As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Justice gathered her into his arms and pressed his warm mouth to hers, lingering for several seconds. His hand cradled the side of her face, his touch so incredibly gentle.
"I don't understand," she finally said, and to get to the point, she stated, "You saw my scars."
"Yeah, I saw them."
His matter-of-fact acknowledgment only bewildered her further. "I have more," she thought to remind him. "On my leg from the donor site and-"
"I know." His hands, so big and hot-she loved his hands-stroked up and down her back while his breathing went deeper. Against her lips, he murmured, "I want to see that one, too."
All but smothering in confusion, Fallon stared up at him. "Why?"
"They're a part of you, and every part of you fascinates me." He kissed her again, stroked her bottom lip with his tongue, then lightly tugged on it with his teeth.
"Justice..."
Almost in accusation, he said, "You opened your top and I got hard, babe. I hate that you were hurt. I wish I could take the memories from you. But damn, did you really think a scar or two would matter so much?"
Of course she did, because the scars had mattered to everyone else. They obviously repulsed Marcus, despite his current regret and assertions that they didn't. Seeing them still made her parents weepy. And the memories associated with them... She swallowed hard, nodded and said, "Yes."
He gave her a small, sexy smile. "I'm just a man, and anytime a gorgeous woman starts opening her top, I react." Voice even lower, he confessed, "If I hadn't gotten away from you, I'd have done things ass-backward, shaming the agency and myself."
"What do you mean?"
His hands went suggestively to her hips as he looked down her body. "If you'd dropped your pants..." His nostrils flared with a deep breath, then he half laughed as he let it out. "It's a fact I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off you."
So even after seeing the disfiguring marks on her, marks that spread out to one of her breasts, he still wanted her?
"I'm trying to be honorable and upfront," Justice asserted. "That's what you deserve."
Fallon really needed clarification. "You weren't..." How did she ask him? "That is..."
His mouth took hers again, a little hungrier, a little less restrained. When he pulled back, he rasped, "You're killing me here, honey."
She blurted, "You want me to believe the scars didn't bother you at all?"
"They almost leveled me." He closed his arms around her, hugging her in close to his broad chest. "If I could somehow go back in time and take the hurt for you, I swear to God I would." Levering her back again, he gave her a look so serious, so stern, she held her breath. "But in no way did they make me want you any less. Hell, I'm not sure anything could."
Fallon thought of the scars, of what he'd seen and how he'd reacted, and she badly wanted to believe him.
His dark eyes stared into hers. "Tell me you want me, too, and I promise I'll prove it to you."
She nodded in quick confirmation. "I do." As soon as the words left her mouth, heat filled her cheeks. That sounded far too much like an acceptance of marriage. "I mean-"
Smiling, Justice gave her a quick smooch. "Too late to take it back now." He smoothed a hand over her hair. "We need to get going if we want to make it to Cannon's on time. You about ready?"
Oh, good grief! "We're still going there?"
"You don't want to?"
"I do!" Damn it, she'd said it again. "I just thought-"
"A bunch of nonsense, that's what you thought." His gaze moved over her, but he didn't seem repulsed by the signs of her tears either.
Apparently, nothing bothered him.
"I'd like you to get to know the guys even better, and their wives will be there again. You like everyone, right?"
"Yes. They're all very nice."
"They're the best." Obviously relieved, he brushed a thumb over the corner of her mouth and asked, "You ready to go?"
Fallon loved how he kept touching her, like he couldn't resist. He made her feel pretty, when she knew she currently looked wretched in every way possible. "No, of course I'm not ready."
As if he really didn't see it, Justice asked, "Why not?"
She had to laugh. He was such an elemental male, so accepting, that he lightened her world just by being in it. "I'm a total wreck, Justice, that's why. I have to change my wrinkled clothes and repair my face and..."
"You're beautiful," he whispered.
