Steal Me (Longshadows Book 1)

by Natalia Banks

  Then with another twist of the big shark’s snout, Griffin managed to turn the whole shark slowly over onto its side, fifteen feet or more in length, its gleaming white belly rolling over. The sun bounced off that shiny white surface, rising up to break the surface as the shark became motionless.

  Griffin waved them all over. “C’mon, hurry!”

  Ashe bolted out of Lorraine’s grasp, despite her instinct to cling to him and hold him close, out of harm’s way. But it was too late. The boy rocketed to his father’s side and knelt down, without having to be told what to do. He reached out and rubbed the massive great white’s underbelly while the colossal beast lolled in the water, tail offering up just the slightest splash, then nothing at all.

  Sally asked, “What’s happening, are they killing it?”

  Lorraine said, “It’s called tonic immobility, happens when you turn a shark upside-down, it goes into a trance. That’s how orca kill them.” At her parents’ open-mouthed expressions, Lorraine explained, “I was a librarian, you guys.”

  Ashe said, “C’mon, Lorraine, you gotta try it!”

  Lorraine was terrified, but she knew she had to prove to herself, and to the Phoenix men, that she was no longer the timid librarian of previous years, that she could keep pace with them or with anyone, that she was truly and indisputably worthy of the Phoenix name. So, Lorraine crossed the little deck and knelt down next to Ashe.

  Sally said, “Oh, please be careful, dear.”

  Lorraine reached out, her hand timid, but a reassuring smile from Ashe was enough to make her reach out and touch the shark’s belly. It was hard, pulsing with life, its power unmistakable even at the merest touch.

  “Rub down, away from the head,” Ashe said.

  “Yeah, I’m not gonna go toward the head, Ashe.”

  Ashe and Griffin chuckled, Griffin still holding the tip of the shark’s snout in his hand. Lorraine petted the huge shark’s belly, smooth as glass, wet and shimmering, its life-force seemed to race up her arm, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

  Ashe smiled at her. “How do you like it?”

  Lorraine could hardly find the words, much less the breath to speak them. “It’s … it’s amazing.”

  Standing nearby, Sally said, “It certainly is.”

  Griffin gazed out over the water. “Uh-oh, looks like we got company.”

  Lorraine and Ashe looked up, a cluster of black fins cutting the water in even, rolling motions.

  “Killer whales,” Ashe said. “They’re gonna attack the shark.”

  “Maybe the boat, too,” Griffin said. “Help me roll him over.” Griffin grabbed one of the shark’s pectoral fins and pulled it up, slowly trying to heave the beast over. Ashe and Lorraine joined the effort, the killer creature’s weight surprising in Lorraine’s hands.

  “Hurry,” Ashe said, “They’re gonna charge!”

  Lorraine, Griffin, and Ashe finally managed to turn the shark over. Griffin gave it a good, hard slap on the top of the head and the shark flinched, its huge, long body flinching and bucking, mouth biting again. “All right,” Griffin said, “you better git’ while the gittin’s good.”

  The shark did swim away, and in a hurry, but Lorraine knew it only seemed like Griffin had commanded the beast to flea and that it obediently followed his orders. But, there could be no doubt about his command of the creature before then, and once again he left Lorraine utterly floored by his personal power, his calm, his place at the top of the food chain, human or otherwise.

  Lorraine was on her back again. More and more, she felt the compunction to straddle Griffin, to take control and ravage him. But, he’d been her sexual mentor, her guide into corners for the world of sensual pleasure, and she sensed he had more to teach her, more to bring out in her. When they met, she’d been a virginal librarian, hiding from the world behind a veil of fear and timidity. But, those things were unknown to Griffin. He knew sorrow, he knew loss, but fear ran from him. And, to look up at that beautiful face, the body of a living God to deliver pleasures unknown to most people, Lorraine was happy enough to revel, to indulge, to bathe in his attention to her.

  And this time, it came straight from his cock. He dragged that huge, hard hammer over her body, again starting at her feet. He pushed her feet together on either side of it and started stroking his dick between the arches. Griffin pressed her feet against it and pumped, low and long, Lorraine’s toes curling. She could feel that massive meat between her soles just as if they were the palms of some distended hands, as if she were a primate, more animal than human.

