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“More or less.”

“But why not an anchor or rope or some other such thing? A boat? One of those captain wheel things?” She traced the outline of the bird, the slash of a scar through its wing and a blotch of pale skin as though part of the tattoo had simply been burned off.

The idea made her gut clench. Even knowing about the accident that Gabe had been a part of, seeing it marked across his body when they were naked together was something completely different.

“I might have been a sailor, but I like the idea of being free to fly wherever.” His hand slid down her side, slow and gentle, a sensuous glide at odds with the way those words seemed so emotionally honest it took her breath away.

“Gabe,” she whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Get the condom.”

The expediency with which he followed that order was truly something to behold. He had the package open and the latex rolled on before she could scarcely blink.

Then he simply paused, hovering over her. This beautiful specimen of a man. Muscles and scars and that wicked mouth. It might all have been enough. If she’d been desperate and wanting to experience something she’d denied herself for a decade, she might have seen him in a bar and needed only that smile, that body. Maybe it was possible to want this when only looks were involved.

But the feeling inside of her, theneedinside of her, was tied up in Gabe’s big heart.Thatwas what made it possible to give this piece of herself to him, to take a piece from him. The muscles certainly didn’t hurt. The way he looked at her like she was some precious gift didn’t hurt at all. But it was the whole—the attractionandthe heart.

It was in this moment, more than the rest, that she knew things were going to be so much trickier than she’d given them credit for. She didn’t know anything about sex without love, but she didn’t think it felt like this. Like her chest would burst with anticipation and it would be worth it. Like she wanted to live in the moment forever, just him naked and hovering over her. Beautiful and sweet.

Too many emotions swirled around her—new feelings and old familiar ones she was afraid to give any room to. Too many worries and too much confusion lived in those old feelings showing up here and now. Because there was no part of her that wanted to stop. No retreat. She wanted him and this more than she wanted or was able to listen to any reasonable thought in her head.

“You okay?” he asked gruffly, positioned there between her thighs, gorgeous and more than ready.

“I’m amazing. And very much enjoying the view.” Her voice was scratchy, and maybe her somewhat-teary eyes gave her away, but he acted as though he didn’t notice.

He grinned. “The view from here isn’t so bad either.”

She reached out and touched his face. It was supposed to be sex. It was supposed to be simply about attraction and acting upon it, and yet even with a new blaze of fiery passion igniting inside of her, she touched him with all the gentleness inside of her. All the sweetness.

So much about Gabe was hard and sharp, and she wondered if he had any gentleness in his life at all. She wanted to be the source of it. All of it. Selfishly, she wanted to be the only one who gave him that.

She traced his jaw with her fingers, and he leaned forward, into the contact. His palms were planted next to her shoulders, and he held himself above her, but his eyelids fluttered closed as she continued to trace the lines of his face. She sighed over the prickly scrape of his whiskers against the pads of her fingers.

He lowered his mouth to her shoulder, pressing a kiss there. Unbearably sweet. But with that unbearably sweet motion, he positioned himself at her entrance, slowly nudging inside.

She’d forgotten what this felt like. The slow invasion of someone else becoming a part of her. That feeling of being full and connected, physically and more. The way it ignited sparks of pleasure and desire. She had forgottenallthat, and even as it swept over her, asheswept over her, she couldn’t remember what sex had ever been like before.

There was only this. There was only Gabe. He was all that existed—in this room, around her, inside her.

She simply let herself go. She didn’t worry about control or what he was feeling, she just let herself be a part of it. The sweet, slick slide of desire. The giddy pride over being the source of his ragged breath against her skin. The way the pleasure and the need for release could coil deep inside of her again, almost sharper and harder this time because he was so deep inside of her.

Each stroke was a slow, agonizing glimpse of what she was after. That edge, that fall, all the release that awaited her after this buildup.

She whispered his name against his mouth before kissing him softly, and it broke something inside of him. His kiss became fierce. Teeth and growls. His grip on her hip was now an iron-hard band that might leave marks.

And she loved it. Reveled in it. Wanted more of this rough, untethered side of him.

“More,” she urged. She deserved so much more. She deserved it all, every which way she could get it. She’d been alone so long, and now she wasn’t. Maybe this was temporary, but she would take every last second and everything she wanted out of it.

“More. More.”

On the thirdmore, she found herself being maneuvered, somehow flipped over and splayed on top of him. She blinked at his chest, shocked beyond words he was still deep inside of her.

“You want more,” he said, his voice and its dark, dangerous edge. “Take more.”

It took a few seconds to truly have those words penetrate. To understand what he meant. What he was offering.