He squinted his eyes at her and she lowered them.
“We have to,” she whispered.
Something was wrong. She was scared.
“Baby, talk to me.” He lowered her thigh, and fixed her dress. But she didn’t look up at him.
“Sage, look at me, right now.”
She lifted her head, and he could see the blush along her cheeks and neck, her wet, full lips and that sparkle in her eyes, but also that fear. He recognized it, and it didn’t sit well. He lifted her up by her hips and set her down on the counter. As he pressed between her thighs making them open. She gasped and held his shoulders.
“I know you’re not as experienced as I am, or as the others are, but I’m not going to lie. It turns me on. Makes me feel that whatever we share is special.”
She reached up and pressed her palm against his cheek. He closed his eyes, her touch so powerful it weakened him.
“Talk to me.” He turned his head and kissed her palm.
“I never felt anything like this before. It’s too much. It scares me,” she admitted and pulled her hand from his cheek.
He pressed closer against her body, pulled her thighs around his waist, and then placed her arms around his waist. He cupped her cheeks and stared down into her gorgeous, emerald green eyes.
“Don’t ever be scared of me. Not of Virgo, Matt, or Quaid. They would never hurt you, or push you into doing something you’re not ready for.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Make me understand. Tell me what you’re feeling, what ideas are going through your head.”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t know how to.”
He squinted his eyes at her, and then lowered his hands to her shoulders. “What do you mean you don’t know how to? How to explain how you feel?”
She shook her head. “I can’t give you what you want. What I know you and Virgo, Matt, and Quaid want. I’m not capable of it.”
“We want you.”
She shook her head. “Let me down. Please just let me down.”
“No. Tell me what you mean. Tell me wh
at you can’t give me, us. Tell me.”
“My heart, my body, my trust,” she said as the tear rolled down her cheek.
He didn’t know what to say or what to do, so he pulled her into his arms and hugged her to him. He caressed her back, and whispered to her as he let his heart and his emotions guide him.
“I wish I knew who hurt you so badly, to make you block off your emotions, and to close up your heart and condition yourself to not want to feel anything. If I knew who he was, I’d kill him.”
“He’s already dead,” she whispered, and he squeezed her tighter.
* * * *
Sage felt embarrassed, but also somewhat relieved at telling Dale how she felt. His kisses were so very powerful. His touch, the way his hand felt inching closer to her pussy but then against her ass cheek. It was wild, and brought on a surge of images in her head. Erotic, wild images of her with Dale, Matt, Virgo, and Quaid. But then those lust-filled, exciting thoughts turned to flashes of bad images. Scary ones, of Ariel, and other women, older than her, who let the gang bangers have their way with them. Sex was dirty, exploited, used as power and control. Triumph threated her with it, touched her, said things to her that still haunted her dreams. She shivered.
“Sage, what is it?” he asked, pulling back and looking her in the eyes.
“I’ll never forget.”
Not the cries of pain, the orders, the demands they made on Ariel and the other women. I was too young, too flat chested at the time and unappealing next to the others. It’s what saved me.