  And Griffin was just getting warmed up.

  He dragged his hard erection up her legs, slapping it against her muscles as they tensed beneath it, reaching her knees and tapping it against her. Nothing else of his body glanced her skin at all, and Lorraine closed her eyes to focus just on that point of contact, his sweet sword touring her body, inspecting it, preparing it, digesting her exterior before plumbing her insides.

  Tap tap tap, then a smooth caress over her thigh, the head big and hard, the iron shaft coated with the smoothest skin.

  Tap tap tap.

  Lorraine’s hips lurched up to meet it, her pussy hot and hungry and ready to devour that long, sweaty snake. Griffin teased her as usual, rubbing his head over her flanks, her smooth abdomen, the upper thighs and even her labia, swollen and hot.

  Tap tap tap.

  Griffin rubbed his head over her meaty little mound and then down, her clit reaching out to greet its old friend. But Griffin only taunted her, pulling his cock back and savoring her undulating loins, clenching, biting.

  Tap tap tap.

  Griffin continued upward, dragging his cock over her belly, slick with perspiration, rising and lowering with her spasming, hungry loins. Griffin pressed it down a bit, Lorraine’s flawless physique giving to its pressure, a rolling landscape beneath an advancing conqueror. The head dragged across her ribs, slowly rising and falling with every curved bone, Griffin dipping himself down to race the curves of Lorraine’s sides.

  Then that cock came back up to the side of Lorraine’s breasts, her nipples eager for contact.

  Tap tap tap.

  Lorraine’s breasts were already slick with her sweat, and her back rolled, chest heaving to meet his cock. Griffin slid his tremendous erection into the space between her breasts from the bottom, an easy glide up against her sternum just beneath the skin. The tingle shot right through Lorraine’s chest, filling her heart and throwing it two beats ahead, and then again.

  Griffin’s strong hands embraced her tits on both sides and pressed them in against his cock. Sitting on his knees above her, Griffin had perfect control as he slid his perfect prick up and down, an easy and even rhythm as he squeezed her tits a bit harder. His thumbs found her nipples and gave them each a sharp flick and then a circular rub until they were almost burning.

  Lorraine’s hands landed on Griffin’s wrists, but not to pull them away or to urge them on. She simply felt the need to cling to him, to hold him somehow, squeeze him with more than just her tits. Lorraine’s shoulders arched up, head tilting hard to the side just to savor the pressure.

  Up and down, back and forth against her sweat-slicked tits, Lorraine’s skin was nearly vibrating with the dance of her nerve endings beneath. There could never be enough. Both of them needed more.

  Griffin edged his way forward, falling a bit, leaning against one hand while he guided that huge cock with the other, slapping it against her chest, her shoulders, slipping it into her right armpit and giving it a few quick shots before thudding it against her neck, her ears, her cheek.

  Tap tap tap.

  Griffin pressed his dick against Lorraine’s cheek, her chin, her eyes. Lorraine leaned up and into it, nuzzling that meaty treasure, greeting it like an old and dear friend, sniffing it out like prey to be devoured.

  Griffin slipped it into her mouth and Lorraine eagerly accepted it. She curled her lips over her teeth to protect him while her jaw stretched f
urther. He was salty and tasted of her own sweat, a flavor that only the two of them could create. He filled her mouth, pushing it in further, his head settling on the back of her tongue. His balls rested on her chin as he dipped it in further. His musk filled her nostrils, eyes blocked from the light by his perfect trunk, flexing as he breathed. Her hands reached around and gripped his powerful ass, cheeks hard and round, sculpted to perfection. She squeezed hard and they hardly gave at all, pushing back against her.

  Griffin shifted forward a bit, pulling his cock out of Lorraine’s mouth and letting his balls sink in. Lorraine delighted in hosting those succulent orbs, wrapped in that soft, contracted pouch. She let one fall in, lolling on her tongue as it rose it up and lowered it down, cradling it like the perfect treasure that it was. Then its partner took a turn, riding her soft, warm tongue like a carnival ride.

