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his chest and stomach. Ashbea let the shirt drop to the floor. She reached out and touched one deep gouge on his chest. Whatever happened to him had to have been painful. Ashbea felt the tears prick at her eyes as her fingertips traced that ragged scar down to the next.
    “ Ashbea …” Harry closed his hand over hers.
    She lifted her face to him. “You can tell me or not. The thing is, Harry, I want you. The whole man. These scars are a part of you. I need to touch and feel and understand you.” The ill-matched pieces of the man were starting to fall haphazardly into place. He was scarred not only physically but mentally and he allowed his scars to dictate his life. Well, not anymore and not with me. “Please, Harry.” Ashbea lifted his hand from hers.
    Harry nodded, his lips a thin line of control. “This is not the most private place to do this.”
    “As far as I’m concerned, no one else exists except you and me.” And a convention center full of screaming, stumbling women but Ashbea could ignore them when she was with Harry. She wasn’t silly. She knew what this was costing him. Trusting someone with something that cut so deep like this was a big thing to ask. Ashbea worked at removing his pants. She wanted to see the whole man. Harry didn’t move other than to kick off his shoes and lift his feet to allow his trousers to be removed.
    Ashbea stood back, her eyes running over his body. Whatever accident he had been in had been horrific. Just thinking off the pain he had endured made her admire the man more. Although he hid his scars, Harry did not use them for pity either. He was proud and Ashbea loved him. She stiffened slightly as that realization hit her. Good God, I love him! It didn’t scare her as much as she thought it might. It just made sense. Problem was sense did not always mean people were meant to stay together.
    “You’re beautiful, Harry.” Ashbea ran her hands down his chest to his hips and thighs. So much damage yet so much beauty.
    “I’m hardly that.”
    “You’ve made yourself blind to the obvious,” she told him. “Did you think I would be shocked or horrified? If positions were reversed would you think less of me?”
    “No, but—”
    “But what? You’ve been badly wounded but that doesn’t stop you being a gorgeous, sexy man.” It was the truth. Harry was the hottest man Ashbea had ever clapped eyes on. His firm muscled flesh and six-pack abs and hard pecs made her mouth water. “And you know what? I’m not one of those women who’ll be happy to be kept in the dark and then pushed away after one quick tumble. I deserve more.”
    “I know that.”
    “Good.” Ashbea wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. There was nothing sexual in it. This was about understanding and believing in someone. Harry’s arms held her so tightly that Ashbea could almost feel the pain he had endured. How lonely had he been? She looked up into his eyes. “Stand still.”
    “Why?”
    “Just do it.” She dropped her hands from his waist and leaned in and licked the long, jagged scar on his chest. Ashbea felt the shiver run through him. She smiled. Ashbea planned to make him shiver all over. She let her tongue move down to the next scar, lapping the flesh as if to heal it with her mouth. It may have been crazy but it was something she wanted to do. Ashbea wanted to love the body of the man she loved.
    Harry lifted her face up to his. “If you are going to do that to every scar it’s going to take forever, bumblebee.”
    “Maybe.” She kissed the ragged edge of a wound on his stomach. The crisscross of scars went right down his body. She was determined to taste them all. Maybe I want forever with you.
    “I have a better idea.” Harry lifted her into his arms and carried her over to a table. “Though this is not the most romantic place.”
    “Isn’t it?” Did it matter when you were in love with someone? Not that Ashbea would tell Harry that. He would probably think her