Free The Token (#10): Shepard by Marata Eros

break from each other, and I make a move to touch the marks of abuse covering his flesh. 
    He captures my hand, disallowing my touch.
    Shepard turns, and I snatch my hand away from his hold.
    His back is a ruin of scar tissue. There isn't a clean spot of skin anywhere. I cover my mouth, holding in the horror. Every bit of his flesh is covered with very old wounds. Unshed tears ignite the back of my eyelids with fire. “Who did this?” I ask.
    His dark brown eyes narrow on me. “The Handlers.”
    What—who? “Why?”
    My nose stuffs up, and snot and tears clog me.
    Shepard glances at me over his shoulder. “Do not waste your tears on me.”
    They roll down my cheeks on a slow, boiling path to my chin. “I can't help it,” I choke out.
    He rotates to face me. “I have done horrible things,” he reminds me.
    I care about those things he's done. His past. But seeing what others did to him first—without knowing what his choices were, if he even had them—I need to see.
    Touch.
    My fingers find him, and he grabs my wrists, squeezing hard. “Do not... touch me.”
    Shepard grits his teeth.
    “Let me.”
    His grip intensifies.
    I bite my lip to keep from crying out. The man is strong.
    Shepard's face hardens to planes and angles of anger. And beneath that, I swear I see fear.
    A man who killed four men without assistance, scared of one woman.
    I make a move so elementary he should have seen it five miles away. Unless he didn't want to.
    I twist my hands in opposing directions. Hard. The move breaks his hold, surprise flooding his face.
    My hands circle his neck as I step onto the top of his feet, gaining me a couple of inches of height.
    Our eyes meet, and his breathing quickens, the eye contact incredibly intimate. “You told me to let you in.”
    I stroke a thumb over his inky eyebrow.
    His breath smells of mint and warmth as it bathes my face. “ Oui, ” he replies in a harsh whisper.
    “You first.”
    Pain washes his expression—indecision. “I am not a man to be loved. To place trust in, faith—hope.”
    Too late. “I already have.”
    He opens his mouth, and I think about putting my finger on it. Instead, I press my lips to his. I move mine over his in soft little presses and sucks. Shepard doesn't respond.
    But his cock grows between our bodies.
    I'm well versed on male arousal, having been on the unwilling receiving end of my share of it.
    For the first time, I am the seductress.
    There's something about two pieces fractured. Broken by similar circumstance. Finding that they can be glued back together. If one component is used in the process.
    Just one.
    Shepard groans into my mouth. “No,” he says, grabbing my hands, and with one of his own, he secures them behind my back. My shoulder muscles bunch uncomfortably.
    I give a small gasp of almost-pain, and I think he'll pull away then.
    He doesn't. Shepard responds to my kiss, and I've never been kissed before. Not when I wanted to be.
    Shepard’s lips move like a branding of fire, a flame from his soul to mine.
    His lips scorch, lighting me from within. His leg presses forward between us, destabilizing me. My legs spread as I stumble off his feet and apart.
    He twirls me, flattening me against the car, my arms pressed behind as he pins me with his hips.
    Shepard's hardness grinds into my pelvis.
    I suck in a breath, and his tongue ties with mine. I moan, and he eats the sound, biting softly on my lips.
    Shepard's hands release mine, and he tucks his in against the side of my head, holding my skull tight against the warming roof of the car.
    Sunlight streams down on us, punching through the tiny canopy of the tree. A patch of light floods Shepard's face in profile, warming his eyes to molten amber before he dives to my neck.
    “I wish to fuck you, Marissa.” His breath mingles with the sun, heating me. Shepard's formal tone mixed with the rough language makes me wet. A new experience. “Badly,” he adds.
    He could easily rape me. Hell, he could