A Part of Me (5 page)

“Ready?”  I knocked on the door. 

“Shit Talia, I don’t see how this is going to work.”   He said through the closed door.

“Tom, do you have your swimsuit on?”  I asked.

“Yes, but…” 

I opened the door to see him standing with the help of the walker.  He wearing his swimsuit, and I froze.  The man was exquisite!  Muscles that rippled down his arms, his flat stomach and strong legs. 
Holy hell!
  “Um, this should help.”  I pointed to the shower seat.

“Let me guess…connections right?” He smiled briefly.

I put the seat in the middle of the large stand up shower and motioned him over.  After he sat down I knelt and wrapped the plastic around his stump.  “Ready?”  I stood up and waited for his approval.  After her nodded, I turned around, dropped my robe outside the door and turned on the water.  I held the detachable shower head away from us until the water warmed up and then turned back to face Tom.

“Are you okay?”  I asked, noticing his jaw was tight and he was gripping the handles of the seat.  “Are you in pain?”  He closed his eyes and shook his head.  “You want me to continue?”  I asked.

When he nodded, I took the warm spray slowly over his shoulders and stepped behind him.  “Lean your head back.”  I sprayed his hair and handed him the shower head to hold while I washed his hair, taking extra care around the healing cut on his head.  I gently massaged the shampoo into his scalp, rubbing soft circles around the base of his neck.  I heard him groan and my body responded all the way down to my core. I took the shower head back from him and rinsed his hair.

I wet his back, taking the body wash and rubbing it between my hands.  With careful strokes, I rubbed it over his shoulders and back.  Adding more to my hands, I moved around to the front of him.  I paused to take in his beautiful face.  His eyes were closed and his full lips were slightly parted.  I had to hold myself back from leaning in and capturing them with mine. 
Why had I never kissed him before?
  All those times we spent wrapped in each other’s arms dancing.  It would have been so natural.

I took my hands and began rubbing the body wash over his chest.  I shuddered with the feeling of his hot, wet skin.  His eyes opened with a harsh rush of his breath.  We stared into each other’s eyes as I leaned in closer to him, rubbing and washing his torso, dragging my hand softly over his healing incision, watching as he sucked in a sharp breath.  My face was so close to his that I could feel his warm breath on my skin and I could think of nothing else but kissing him.  I knelt down and rubbed soap into his legs, finally breaking eye contact so I could watch what I was doing.

I was not prepared for the blatant evidence of his arousal pressing against his shorts.  It sent a pull from my stomach all the way to my toes.  I tried to focus on his legs, believe me I did, but
holy shit
he was hiding something pretty damn impressive behind those shorts and it was leaving very little to the imagination.

“Talia?”  His voice was low and soft.  I looked up and could see the desire, mirroring mine, in Tom’s eyes. 

I pulled myself up off of my knees and leaned in toward him, my body so very close to betraying me. “Yes Tom?”

I could see an obvious internal struggle going on with him happening right in front of me.  One minute he was looking at me like he would devourer me and the next minute he was asking me to get him out.

I finished rinsing him without touching him again, knowing that whatever electric energy we had between us was gone for now.  After turning off the water I pulled a towel down and helped him dry himself, carefully removing the plastic bags from his stump and arm, before returning to his room for some clothes.  I could tell he didn’t want me to stay and help him get dressed and I wanted to put some much needed distance between us, so I excused myself and headed back to the guest room to get dressed.

Sitting on the bed, I put my head in my hands and groaned. 
What the hell am I doing?
  I’m here to help Tom get better and all I could think about was climbing on for the ride of my life.  It obviously had been way to long since I’d had the touch of a man. 

My dating life had never been dull.  I somehow had taken a break over the past weeks.  For the first time in a very long time I was having a good time with only one man.  The sad thing was that I wasn’t even having sex with him.  At this rate I may need to change my Facebook status to “Batteries dead” from overuse.

This was going to be a long three weeks!

Chapter 8

Tom

“Shit.” 

I struggled into my sweats and a t-shirt.  I grabbed onto my knee walker and headed out into the living room.

“You okay?”  I looked over and saw Talia standing in the kitchen, looking at me cautiously.  She was biting her bottom lip nervously.  What I would give to bite that lip myself.

