What If You & Me (Say Everything #2) - Roni Loren Page 0,80

still crept up his spine. There was a reason Christina hadn’t slept with him after his accident, a reason she’d found someone else to go to bed with, and he couldn’t help but think the amputation had a lot to do with it. It was an unavoidable visual reminder that he wasn’t the same man he used to be.

Andi hadn’t known him before, but he didn’t want the spotlight on his disability. He didn’t want her thinking about anything but her own pleasure. Unfortunately, as he glanced around, all he saw were reminders of how he was different. His room was neat, but he hadn’t put certain things away. Like the crutches he kept by the bedside to use if he had to get up in the middle of the night. Or his running prosthesis, which was lying on the dresser. At least the wheelchair he sometimes used around the house when his muscles were aching was tucked away in the closet. Even so, he wished he could steer Andi back out and take a minute to put some things away.

“Wow,” Andi said, oblivious to the internal crisis he was having. “This is how clean you keep your room when you’re not expecting company? I thought boys’ rooms were supposed to be messy. Where are the half-empty beer cans and dirty underwear? The big bottle of lube? I feel cheated.”

Andi’s comment broke him out of his circling thoughts, startling him into a laugh. “The big bottle of lube?”

She looked over at him, amusement in her eyes, and he realized what she was doing. Somehow she’d sensed his discomfort over her seeing his personal space and was trying to distract him. This woman.

“I’m not an animal,” he said with a playfully affronted tone. “I keep the lube put away in a drawer like a gentleman.”

She laughed. “Well, aren’t you fancy.”

He walked over to the side of the bed and turned on the lamp before coming back and flipping off the overhead light. The softened lighting took the edge off some of his nerves and made Andi’s fair skin look like porcelain. He wanted to lick every bit of it.

He took her hand in his, trying to gauge how she was doing, and kissed the inside of her wrist. Her pulse jumped against his lips. When she’d told him her story in the WorkAround kitchen, he’d wanted to personally castrate the sick fuck who had used her and hurt her so badly. But he knew he couldn’t undo what she’d been through. All he could do was show her how different sex could be with someone she could trust. She’d told him it would be easier if he took control, was assertive instead of sweet, which he was one hundred percent down for. He’d always liked being bossy in bed, but he didn’t want to push her further than she wanted to go.

“Still with me?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

Andi’s gaze held his, her pupils dark in the low light, and she wet her lips. “Totally with you. Truly.”

Something tight unlocked in his shoulders at her assurance, and he leaned down to kiss her. She relaxed into the kiss, her hands splaying against his chest, and he took the opportunity to reach around her and unzip her dress. The sound of the zipper was loud in the quiet room, but it only made his cock harder. It was the sound of Andi’s trust.

When he pulled back from the kiss, he reached out and slipped her dress off her shoulders and down her arms. The light cotton fell into a cloud around her feet, leaving Andi standing there in his bedroom in a pale-pink lacy bra and nothing else.

His breath left him in a rush as he took in the sight of her. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.”

“Back at ya, neighbor.” Andi’s lips curved a little, and she reached back to unhook her bra. She let it fall away.

Her small, pert breasts made Hill’s tongue press to the roof of his mouth. He lifted his hand to cup her breast, running his thumb over her dusky nipple and loving the way she shivered at his touch.

“My turn,” she said, her fingers taking hold of the bottom edge of his T-shirt.

He lifted his arms and let her pull off his shirt. Cool air touched his overheated skin, and he watched her expression change as she took in the view. One of the things he liked so much about Andi was that she didn’t play it