He said nothing more, simply stared down at her with his wonderful, unusual eyes. Seconds ticked by. A faint line appeared between his brows and deepened.
“Jesus,” he breathed. Then, finally, he lowered his head and claimed her mouth.
Their pause for conversation hadn’t tempered Siena’s need at all. As soon as his mouth covered hers and his tongue pushed in, she was just as desperate to feel him inside her as she’d been when she’d begged for it. And he was still just as hard.
Wriggling beneath him, ignoring the tightness in her chest and the scratchy ache in her throat, she got her legs around him. He helped, pressing his weight into his arms so she could get his underwear off and wriggle out of the scrubs the hospital had given her—and would probably charge her hundreds of dollars for when the bill came.
As she tried to settle him at the point they would join, he broke away and rose up, leaning to one side so he could grab the hem of the scrub top. She helped, lifting her shoulders up so he could pull it off and toss it away.
Now they were both naked. It wasn’t the first time they’d been naked together, but it was the first time she didn’t feel any qualms about it. Finally the voice in her head, the one that said she wasn’t enough, was gone. He thought she was beautiful, as she was, and she believed him.
He drove the point home by scooting down a few inches and putting his mouth on the scar where her left breast had been. His tongue came out and traced the smooth line and the uneven flesh around it. Then he moved to the other side and paid the right scar the same attention.
From the first time she’d shown him her chest, he’d done this, finding the scars, making a point toadorethem. At first she’d been shocked, then wary, and then she’d loved it, how he took the ugly and made it beautiful, took the lack and filled it full.
She’d loved it before. Now, though, she trusted it. Believed it.
“I love you!” she gasped without thinking.
His head flew up. He stared at her. The moment went still.
Oh god. Oh no.Take it back take it back take it backa voice whispered in her heart.
But it was true. She loved him. More importantly, she trusted him. So she didn’t take it back.
She said it again. “I love you, Cooper. Please don’t feel weird about—”
“I love you,” he said before she could finish.
A crowd of words leapt to her tongue. Words that would assure him he didn’t have to say it back, that it was okay if he didn’t love her, he didn’t need to pretend. But she trusted him. So she said none of those words that would diminish his declaration and hers.
She simply smiled and pulled him down to join their mouths again.
But Cooper ducked away after only a quick peck. He tucked in to suck at her throat for a moment, then moved farther down again, loving on her chest again, this time tracing the wings of her tattoo with his tongue and nose and lips.
He worked his way down, back and forth along the bottom of her ribs, over her belly, flicking his tongue in and around her navel. All the while, his hands moved, over her chest, her hips, her thighs. He continued his path downward, and brushed his nose over her clit. Then his tongue. Then his mouth.
Light, gentle touches, not even teasing. Almost more soothing than exciting. He wanted to give her pleasure but not make her breathless.
Siena was so full of feeling, however, had so much needed exactly this, she couldn’t help but moan and writhe and pant. Her throat ached, her chest was stiff, but god, she felt so good. She tangled her fingers in his hair and held on.
He didn’t make her come. In fact, in light of her increasingly eager responses, he began to work his way back up, slowly, settling her again, until he was nested once more between her thighs, hip to hip, and he leaned down to take her mouth again.
She could taste herself on his tongue.
This time, Cooper was done with talk, done with adoration or seduction. Siena felt his hand slide under her ass and lift. Understanding his invitation, she pushed her hand between them and wrapped it around his cock, leading him where she needed him.
He pushed in so slowly she thought she’d die of languid satisfaction. Each inch was a blooming burst of sensation. When he was in as far as she could take him, she squeezed around him as if she could hold him there forever.
“Ah,god,” he muttered. “So good. You feel ...” a groan broke his sentence in half “... like home.”
“You belong here,” she gasped in reply. A cough shimmied at the back of her throat; she cleared it away before it could start trouble.
But Cooper froze at once and frowned down at her.
She brushed her fingertips over the gathers in his forehead. “I’m okay. Please don’t stop.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”