The Cowboy & His Angel (Complete)

To Build A Home~ Part Two

It'd been a long time since we had done anything really and truly slow and easy, and I missed it. I think he did, too...

Don't get me wrong; we did slow and we did easy, but never like our first night together. It was nice- real nice- to be with my Jasper like that again after so long- to reconnect and relearn and rediscover.

Laying on my side, I shivered as the cool air from the now open windows sent a nonexistent chill through me. To be completely honest, that one shiver had little to do with the cold and everything to do with my husband...

My back against his chest, I tangled the fingers of our left hand with a sigh as he nuzzled into the crook of my neck.

Pulling away a little so I had the ability to think and breathe without his enrapture, I giggled as a low growl warned me back into his arms. "Just where do you think you're going, darlin'?!?"

Turning, I traced from one scar to the next until I found mine- his Mark. Lightly kissing it, my lips tilted into a small but triumphant smirk as he shivered with an unconscious tightening of his arms. "Trying to remember what it feels like to be sane and not high or addicted to you...."

Tipping my chin, he held me away from him- clearly able to see through to my plan of attack- with a smirk of his own. "Why on earth would you ever want to do such a thing for, darlin'?!?"

Drifting my fingers over his chest, a teasing smile played on my lips as I brushed them across his. "Because I can...."

He then proceeded to roll over on top of me with his own smirk, elbows on either side of my head as he brushed my bangs out of my face. "Then I'm gonna do this, darlin'...." My moan was muffled only by his lips as he entered me. "Because I can...."

We made love another time, content to lay so bare and open in each other's arms. We had and always would be like that, so open and trusting with each other.

My head on his chest, I traced each scar within reach and only paused in my leisurely exploration when his fingers twined with mine. Raising my head off his chest, our eyes locked as his lips tilted into a smile to match my own. "Scars make for good stories. Even and especially yours...."

His eyes searched my face before meeting mine, reading the question there. Raising our twined hand to his lips, he placed a soft kiss on the back of my hand- my born and bred Southern man, as always. "I remember each and every one of them.... Would you like to hear about them?"

Lowering my head to his Mark, my lips fluttered light as a butterfly wing against it before I nodded. "I do. But only if you're comfortable, talking about it and reliving it all again.... You don't have to, by any means, if you don't want to... I just wanted to know, is all...."

Caressing my cheek, his hand cupped my face and drew it up to his so that our lips brushed as he spoke. "My past was never some thing I was comfortable talking about. It shamed and scared me- hell, it terrified me! Now, the only thing that even remotely scares me, Alice, is the mere drifting thought of losing you.

I'm scared every day for you, darlin'- scared I won't be able to protect you, or hold you, or make love to you. Everything scared me, before you- even my own shadow. But now, nothing in this whole entire world scares me, except the thought that you won't be mine at the end of the day." Then our lips met.

We'd kissed, obviously, many, many, many times before- a good million times, if not more- but there was something in this kiss- a spark, or a flame, or a firework- that sent a thrill through me as my body pretty much exploded.

Every nerve ending tingled as I began to relearn and re-memorize his body, the lean muscle of his back and chest like stone beneath my fingers. With one look of his dark lash-hooded eyes, I melted into a puddle- saved only by his arms of iron protection around me. His lips were buzzing and full as they moved with mine, his tongue dripping honey-venom into my mouth. Oh god....!