“All I knew was that we were slipping and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. I reached for a handhold, anything, but grabbed nothing but air. I kept saying to myself, ‘Come on, Kwon, do something. Stop this. Prevent this from happening’. I was powerless.”

“And you hated that.”

“Yes.”

Jiyong sighed as he mindlessly run his fingers through Skyler’s hair, which was spread out over his chest like a blanket.

“Were you in pain?” Talking about his accident was therapeutic. As difficult as it was for him, Sky had encouraged him to verbally air his feelings about it.

“I don’t think so. I don’t remember having any pain then. Maybe I was in shock.”

“Probably.”

“I drifted in and out of consciousness. I couldn’t see either of my friends but I remember calling their names and getting no answer. I think I cried.”

Sky held him tight for several moments. He cleared his throat before speaking again.

“The next memory I have is of the helicopter carrying me to the hospital. The racket was terrible. I sense the urgency in the people around me. When I fully regained consciousness, I was told that I’d surgery to repair the broken bones in my back.”

“I’m very sorry,” she told him as she laid a loving kiss on his chest. “It must have been a terrifying experience.

“I don’t remember being scared so much as I was angry. It was happening to me and I couldn’t quite believe that. I had so much I still wanted to do with my life,” Jiyong shook his head in befuddlement.

“I know that was as crazy thing to be thinking at the time but that’s what was going through my mind.”

“You felt, ‘How unfair,’ right?”

He laid his hand heavily on her head.

“Yeah. That’s it in a nutshell. Tragedies were supposed to happen to other people. Not to me, Kwon Jiyong. I heard hard luck stories on the news but I went on with my life untouched and unscathed. Doesn’t make me sound like a very nice fellow, does it?”

Skyler stacked her fists on his bone and propped her chin on top of them. Gazing up at him, she said, “It makes you normal. That’s what everybody in your predicament feels like. The ‘why me?’ syndrome. And it’s justified. Why you?”

His expression was reflective. “I don’t know. Was God favoring me or punishing me? I though about that a lot when I first regained consciousness. Why was I the one who survived?”

“Don’t feel guilty for surviving. Ah… You already have,” Skyler said, reading his rueful expression correctly. “Sometimes the survivors have the hardest time of it.”

“I though about that too. Especially before I was brought here. I hate lying there in the hospital, helpless, in pain, unable to move, afraid.”

“What were you most afraid of?”

Jiyong thought for a moment before answering.

“I was afraid of never being me, Kwon Jiyong, again. I felt like I’d been robbed not only of the ability to move but of my whole identity.”

“That’s symptomatic of your condition too.” Sky kissed him lightly on the lips.

“What is that? You have an odd smile on your face.”

“I know this sounds stupid but I was embarrassed too. The first time they put me on that,” he made a descriptive motion with his hands.

“The tilt table.”

“Yeah. That. I threw up all over myself. Imagine, Kwon Jiyong, CEO of the worldwide Kwon Hotel chain, disgracing himself like that.”

Sky inched upwards and kissed him again, more soundly this time. “You were the only one there who was unsympathetic with your condition.”

“I know. I gave everyone a hard time.”

“No foolin’.”

Jiyong laughed but became serious again.

“One of my character flaws is that I have no tolerance for personal failings.”

“You have no tolerance of things beyond your control, Dragon.”

He looked down his nose at her. “I think you fall into that category. You’re way beyond my control.”

Sky giggled. “That’s why you don’t like me.”

“Oh I like you.” He spoke with a soft earnestness that immediately captured her attention.

“You do? Since when?”

“Since… I don’t know.”

“Bet I know. You started liking me when I stripped off your shorts and jumped on your bones.”

“No. I mean, yes, I like that part. A lot,” he said with a lecherous twinkle in his eyes. “But it just occurred to me a second ago that I like you, the person too.”

“Why?”

“I guess because you’ve patiently listened while I’ve talked about the accident.”

Her fingertips rimmed his lips. “I’m glad you shared it with me. You’ve needed to talk it out with someone. They told me that you refused counseling in the hospital.”

Jiyong shrugged. “I felt like a dope.”

“You’re too tough to ask for help, right?” She asked it teasingly enough to make him smile.

“Thanks for listening and for not making judgment, Sky.”

“You’re welcome.”

He reached up and curled a wisp of her hair around his finger.

“We’ve gotten into some heavy subject matter here but I find it hard to wax philosophic when a y woman is sprawled across my bell.”

“Do you now?”

“Hmm.” He regarded with open curiosity and interest. “But, now that I’ve revealed all my secrets to you, let’s turn the tables. Tell me why and how.”

Assuming a casual air, Sky lightly plucked at his earlobe. “Why and how what?”

“Why you’re still a ?”

“How soon you forget.”

Jiyong frowned at her. “Why you’re still a and how that’s even possible.”

“Technically, it’s possible because I’ve never had a consummated relationship.”

