Broken Wings (A Romantic Suspense)(58)

“Ellie, you’re crying.”

“It’s good crying. Just don’t let go of me.”

“Never.”

Somehow he knows when it’s time, and draws out of me. I curl up on my side and Jack pulls the covers up to my chin and strokes my head, pulling my hair back to expose my face.

“Liked that, huh?”

He must be hot. He’s covered in sweat and lies naked on the bed, the covers pushed down to his feet. He wiggles his toes when he sees me looking at them. Jack folds his arms under his head and stares at me.

“I like it,” I sigh. I yawn a little and say, “Do you think maybe, um…”

“Yeah?”

I feel my cheek flushing as I try to push the words out.

“Not…now, maybe one day, you could, um, tie me down? I mean, tie me to the bed. I liked it when you made it so I couldn’t move. It felt, um, intense.”

He reaches over and strokes my bottom lip with his finger.

“I think we could arrange that. I didn’t hurt you?”

“No.”

“Of course I didn’t. There’s nothing wrong with you, Ellie.”

He rolls over on his side when he sees me frown.

“You have scars.”

He touches them for proof.

“There’s nothing wrong with you.”

I scoot across the bed and put my arm over his chest. I lie on my right side to keep the scars face up, but I don’t care. I don’t care what I look like. Jack never so much as twitches when he looks at me. He never winces or flinches when his fingers pass over the rough, leathery scars on my side or neck.

I close my eye. This is what it feels like to be whole.

“Ellie, what do you want to do?”

“I need to rest before we have sex again.”

“I don’t mean right now. I mean, like, in the future. The two of us. What should we do?”

“I don’t know. When I was young I didn’t even know what I wanted to do with myself yet. I liked the guitar, I liked school. I never went to college. I should do that, shouldn’t I? I could take classes.”

“Are you sure you want to do something like that?”

“It’ll be hard. I’m not going to get over being afraid of people looking at me, Jack. If you’re there for me, I can do it. You make me feel like I can do anything. I remember what it’s like not to be all f*cked up like this.”

Jack lies there, breathing against me.

“Are you happy?”

“Yes.”

“I want you to be happy.”

“I am, Jack. I am. I want to see the Pacific Ocean. We should go tomorrow.”

Jack buries his face in my hair. “Sure, honey. Whatever you want.”

“First though, um, remember this morning where I was on my stomach, and… Can we do that again?”





Jack





After I turned up the heat, Ellie flopped out on the bed and now she’s lying there naked except for her frilly underwear and stockings, snoring contentedly. I’m sweaty as hell, but I don’t care. I don’t want her to be cold. It’s ten in the morning now, but we don’t need to be out until one thirty.

She still hasn’t stirred after I shower. I pull the covers up over her and touch my lips to her cheek, and she makes a little noise but doesn’t wake up.

When I return from the lobby with some plastic plates covered in food, she’s awake and sitting up, leaning back against the headboard. She smiles at me, and the way she just sits there naked does more than make me desire her, it makes me happy. She looks so comfortable.

I sit down on on the bed and stick a mini corn muffin in her mouth. She chews it from between my fingertips and feeds me a blueberry one, and we both start laughing.

I flip on the TV and we eat breakfast as a couple… As husband and wife. I put my arm around her and help her tear a bagel into little bites so she can eat it. She drinks orange juice. She burps.

She’s Ellie and she’s here. There is still an excitement at feeling her naked skin against mine. Somehow she’s cool to the touch, but I can feel warmth underneath, and her skin is like the finest silk, soft and inviting. I could just touch her all day, savor the feeling of her flesh under my fingers.

There’s nothing to watch, so we just flip channels. When I turn over to the news, dread forms in my stomach. I expect to see a full-on news explosion about my going missing, with graphics and a theme song and the little info bar running along the bottom of the screen, but there’s nothing. It’s just a day in October, and all is right with the world.

My ring shines on Ellie’s hand. This is too perfect. It can’t last. I start to wonder if I’m dreaming when she gets up. She makes no effort to hide her body from me.

Any part of her body. I love watching the way her breasts move when she reaches back over her shoulders to gather her hair in a ponytail.

“You should get any eye patch with a little heart on it. It would be cute.”

She scowls at me and sticks out her little pink tongue, and I want to jump up and grab it between my lips. I content myself with grabbing her from behind before her arms drop so I can run my hands up her stomach and cup her breasts. I f*cking love her breasts. I love the way I can feel her heartbeat when I hold her like this, love the way I can feel the nervous energy my touch brings out in her. I love the way her nipples get hard from the slightest touch and she rubs her ass against my cock a little.