Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) - Tina Wainscott Page 0,51

in the faint glow of stars and moonlight. He paused at the shoreline and shucked his pants. Her heart fluttered at his silhouette, wide at the chest and narrow at his hips. He took several steps into the surf and dived in with a graceful arc.

Vicci Martinez’s song “Come Along with Me” played in her mind. See what it was like to be free. She would ease his pain. She would seize the day. Or the night, as it were.

Raleigh must have seen her, because he came up only a couple of feet in front of her a few seconds later. He flicked his hair back and ran his hand over his face. “Does it live up to your expectations?”

“Yes.” Though, oddly, she felt a little nervous, being naked and so close to him. “It’s amazing.” Her feet sank into the sand. Water rushed over her breasts and between her legs, pushing forward, pulling back. She raised her arms out to her sides and fell back into the water, letting it engulf her.

Raleigh swam by, his body brushing hers. They both surfaced at the same time. She tasted the salt on her lips, felt it burn her eyes.

“No more jitters about not being able to see anything?” he asked.

“A little, but not enough to make me get out.” She was nervous about being here with him, too, but she was staying. “It feels good, the water flowing all around me. It probably reminds me of when I was a kid, swimming in the bathtub. Like I’m a mermaid.”

She dived again, loving the slight pull of the waves on her hair. When she came up, she could see the moon sparkling like shattered pieces of sunlight over the water. But she couldn’t touch, so she churned her legs and soaked in the view. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered when he came up beside her.

“Yes, you are.”

She turned, finding him looking at her and not at the glitter. “But you can’t see me. It’s too dark.”

“I know from memory.”

“Not anymore, Raleigh. I mean, not that I ever was, but now I’m even more—”

“You were beautiful then, and you’re beautiful now. It has nothing to do with your scars.”

Though she couldn’t see his eyes, she could see the planes of his face, water glistening on his lips. She could hear the sincerity of his words. “I’ve gone too deep.” It was the only thing she could think to say, and she didn’t mean the depth of the water.

“Here, hold on to me. I can touch.” He reached out for her.

She hesitated.

“I’ll be on my best behavior,” he said.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you.” Or that she wanted him to be on his best behavior, for that matter. He would feel her scarred skin, maybe all of it, which was as bad as seeing it.

“Nervous?”

“Not that, either.” Well, a little. She took his hand, though, and he hoisted her up, his hands on her hips.

Without thinking, she wrapped her legs around his waist and looped her arms around his neck. She hadn’t considered how intimately that motion would connect their bodies. It made her breath hitch. Made her heart pound. His hard abs, pressed against her most private part, sent heat spiraling through her core.

His hands skimmed the outside of her thighs, right over the mottled flesh. She flinched, shrinking away deep within herself.

He stopped, leaving his hand on her hip. “Did I hurt you?”

“No, it’s my…you can feel it, can’t you? The rough surface.” All along her side, where the skin should be the softest and smoothest, it was damaged the most.

As though her question was an invitation, he started moving over her skin again. Exploring. His fingers traced over the ridges and bumps, light as the current. “A little.”

“A lot.”

“No, really, a little. I didn’t even notice it until you said something.”

She put her hand to her side, their fingers brushing, and stroked the skin to get a sense of what he felt. Bumps. Horrible, ridged bumps. “You’re lying.”

“I would never lie to you.” He sounded so sincere. To prove that he wasn’t repulsed, he kept stroking her skin. “It just feels good to touch you. I don’t care about a little texture.”

A little texture. That’s what he called it, and it didn’t sound quite so bad. She released a breath, and with it her doubts and fears. “All right. I believe you.”

“Thank God. I won’t have you doubting my integrity.” She could hear the smile in his voice, despite the terse