Daredevil’s Run

Chapter 11

Matt said, “Whatever it takes, we’ll work it out.”

She laughed, and it sounded more like a whimper. “Easy for you to say. You always were the brave one.”

“What are you talking about? You’re the bravest person I know.”

But she was afraid. Terrified. He could feel it. Even though he couldn’t see her eyes, he knew the fear was there, the way it had been up on the Forks when they’d been about to go through the fire.

If we’d known then what we were about to go through together…we didn’t know it then, but that fire was the easy part.

He ran his hand down her back and felt her shiver. “What’s wrong, Alex? Tell me.”

“There’s so much, Mattie. So much we haven’t talked about. Things…we haven’t…”

“Ah.” He felt ripples of a new excitement vibrating deep inside his chest. Carefully, he said, “Things…like sex?”

She hitched in a breath. “Yeah, like that. I don’t know…how it is with you. I mean…” and now she sounded testy “…well, obviously, you can still turn me on, but that’s not really…it’s not enough.” She turned her face to him. “Is it?”

Tenderly, he traced the side of her face with his fingertips, then leaned to brush her lips with his. “This…is definitely something we need to talk about-a lot. But…showing you is probably easier. How about, if you’ll get this dog off me and hand me my chair, we take this inside?”

“Matt-”

“Trust me, Alex.”

She nodded, but he could feel the resistance in her still. She maneuvered his chair closer, then braced it for him while he hoisted himself into it, then stood hugging herself and looking scared. He held out his hand to her, and she hesitated, opened her mouth but didn’t say anything. And he remembered.

“That night at The Corral. When I wanted you to dance with me,” he said quietly, “and you didn’t. Why?”

She rubbed her arms, shrugged, but didn’t look away. “I guess…I didn’t think you could.”

“And you were wrong, weren’t you? You didn’t want to do the Forks with me. Why?”

More firmly, now, maybe getting where he was going with this, she replied, “I didn’t think you could.”

“And…you were wrong. So now I’m asking you.” Again he held out his hand, and said softly, “Come…make love with me, Alex.”

He held his breath, and after a brief and suspenseful moment, she reached out and took his hand.

It was so much easier than she’d imagined, and at the same time, so much scarier. Maybe the scariest thing she’d ever done, because it was all so new. So different. And at the same time, in the most thrilling of ways, the same.

Matt used the bathroom first, after explaining to her why he needed to, and what he was doing. Then, when she told him she wanted-needed, after three days on the river, and all they’d been through since-to take a shower, he maneuvered his chair close to the bathtub and bathed her himself. Soaped her body with long, loving, sensual strokes, laughing when the spray made him and everything else in the bathroom as wet as she was. And when she told him she wouldn’t be able to stand up if he kept doing what he was doing, he pulled her naked and soaking wet into his lap and took his time caressing her dry with a towel. Then…slowly, began to stroke her wet again, with his mouth, this time.

When she was shivering uncontrollably, he wheeled them both to her bedside. Holding her waist in his hands, he eased her off his lap and when her knees threatened to buckle, helped her to stand while he looked at her. Feasted on her with his eyes.

Then…“Touch me,” he whispered hoarsely.

He’d always loved to be touched. Everywhere…she remembered that so well. The sheer pleasure of touching him. The way he’d close his eyes and seem to lose himself in her touch. It was the same now, except he didn’t close his eyes. And that made it even more intense for her. More scary. The same, and yet different.

She let her open palms rest lightly on his chest, at first, on those sculpted pecs that were-again-the same Matt, only different. She let her hands glide, oh so slowly, over his chest, his torso, his hard-muscled belly…then up to his shoulders…down his arms and over his hands, guiding them down to her hips and then to her thighs…while she leaned forward and brushed his mouth with hers, barely breathing.

“I’d like to get into bed now…” His words blew gently against her lips.

She whispered, “Yes,” and pulled shakily away from him to draw aside the covers.

And again, he didn’t hide anything from her, neither the awkwardness nor the unexpected grace, as he shifted himself from chair to bed. She hovered, and helped him when he asked her to, with pillows piled up for his back, and to dispose of the rest of his clothes. Then, when he lay naked and completely exposed to her, he raised himself on one elbow, glanced down at himself and smiled-not his warm, beautiful Mattie smile, but one so wry and vulnerable it made her heart turn over.

“See?” And his voice had a rasp in it she’d never heard before. “I told you…it’s still me.”

And suddenly, she wasn’t nervous or scared or uncertain anymore. She felt almost overwhelmed with strength and tenderness, and…Yes, love. Booker T’s right. I’ve always loved him. How could I not have known?

Smiling, with all the confidence in the world in her eyes, she leaned down to kiss him, kissed him long and deeply while she straddled his body. He pulled away to whisper, with a small laugh, “You always did like to be on top.”

“Hush up, Matthew,” she growled against his mouth as she lowered herself over him, touching his body from chest to thighs with her own. “I don’t care who’s on top, or what goes where. As long as we go together. You hear me?” She kissed him again, for a long, long time…and finally drew back enough to gasp. “And we do…go together. Don’t we? Can you feel that?”

“I don’t feel that. I feel you.” He closed his eyes and his arms came around her, vital and strong.

And as he held her, she felt him, too, felt him with every nerve and cell in her body, in a way she never had before. She felt him as though he were a part of her, as if they’d somehow become two parts of the same whole, and in that moment she knew that Booker T was right, that human beings weren’t meant to be alone. Holding the man she loved in her arms, melding her body with his, she felt herself fill with the most intense joy she’d ever known, or could ever have imagined. Because half of herself that had been missing for so long had finally come home.

“Oh, Mattie,” she whispered brokenly, “I love you. And I do need you.”

With tenderness and a smile in his voice, he replied, “I know.”