Page 103 of Stripping Bare

“No. It’s just…I need a sec to get my mind around it. I’venever—”

“Neither haveI.”

A beginning. A fresh start. Isn’t that what he’d wished for for years? He couldn’t turn back time, but he and Tessa could experience this as a first,together.

He bent over her, supporting himself with one arm, while he positioned himself between her legs. He went light-headed at the feel of her—hot and wet—againsthim.

Tessa raised her knees and reached between them. Together, they led him inside her body in a slow, smooth slide. Once they were fully joined, Tessa let her hand fall away. Jonah lifted it above her head and twined their fingers together. Did the same with theother.

Tessa’s dark eyes were wide open, and Jonah had a feeling if he looked closely enough, he could see into her heart and hersoul.

“Be with me,” she whispered. “The wholeme.”

Her words wrenched something inside his chest. They were multilayered, asking him to open himself fully to her and to accept that she wasn’tbroken.

“Yes.”

Her fingers tightened around his, and she lifted her hips to draw him deeper. When he moved, it was like a spiritual experience. Slightly unreal, yet blinding in its satisfaction. Its sheerrightness.

Their bodies touched at only two points, but Jonah couldn’t have felt closer to Tessa if he’d been able to climb inside her skin withher.

“Feels so good,” Tessa said, her eyes taking on a dazed expression. “Like…like…”

“Being complete.” He changed the angle of his thrust to rub against her GSpot.

Her legs wound around his hips and clasped him tight, limiting his range of motion. God, if only he could lie chest-to-chest with her. He could get his hands under her ass and love her with long strokes. Instead, he pressed kisses to her wrists, each in turn, and disengaged theirhands.

“Don’t…”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Not ever again. He’d run enough. Avoided her for far longer than he should have. He gripped the backs of her thighs and, much as it pained him, unwound her legs from around his hips. That gave him the leverage he needed to slide in and out of her at an angle that had her moaning and shaking within seconds. “Likethat?”

“I’m…oh, I can’t…” She clutched at the sheets, wadding handfuls as she tried to get closer to his touch, to the thrust of hiscock.

Another small adjustment and Jonah was rubbing her clit on every stroke. “Let go. You’re safe withme.”

The way she was writhing under him, he knew she was close. Probably would’ve been climbing his body if she could. He’d be a liar if he said that didn’t feed hisego.

He wanted this to be the best she’d ever had. He wanted to be the last man she everwanted.

“Please,” she said, her thighs struggling against his tight hold. She was fighting him. She didn’t wantthis.

Uncertainty rose up in him and he almost released her. But a tiny rational part of him understood she was fighting to get closer to him, not fighting to get away fromhim.

He drove into her harder, his ass clenching with the effort to hold off his ownorgasm.

Her muscles bore down on him as she started coming, and Tessa reared up and nipped his shoulder. And holy fuck, the feel of her sharp little teeth sent a current of pure electricity through his body and out hisdick.

Unable to control his instincts, he flat-out fucked her. Without thought, without concern, definitely without remorse. And when his own orgasm rose and spilled over, he came close to blacking out. At the last second, he caught himself before he collapsed and crushed Tessa beneathhim.

“Jonah?” she asked, her voice seeming to come from miles away. “Are youokay?”

Somehow, he managed to roll them to their sides, barely registering that his own sweat was seeping under the bandages and stinging the wounds on his torso. “Tessa, God…I think I loveyou.”