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Vaughan’s chest rose and fell, his sheets only covering him from the waist down. I’d been awake for a while already, unable to shake the nightmare from the night before, but I was far too comfortable beside him to leave the confines of his bed. I rolled onto my side, resting my right arm beneath my head and started tracing the veins on his forearms. I inhaled deeply, and unlike the first time I’d been in bed with him, I didn’t have the need to bolt. In fact, after last night I never wanted to leave at all. The recollection of the night of my accident rattled me to my core, and it only raised more questions in my mind. I may not have recalled everything, but the fragments of my dream were enough to consume me, and had it not been for Vaughan, they probably would have. But again, he was the in the center of it all, bringing me back every time. I still didn’t understand it, but I no longer feared it and if last night was anything to go by then I certainly wasn’t fighting it either. Something about being with him felt like home, despite all the questions that I had yet to get answers too.

I was so busy tracing Vaughan’s arms that I hadn’t realized he was awake, and it was me who became the subject of his silent observation. He wrapped his arm around me and rolled so that I was beneath him. I widened my legs, hitching my knees and felt him settle between my thighs.

I sighed, feeling every part of my body come alive. I was becoming addicted to the feel of his body against mine.

“Well, good morning to you too.” I smiled, and he brushed our noses together.

“You’re still here,” he murmured. He kissed the side of my mouth and then moved to my jaw. I arched my neck to give him better access, and he took it, licking and nipping at my sensitive skin.

“After last night, the least I could do was stay.” Vaughan looked at me, and while it sounded as if I were making a reference to the sex we had, he knew I was talking about my nightmare.

“How are you feeling?” He rested his forearms on either side of my head and started playing with my hair.

“A little sore.” I wiggled, and his cock stirred. “But I think I can go another round.”

Vaughan didn’t find my little attempt at diversion funny. “You know what I’m talking about, Kenzi.”

“I do.” I stretched my neck and kissed him. “And I’m saying I don’t want to talk about it right now. There’s something else I’d rather be doing, that involves a whole lot less talking.”

He still wasn’t having it, and I didn’t quite know how to explain to him that I felt both okay and not okay all at once. I wanted answers, but I also wanted to stay lost with him a little while longer. I stuck a hand beneath the sheet and started touching myself, knowing he would feel it too.

“Are you trying to distract me?” He was trying to look unaffected by what I was doing, but he was failing miserably. His brows furrowed as if he were trying to control the way his body responded and his mouth parted with an audible sharp intake of breath.

“No.” I nipped at his chin. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Vaughan moved my hand from between us and then lifted both arms above my head, twining his fingers with mine. “You’re a terrible liar, Shortcake.” The term of endearment niggled at me, but when I felt the head of Vaughan’s cock between my legs I forgot why. “Lucky for you, I like being distracted by you.”

I bit my lip and lifted my hips in invitation. He tried to disentangle our hands to grab a condom presumably, but I tightened my grip. “No.” I shook my head. “No condom.”

“Are you sure?” he asked softly. “We’ve never…”

“I’m sure. You’re the only one I’ve been with.” The only one I wanted to be with. I kept that little nugget to myself, afraid that Vaughan would misinterpret it and freak out. In many ways, I was still learning to read him, and I had to assume he was still very much a guy when it came to the emotional stuff. When Vaughan didn’t say anything in response, I wrangled my hands free and used my thumb to smooth the furrow between his brow.

“If you don’t want to it’s fine.”

“It’s not that.” I sucked in a breath when Vaughan nudged my sex. He slid in, and then pulled out. “I just want to make sure you’re not using sex to avoid what’s going on in that beautiful head of yours.” He tapped my temple and grunted when he pushed inside me, only deeper.

I felt him in ways I didn’t think were possible, physically aware of his body in ways I thought I was only aware of my own. “Would it be such a bad thing if I was?”

I grabbed his biceps and whimpered when he seated himself to the hilt. I felt a twinge, still sensitive from the night before, but it wasn’t nearly enough to make me stop him.

“Only if…” growl… “you promise…” whimper… “not to…” sigh… “shut me…” groan. “Out.”

He stopped, his gaze locked on mine. “Promise me you’ll talk to me, Kenzi.”

He knew better than to ask me for something while he was balls deep inside me. I would have said yes if he’d told me to jump off a bridge and declare my undying love for him.

I squeezed, and he muttered a rather loud, “shit.”

I wanted to smile in victory, but he gave it back to me by pinning me with his hips and rubbing my clit with his pubic bone. Up…down…in…out.

“Promise me,” he pressed.

I contemplated it and came to the decision that I would confide in him when I was ready. But there was one person I needed to speak to about the fragments of my nightmare I could recall and he was the last person who needed to be brought into mid-sex conversation.

“I promise.” I brought my hands to his face. “But not right now. Please.”

His answer was to press a feather light kiss to my lips and then my forehead before he started moving in earnest. He tucked his arms beneath my legs and had them rest in the crook of his elbow. The position made him go deeper, making me feel impossibly and exquisitely full.