"Please, don't"
He mumbled, almost ashamed as I started to lift his under-armor shirt. I looked up at his face and found his lip quivering; I had never seen him so vulnerable, it made me afraid.
"Why?" I whispered.
He gently wrapped his hands around mine, the under armor still clenched between my fingers, mid stomach.
"Because..." he started. He paused then took a deep breath and began again.
"Because if you find out who I was, what I used to be, you will be ashamed and disgusted with what I am now."
I looked at him puzzled, I didn't understand. Disgusted, with him? How? He was so beautiful in every way. His face seemed to be sculpted from Aphrodite herself, and his body had perfect form. When he walked, it was something unlike anything I had ever seen. I couldn't understand how so much grace and beauty could be contained into one being.
"That's impossible" I said.
He looked down at me, his dark golden eyes seemed to burn into my soul. They were sad, and deep. He looked at me in a way I'd never seen before, desperation filled his face; an emotion he'd never portrayed. I didn't even know he could. Then he closed his eyes, and tightened his brow, releasing my hands from his. Ever so carefully, I continued to raise his shirt over his head. I'd never seen him without his under-armor on at the least. His stomach was cut into perfect dips and crevasses. His chest was broad, and had a honey gold hue to it in the last light of the sun. It took everything I had to keep my jaw from hanging open in awe. The sweat perpetrated off his flawless skin, making him shine like an angel. Before he could drop his arms, I seized the opportunity and wrapped myself around him, dropping his shirt in the river, pulling close to him, holding him. The first thing I noticed was the heat that radiated off his body. His skin was so soft, and comforting. Slowly, I began to trace my hands down his chiseled back. Remembering each and every curve, embracing his very being... it was then I felt the scars.
