Page 27 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity (Secure Watch #2)

There was a knock on the door, and Skylar forced herself not to say anything.

“Sky? Can I come in?”

Biting her tongue, she kept sketching on her pad, hoping he’d go away and leave her alone. She’d heard the front door slam shut and had hoped he would decide to work, but here he was, just fifteen minutes later, bugging her.

“I know you aren’t sleeping. I can hear your pencil on the paper.”

“How can you hear that?” His soft laughter came from the other side of the door, and she groaned. He’d been baiting her. “Go away, Reece. I’m tired.”

“I’m sure you are, but I want to apologize.

I’ll do it through the door, but it would probably mean more if I didn’t have to.

” She remained silent and, after thirty seconds, heard his sigh through the door.

“I’ll start by saying I was an insensitive oaf for bringing it up. My timing was never great.”

Obviously, he was determined to have his say, so she closed her sketch pad and called out to him. “You can come in. I’m sure the neighbors would appreciate it.”

A key slid into the lock before the handle turned, and in walked the man she couldn’t stop thinking about—or crying about, for that matter.

She swiped at her face with her shoulder just in case there were any stray tears.

Not that she could conceal the splotchy red face from the tears she hadn’t tried to hide when she was alone.

Reece walked to the bed and sat as she fiddled with her pencil to avoid eye contact.

“I’m sorry,” he said, swiping a piece of hair off her forehead before he let his finger trail down across her tearstained face. “Hang on.”

Surprised, she waited while he ran the water in the bathroom before returning with a warm washcloth that he held to her face. He gently blotted her salty skin before handing it to her. She held it to her cheek, allowing the warmth to soak into her skin and soothe her.

“If I could take back the last thirty minutes, I would,” he said, taking her other hand. “You’re dealing with enough right now. You don’t need to worry about the past.”

“I shouldn’t have overreacted,” she said, staring at their hands linked together.

“And I should have considered your side of the situation before I got angry.”

Her shrug was jerky as she tried to push back the tears. “We were both navigating adult situations without the benefit of adult maturity.”

“You were in pain, scared, angry and—”

“Jealous.” She’d rather say it than hear it from his lips.

“Jealous of me?”

Her nod made her lip tremble. The time had come to admit the truth to the man she had pushed away as a boy.

“You were jealous that I wasn’t hurt in the accident that changed your life.”

“That’s not true!” Her vehement denial set him back a step.

“You were hurt, and I don’t just mean your arm.

It was easy to see that the effects of the accident would always be with you.

The jealousy was more about your dreams still being alive while mine were dead and buried.

If that accident hadn’t happened and you’d asked me to go on a date after graduation, the answer would have been a resounding yes. Instead, right or wrong, I chose—”

“Me,” he said with a nod. “You set your wants and needs aside to give me a chance at the kind of life we’d always talked about having, even if you could no longer be part of it.”

“And you did, so it was worth it.” Her words were filled with sadness, but the idea that he was happy reminded her that she wanted nothing but good things for him.

Slowly, he lifted her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across her knuckles.

“Maybe I had the professional success we’d always talked about, but personally, I’m still that boy asking his best friend out on a date.

After I graduated, I stayed in Duluth, hoping to catch a glimpse of you somewhere.

Sometimes, I’d see you sketching on the Lakewalk, and I’d sit in my truck and watch you, thinking about what could have been.

I set up Google Alerts for your name so I would get alerts when you were having a show somewhere.

I’d go to as many as I could in disguise to see your work and maybe, just maybe, the beautiful blue eyes of the girl I couldn’t stop thinking about no matter how many years passed. ”

“Seriously?”

In answer, he just brushed another kiss across her knuckles.

“I wanted you to go out, meet someone, marry, have babies. You deserve that, Reece.”

“So do you, Sky. This,” he said, motioning at the wheelchair, “doesn’t mean you have to give up on all of your dreams.”

“You were my dream, Land. The only dream that ever mattered to me.” Before she could finish her thought, his lips were on hers, pressing her head back into the pillows.

With her eyes closed, she let the kiss happen, responding to his touch in a way that left no doubt in her mind that she would love this man forever, even if they would always be star-crossed lovers.

