“I’m not upset with you.” He wrinkled his nose. “I am at a loss for words though, so excuse me if this sounds stupid.”

Melanie wiggled upright. “What?”

Derrick’s smile had a guilty twist to it. “Mel, you know I find you attractive, but I’m not the only one. Nate thinks you’re pretty incredible as well.”

Air stuck in her throat. “You… How do you know that?”

The guilty expression spread, becoming more obvious. “We talked about it.”

Holy shit. The guys she’d hung around with on the climbing team had talked about girls all the time, but it was locker-room talk. Conquests and game plans. Surely Derrick and Nathan were above that kind of thing. And why was Derrick looking so sheepish?

“You talked about me? What specifically did you discuss?”

A hand brushed her neckline, and she startled, nearly falling off Derrick’s lap. Two sets of hands caught her, Derrick’s familiar touch on her hips.

Nathan’s firm grasp on her shoulders.

“We talked about the fact I can’t keep my eyes off of you.” Nathan stood close behind her body, heat from his torso making her insides squirm. He loosened his clasp and slid his fingers down her arms, the light stroke causing a reaction in her core similar to putting flame to kindling.

Derrick pulled her hips in tighter until her sex rested against the very apparent ridge of his arousal. “I told him how important you are to me, and he shared how much you’ve meant to him. As a friend, and someone he greatly admires.”

Melanie wasn’t sure if she was holding her breath, or if her body was incapable of performing the simple tasks necessary to survival. When Derrick dipped his head, brushing his lips against hers, his kiss gave her something to cling to. She accepted the worship of his mouth even as her mind spun.

The vulnerable sensation rippling through her body had nothing to do with her past injuries. It had everything to do with the rising lust she seemed helpless to resist, the yearning to be caressed by the two men who mattered the most.

A warm hand slipped across her belly, palm in full contact, and she froze. Nathan was touching her. He delicately circled her bare belly button—she had taken out the ring for climbing—before pulling his fingers back to wrap them around her waist. Settling directly on top of her scarred skin.

Oh my God.

Instant fear surfaced, even though she had buried it under layers and layers of barriers. Bile rose to her mouth, in anticipation of the coming agony. Any second now Nathan was going to recoil in disgust, and his response would rip her soul in two. A blur passed in front of her eyes as she waited for the dagger to stab into her heart.

“Breathe, Mel. Come on, I’m here, holding you. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Derrick’s voice dragged her back from the wall of anxiety that had rushed up, blocking all possible escape routes but sheer panic. She took a deliberate breath of air through her nose before lifting her gaze to his.

He remained waiting like a rock, something solid to cling to. Still, the mixture of terror and desire clouding her brain made concentration difficult. “He’s t-t-touching me.”

Derrick nodded. “If you like it, he’ll continue to touch you. But only if you want.”

“You’re a very desirable woman, Melanie.” Nathan swept his hand over her abdomen again, ranging higher this time. The tips of his fingers brushed the underside of her breasts and sent jolts of excitement to her nipples, her core.

In spite of the ache in her body, she needed to know. Her heart was fragile—even more fragile than her body had been three years ago as she lay crumpled at the bottom of the hill. Melanie spoke her fears. “I don’t understand. Derrick—what’s happening? Are we not a couple anymore?”

“Oh, Mel.” Derrick cupped her face in his hands. “No, that’s not it at all. I need you, I want you, and have no intention of letting you go. But I also care enough about you to give you what you need.”

“What I need?” Another gentle pass of Nathan’s hand over her sensitive skin caused a shiver that consumed her entire body. “You think I need…Nathan?”

Derrick soothed her, hands and lips petting her softly. “You tell me.”

Sunlight wavered around them, the tall trees swaying in the breeze making the shadows dance around the clearing. It was the most peaceful of settings, and she closed her eyes and soaked in the serenity around her to force out the fears rocking her world.

Sexually aroused, emotionally anxious—and stunned by what she grew more certain was love shining in Derrick’s eyes.

Melanie twisted until she sat sideways in his lap, both legs dangling to the side. She glanced behind them where Nathan squatted. There was no mistaking the heated interest in his expression as his gaze roamed over her body.

