Standing in the Shadows (20 page)

She ran her hand over his ravaged flesh. An ache swelled inside her for his suffering, bound together with tenderness, and anger, and the urge to give him more pleasure than he had ever dreamed possible.

She clambered over him, letting her hair trail over his chest until she was straddling him. He held up his face to a soft rain of kisses like a man dying of thirst. His body trembled with the effort of staying still. "Oh, God, this is so sweet," he murmured.

She played with him, discovering his body with her hands and her lips. He squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered violently when she took him into her mouth.

She could barely manage it, there was so much of him. He was so big and thick. She loved his warm, salty, sexual taste, his musky male smell. His heartbeat pulsed between her hands, against her caressing tongue. His scarred, beautiful body was a heart-wrenching contradiction of power and vulnerability, of strength and yearning.

He gripped fistfuls of her hair. His tone grew more pleading as she experimented with her tongue, with her hands. The bolder she was, the harder he thrashed. She pulled him deeper, swallowing him whole, suckling him hard, swirling her tongue, milking him with her hands.

His hands tightened in her hair. "It's coming down on me. Oh, God." He convulsed, and exploded.

Pulsing jets of hot liquid spurted into her mouth, and she shuddered at the energy that burst against her face. She braced herself, and rode out the long storm. It faded into stillness.

She swallowed, raised her head, wiped her mouth. She kissed his thigh, the dark blond hair at his groin, the sensitive tip of his penis.

His fingers tightened in her hair. "Oh, Erin."

His voice was rough and shaky. He hid his eyes behind his trembling hand. She pressed her cheek against the hard muscles of his belly, and nuzzled him tenderly. "Are you OK?" she asked him.

He opened his eyes, and laughed "I just had a religious experience."

She pulled herself up onto her knees. "Me, too."

He grinned as he studied her face. "Really? You liked doing that?"

She nodded. His penis was still half-hard, curved across his thigh against its nest of hair. She ran her fingertip slowly along its length, from root to the gleaming tip. He hardened and thickened instantly.

"I loved it," she said. "It made me crazy. Just look at me, Connor. Look at what you've done."

He propped himself up onto his elbows and stared at her. Her fingers curled around his penis and squeezed him. "Whoa," he whispered. "Check you out. You're on fire."

She let her head fall back and trailed her fingertips over her hot face, her lips, her throat. She caressed her breasts, her belly, and slid her hand between her legs, seeking relief from the shimmering tension. "I feel so much, it hurts," she said. "Inside, outside, everywhere. Did you put a spell on me? Did you slip something into my pie when I wasn't looking?"

"Oh, no, sweetheart." He rose up to his knees. "It was all inside you to begin with. The red-hot love goddess. It's what you always were. You shine, Erin. You almost hurt my eyes." He pulled her hard against him, arranging her thighs so that they straddled his. "Oh yeah. Give me some more of that. Right now."

He slanted his mouth over hers in a fierce, devouring kiss. No tenderness or gentleness, just raw, possessive male triumph. She gave herself up to it, quivering with helpless excitement. He thrust his fingers deeply into her slick heat. "Is this what you want?"

But she couldn't reply, she was wailing, convulsing around his hand, and riding a long shuddering wave of ecstacy.

He held her afterwards, murmuring sweet words and rocking her like a child. Her head rested limply on his shoulder. When she could move again, she flung herself backwards, pulling him down on top of her. "Please, Connor," she said. "Make love to me now."

His face was a taut mask of self-control. "Damn, Erin. Have mercy on me. We shouldn't do this, not without latex—"

She pulled him down and clasped her legs around him. "I am a grown-up. I take full responsibility. I promise."

He wrenched her arms from around his neck and pinned them above her head. "Fuck responsibility," he snarled. "It's not that simple, and you know it!"

"Please." She pulled him closer with her thighs, pressing her moist labia against his belly like a hot, pleading kiss. "I need you."

He closed his eyes, panting. "I can't say no to you," he said. "You drive me completely nuts. I'm helpless before you."

"Good," she said. "That's excellent. Helpless works for me."

"I don't know if I can do it without coming inside you, though," he warned. "I've never done it with a red-hot love goddess before."

She rubbed her breasts against his chest. "Then it's time for a challenge. Come on, Connor. Be all that you can be."

He dissolved into silent laughter. "Jesus, that's harsh." He shifted her legs, bending her knees so she was wide open to him.

She struggled up onto her elbows and grabbed for the pillows. "I want to see it," she told him. "I don't want to miss a single thing."

"OK." He tucked the pillows behind her, and poised his body over hers. "I'm so out of my mind, I think I've, uh, forgotten how to do it."

She smiled up at him through her eyelashes. "It'll come back to you," she said. "You certainly had no problem with foreplay."

"You're pretty terrifying in the foreplay department yourself. You practically drove me insane with your hair goop. OK, here goes."

