She felt a moment of panic but pushed it away. Connor didn’t need to deal with her emotions right now. He sat there, naked, both physically and emotionally, his heart torn from his chest and lying at her feet. He’d thrown it there so she could have a chance to reject him like his former girlfriend had.
She scooted closer to him, ran her hands up his arms. “It didn’t work. I’m not going to push you away, Connor. You are still a hero in my eyes.”
It wasn’t enough to tell him.
She would have to show him.
She got up on her knees, pushed him back onto the mattress, and straddled him, stretching out on top of him. She claimed his mouth, kissed him the way he had kissed her, slowly at first, letting it build as he came alive in her arms.
His hands grasped her hips, but he let her set the pace.
She kissed her way down his throat to his sternum, her hands exploring him, soft skin and coarse curls beneath her palms. He smelled of soap and sex and salt, the scent of his skin stirring something inside her. She wanted him.
She licked a nipple, felt his belly jerk tight, licked it again, then the other one, lavishing the same attention on him as he’d given her. It turned her on to feel his body’s response—his hard cock, his quick inhale when she nipped a sensitive tip, the tremors that passed through him with each flick of her tongue.
But she wanted more.
She kissed her way down his ribs, over the ridges of muscle on his belly, and along those obliques just above his hips. Every inch of him was precious to her. The little mole next to his navel. The scar on his abdomen. That tempting trail of dark curls that led to his erection.
She looked up, saw him watching her with blue eyes that had gone dark. Without breaking eye contact, she sat up, took his cock in hand, and began to stroke him. “Show me what you like.”
His brow furrowed, he reached down with one hand to guide her, increasing the pressure. “Oh, yeah.”
His eyes drifted shut, one hand fisting in the sheets, his hips thrusting into her hand. But she wanted more for him. She let him savor this for a while—then bent down and licked the head of his cock.
His eyes flew open. “Shanti.”
She smiled, did it again. “You taste like me.”
He shivered.
She repositioned herself between his thighs and took him into her mouth, stroking the length of him with her fist and her lips, swirling her tongue around the swollen head, doing her best to get the pressure and the rhythm right.
He caught her hair, moved it aside so that he could watch. “You are so hot.”
She kept it up, taking cues from his hips when he wanted her to go faster, harder. She could tell he was near the brink, all those amazing muscles going tight.
He raised her head off him. “If you don’t stop—”
“You don’t have to pull out this time.”
His belly jerked at those words. “Shanti.”
She went down on him again, his fingers fisted in her hair now, his breathing ragged, his eyes closed again.
He arched off the bed, biting back a groan, his cock jerking in her mouth as he came, his body shaking with pleasure.
She took all of him, keeping her mouth on him until his climax had passed. Then kissed her way back up his body again, her heart full. “You’re still my hero.”
“You areway too good at that.” Connor felt lighter than he had in years.
Shanti’s reaction had blown him away, lifting a heavy weight off his shoulders, stripping away years of guilt and rage. She hadn’t condemned him. She hadn’t blamed him. She hadn’t withdrawn from him. Instead, she’d supported him, offered him understanding and compassion. She’d also given him the best head of his life.
God, he loved her.
Admitting that to himself made his heart soar—and scared the shit out of him.
They lay in bed for a time, her head on his shoulder, his fingers tracing the curve of her spine, their conversation drifting from the joy of indoor plumbing to the fact that coriander and cilantro were the same plant to what it had felt like for Shanti to grow up being a part of two different worlds—always being asked where she was from, having people assume she was Latina, being viewed as a foreigner when she was in Bangladesh despite her citizenship.