  Lorraine spread her lips as wide as she could, jaw opening to take the entire sack into her mouth, tongue dipping to make more room. Salvia filled her mouth, a natural hot springs to bathe those tantalizing twins, breath wheezing out of her nostrils and bouncing back against the bottom of his cock.

  Lorraine reached up and grabbed Griffin’s dick, squeezing and pumping the shaft as she sucked and licked his delicious balls. Pump and squeeze and suck and lick, Lorraine was happy to offer as much attention to that luscious prick as she could.

  It was only just the beginning of a lifetime of dedication to his satisfaction.

  Lorraine could sense his orgasm stirring, but she knew that he was suppressing it, fighting it for his stamina and their mutual joy. But, Lorraine wanted to make him cum, more than she wanted him to make her cum.

  And she would have what she wanted.

  Lorraine pumped Griffin extra hard, squeezing with all her might. “C’mon, baby,” she rasped, “you know you wanna do it, you know you wanna cum! And I want you to cum, you fucking stud, I want you to cum for me! Don’t wait, baby, don’t make me wait! You know you wanna cum, you wanna cum now … so hard, cum so fucking hard … ”

  “Yes,” Griffin rasped, “yes … ”

  “Because you love it when I make you cum, you love it more than anything in the fucking world!”

  “Yes … ”

  “Don’t you?”

  “I do,” Griffin said, “I love it so fucking much!”

  “Then do it for me, Grif, fucking cum for me now, right now!” Griffin’s hips jutted a bit, nerves jangling, muscles flexing from instinct, beyond even his own control.

  He was cumming … hard.

  “That’s it,” Lorraine said, pumping and squeezing, her hand a blur in front of her. She felt the charge, that hot package racing down his cock, muscles twitching. “Yes, baby, oh yes, oh yes!”

  Griffin spat out his hot wad in a bold spike that leapt out of his cock and hit Lorraine square in the face. It was hot and plentiful, wave after wave coating her cheeks, her forehead mixing with her sweat as she rubbed that still-hard cock all over her face, smearing the cum and the sweat and coating his dick with it. Lorraine licked his cock dry, that delicious sauce sliding down her throat, coating her tongue, filling her senses.

  Chapter 16

  Griffin picked up the smartphone and swiped the screen. “Griffin Phoenix,” he said. Lorraine looked over from the other side of the bedroom, hardly able to climb out of bed after another marathon session. “Yeah, thanks.” He set the phone down and turned to Lorraine with a grim, grave expression.

  “Grif, what is it? Something about the audit? Did they find Ki Fong?”

  “No, Lorraine,” he said with a low, soft rumble in his voice. “It’s Albert.” Lorraine waited, heart skipping a beat, not needing to ask. Griffin explained, “He’s dead, Lorraine. I’m sorry.”

  An icy bolt of confused fear shot through Lorraine’s body, an emptiness she only scarcely recognized. “How?”

  “I’m not sure,” Griffin said, reaching for the television remote. “Jeannie says it’s all over the news, I didn’t want you to be caught off-guard.” Griffin clicked on the television and climbed back into bed with Lorraine, the two of then in each other's naked arms as the flatscreen came to life in high-definition.

  A pretty mocha-skinned woman stood in front of a resort hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, along the famous Las Vegas Strip. When they turned to that channel, she was already in mid-report:

  “… Found just hours later. We managed to get a few words with the new widow of the gubernatorial candidate from Colorado, currently on a cross-country tour of North America to drum up support for his campaign. It’s an unusual strategy, campaigning for governor outside of one’s own state, and it’s raised a lot of eyebrows in Washington, not to mention among his constituents. But today, the world is focused on mourning this rising political star, at the dawn of what was to be a brilliant career.”

  Lorraine and Griffin shared a worried look, neither finding words to better the reporter’s facts, which they both wanted desperately for a variety of reasons. But, it was Carmen who dominated the TV screen, a number of news agency mics jutting up into her tired, beleaguered face. Lorraine was struck by how poorly Carmen had aged, but she knew that sorrow was aging her even more.

