Matt reached behind him, clasping Katie’s wrist and tugging on her until she crawled around to the front of him and was straddling his lap. She dropped her face into the side of his neck, afraid of seeing disgust in his eyes.

“Look at me, Hunter.” He curved his hand along her jaw and forced her head back until he could look in her eyes. “Do you still do it?”

“No.” She released a shaky breath as she looked into his eyes, which were filled with concern only.

“Why are you crying?”

“Because I’m afraid you aren’t going to like me anymore.” She began to bite her lower lip.

He leaned in and kissed her, his lips brushing softly over hers. “I still like you,” he whispered against her mouth. He kissed her again, this kiss longer and deeper than the first as his tongue dipped into her mouth. Katie wrapped her arms around his neck as she kissed him back, her body melting into his.

After a few minutes he broke the kiss, resting his forehead against hers as he breathed in and out deeply. “Show me.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. She couldn’t show him. It was too humiliating.

“Show me,” he repeated. He gripped her hips and slid her off his lap and onto the couch beside him.

She shakily came to her feet, undoing her jeans and pushing them down over her butt. Her back was to him as she tugged down the right side of her panties to reveal the five tiny scars approximately a quarter inch in length running down the center of her right butt cheek.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I guess it kind of made me feel better.”

One of his hands clasped the side of her hip, his fingers curling around her exposed skin, while the index finger of his other hand traced the scars. “What did you use?”

“A tack.”

“When was the last time?”

“I don’t know. At least ten months ago.”

“Do you ever think about doing it again?”

“Never.” She breathed in as his finger continued to caress her skin. “I didn’t want to do it. I told my grandma, and that’s why I saw the psychiatrist.”

He tugged up her panties and then her jeans before pulling her back onto his lap, his arms wrapping around her from behind. “You don’t ever have to be embarrassed with me,” he said. He cradled her in his arms for minutes, occasionally running his lips over the back of her neck. “I could really fall for you, Hunter, you know that?”

She ran one of her hands over the arms encircling her. “I hope so, because I’ve already fallen for you.”