Jambrea: AmputeeOT rocks.

Lacey: Damn, why do you type so much faster than me? I was going to say that!

Shari: Even on here you're ten times chattier than Jambi. *snort*

Lily: But still not nearly as much as my sister.

Izzy: Hey, I resemble that remark!

Jambrea: Just go to YouTube and do a search. I recommend AmputeeOT's videos to all of my patients.

Lucas: Okay, thank you! I wish I'd done my homework before.

Lily: It's not like Lucas was letting you be part of his world. If he were my guy, I'd have beat his ass by now.

Shari: Seriously, you've practically been a saint.

Izzy: Did something happen tonight? I'm getting a feeling...

Lucas: You and your feelings! No! Well, mostly not. Except for one little kiss. That's all.

It hadn't felt like such a small thing when she'd shared it with him.

Lacey: That's a huge step!

Jambrea: Was it good?

Lily: Of course it was. They're perfect for each other.

Lucas: It rocked. And now I think I should go. I want to watch some of these videos before the boys are done with their cop/spy talk.

Shari: Okay. We love you.

Izzy: STAY SAFE.

Lucas: Promise. I don't look for trouble. It finds me. J They exchanged goodbyes, then she clicked off before they could start giving her advice for getting Lucas in the sack. She'd heard it before from them. Truth was, only one person was going to make a difference there. And it wasn't her who was putting the brakes on.

Too tired to think about that, she swapped apps, planning to scroll through the archives from the YouTuber her friends had suggested. Instead of a blank search page, the browser on Lucas's tablet had several tabs open already.

She went to click for a fresh one then realized she'd stumbled across some porn he'd recently been watching. Did he sit in the tub and masturbate while watching dirty movies?

Somehow the thought made her squirm beneath the pulsing stream of the jets.

Curious, she couldn't help but peek at what turned him on. Ellie poked the gray arrow in the middle of the video box.

And nearly dropped his tablet into the tub.

Not because the page featured the romantic category of the porn-clip consolidator. Or because it was too graphic. But because the woman on-screen looked remarkably like Ellie. People on the street had stopped her before, asking for autographs, thinking she was Taylor Swift, though she didn't think they looked that much alike. Maybe in the same way close family members of twins could tell each other apart and casual acquaintances couldn't, though.

Sure, there was some resemblance.

But this girl on the screen...she looked a lot like Ellie.

"Whoa." She barely resisted the urge to slide her hand between her legs and rub the ache developing in her clit. Especially when she watched a trim, sexy man go down on her look-alike. This she could get behind.

"Still doing all right?" Lucas called from the other room.

"Yep. Fine!" she squeaked.

Guiltily, Ellie clicked off of the video. He'd been nice enough to loan her his stuff; she shouldn't invade his privacy like that. Unless...

Could he want her as badly as she wanted him?

Maybe she should say "fuck it" and jump him. Living cautiously wasn't turning out how she'd hoped so why not be kind of reckless for once? She could be the aggressor. Lily did it all the time. Maybe Ellie could too.

To distract herself from thoughts that could ruin the tentative bridge she and Lucas had been building, she flipped again, this time to the correct tab and began to scan through the AmputeeOT archives.

Engrossed, and soaking up knowledge, she didn't realize how much time had passed before a knock came on the open door.

Chapter Six.

Lucas winced as he raised his fist to knock on the partially open bathroom door. He hated to bug Ellie, but their romp through the woods had roughed up his already sore leg. He had to at least wash out his liner and clean his stump again. An infection was a setback he couldn't afford. Soaking in the tub sometimes helped the soreness too.

Besides, he was afraid Ellie might doze off when exhaustion hit her full force. Relaxed, it'd be easy for her to close her eyes and slip beneath the water.

She'd been awfully quiet for a while now. He'd listened hard for the occasional splash she made when shifting positions as he developed a strategy for unraveling the motive behind her casino debacle with the Men in Blue. That had led to fantasies of what she must look like, naked and wet, a mere dozen feet or so away from where he stood.

Damn.

Nothing wrong with his third leg.

He could blame his reactions on the aftereffects of adrenaline, which probably did legitimately amplify his attraction. Still, he'd wanted Ellie since before he'd even met her face-to-face. The pictures he'd seen of her when they'd prepared to hunt her down in Morselli's dungeon had been enough to rouse his interest, and his cock.

Ever since, he'd been doomed.

Lucas cleared his throat. "Are you okay in there?"

"Mmm..." It sounded more like a purr than agreement. "This tub is huge. I feel like I'm at a spa."

He bet she could put the jets to good use and relax herself even more. Shaking his head to clear the thought, he barked more harshly than he'd intended, "I need to get in there soon. My leg is killing me. A bath is one of the only things that helps when it gets like this."

For a moment, silence.

When he realized how rude his tone sounded, considering he'd told her to get comfortable earlier, he added, "Sorry."

It wasn't her fault that he felt so on edge around her. She ended up on the receiving end of his short fuse too often. He had to get better at that. Reining in his emotions was difficult around her, tougher than it had been with anyone before. Everything she did inspired some kind of reaction in him. Most of them as explosive as the bombs he'd rigged from time to time. Epic.

"Screw you, jerk. I'm not giving this up anytime soon." Then, so quietly he almost didn't hear, she added, "Nothing's stopping you from joining me, though. There's plenty of room."