“Yeah.  I’m good.  I don’t want to sit in bed all day though.”  I smiled.  There was tension in the air and I felt bad for making it that way.  I wanted Talia with every part of me, but I wasn’t about to trap her into something that she didn’t need to be in.  I could see the desire in her eyes, and it killed me to not act on it, but I was broken in so many ways right now.  She deserved better than this.

I sat down on the couch as she brought me a glass of juice and my meds, taking a minute to tuck the dangling part of my sweats up around my stump.  “Thanks.”  I turned as she was walking away. “Talia?  I…um…”  Before I could get anything out, the doorbell rang.

“Hey!  Look who dragged his sorry ass out of bed?”  Nick came in with an arm full of beer and wine.  “Nothing says ‘I mean business’ like using a shopping cart at the liquor store.”  He put the alcohol in the fridge and headed over to the couch, smiling huge.

“What’s with the shit eating grin Nick?”  I asked, shaking my head.  

“Oh come on, tell me this face doesn’t make you smile!”  He laughed, motioning at his face.

“Your face is just fine, but you'll have to put a bag over that personality.”  Talia said as she came and sat down with us, winking at me.

“Nice.”  I smiled and nodded.  I loved her sarcasm, especially when it was aimed at Nick.  Trevor and I had spent years dealing with his obnoxious behavior, and it was so nice to see someone on his level.  I think he secretly liked the banter between himself and Talia.

“What have you two been up to this morning?”  He looked between the both of us.

I looked at Talia and smiled.  Nick would shit himself if I told him we had taken a shower together—even with bathing suits.

“Not much.”  I shrugged.

“Nice wheels Tom!”  Nick pointed at my walker.  “I bet you’ll be picking up all the girls with those!”

I laughed.  “Yeah, don’t be jealous, their all mine.”  What are you doing here in the middle of the day?”  

“It wasn’t very busy, so I took some work home with me.  I thought I’d come hang out here for a bit, make sure Talia was taking good care of you.”  He grinned and for a minute I thought he might have seen right through me.

“Hey, if you’re going to be here for a bit, I need to run a couple of errands.” Talia stood and slipped down the hall.  A few minutes later she came out with her damp hair pulled up into a ponytail and a pair of jeans that hugged her ass like a glove.  Nick was blatantly checking her out.  She said her goodbyes and left, leaving us both staring after her.

“Could you try not to ogle her dumbass?”  I hissed, feeling like a jerk when he looked at me with a shocked expression.

“Okay, first of all, I’ve been ogling Talia since the first time we met her.  Second, when did you get so possessive of her?  Is there something I should know?”  He stood up and walked to the refrigerator, getting us each a bottle of water.

“No.  Sorry man, I’m just a bit edgy.”  I blew it off, hoping he would buy it for now.  I couldn’t explain what was going on to him when I didn’t even know myself.

We spent the next few hours watching TV, talking and me dozing in and out.  It was nice to have Nick here to just shoot the shit with and not have to worry about anything.  Nick and Trevor were the best friends I could have ever asked for.  We all just clicked, like we’d known each other our entire lives. 

When my parents died, they stepped up when so many others stepped back.  They took me into their families without a second thought, and had stood by me in every aspect of my life.  It should be no surprise that this situation would be no different.

“Knock, knock!”  We turned around to see Trevor and Ava come through the door with their hands full of food from the Italian restaurant down the street that we all love so much.

“Thank god you’re here!  I’m starving!”  Nick stood up and rushed over to help them set up the table just as Talia came back in.

“Hey! This is great! Tom will never feel better if he has to survive on my cooking.”  She jumped in and helped get everything ready as I sat there doing nothing.

I pulled myself up and used my walker to roll to the table, clearly impressing everyone. 
It was pathetic
.

***

The week had gone by without any huge issues.  Talia arranged for me to start physical therapy to strengthen my legs and arms to prepare me for my prosthesis eventually.  The exercises were tough and had made my muscles sore.  I tried not to complain, mostly because I was sick of Talia treating me like I was a child.  The whole situation had emasculated me.

