Free Fatal Flaw by Marie Force

his embrace. The heat of his skin against hers, his endlessly appealing scent, the brush of his chest hair against her face—that was all it took to make her want him—again.
    “I know you’re tired,” he said as he bit back a yawn. “We don’t have to do anything.”
    Sam wrapped her hand around his erection and stroked him. “We don’t have to do anything? ”
    He gasped and tightened his hold on her. “Keep that up, and we’ll be doing something.”
    “I have a headache.”
    “Want me to get you some pills?”
    “I’m joking. Now that I’m your wife, I can’t be as easy as I was when I was just your girlfriend. And I’ve been pretty damned easy since our wedding.”
    Laughing, he said, “Easy is good.” He shifted so he was on top of her. “In fact, easy is preferred.”
    Sam looped her arms around his neck and held on tight, steeped in the magic that never failed to amaze and astound her.
    “I didn’t realize,” he said, brushing his lips softly over hers, “what I was missing until you came along and showed me.”
    “Nick,” she whispered, moved by his words. He’d been so alone for most of his life, but now they had each other, and she wanted to give him everything he’d missed out on—especially a family to call his own. “I love you.”
    “Love you too, babe.” Entering her in one smooth thrust, he stayed perfectly still. “This is what I live for now. You are what I live for.”
    Arching into him, she urged him to move. “Me too. What does it say about us that we can’t get enough of this?”
    “That we’re pretty damned lucky,” he said, keeping his movements slow and deliberate.
    “Yes, we are.” Sam’s orgasm built like a wave rolling toward the beach, and when it broke, she cried out, taking him with her. After, when he would have rolled to his side, she held on tight, determined to do everything in her power to protect this man and this love from whomever would do them harm.
     
     
    Jeannie stood under the shower and let the pulsing water work out the kinks in her neck and back from the long day spent opening mail at Michael’s dining room table. She’d meant what she’d said to Sam, that being useful again had made her feel slightly better than she had since the attack.
    Maybe it was time to get back to it, to rejoin her life already in progress, to stop hiding out in Michael’s comfortable home, sealed away from the world.
    With her hand propped against the shower wall, she took another blissful moment to let the shower massage her shoulders. Emerging from the bathroom a few minutes later she found Michael already in bed, his eyes closed. She took a moment to study his broad shoulders, muscular chest and smooth dark brown skin. The first time she met him she thought he was the most handsome man she’d ever beheld. Struck by his six-foot, six-inch height, she’d been dazzled from the start. Add in the successful career in finance, his unfailing sense of style and the tenderness he’d shown her since day one, and it hadn’t taken her long to fall for him.
    He’d been about to propose. Before. The signs had been hard to miss. Since then, he’d been a rock of support, unfailing patience and more of that legendary tenderness, even as she’d flinched under every touch, every caress. Not once, though, had they spoken of the future that had seemed so assured before the attack.
    Without opening his eyes, he extended his hand. “Come to bed.”
    “How did you know I was here?”
    “I always know where you are.” He patted the bed again. “Come on. You worked hard today. You have to be tired.”
    She was tired. Tired of hiding, tired of being a victim, tired of reliving the nightmare over and over again. Dropping the silk robe he’d bought her into a puddle at her feet, she slid between the cool sheets. Before she met Michael, sheets had been sheets. Now she was spoiled by Egyptian cotton. She snuggled up to him, and felt him tense as he realized she was