“That answers the second half of the question. What about the first half? To refresh your memory, it’s the part about why.”

“I never wanted to before.”

“Sky.” He sounded like a parent scolding a child who was obviously stretching the truth. “I want the truth.”

“That is the truth. Knowing me as well as you do, do you think I’d preserve my ity for any other reason?”

Jiyong still seemed puzzled. “It just doesn’t live with your personality. You’ll do or say anything without any censorship. I find it hard to believe you have such a liberated and relaxed attitude towards but have never participated it.”

“That’s hardly a correlation, dragon.”

Sky sighed with exasperation. “What do you suggest, that I brand a big red V on my forehead?”

He linked his hands at the small of her back and held her tightly. Nuzzling her neck, he said cheekily, “It’s too late now.”

“That’s right. So why are you making such a big deal out of it?”

“I was surprised. No. Cancel that. Shocked is a better word. And you still haven’t given me a straight answer.”

“I never wanted to make love before. It’s as simple as that.”

Jiyong was already shaking his head.

“No, it goes deeper.”

He tried to delve into her eyes and find the truth, but she wouldn’t hold eye contact long enough.

“Does this have anything to do with that conversation we had about your feelings of inadequacy?”

“Of course not!”

“Bingo.”

She glared at him. “Okay, maybe it does, what of it?”

“You’re a beautiful, funny, sensual, y woman, that’s what of it. Why have you deprived yourself of the most fulfilling experience the human being can enjoy?”

“Because if there was a way to mess up the most fulfilling experience the human being can enjoy, I would have found it.”

Jiyong softened his tone. “Care to explain further?”

“No, but I will since I get the impression you are going to persist till I do.”

“Right.”

Sky drew a deep breath of resignation and expulsed it slowly.

“I figured that I would be as clumsy and awkward about as I was about everything else. I don’t mean in bed exactly. I mean all the trappings that go with it. I was afraid I’d get pregnant despite precautions. I’d be the one and a half percent the pills didn’t work on. I was afraid that I’d fall in love with the guy but he wouldn’t fall in love with me or the reverse.”

Her wide brown eyes appealed to him to understand.

“I know it sounds ridiculous now, but I’d flubbed everything else I had ever tried.”

A trace of vulnerability had crept into her voice, though she was unaware of it.

“I didn’t want another failure on my record.”

“But you dated.”

“Yes, lots of men. But I always halted them before the final countdown.”

“Poor ers.”

“Hey, the dates didn’t come with a guarantee for goodies. It wasn’t as though I made promises and then welshed. I didn’t love any of them, so I didn’t care if they read the signals wrong then ranted and raved, called me names, went away in a huff and never asked me out again.”

“But Sky, the way you act, the way you talk, you can’t blame a man for feeling manipulated if you don’t come through.”

“I guess not,” she admitted. “But there was too much at stake. Everything I was, everything that makes me Skyler Song was at risk and I just never thought it was a risk worth taking.” Her gaze grew lambent.

“At least, not until this afternoon. Now I know what I’ve been missing.”

“Don’t look at me like that, you little hustler. You should have gone into advertising. You sure as hell know how to package the product and launch a convincing campaign. You’ve turn a self-defense mechanism into an art form.”

His eyes moved over her, taking in the tousled hair, her lips, which were rouged by his kisses, the I’m-game-for-anything glint in her eyes.

“God, you’re y.”

“You thought I was an easy lay.”

“Certainly not easy,” he said chuckling, “but definitely worth the trouble.”

He pressed his palms over her derriere.

“With your lusty nature, you were loaded and primed. No wonder you were so quick to fire yesterday.”

Skyler actually blushed. “What you were doing to me, I couldn’t help it.”

Jiyong’s mouth spread into a wide grin.

“Proud of yourself, are you, Dragon? Well, don’t get smug, As you have so ungallantly put it, I was primed. Any man could have pulled the trigger.”

“But you didn’t let any other man,” he reminded her softly. “You let me. Why?”

Smoothing his eyebrows with the pad of her thumb, she thoughtfully considered her answer. Telling him the truth would be a big no despite how much her heart was telling her to do it. Plus, it could only be her feeling love towards him and he might just be enjoying her company to the fullest until his full recovery. She couldn’t risk being rejected.

“Maybe I knew you’d be grateful for a guinea pig and wouldn’t might my amateur performance. In fact, I knew you’d feel more self-confident with an amateur.”

“You’re no amateur. You’re a natural. I feel sorry for all those poor ers who tried to bed you but failed. But I’m glad they did.”

He cupped the back of her head and forced her face down to his. With their lips pressed together hard, his tongue boldly entered . He separated her thighs with caressing hands. His touch was delicate and deliberate and deadly to her senses.

“Dragon,” she said on a ragged sigh, “can we do it again? Once more with feeling.”

“Yes, yes,” he moaned.

“I can do it again. Now I know I can do anything.”