I had managed to not appear too needy until Sunday night when I woke with excruciating pain in my absent foot again.  I was so sick of hearing about phantom pain.  I was just fucking losing it, and it just pissed me off!

By the time Talia came in my room, I had sweat dripping down my face from the pain. “Shit Tom!  Why didn’t you call for me?”  She climbed on the bed, looking at me.

“I’m fine, it just is hurting a bit.”  I lied through my gritted teeth.

“Shut up!  I’m not stupid Tom.  I can see how much pain you’re in just by looking at you.”  She went to the bathroom and came back with a wet wash cloth.  She gently ran it over my forehead and then across the back of my neck.

“Lay back.”  She commanded.  I didn’t argue, I was in too much discomfort to do so.  “Close your eyes Tom.”  She began to rub my legs like she had before, talking to me as she trailed her hands over them, massaging and squeezing as she moved lower.  I did my best to visualize my healthy leg like before, but the pain didn’t disappear entirely this time. 

“Shit Talia.  It still hurts, not as bad, but still.”  I gritted my teeth.

I felt her move away from the side of my legs briefly before feeling her straddle my hips.  I opened my eyes to see her peering down at me.  “Shit, what are you doing?”  I groaned.  “Is this a new technique?” I instantly felt myself get hard beneath her hips. I knew she could tell too.  There was no hiding it in this position.

“You leave me no choice.”  She whispered as she lowered her face to mine, pausing inches above my face briefly, looking me in the eyes as she lowered her mouth to mine, kissing me with bittersweet fervor.  It took me only a second to get lost in her, feeding from the sweetness of her mouth.  I ran my tongue across her lips, sweeping inside as her soft, wet lips parted.  Our tongues danced and curled around each other’s, lost in the long drugging kiss. 

She pressed her hips down, grinding herself against my arousal, causing an involuntary moan to escape from my mouth.  I could feel her smile against my lips before she sucked my bottom lip into her mouth, nipping it with her teeth before releasing it and pulling back.  “How’s your leg?”  She whispered, gazing at me.  Her beautiful swollen lips fixed into a slight smile.

“What leg?”  I mumbled.  She threw her head back and laughed before leaning down and placing another kiss on my lips.

“God, I’ve wanted to do that all week Tom.”  She pressed her forehead against mine.

“Thank you.  That was more than amazing, but now you’ve managed to transfer the ache from one area of my body to another.”  I joked, pressing myself up so she could tell exactly what I was referring to.  She giggled as she rolled off of my lap and curled herself next to me.

“Would you like me to rub that too?”  She raised her eyebrows at me, causing my thick hardness to strain against my shorts. 
Holy shit!  Was she serious?
I decided to call her bluff.

“Would you mind?”  I asked in my sweetest voice.

She answered my challenge by reaching under the sheet, never breaking eye contact, taking hold of my full throbbing erection.  I sucked in a quick breath, savoring the warm touch of her soft hand. “Damn Talia!”  I rasped, closing my eyes. “You...holy shit…you don’t have to do this.”

“I know I don’t
have
to do this, but do you
want
me to do this?” She whispered in my ear.  Her warm breath sending chills through my body.  At this rate it wouldn’t take long.  She was making me come completely unglued.  

“Oh god yes, Talia. 
Please
.”  I groaned as she squeezed me firmly before she started stroking me with fine, subtle, circling movements.  I couldn’t lay still.  My breathing was sharp and uneven.  I started thrusting—rocking into her grip.   “Shit! Shit!”  I groaned as I arched and cried her name, spilling myself into her hand.  I lay there shuddering in breaths of gasping completion as she rolled off the bed and went into the bathroom. 

I heard the water running and moments later she returned with a warm wash cloth.  She carefully and meticulously cleaned me off before taking the wash cloth back to the bathroom.  She turned off the light and climbed back into the bed next to me.  “Are you okay Tom?”  She asked softly. 

“You have no idea.”   I pulled her into me and kissed her softly on the head. 

“How’s your pain?”  She asked as she snuggled into the crook of my right arm.

“I’m perfect Talia.  Thank you.  Next time it’s your turn, okay?”  How in the hell did we get here?  Could this woman be any more perfect?  The thoughts I’d had of her didn’t even compare to the reality.