Those words were so soft and earnest, she could have sworn her heart melted. "Justice-"
"Every part of you, Fallon." Looking and sounding utterly sincere, he teased her lips with a butterfly kiss. "I'm going to keep saying it until you believe it."
Hand to her mouth, she half cried, half laughed. "You're nuts."
He leaned closer to whisper, "Let's blame prolonged horniness, okay?" With a light swat on her butt, he added, "Now get a move on before your folks come back to grill me again."
"Five minutes," she promised, and ran up the steps, anxious to return to him.
Today, she decided, everything would be different.
MARCUS CHECKED HIS WATCH, then stared at his two companions. He grew impatient waiting for them to negotiate the lofty proposal for their participation. "I have to get going soon." He knew they would reject his first request, but he also assumed they'd give something, even if it was more meager than what he'd asked for. In business, Marcus had always found it beneficial to start high and gradually concede, rather than start out too low.
"Meeting up with your girlfriend?" Kern Arnold, the oldest of the two brothers, asked as he closed the file he'd been perusing. Kern turned to his brother, York. "What's her name again?"
"Fallon," York supplied with a sly grin. "And she's a cutie."
"She is," Kern agreed, resting his arms on the table. "Cute, apparently smart and obviously from a good family. She's a catch, Marcus."
Marcus detested these personal questions, but he wanted the contributions Kern and York would give to the literacy fund-raiser. God knew the men could afford it.
At the MMA fights, they'd wagered twenty grand as if it were nothing, and when Kern lost to his younger brother for the third time in a row, he'd only laughed. Apparently York was on a winning streak, because he'd ribbed Kern mercilessly. Marcus was far from a pauper, but still it boggled his mind to see how easily the two men tossed around money.
With a benign smile, Marcus corrected the assumptions. "Actually, I'm meeting with Ms. Wade."
"Ah, the cutie's mom?" York asked.
"Yes." Marcus nodded to the file. "I'm working with her on the fund-raiser."
"Finding a way to edge back in, huh? Clever," Kern praised. "If the mom approves of you, the daughter will be more inclined."
"Actually," Marcus said, his jaw tensing, "I sincerely wanted to help."
York slapped him on the shoulder and laughed. "What about that big bruiser with her?"
"I told you, he's her bodyguard."
"Uh-huh." York bobbed his brows at his brother. "Looked to me like he was guarding every inch of her body."
"Seemed to be loving his job, too," Kern added with a chuckle.
More irate by the moment, Marcus held silent.
"Who was that other fighter we met? Tomahawk, right?"
Something in the way York asked that, as if he held a private secret, put Marcus on edge. He replied with a clipped, "Yes."
"Tomahawk wants the bodyguard back in the cage. Just think, if he succeeds that'll leave sweet Fallon yours for the taking." Kern gave him a steely-eyed stare. "You could swoop in and be the little darling's protector."
"He could score big," York added, "especially if she's got real need of protection."
Marcus stared at the brothers while fighting the urge to react. Though he recognized there were subtleties afoot that he didn't entirely understand, he still detested hearing the two men discuss Fallon with so little respect. Never mind that he'd screwed up; he still cared for Fallon-for her whole family-but he also wanted the security that would come from such an alliance. One way or another he'd get her back. When she was his wife, spoiled rich boys like Kern and York wouldn't dare malign her.
He forced a smile. "Fallon and I have a history. It'll work out eventually. Now, about the fund-raiser-"
"Count us in," Kern said, sliding the folder back toward him.
Terrific. More than ready to wrap it up, Marcus segued straight into his sales pitch. "If you're ready to commit an amount-"
"The proposal works fine."
Incredulous, Marcus slowly withdrew while searching their faces. Wondering if this was more bullshit, he asked, "All of it?"
"Sure."
York added, "From each of us."
Stunned, Marcus gathered his thoughts. He couldn't keep staring like an idiot. "I see." But to be sure, he opened the file and turned the final figure toward the two men. "You understand-"
Kern gently closed it again and smiled. "We understand perfectly, and we're on board."