like being suspended in time and space for Anna. The piercing anticipation had to be the most delicious sensation she had ever experienced and she clung to it, knowing that it would end very soon. Wanting it to end so that she could feel Luke inside her. Touching parts of her body that had never felt so hollow. Reaching places that weren’t even physical.
She just knew he would be able to touch her soul.
Passion so intense had to explode and burn out in a dramatic climax and if that had been the end of it, it would have been incredibly satisfying on a physical level. Even better was that Luke smiled at Anna when they finally caught their breath.
‘Now we can really get to know each other,’ he promised.
And they did. A slow exploration of each other’s bodies. A shaping of muscles on Anna’s part with a compliment on how fit he must be. A tracing of Anna’s breast with a single finger that ran across the flatness of her stomach to her belly button.
‘You are beautiful,’ Luke told her.
She found the scars on Luke’s leg and he tried to move her hand but she resisted.
‘They’re part of you, Luke,’ she said gently. ‘Don’t hide. Please.’
He went very still as she touched the misshapen muscle of his thigh and the lumpy ridges of the scars.
‘Ugly, isn’t it?’ he ground out finally.
‘No. They tell me that you have courage. That you’re different.’ Anna propped herself up on one elbow to look down at Luke. Even in this half-light she could see the shadows in his eyes that were part of the scars she had just been touching. What she could feel on his leg was nothing compared to the scars that had to be still hidden.
‘Special,’ she added in a whisper, leaning down to kiss him. She tried to put what she couldn’t put into words into that kiss. To tell him that she accepted him for who he was. With scars. That she had courage too. That she could be trusted.
They made love again and this time it was slow and sweet and, in its wake, Anna fell asleep in Luke’s arms, drifting off in a cloud of utter contentment. Of promise. Of a hope so compelling it was safer to go to sleep than contemplate the notion that it might be unjustified.
She woke some time later to find herself alone in a strange bed. She lay there, listening, but the house had that peculiar kind of silence that told her she was alone within these walls. Turning her head, she caught the glow of a digital, bedside clock. It was 3 a.m. Where on earth was Luke?
Taking the rumpled sheet with her to wrap around her body, Anna climbed from the bed. Instinct took her straight to the window and she stared out, the way she had when she’d first entered this room. For a long minute it was too dark to see anything. Then the moon emerged from thick cloud and she saw him. On the beach.
Running.
How could he be doing that? Not just because it was the middle of the night and it had to be well below zero out there, but how hard would it have to be to do that, in soft sand, on a leg that was damaged enough to make him limp at a fast walking pace or put him in noticeable pain when he had to stand for any length of time?
He was more driven than Anna had suspected and it was disturbing. Maybe he wasn’t driving himself towards something. Maybe he was trying to run away.
He came back to the bed a while later, warm and fresh from a hot shower, and when he reached for Anna, she was happy to sacrifice further sleep to make love yet again. This time, however, there was an edge that hadn’t been there before. Concern for Luke. The knowledge that she was with a deeply troubled man.
When daylight broke, Luke was absent from the bed again but Anna knew where to look. He wasn’t running on the beach this time. She could see the dark shape striding into the surf. Diving into a breaking wave further out and then surfacing to swim, with a strong, steady stroke, parallel to the sand.
She had showered and dressed by the time Luke returned to the house. She saw him coming up the path in his wetsuit, carrying dripping flippers in one hand. His face registered surprise.
‘You’re not going to stay for breakfast?’
‘I’d better not. I need to collect Crash and I’ve got a huge list of things I want to get done on my day off. If I can finish the painting and get the windowsills sanded and varnished, I can put my bedroom back together properly tonight.’
‘Shall I come over after work and give you a hand?’
Anna hesitated. She could decline the offer and send a signal that she wanted to slow down whatever was happening between them. If she accepted, it would take them to a new level. The start of a relationship instead of a one-night stand.
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