He took himself in hand and pressed the blunt tip of his penis against her. He stroked her, moistening himself. The gentle contact was as sweet as a kiss. His fragrant hair tumbled around her face, and she ran her fingers through it. "Oh, your hair," she whispered.

"What about it? Is it tickling you? Want me to pull it back?"

"No, no," she said. "It's almost dry. It looks beautiful."

He nudged inside, and pressed against her body's resistance. "Oh, God, Erin," he groaned. "You're so tight. You're driving me nuts. This is so dangerous, baby. I'm right on the edge."

"Please, Connor." She would not permit him to leave her with this ache unsatisfied. She grasped his waist, pulled him deeper inside herself, but he was so big and hard and unyielding. "Don't leave me."

"Calm down," he soothed her. "I'm not going anywhere. I just don't want to hurt you. Just a little bit at a time… like this. Arch your back. Oh, God, yes. You squeeze me so tight."

He pushed relentlessly deeper. She was afraid to move, scarcely breathing. Connor arched over her, his thick shaft thrust halfway into her. He worked himself deeper with each short, sliding thrust. "Are you all right?" he asked anxiously. "We can still stop if you—"

"Shut up." She smiled to soften the sharp words.

"Move against me," he commanded her. "That'll make it easier."

She moved her hips, and it all slipped into focus. The gliding movement, the angle, the delicious, throbbing fullness of his thick shaft inside her. The wonderful, marvelous point of it all. He pushed deeper.

She gasped, Connor gazed searchingly into her face. "More?"

She reached up, embracing him. "All."

He took her at her word, and drove inside her.

They both cried out. It was like falling off a cliff, the moment of shocked inevitability when he knew that this was too good, he was too turned on. He was going to completely lose control.

He slid his arm beneath the arch of her back, pulling her tighter. Shocked gasps jerked out of her with each heavy thrust. He was riding her too hard; she was too small and tight for this, but he couldn't slow down, couldn't ease off. He was locked into this hard rhythm. She had teased and tempted him into this, and now he was all thundering blood and pumping muscles, no judgment, no wits. He had prided himself on his self-control, and she had blasted it to hell and it was gone.

Erin's face was cherry red. Her mouth was open, her bosom heaving, and her soft thighs clenched around his, and oh, dear God, there she went again. Crying out, arched like a bow, her tight cunt clenching around his cock in yet another shaking-apart, violent orgasm. The woman was un-fucking-believable, white-hot. Burning him alive. No way could he make this last, not at this level of intensity. The big drum roll was getting louder, his orgasm crashing down on him.

He barely managed to wrench himself out in time. He spent himself across her belly in long, scalding spurts.

He collapsed on top of her with a breathless sob. He'd wanted to fuck this girl for years, but he had no idea that it would feel like this.

She murmured, squashed beneath his body. He lifted himself up. They were practically glued together with his come. He wondered if that would disgust her. Then she put her hand to the sticky mess pooled in the soft indentation of her navel. She swirled her fingertips around, until her belly gleamed.

That answered that.

Unbelievably, his cock jerked up to attention, like a helpless marionette. "Don't, for God's sake," he pleaded. "Give me a break. Let me get myself together. I'm destroyed."

She shook her head. Her eyes were solemn and perilously beautiful. She brought her wet, gleaming finger to her mouth and suckled the pearly liquid off of mem, one after the other. Her pink tongue swirled tenderly around each fingertip. She was going to drive him straight out of his fucking mind.

He flung himself facedown and hid his face in the crumpled sheets. "You want me to beg for mercy? I'm begging. Ease off."

"Beg in vain." Her voice was cool. "No mercy for you."

He convulsed in silent laughter, pressing his face harder against the sheets. "You heartless, insatiable bitch."

"Oh, I've only just begun. You have no idea what you're in for, Connor McCloud."

He rolled away and sat on the bed with his back to her, covering his face with his hands. "OK. Do whatever you want, but give me a time-out. Just a few minutes to get myself in hand."

Sheets rustled, the bed shifted. She pressed her hot, silky body against his back, and wrapped her arms around him. She seized his cock with both small hands. "I've already got you in hand, Connor."

He squeezed his eyes shut in another spasm of silent laughter, or maybe he was weeping dry tears. They felt pretty much the same to him. "Hell and damn. I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

"You walked right into this whole thing." Her voice was clear and quiet. "I didn't ask you to follow me. I didn't ask to be guarded. Don't blame me if you got more than you bargained for."

His laughter died away. He stared down at her small, graceful hands, wet with his come. Stroking his stone-hard, aching cock as if he hadn't just had two explosive orgasms in the past twenty minutes. Three in the past hour, if he counted that violent but relatively superficial release he'd given himself in the shower after dinner.

His last, futile effort at self-control.

Erin's fist curled around the head of his cock in a tight, swirling caress. "Jesus, woman. You are something else."

She nuzzled her face against his neck, nibbling his throat. If she kept this up he was going to come again. He blocked her hands with his own. "Erin. For God's sake. What do you want from me?"