Free Wounded Pride by Mandee Mae Page B

over here and lay down with me. I need to hold you.”
    He just melted my heart. He needs to hold me. Well, I need to be held. “Well, you’re gonna have to move over a bit. I need a little more room than that.”
    “No, you don’t.” He pats the couch and waits patiently.
    I lay down beside him, getting comfortable, while Pierce reaches behind him and grabs the blanket off the back of the couch. It takes us a minute or two to coordinate enough to get us covered, but we do end up accomplishing that small feat. He wraps his arm around me, pulling me further back into him, ensuring that I’m not going anywhere.
    “I love you, Kinlee.”
    “I love you, too.” Hearing those words again and being able to say them back just does something to your soul. He just helped heal my heart a little more without even knowing it, and I pray to God that I’ll somehow be able to help him heal. His body. His heart. His mind.
    I close my eyes and enjoy the feeling of being back in his arms. I’ve waited so long for this to happen and it’s finally here. He’s finally agreed to give us…me, another chance. He’s giving me a second chance to prove to him that I’m in this for the long haul, that this is what I want, and there’s no way in hell that I’m going to screw this up.

 
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
    Things have been goin g pretty good since we had that talk and I finally convinced Pierce to give us another chance. Well, it goes well except the days that he has therapy. Those days it seems that all hell breaks loose. He’s so damn stubborn
    “We worked on that yesterday. This is what you need to do today.” I don’t know how much clearer I can say that to him.
    “You may have the fucking degree, but this is what I want to do. I know what works best for me, and this is it.”
    It’s no use. No matter how much I talk and try to convince him that this is what he needs to do, he’s always going to do the opposite. 
    “Are we going to argue about this every time you come in?” I ask him this, standing with my hands propped on my hips as if that’s going to change his answer.
    He goes over to the weights I have in the room and transfers himself over to the bench then starts lifting. “Probably,” he replies with a cocky smile.
    He’s over there, doing his repetitions, no shirt, grunting every time he brings up the weight. I have to lean back against my desk to help support me while I watch him. Watching the beads of sweat run down his chiseled chest. Jesus. How could he ever think that he’s not man enough is beyond me. If you could be here with me and see what I see, you’d be just as wet as I am right now.
    I’ve been doing a lot of thinking of ways that I could show him how much we could please each other and I plan to do one later tonight. I just hope he’s game for what I have planned. He better be. He could use a little release to help him relax. It always makes me feel better.
    “Babe, what are you thinking over there? You have this glassy look on your face.” He takes his index finger and motions around his face while he’s asking me this.
    “Huh?” I look up to meet his gaze and see the same heat that I’m feeling so he knows exactly what I’m thinking. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
    He starts laughing. “Sure. You keep sucking on that finger and you won’t have anything left of it.”
    And let the sexual innuendos begin.
    “Well, I’m sure you can figure out what I’m thinking.”
    He puts the weight back down, looks at me, and licks his lips. “Baby, I don’t have to figure anything out. It’s written all over your face.”
    Dammit! Why am I so easy to read; although, he’s always been good at reading me.
    “Okay, I’m done for the day. You ready?”
    “Yep, got everything shut down. Just waiting for you.” I grab my purse and keys then follow Pierce to the door.
    “You coming over for dinner tonight?”
    “I need to run by my house first and then I’ll be over. Do you want me