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She gasped as she felt his bare flesh make contact with her back.

“I’m trying to make you relax,” he whispered in her ear, a smile tracing through his words.

“It’s having the opposite effect.”

“Do you want me to stop?” His hands slid off her thighs and rested on the bed.

“No!”

Jude chuckled and massaged her buttocks and hips. “I promise you, when all of this is over, I will spend all my free time making you happy.”

“Does that include naked massages?”

“I’ll insist on it.” Jude’s fingers slid back to the top of her thighs and he brushed across her slick folds.

She gasped again and pushed back against his hand, aching with desire, wanting to feel him inside her.

His fingers moved away. He gave a deep, throaty chuckle. “Sorry to tease. You’re just so damn sexy. It’s hard to resist you.”

“Then don’t resist.”

“I promised Sophia I’d look after you,” said Jude. “That means you can’t do anything to exert yourself.”

“How about I lie here and you do all the work? She’d think that was fine.”

Another chuckle. “As tempting an offer as that is, when I fuck you for the first time, I want to make sure you don’t break. And I want to look you in the eyes as I come deep inside you.”

Octavia felt a flood of heat run through her. “I won’t break. Why don’t we try now?” She didn’t care that she was practically begging Jude for sex. All she could think about was his hands on her flesh, igniting a fire inside her. She wanted to feel him, all of him.

Jude’s hands shifted to her lower back and his fingers eased away the aches as they slid up her spine. “You don’t know how hard I’m resisting you. You’re so beautiful. You’re everything I imagined you would be and more.”

Octavia’s passion faded. “I bet you didn’t imagine the scars and lack of hair.”

“They only make you more interesting.” Jude kissed behind her ear before sliding his lips over her scalp.

“That feels oddly sexy,” said Octavia. “Nobody has ever kissed my bare scalp before.”

“If it turns you on, I’ll do it for as long as you like.” His fingers moved up to her shoulder blades, avoiding the laser burn.

Octavia groaned as they creaked under the pressure. Days of tension and worry had collected in them. She felt a delicious mix of pleasure and pain as he massaged the kinks out.

He worked on her shoulders for several minutes before his hands slid down her arms and he rubbed her arm muscles. Jude finally reached her fingers, sliding each one between his, gently working the tension away. He lifted each hand and kissed the palm before sliding his hands up to her shoulders again.

Despite how turned on she was, Octavia felt her eyelids grow heavy. She wanted to fight it. She wanted to remember this forever. She didn’t want to miss the incredible feeling of Jude’s hands sliding over her, easing her pain and making her feel alive.

“That’s so good,” she mumbled as a veil of sleep descended over her.

The last thing she remembered was Jude’s lips against her ear. He was saying something, but she couldn’t hear him. She had lost the battle to sleep.