"I'll wait." He prepared to turn around and plop onto the bed until it was his turn. He winced as he considered how much he stank and how dirty he would get the sheets she'd probably be sleeping on soon.

"Don't be so fucking stubborn!" she shouted, surprising him.

Ellie rarely lost her cool. For that matter, the only times he'd seen her blow up had been at him. Like in the hospital right after his surgery. They'd collided when visiting Izzy and Razor's son-baby Ezra-in the maternity ward. He'd lost his shit when she showed up while he was there, and he'd tried to run. Okay, so it really had been more like rolling away from her, but he'd been humiliated when she saw him in the wheelchair.

Hell, he hadn't even had real pants on, just a sheet wrapped around his waist and the giant cast covering his stump.

Lucas hadn't been ready.

He might never be.

So when she had tried to stop him, to comfort him, he'd lashed out.

Her opinion was more important than anyone's. Even his friends'. Considering why that might be wasn't high on his list of fun things to do.

Fine. If she could act like it was no big deal to lounge around naked with him, then so could he.

He collected the rations they'd brought upstairs with them, then burst into the bathroom, his leg accidentally kicking the door from perpendicular to flat against the wall hard enough that it thumped into the towel rack behind it.

Way to make an entrance.

Ellie gasped then raised her hands to cover her breasts with fistfuls of suds.

"Were you bluffing?" he asked, his head tipped as he inspected every nuance of her reactions. Her hair was damp on the ends, where it dragged in the scented bath. A pretty flush spread over her skin. She blinked up at him, her mouth parted.

Sure, he'd startled her, but she wasn't scared of him. He'd seen fear in her eyes earlier and the look she flashed him now was pretty much the opposite.

"No," she whispered.

"This is a dangerous game, Ellie," he rasped.

"So?" She shrugged one bare shoulder, pink now that she'd absorbed plenty of heat from the water.

The air was heavy, either with steam that was making him sweat as if they shared a sauna, or with the unfulfilled desire that had been arcing between them like lightning.

He bet he knew which factor was most responsible.

When all he could do was stare at her and wonder if he was making the right choice, she grew bolder, something he found really did it for him. After months of thinking of her as wounded, she kept proving how much she'd recovered. He could learn a lot from her.

"You can stay on your side and I'll stay on mine." She waved her hands through the mountain of foam floating on the bathwater. "It's not like you can see anything. And, frankly, I wouldn't give a crap if you could. I've been on display in front of a roomful of men before. Guys who didn't look at me with even a modicum of respect. So I'm pretty sure I can handle being naked with you."

Lucas hung his head. It filled him with rage to know what she'd endured. But also with fear. Because he didn't know if he was as strong as her.

"What if I can't? Stand the thought of you looking at my leg, I mean?" He cleared his throat.

Her gaze snapped to his. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah." He'd never hesitated to shed his clothes before. He'd always been proud of his body. Sure that he attracted women. Hell, there were times in his younger days that he'd taken two or three at a time home with him, and had no problems satisfying them all.

Somehow, this was different. Higher stakes.

His scars were ugly. Something he'd taken for granted had changed forever. Irreversibly.

That was hard to swallow.

"Take your shirt off," Ellie demanded.

Well, that wasn't an issue.

He set the fruit, water and cheese on the surround. Then he grabbed the hem of his T-shirt. With one smooth motion, he stripped it over his head before wadding it up and tossing it into his hamper, hardly looking.

Naked didn't usually bother him. In fact, he liked to walk around nude, and even sunned himself on the boat on lazy summer afternoons, soaking up the sun's rays like a lizard on a rock in the desert. Plus, he was more cut than he'd ever been. Lean and defined. No matter how much he ate, it seemed he burned off the fuel during his therapy and workouts.

Not to mention the extra effort it took to do even simple things.

"You're the most gorgeous man I've ever seen," Ellie murmured as she studied his chest and the array of colorful tattoos decorating it.

"Uh, thanks, I guess." He laughed nervously.

"What?"

"I've had women call me sexy or handsome or a stud, never gorgeous." He shook his head. "I think that description suits you more than me."

"I noticed you seem to have a thing for tall, scrawny blondes with blue eyes and super-red lipstick. I'm not sure I own quite that shade, but I could bum some off Lily if that's your thing." She peeked innocently up at him from beneath her thick lashes.

It took him a second...

Then it hit him. "Holy fuck."

Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger.

She'd just called him out for his porn selections. Why the hell hadn't he remembered what he'd used that damn tablet for last? He really must be slipping. Either that or, on some subconscious level, he'd wanted to show Ellie just how smoking he thought she was since she didn't seem to realize it herself.

"I could say it's not what it looks like." A coward, he wasn't. Usually. Especially not when she looked up at him like he was about to pop her favorite balloon or something. "But, yeah, I think you're hot and I've imagined what we would be like in bed together. A lot."

She beamed up at him, scooting closer so that she could fold her arms on top of the surround. Her chest pressed against the side of the tub, making the most of what she had, which was surprisingly curvy on her willowy frame. He tried not to get turned on, considering he planned to shuck his pants in the very near future.

"Want some help with those?" She reached toward the button on his jeans, like a snippet from his own personal dirty movie, if he could have made whatever he desired reality.

When he jerked back, he lost his balance, nearly busting his ass. Time slowed and he saw his life flash before his eyes. Wouldn't it suck to bash his head in and die without having enjoyed one last dip in a jetted tub with a gorgeous and willing woman?