Monster Man (4 page)

“He can take
away the promotion I’ve worked so hard to get, Shane.”

He cupped her face
and threaded his fingers through her hair, studying her expression,
looking deep into her eyes.

Cat looked away.
“I’ve got to get over to the hotel. I should have been
there a half an hour ago, but I’ll have to go to my apartment
first. This dress is a mess and I need a new bra.”

“I’ll do
whatever you want me to do, Cat. Just don’t ask me to stay away
from you.”

###

She had to interact
with Shane almost every day, and it was torture. He constantly found
opportunities to say or do something calculated to drive her crazy.
The memory of him taking her in the shower made her yearn. She didn’t
think she’d ever yearned for a man before. She watched all his
practices, and she noticed how Dick Samuels was watching her. She
tried to shrug it off, but she had to wonder if he had figured out
something was up between her and Shane.

And as she ached and
yearned, it was soon Halloween and time for the Touch the Moon
fundraiser. She walked into the party, which was decked out with big
full moons, witches flying on their broomsticks across the faces.
Ghosts hung creepily from the ceiling, and black cats and pumpkins
were glowing menacingly in every corner, the demonic faces grinning
out at her.

The room was so dim
she couldn’t be sure if Shane was already here. He wasn’t
scheduled to deliver his speech until later. She missed him, and
wanted to connect, even if only briefly.

Then she felt a
presence behind her and, before she could turn or say anything,
someone pushed her out of sight behind a curtain. He pressed her up
against the wall with his very heavy body, his mouth against her
neck.

“You make a
very delectable angel to my beast boy,” he said softly. “You
gave me a hard-on.”

“Well, that
wasn’t very angelic of me,” she said. He chuckled and
turned her around. She smiled into his dark eyes, reaching up and
running her fingers along the amazing pointed green ears. His skin
was green, too, on all exposed parts of his body. When he smiled she
could see fangs. His body was encased in black spandex that
delineated every muscle he had, including the one between his legs.

“Tell me your
cock is green, too,” she whispered, and then realized the music
would mask their conversation.

He chuckled. “You’ll
have to look to find out.”

Every time this man
got close to her, she lost all rationality. He smelled like soap,
shampoo and exciting male. Her insides just melted and then she was
kissing him.

He slipped his hand
under her hair, tugging her down, and she willingly went to her
knees, her face level with that huge bulge in his pants. “You’ll
have to help me out here. I can’t go out there in front of
everybody and deliver my speech with a freaking hard-on. It’s
your fault, so be an angel and take care of it.”

“How am I
supposed to…ah…get access to that…secret
weapon?”

He chuckled again.
“There’s a handy flap.”

“Oh, so there
is,” she said, opening it and reaching inside to release his
stiff shaft and balls.

“Ohmigod. It
is
green. Just for me?”

“Just for you,
babe,” he grinned.

He stroked his
fingers along the length of his cock, and she watched, fascinated, as
he thickened even more. She brought her face closer and he rubbed the
broad, swollen head against her lips. “Take me.”

Then his hand fisted
in her hair, tightened as if to keep her from pulling away, but she
wasn’t going anywhere. She submitted to his domination because
she wanted to pleasure him.

She let her eyes
stroll up the length of his body and, holding his hot gaze, she
parted her lips and took him as deep as she could, surrounding him in
wet heat and the silken caress of her tongue along the underside of
his shaft. She relaxed her throat, practically swallowing him while
his hand cupped the back of her head, holding her, guiding her, as
his hips rocked rhythmically and his cock slid in and out of her
mouth.

The people just
outside their curtained alcove made it even more likely she could be
caught—during a business function, sucking Shane off. But the
risk only heightened the pleasure.

“
Geeezzzuusss
,”
he hissed, and a muscle in his jaw stood out as he gritted his teeth
to keep quiet.

She knew he was
about to come; she could taste the change in him, hot and salty,
could feel the steady throb of the vein running along the underside
of his cock, and his testicles were drawn up close to his body. A
shudder rocked him, and she swirled her tongue over the engorged,
sensitive tip, then closed her lips tightly over the crown and
sucked, hard, pushing him higher, increasing his pleasure with each
stroke of her mouth on his sex. He groaned, closed his eyes, panting.
Oh, so close. His stomach muscles tightened. “Oh, fuck,”
he said, more a growl then a word.

