Created In Fire (Art of Love Series) (22 page)

“No, it doesn’t hurt,” he said, answering the unspoken question. “Is Ann really your name?”

Reesa found it easy to tell him the amount of truth she had chosen to share.

“Yes. It’s my real middle name,” she told him.

Shane felt the truth of her words, but they did not satisfy him. He wanted to know her.

“If I fit inside you perfectly, will you tell me your last name?” he asked, stopping to hold her green gaze to see if he could find any regret about being with him there.

He didn’t.

Reesa laughed at his question, and her amusement made her green eyes sparkle like emeralds.

“No, but I’ll tell you my shoe size,” she promised. “It’s seems only fair.”

Chapter 15

Driving herself home from the showing drained Carrie of her remaining energy. When she got in the door, she sighed and let her body slump with tiredness.

“Michael, I know it’s only ten, but I have to go to bed. I’m completely wiped after the showing,” she said.

“Head on back. I’ll check the house and be there shortly. I bought some frozen yogurt bars if you want a snack,” he said.

“You care if I eat it in bed on your clean sheets?” Carrie joked.

Michael grinned. “Honey, you can do anything you want in my bed.”

Carrie rolled her eyes at his dramatic statement, but laughed.

She managed to use the bathroom and had stumbled tiredly to the bed just as Michael came back with two yogurt bars in his hand.

Michael watched intently as she peeled her dress clothes off and discarded them in a heap on the floor, mirroring the pile he tended to leave each evening. It wasn’t her normal habit. Normally, she hung, folded, or sorted her clothes.

Carrie must be really tired, he decided.

Sighing in relief, Carrie climbed naked in between the clean sheets, propping the pillows up so she could lean back on them.

Michael walked to the bed already hard for her.

“Here,” he said, sighing loudly. “Thanks for the strip show.”

Carrie took one and patted the bed. “Get naked and join me. I can’t do much for you in my condition, but I would still like your company.”

“Here then,” he said. “Hold mine while I strip.”

She smiled as she licked the drips from hers and then his. “Hurry they’re both melting.”

“Glad something is,” Michael said, stopping to watch what she was doing instead of undressing.

“Hurry up,” Carrie ordered. “Or I’m going to be eating both of these.”

“This is going to be one long night,” Michael said, his voice hoarse.

“I’m sorry I don’t have energy to play,” Carrie said, handing him back his bar when he climbed in. “These are good.”

“I wish I could show you a better way to enjoy them,” Michael told her.

Carrie bit into hers, the last bite falling off the stick into her hand. She licked the stick as the last tiny bite melted in her palm.

Michael polished his off neatly, pulling a completely clean stick from his mouth as she grinned.

“Show-off,” Carrie said. “I don’t suppose you brought a napkin.”

Michael shook his head, grinning back.

“You get that melted yogurt on the sheets, you’re changing them,” he warned.

Carrie used one hand to flip the covers off him and the other to streak a trail of melted yogurt over his stomach and then massaged the rest into the very prominent erection she had seen him climb into bed with. When Michael hissed, she bent and laved it off his stomach with her tongue.

“Carrie, if you do anything else I’m heading back to the kitchen for another one so I can show you how to play,” he said.

“If you did, you’d be my first for that,” she told him.

“Carrie,” Michael said, putting his hand on her cheek. “I wish I could have been your first for everything.”

What was it about this man, she wondered? Hating herself for wanting to give him yet another form of her virginity, she still bent her head to Michael’s lap. She ran an eager tongue over his length, exploring as he groaned, tasting the yogurt and spicy heat that was him. It turned out to be more fun than she’d imagined. Her heart racing over what she was doing was a shock that woke her right up.

When she was finally brave enough, her mouth slid completely over and closed around him as he whimpered her name over and over.

Mine
, she thought again as she got lost in what she was doing, and Michael for once gave her complete control.

The thought of stopping never even occurred to her and when she held his wrists at his sides later as Michael climaxed, Carrie finally understood why so many men were into possessing the women in their lives.

It was a small victory, but she did indeed feel like he was hers.

She crawled on top of Michael afterward and made her own demand.

“Hold me,” Carrie pleaded, raggedly sighing over and over as his arms came around and held her close.

*** *** ***

The door gave and Shane finally stepped inside with Ann wrapped around him. He didn’t bother with the lights. After locking the door, he dropped his keys on a nearby table and walked straight to his bedroom still carrying her.

“It’s been about five months since I’ve been intimate with anyone,” Shane confessed. “It may not go so well the first time. You’re not going to bolt if it turns out poorly are you?”

Great
, Reesa thought, Jillian was never going to believe that she had picked up a guy who looked scary and uncaring, but who was really just a big teddy bear on the inside.

“It’s been about the same amount of time for me as well. Let’s just say I’m a baseball fan, Shane. I’ll give you at least three chances at bat,” she said on a laugh. “Please try to make at least one of them a home run, okay?”

“Don’t worry. Baseball is my game,” Shane teased, relieved because he now intended to give her a night that would make her want to hang around the whole next day.

He sat on his bed with Ann wrapped around him and resting in his lap. He reached into the drawer of his night stand and pulled out a handful of condoms to hand to her.

“Here. Hold these for a minute,” he ordered, dropping several packets in between them for her to gather up.

Reesa choked on a laugh when she lifted a couple and saw the word
maximum
in shiny silver writing in the semi-dark.

“
Shane
,” she stuttered, choking on his name, closing her hand around the packets as she started to giggle. “Do you always intimidate your pick-ups this way?”