When he slid his hand up her ribs to cup her breast, it took her by surprise.

She moaned, only to immediately break the kiss and push his hand away.

“Land, stop,” she said with a panted breath. “You can’t touch me like that.”

He moved his hand immediately. “Did I hurt you?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head to keep the tears at bay. “You didn’t hurt me. Having you touch me like that is all I’ve ever dreamed about, but it can’t happen.”

“Why not?” he asked, his forehead balanced on hers as he gazed into her eyes. It was hard to lie to his face, so she didn’t.

“Because I’m a weak woman, and if it happens, I won’t be able to give you up when this is over. The first time nearly killed me. I can’t do it again.”

“Who says you have to?”

“This,” she said, motioning at the chair and around the room. “There’s so much about my life that you don’t see, Land.”

“Maybe, but you didn’t allow me to learn about you, either.”

“You want to learn about me?” she asked, tugging on the blanket until he shifted so she could pull it off.

“Fine. Let’s start with my legs.” Rather than meet his gaze, she just waved her hands at her legs.

“Remember how strong they once were?” She lifted one with her hands, watching it fall to the bed in a tangle.

“Noodles, Reece. They’re like noodles.” Before he could react, she lifted her shirt and lowered her panties.

“Then there’s this. Isn’t this the sexiest thing you’ve ever seen?

Oh, wait, you’ve seen the whole catheter debacle already.

How could I forget? That means you’ve seen my beautiful para-belly, too.

What’s that? Well, it’s the sagging and bagging of my paralyzed muscles being dragged down by my internal organs.

I have to wear a binder during the day so I don’t feel like my insides are falling out. Sexy, right? Should we keep going?”

Reece’s hand touched hers, and he leaned over her until she was forced to meet his gaze. “Angel, stop. None of this is about your body.”

“What is it about then, Land?” she whisper-asked. “This is my body, and there’s no changing it.”

“I wouldn’t want to, Sky. Don’t you see?

This body has made you who you are today.

You would not be the person you are today if that accident hadn’t happened.

You can look at that as a positive or a negative for sure, and I see both sides, but when I look at you, all I see is strength and determination.

I can’t sit here and listen to the girl I’ve cared about my entire life show me her body with tears in her eyes and anger in every word, as though she doesn’t deserve to be cherished by someone because of something beyond her control.

Let me be clear, Sky. That is false. You are beautiful, and any man would be lucky to spend his days with you. ”

When he broke eye contact, she sucked in a deep breath, still fighting back tears when he lowered his head to her left leg and kissed his way from her ankle to her thigh.

He tenderly massaged her skin as he made his way north.

She couldn’t feel it as anything other than pressure, but watching him do it made those tears fall over her lashes.

Land tenderly loved her other leg the same way before he positioned them again on the pillow.

When he finished, he knelt on the floor and massaged her hip bones that jutted out on each side, the catheter dead center and still taped to her skin instead of coiled in her bag.

His thumbs worked their way across her abdomen, stroking the skin on each side of the stoma.

It was healed now to nothing more than a small hole the tube went through, and he leaned down, pressing a kiss to the skin just above it.

“Land, don’t,” she whispered, the tears falling at the idea of his tender touch that she couldn’t feel.

“Why are you crying?” he asked, reaching up to wipe away a tear.

“I never wanted you to see me this way.”

“Sweetheart, I can’t tell you how much I wish you’d have talked to me.

We could have worked through it together, because you are turning me on in a way I can’t hide.

” She raised a surprised brow, and he shrugged, standing so she could see the outline of his maleness through his jeans. “My body doesn’t lie, Sky.”

He lowered his head again and kissed across her ribs, where there was still minimal sensation. “I can’t feel you against my skin, and it’s killing me,” she whimpered.

In a heartbeat, he’d removed her T-shirt, pausing long enough to gaze at the lacy bra that hooked in the front.

Land’s growl was low and throaty when he unsnapped it and pulled it away.

With all the patience and tenderness in the world, he kissed his way up to her left nipple before slipping it between his lips to tease with his tongue.