His hips surged, and
he threw his head back, shuddering, coming for her while she worked
him over hard. She looked up at him to watch. He had pressed his
hands flat against the wall. His mouth open, his breathing was
ragged, his eyes dark with passion and a hunger as raw as the one she
was satisfying in herself.

She took her time
settling his cock back against his body and doing up the flap as his
hand caressed her scalp.

He pulled her
against him and she tipped her head back to meet his fierce gaze. In
a breath, he was on her, his mouth rolling heavily over hers, his
hands riding up her back to lodge in her hair. She wanted this.
Wanted him…and thought that maybe a job just wasn’t
worth the effort it took to resist this man.

A muffled sound and
the hush of cloth falling back into place brought Cat out of her
languor. She broke away from Shane just in time to see the curtain
fall into place. Was that a puff of air from someone walking by, or
had someone been standing there listening…or watching?

“Oh, God,”
she whispered. Could someone have seen her? Them? Her heart was in
her throat.

Shane stepped closer
while she peered out into the crowd. “What’s wrong?”

She couldn’t
hide the panic in her voice. “I think someone saw us.”

“Are you
sure?” Shane asked, looking out as well, scanning the crowd.

“No.”
She grabbed his arm and pulled him back behind the curtain

She glanced at her
watch. “Damn, it’s almost time for your speech.”

She smoothed her
hand over his groin to make sure he was fully covered. And recovered.

“You trying to
get me hard again?”

“No, just
making sure you’re decent.”

He bent his head and
breathed in her ear. “I’m not decent. At all.”

She sucked in a
breath. “Knock ‘em dead.”

“I will. The
money’s as good as in the bank.”

Shane strode up to
the podium and the room quieted. Then he began to speak. He had
totally discarded her speech and spoke from the heart about his
mother, about his luck, and about other people just like him who
couldn’t get a free ride. When he finished, there wasn’t
a dry eye in the house, including hers.

Cat turned away to
dab at her eyes and encountered the knowing, smirking face of Dick
Samuels.

Her heart lurched
into her throat.
Does
he know?
He was staring at her, then at Shane.

“Well, we’re
getting close to the announcement of the promotion. Who do you think
it’ll be?”

The weasel. He was
taunting her. She could feel it in her bones. That self-satisfied
smirk made her skin crawl.

“I guess we’ll
just have to wait to see who they decide is the best fit for the
job,” Cat said, giving nothing away. He wouldn’t see her
sweat.

Lizzy came up to Cat
with a beaming, megawatt smile. “Shane was amazing.” When
she saw Dick, she stopped talking. “I’m sorry to
interrupt.”

“No problem,”
Cat said, “Dick was just leaving.”

After he was out of
earshot, Lizzy said, “What a dick. I sure hope you get the
promotion so you can rub it in his snotty face.”

“Yeah.”

“He’s
creepy.” Lizzy said, shuddering.

Cat turned to her
assistant, not wanting to dampen her triumph with potential bad news.
If Dick had seen her, she was toast, but he hadn’t said
anything, and she couldn’t imagine Dick would be able to resist
rubbing it in if he had. She was probably off the hook. “You’ve
been having a fun evening?”

Her assistant looked
pensive.

“You pining
over Tyler Davis again?”

“He’s
way too young for me, Cat. Give it a rest.”

“You and that
rookie running back.” Cat rolled her eyes, then peered closer
at Lizzy’s face. “Is that drool?”

“What?”
She went to check her mouth and then laughed and shoved Cat. “Stop
it. All I can do is look and fantasize.” Lizzy closed her eyes
and pretended to swoon. “Damn, he’s so gorgeous.”

“And eight
years younger than you are, Lizzy. Is my Little Miss Goody-Two Shoes
a cradle robber? Who would have guessed?”

“I was making
an observation,” Lizzy sniffed.

