Her heart was beating so hard, she was sure he could feel it through her. He loved her -- forever, he loved her -- and despite how often she'd been hurt, despite how scarred her own heart happened to be, she still believed him, though she knew that it would be wiser to be cautious and to guard against... but no. No, she did believe him, and she believed him completely.
But that didn't mean that she wasn't also overwhelmed at the same time. Just moments ago, she'd been fighting not to tell him she was falling for him. Just moments ago, she'd learned that he was a vigilante, protecting the innocent from those things the law couldn't prevent. She felt like her head was spinning.
Maybe that's why she pushed him gently away from her in the next minute. The need to get her feet back under her, the need to feel not-so-out-of-control.... She pushed him backward, backward until his back was on the bed again. Rose took the time to adjust the pillow under his head, but that was the only thing that stopped her. Then she found his hands and pinned his wrists against the mattress with her own hands.
She should have been able to say something back to him. She knew she was missing this. She knew it, she knew it, she knew she should say something back to him - maybe the words she'd choked back at least twice tonight already - but instead she nuzzled the side of his neck with her cheek. Instead, she slid down over his body, skimming the changes in his skin with her lips and tongue - smooth, scar, smooth. Her teeth nipped at his hipbone, until she was so far from his wrists that she had to let him go. Her hands went instead to his waist. She kissed the inside of his thigh, very high. There was a small scar there, too. Of all the places.