“Land!” she cried softly, arching her chest to get closer to him.

“You can feel that?” he asked, barely releasing her breast long enough to ask.

“It feels so good.” She cried out again when he grasped her other nipple between his fingers and rolled it gently while he lavished her other one with his tongue.

To throw her off, he switched sides, and she couldn’t stop the eruption of sensation that filled her.

“Land,” she whimpered as the waves flowed over her.

“Don’t stop, please,” she begged, riding the sensations high up into the sky, where she lost track of her thoughts and anything but how good it felt to be loved by this man.

When she came back to earth, he was holding her in his arms, teasing her earlobe with his tongue and teeth. “That was unexpected,” he whispered, kissing her behind the ear. “Are you okay?”

“Better than okay.” Her laughter was soft when she answered. “I’m literally on cloud nine. Since I don’t have a lot of sensation in my lower half…” She paused, unsure what she should tell him.

“Be honest with me, angel. I want to know everything,” he whispered in her ear. The sensation sent a shiver down her shoulders and pooled at her nipples again, making them tingle.

“My erogenous zones are different than other women,” she explained. “I can only orgasm through intercourse if I have direct G-spot stimulation. My breasts, on the other hand, are highly orgasmic.”

His soft laughter in her ear made her smile, her tears long gone after his tender loving. “I noticed. I loved every second of it, too.”

“You did?” She tried to position herself so she could see him. He propped a pillow behind her back and held her waist to steady her.

Rather than answer, he held her hand to the front of his jeans. “I did.” When she rubbed her hand across his hardness, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he moaned. “Is this a dream, or are you touching me right now?”

“It’s not a dream unless I’m in the same one,” she whispered, sliding her hand under the waistband of his pants to feel his heat. His gasp was loud when he pressed himself against her hand, his eyes closed and his body vibrating with her touch. “We can’t do this.”

“Do what?” she asked, grasping him through his boxers and reveling in the way his breath hitched. This was the most unexpected moment of her life, and she wanted to memorize it for when they parted ways again.

“Make love,” he whispered, thrusting against her hand. “We’re not prepared.”

“I’m on the pill, Land.”

“Not that,” he whispered, grasping her hand to still her. “I refuse to endanger you for my satisfaction. After some research, I know that for a woman with a spinal cord injury to enjoy making love, planning is required or—”

“I’ll have another episode of autonomic dysreflexia?” His nod was enough for her to know he had done his research. “It’s possible, but there are ways to prevent it and have a satisfying sex life.”

When he took her lips, his kiss was hungry and demanding. When he finally broke for air, they were both panting. “I’m satisfied just being able to kiss and touch you, sweetheart. I don’t need more right now. We can wait.”

“Your body tells a different story,” she whispered, squeezing his hard maleness. His moan told her she wasn’t wrong.

“I just want to kiss you and hold you in my arms. It makes me feel like all the years that passed don’t exist anymore.”

“We can do that,” she promised, unsnapping the button on his jeans without dropping his gaze. It was now or never if she wanted to show him that while a life with her might not be typical, that didn’t mean it couldn’t be enjoyable.

Check yourself, Skylar. There’s no life with him. There’s only tonight, because when the sun comes up tomorrow and reality comes floating back through those windows, nothing will have changed.

With all her might, she tried to ignore that voice of reason as she unzipped his pants, the chattering of the teeth sending a visible shiver through him. Just for tonight, she wanted to pretend she could have a life with this man.

“You’re killing me, baby girl,” he ground out, lifting his hips to lower his jeans and then his boxers.

She was holding him in a breath, his warm skin connected to hers in an elemental way that told her nothing would ever be the same between them again, and she didn’t want it to be.

She wanted him, and all of her reasoning about why she shouldn’t went out the window the moment he throbbed against her.

She stroked him, his hips thrusting as she did, and his moans long and low.

She had no question that he was enjoying their time together.

Then he cried out in pleasure, his desire throbbing rhythmically in her hand as she carried him up onto his own wave of pleasure.

After his release, when he gazed down at her, she saw everything he couldn’t say.

She prayed her eyes told him the same story.