture off her.

With a deep breath he unlaced his board shorts, dropping them to the floor so he was standing before her in nothing but a prosthesis. She reached out a hand and ran it from his thigh to the artificial limb.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” she whispered into the dim room.

He tipped his head toward the ceiling, overcome with emotions he couldn’t even label.

When he looked back down, she was watching him, her hand idly rubbing little circles on his knee.

“I’m thinking that if it brought me back to you, it was worth it,” he told her with a sad smile.

Then he took the final step. Sitting on the edge of the tub, facing away from her he removed the prosthesis, setting it aside before rotating on the edge of the tub and swinging both legs into the water. He used his powerful arms to lower himself into the water facing her. She shifted to accommodate him before taking his stump in her hand and rubbing it slowly.

He settled back against the tub and watched her. His stump ended about four inches below his knee joint. The skin was puckered, and a large red scar wrapped around it, still angry in the way that only fresh scars can be.

“It’s ugly,” he said flatly.

“No,” she whispered. “It’s part of you, and you’re beautiful.”

He snorted. “Baby, it’s okay to tell the truth. I’m fully aware of what an eyesore it is.”

She grabbed the stump a little more firmly than was technically comfortable for him. He stiffened. But then she raised his lower leg out of the water and bent over it. She pressed her lips to the scarred skin, the severed bone below, the damaged nerves, and torn muscle. She kissed the ugliest parts of him, and it undid him. His eyes burned, and he lost whatever self-control he’d been clinging to for the last few weeks.

“Jesus,” he hissed before reaching across the bathtub and grabbing her around the waist. He pulled her onto his lap where her slick center pressed against his erection and her full breasts fell into his hands.

He kneaded and worshiped, his mouth everywhere his hands weren’t. She arched her back and cried out as he rubbed his thumb across her clit.

“I need you,” he sighed into her hair.

“Yes. God, yes,” she gasped.

He lifted her by the waist, and she reached down to grasp his shaft in her hand. It felt like heaven. But then she rubbed the tip through her folds, and he realized that there were things beyond heaven. Beyond the stars and the skies and the world as he’d lived in it all these years.

“Take me, T. Take me inside.”

She lowered herself over him as he thrust upward, causing them both to groan in ecstasy. Water sloshed and their skin squeaked against the tub’s porcelain surface, but they hardly noticed as he began a slow rhythm in and out of her. Smaller thrusts at first that grew harder and wilder as all her heat and flesh surrounded him.

“Fuck, baby,” he growled, his balls tingling and hard. “I’m not going to last long.”

“Oh God, oh God,” she panted. Then he shifted, bending her back slightly, causing his cock to rub harder on that perfect spot that he knew would send her flying.

She flew apart almost instantly, crying out his name and pulsing around him like warm thick honey. It pushed him over the edge mere seconds later, and he gritted out his release as he throbbed inside her over and over until he wasn’t sure he had anything left to give.

When they both came back to earth, they were pressed chest to chest, his head buried in the crook between her neck and shoulder, his hand tangled in her hair. She pressed her face into his shoulder and gave one final shudder that had him gasping as he chuckled.

“Don’t start with that now, or we’ll be in here all night,” he teased.

“Like you’d mind,” she murmured, kissing his earlobe.

“True, but you don’t want all my pretty skin to wrinkle up.”

She laughed. “So I guess we really do need a shower now.”

“Yeah, just don’t expect me to do you up against the wall, I’m kind of unbalanced for that.”

She climbed off him and looked down with a wicked gleam in her eye. “Not if you put your aqua leg on,” she teased.

Challenge accepted.