  Carmen said, “We … we’d been campaigning so hard, we decided to take a night just for ourselves, away from the staff and everybody. So we took a room here, had a nice meal. I went down to the spa, had a massage … ”

  Lorraine glanced at Griffin, not needing to draw attention to the fact that he was sending her own mother to a spa that very day.

  Carmen went on, “When I came back,” she said, voice cracking, “he was lying on the bed … gone.” She broke into tears and a police escort lead her away from the reporters.

  The reporter returned to the screen. “No word on the cause of death, or if any foul play is suspected. For KSNV News, this is Tanika Thomas reporting.”

  Griffin and Lorraine looked at each other, a tense silence surrounding them. Finally, Lorraine said, “We should pack our bags, get back to New York. There’ll be the funeral in Denver to get to.”

  “Yeah,” Griffin said, “call your folks, I’ll get the jet ready.”

  The local press was waiting for them at the airport, camera crews following them through the terminal to their private jet, barking questions at Griffin and Lorraine, the Devonshires already on their way back to Denver.

  “What do you make of City Councilman Jenkins’ death, Mrs. Phoenix?”

  “What do you expect me to make of it? It’s tragic. I’m so sorry for my old friend Carmen, and for the people of Denver, of the whole state of Colorado, the entire nation; we’ve lost a good man, a man of character and integrity, a dutiful public servant.”

  “He came to visit you recently in New York,” one reporter shouted, “isn’t that true?”

  “It is,” Griffin said, “it was a private visit in our home, dinner among friends.”

  “It wasn’t a business meeting, to do with your PEEC program?”

  Lorraine flashed angry eyes at him. “Who could have told you what we were talking about, whatever that may have been?”

  “Just speculating,” the reporter said. “The councilman was doing a lot of business in New York on that trip.”

  “We don’t know anything about that,” Lorraine said.

  “What about your PEEC program,” another asked, “is that still on track?”

  “It is, yes,” Griffin said, “we’re just trying to find the perfect location for the pilot center. It’s a crucial decision, not to be taken lightly or to be made quickly.”

  Another reporter asked, “What about the rumors that your company is in shambles, that you’re been robbed blind in some ponzi scheme?”

  “They’re just that,” Griffin said, “rumors, which makes them meaningless. We did have a little glitch in our computer program, but I understand that’s been cleared up, and things at Phoenix Enterprises are moving ahead, full-steam.”

  “Are you planning to attend the funeral in Denver?”

>   “Of course,” Lorraine said. “Albert was my friend, my mentor, the savior of the public libraries. I wouldn’t dream of dishonoring him by not paying my respect.”

  “That’s enough, ladies and gentlemen,” Griffin said, holding his hand up and leading Lorraine and the kids past them and onward toward their private jet for the trip back to New York.

  Two days later, Lorraine and Griffin were attending Albert’s funeral, the kids staying with Larry and Sally for the day. The cemetery was cluttered with mourners, black jackets and veils, sobbing and sniffling, Carmen surrounded by her family and friends.

  News crews hovered just beyond the perimeter, catching every miserable moment for their broadcast profit.

  The service had been long and somber, but at least everybody had been staring in the same direction. With the crowd gathered around the grave, Lorraine could sense the grim stares she was attracting from her former friends and neighbors, Albert’s constituents who considered him a saint in death.

  Lorraine wasn’t sure what was inspiring their ire, as it could have been one of any number of things; the violence at the library three years before, her abandoning them for a jet-set lifestyle out of New York, even Albert’s death. More and more, everybody seemed to have a reason to hate Lorraine and Griffin, despite the risks they’d taken for no other reason than the welfare of the community. Lorraine wasn’t concerned about that, or about them.

  Lorraine was worried about Carmen.

  After the burial, Lorraine and Griffin worked their way through the grimacing crowd toward Carmen, surrounded by friends and family. Lorraine said, “Carmen, I’m so sorry … ” Lorraine hugged Carmen, but Carmen’s arms barely moved from her sides. Lorraine could feel the tension, the rejection of her outreach, so she backed away with an awkward confusion. “Carmen? Are you okay?”