Shane turned on a light. “No. I don’t usually bring women home with me. I go home with them so I can leave after. You’re the first exception in a long while.”

“Then why do you keep these by the—no, never mind,” she said, wondering why the condoms were by the bed if not on purpose.

“I like to be prepared, and the bathroom doesn’t have much storage. Anything else you want to know? Check the dates, Ann. That’s why I turned on the light. There’s no use putting you down if we just have to leave again to buy new ones.” Shane said reasonably, admiring her laughing face and her easy drape over him. He was hardening under her squirming hips, but she wasn’t even noticing yet.

“For the record, Shane, I’m having a lot of fun already,” she said. “Looks like they’re good for another month. Wow. It really has been a while for you, hasn’t it?”

Shane shrugged at the truth which lifted her up and brought her back forcefully on his now obvious erection. He grinned from ear to ear when she laughed again, just before wiggling against his hardness and purring like a kitten.

Before he could make another move, she shoved her hands under his arms and shifted her weight forward, effectively toppling him onto the bed. Shane was a little surprised to see her sitting above him and smiling down into his face, but found he really didn’t mind.

Whatever her reasons for being there, Shane thanked the universe he hadn’t said no to her tonight. Both the laughter and the rising attraction between them was very promising.

“You are incredibly charming, Shane Larson. And it feels really good to laugh. No matter what else happens, I want to thank you for making me laugh tonight,” she told him.

Reesa outlined his shoulders and chest with her hands as she welcomed the end of the celibacy her new life had accidentally brought.

“Do you mind if I do the honors the first time?” she asked.

Shane grappled on the bed until his fingers found a foil packet. When he handed it to her, she laughed again.

Since he kept getting increasingly more aroused beneath her, Shane didn’t know what she thought was so funny. His wondering ceased when he felt her pulling his shirt up and over his head. Then she was unsnapping his jeans, freeing him to spring into her hand. A single stroke with her small, but very strong grip was the most heavenly thing he could remember ever feeling in his life.

The woman seemed to really know and enjoy what she was doing. Her experience and enthusiasm was a refreshing change from his usually hit-and-miss in the dark with a woman who barely knew or cared what was happening.

Lucky him, Shane decided, biting his lip as her hand stroked his entire length with long, deliberate strokes. With every pass, she got a little braver and learned a little more.

Shane got a little harder and started getting concerned about losing control before he could reciprocate in kind.

“I thought I was supposed to be the one touching you,” he said, arching into what she was doing.

“You’ll get your turn,” she choked, her hand keeping a rhythm as old as time.

Then she stopped, ripped the foil packet she held with her teeth, and sheathed him in the condom almost without pause.

Shane noticed there was no hesitation as she wrestled the jeans down and off into the floor, nor as she rolled off him to remove her own in a few seconds.

He would have helped, but he was too stunned by her assertiveness to move. Maybe he also wanted to see just how long she’d stay aggressive and what she planned to do next.

She kissed his thigh as she moved back up his body, and gripped him again. He could see her head bent over his erection. Panic rose at the thought of what she might be planning. He’d never survive her mouth on him the first time. Talk about embarrassing.

“Do you mind if I—oh,” she said, as he lifted her up and over him again.

“Whatever you want to do, do it now,” he told her harshly. “I’m fighting myself to let you have control, Ann.”

“Okay,” she said, straddling him once more as she gripped and guided him into her.

Then Reesa forgot the rest of what she had intended to say. Instead, she moaned at how good Shane felt sliding inside her, filling the emptiness. It had been so long.

“More,” Shane begged lifting his hips, encouraging her to sink down further on him.

Reesa opened her eyes and leaned forward to look into his as Shane just instinctively rocked up into her welcoming heat.

“Yes. God yes,” he said. “You feel like heaven.”

He gripped her hips to hold her in place as he pushed the rest of the way inside, shocked to realize how relieved he was to be completely in her.

He froze though when Ann did nothing more than moan. Her thighs trembled as they surrounded him, her hips spread as far she could make them go.

Guilt and concern held him motionless.

“Ann—are you okay?” Shane choked, starting to push her hips off his, assuming he was hurting her. She was so small, and it wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to back off with a woman.

“No!” Reesa called out, pushing Shane’s hands away from her hips and sinking back down until she felt him hit her core again. “Don’t pull out. Don’t you dare pull out. I never knew it could be like this. I feel all of you and all of me. This is amazing.”

Shane shook his head from side to side, staring up at a woman who seemed to be more fantasy than real. He’d never had a woman be so appreciative, or so demanding. She was like the women characters he created in his novels, only—real. God, was she real.

She began to rock on him, rising and falling, a dark-haired angel riding him, green eyes closed in concentration. Shane wanted her to open them, see him, be glad to be with him.

“I owe you, Jillian,” Reesa said roughly, picking up speed.

“Did you say something?” Shane asked, focusing his mind so he wouldn’t lose himself too soon. She was way too good at what she was doing.

“Yes. I said—
thank you, Shane
,” Reesa said louder, making sure he heard. “Now I’m going to make you happy you didn’t choose the blonde tonight.”

“What blonde?” Shane asked, truly confused about what she was saying. All he could think about was what she was doing to him and how much he liked it.

“Smart man—right answer,” she replied, placing her hands on his chest and rocking them both to oblivion.

Shane gripped her hips again and when she called out her pleasure, he held her tight as he pulsed and pulsed at her core in his own release, shocked that they’d hit it together their first time.