Derrick thought she needed Nathan. Did she? Her first response to him touching her scars had been worlds apart from her reaction earlier in the gym, and on the bouldering wall. Instead of a rush of desire, she’d felt dread.

Why? Why the change?

Because he’d made actual contact. That’s when she’d been rejected before.

She touched Derrick’s face. “You want me to let him touch my scars. To prove that they don’t mean anything.”

“To prove your attractiveness is far more than skin-deep.”

Even as fast as her heart fluttered, there was a twist of irony in the setup. “This seems a radical form of therapy.”

Derrick bumped his nose against her cheek, breathing from the vee of her neck. The warm puff of his breath slid down her skin like a delicious secret. He spoke for her ears alone. “Doing is much better proof than discussing for hours. I’ll be right here, and you can say stop whenever you want. Kiss him if you want, touch him, allow him to touch you.” He pulled back, staring possessively at her lips. His tone dropped, thick with lust. “And when you’ve had enough, I’m making love to you until you lose all doubts about how desirable you are.”

She squeezed her legs together at the instant response his promise created in her body.

“Do you understand?”

Melanie nodded slowly. It was preposterous. Fantastic. Slightly mad.

Derrick paused. “If this is what you want, it’s up to you to take it.”

Brilliant. There would be no chance down the road she could claim this was something she’d felt pressured into. If she wanted, she could act. Make it her decision to step forward to prove herself attractive to more than just one man.

A rush of self-reproach hit. Why wasn’t being attractive to Derrick enough? He’d been so consistent and caring, and she still hadn’t been able to move beyond her limitations. Melanie lifted her lips to his and accepted his kiss. Hard for a moment, both of them affirming their connection, needing proof of it. Derrick eased back, a questioning expression on his face as he waited for her decision.

Having Derrick in her life was the start of healing, but she still felt caged. And it was past time to fix this problem.

This offer—to try and break the final chains that wrapped her in bondage—it was as if a lifeline was being stretched to her. Even though her limbs trembled, she turned to face Nathan, because she damn well needed this for her soul.

“Monkey?” Nathan’s knuckles were white where he’d dug his fingers into his thighs as he waited a few feet away. The grass lay crumpled under his knees, a smear of dirt along the edge of his shorts. Patient, and oh-so masculine. No longer the young man she’d lusted after before she even knew what lust was.

She shook her head, casting aside all her childish connections. “I’m not a monkey anymore. I grew up.” And the grown-up woman had needs the teenage fantasy couldn’t answer.

But the man before her could.

Nathan’s response was a skin-tingling, body-melting smile. “I noticed.”

She shuffled forward on Derrick’s lap, the firm base of his thighs giving her a chair-like base to rest upon that allowed her feet to touch the ground. With one hand she reached for Nathan, and he moved to accept it.

His fingers were less callused than Derrick’s. Not soft, but not the hands of a climber. With her wrist captured, Nathan rotated his hand, delicately holding her palm upward in the circle of his fingers.

“Derrick is right. You can say stop at anytime. I find you very attractive, Melanie Dixon, and I can’t wait to prove it. In detail.”

She couldn’t tear her gaze away. He seemed fascinated with the tendons in her wrist, tracing them with the fingertips of his other hand, inching his way up the sensitive skin of her arm until he made contact with the inside of her elbow. Traveling in conjunction with his touch was a freaky sensation somewhere between being tickled and being held at the edge of a rocking orgasm.

Was it possible to climax without a single sexual touch?

“I want to kiss you, Mel.”

He waited for her response, his long dark lashes that she’d envied as a teen lazily fluttering as he stared at her mouth.

A kiss would be good. If she remembered how to talk, she would tell him that. Instead, she managed a nod, and his smile arrived right on cue. He released her wrist, slipping one hand all the way up until he cradled her neck. His other hand dropped to rest feather-light on her thigh.

Nathan leaned in until his mouth made contact with hers, tracing his tongue over her bottom lip tentatively. Even as she pressed closer for more, Derrick’s firm grasp reassured her, his thumbs stroking slowly back and forth over the curve of her hipbones, adding to the desire rocking her core.