“There will be
plenty more fundraisers to ogle him.” Cat said, searching the
room. “At the very least, you can continue to watch his
practices with me.”

“I only caught
a glimpse of him, and then he left right after Shane’s speech.
That was a killer. I thought one of the guys at my table was going to
start blubbering.”

Shane came off the
stage and Lizzy said her goodbyes.

Cat wished she could
give Shane a hug. He looked like he could use one. “That was a
really touching speech.”

He shrugged. “It
was the truth.” Then he softly added, “I want to slowly
strip that dress from your body and kiss every inch of you.”

“My place or
yours?” Cat replied, just as softly. The room was clearing out.

“Mine. I want
to show you something.”

“I’ve
already seen it and it’s quite impressive.” She bobbed
her eyebrows.

He laughed. “Not
that.”

“I’m
disappointed.”

“Come home
with me and you won’t be.”

###

All the way over to
his house, Cat debated telling Shane about Dick. Yet the jerk hadn’t
threatened her or even mentioned her kissing Shane, much less
anything else they’d been doing. By the time she got to Shane’s
house, she talked herself out of mentioning it at all. It was pure
speculation, anyway.

He lived in Sunset
Heights, an area populated with the rich and famous. His house was
huge and a bit intimidating. Shane always seemed so reserved and
modest. It was hard to believe he owned such a palatial home.

“This is very
impressive.”

“Thanks,”
he said casually, as if she was talking about his trailer sitting in
a trailer park.

A golden retriever
met them at the door with a soft woof. “Hey, Sunshine.”
He bent down and rubbed at the dog’s silky fur while the tail
went a mile a minute. “Cat, this is Sunshine. I call her Sunny
for short.”

Cat bent down and
the eager golden sniffed her hand and then gave her a lick. She
caressed the dog’s head and—just like that—she was
in love. “Shane, she’s beautiful.”

“Wait till you
see this. Come on, girl,” he said, heading through the
impressive foyer and living room until they reached a set of French
doors. Shane went through them to a pool area and a garden complete
with a Koi pond.

The dog immediately
went to the water and put her nose in. A huge golden, red, and black
Koi came right up to the side of the pond and nuzzled the dog.

“That’s
amazing. Are they kissing?”

“Yeah. They
love each other. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He grabbed her hands
and tugged her toward the pool. “Want to go swimming?”

Before she could
reply, he unsnapped the catch on her provocative glittering tutu and
pulled it off her. When she was naked, he stripped too, and they slid
into the warm water. Shane leaned against the side of the pool,
supported by the stairs and drew her between his legs as she settled
with a moan onto his thick, hard cock.

“Stay with me
tonight, Cat,” he said as she started to move her hips.

No way was she going
to object. It was what she wanted.

They shared a long,
beautiful night of lovemaking. In the morning Shane made her
breakfast in bed and she threw tidbits to his sweet golden.
Afterward, they drove down the coast and took a hike on the beach,
away from anyone who could recognize either of them.

Even as she loved
him deep into the night, she knew she needed to tell him in the
morning that she had to end it. It was too hard for her to sneak
around.

She’d worked
so hard to earn that promotion, and she knew in her heart if she gave
up her job for Shane, she would resent him. He, of course, would
never ask her to do it, either, because that would never occur to
him. She had to accept that it was time for them to go their separate
ways.

###

Sunday dawned
beautiful and bright. Shane was up early. He was always too jazzed to
sleep late before a game. He sat on the window seat and sipped
coffee, the sun warm on his shoulders as he watched Cat sleep, and
finally admitted to himself that he didn’t want her to leave
his bed or his house.

His heart tightened.
It was a tough situation, and they were caught between a rock and a
hard place. She wanted her promotion and he really had no right to
jeopardize it. He wanted to go to Harding, but again, if he did and
Hardass fired Cat, she’d never forgive him.

But this hush-hush
arrangement wasn’t working for him, and he couldn’t
continue with the secrecy. He wanted everyone to know that Cat was
his. He’d never felt like this before and couldn’t
believe he’d waited three years because of a stupid rule that
was outdated and unjust.