Too many things. That was all.
The black marble tub was full. He shut off the water, turned on the circulators, went back to the bedroom and lifted Alyssa in his arms, but there was no fooling her.
“Lucas?” she asked quietly. “What’s the matter?”
He looked down at the face that had once belonged to a stranger and that fist around his heart gave another knowing squeeze.
“Nothing,” he said. “It is just that you are so beautiful…”
He kissed her and tried to ignore the feel of her naked flesh against him. She’d been in a terrible accident. This was no time to think about making love.
But it was the right time to tend to her bruises.
He kissed her forehead. Her bruised cheek. Her mouth. She sighed with pleasure.
Slowly he put her on her feet. Then he sat on the edge of the tub, drew her forward so she stood, naked, between his parted thighs.
Was that a bruise on her breast? No. It was only a shadow…but he kissed it just the same, kissed the soft flesh, circled the nipple with his tongue until she moaned.
“Does this hurt, amada?” he whispered.
“No. God, no, it feels—it feels—”
Lucas sucked the nipple into his mouth. Alyssa swayed, clasped his shoulders, murmured his name.
The bruise on her knee. That deserved his attention, too. He pressed his lips to it gently, then kissed his way up her leg, inhaling her scent, Dios, drunk on her scent, on the little cries she was making.
He cupped her hips. She leaned back; her thighs parted.
“That’s it,” he said thickly. “Open for me. Let me see if you need to be kissed here. And here. And—”
He put his mouth to her and she came instantly, her taste honeyed against his tongue, her cry filling him with her sweetness.
Lucas rose to his feet. Trembling, she fell against him. He held her close, kissed her mouth, shuddered when he felt her hands pulling at his shirt, his belt…
Together, they stripped off his clothes. They moved quickly but when he lifted her and put her into the tub, his hands were gentle.
By the time he joined her in the steamy water, sanity was returning.
She’d been injured. And he, Dios, he’d forgotten everything but how beautiful she was, how much he wanted her…
“Lyssa. Forgive me, amada. I shouldn’t have—”
She moved into his embrace. Her mouth met his and clung. She lifted her hips, wrapped her legs around him and impaled herself on his rigid length.
Lucas groaned. Kissed her. Told her that he loved her kisses, her taste, her scent but most of all, most of all he loved this. Being inside her. Being part of her. Being one with her.
No. Most of all, he loved—he loved—
Alyssa convulsed around him and he stopped thinking.
After, he wrapped her in an enormous white towel. Then he brought her to his bed. She raised her arms to him, just as she had done the prior night. He came down beside her, gathered her close and feathered kisses on her eyelids.
Moments later, the sound of her breathing told him she was asleep. He was close to sleep, too. Dios, how incredible this was. Sleeping with her, making love with her…
His body stiffened.
Making love without a condom.