Standing in the Shadows

by Shannon McKenna

  “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.”

  Chapter

  9

  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 them, 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 pa
st 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?”

  She kissed up and down the taut tendons that stood out at his throat. “I want to know you,” she said softly. “In the Biblical sense. Everything you are. Good, bad, everything. And I want you to know me the same way. I want it so bad, Connor. I’m tired of feeling so cold.”

  “You’re not cold,” he said. “You’re burning me to a crisp.”

  She waited silently. A warm, soft weight against his back.

  He picked through her words, feeling around for the snare that had to be there. “You want that? You think you want to know me?”

  “I know that I do,” she said. “I’ve always wanted it.”

  He twisted to look into her eyes. The sensual glow in their honey-brown depths fuddled him, made him forget what he had meant to say. He groped for his train of thought, furious at the casual power she wielded over him. So easy. Like it was nothing to her.

  “It’s dangerous to really know somebody,” he told her. “It’s dangerous to rip the masks away. How do you know if you’ll like what’s underneath? We don’t even really know what’s underneath our own.”

  She had the regal, intergalactic princess look on her face again. “I’ll risk it,” she said quietly.

  He seized her arm, yanking her around so that her face was inches from his. “I’m trying to do the right thing, and you pull the rug out from under my feet every way I turn. Maybe ripping my masks off isn’t such a bright idea, Erin. You keep this up, and maybe you’re going to find yourself fucking some guy you don’t even recognize.”

  She pulled herself out of his grip and slid off the bed until she stood in front of him, her spectacular tits bobbing right at eye level. “Too late,” she said. “You already ripped my masks away. How was it for you, Connor? You just had sex with a woman you didn’t recognize. Did you enjoy it? I sure did. I’ll admit it, I’m not ashamed. I loved it. I didn’t even recognize myself, and I…loved it.”

  “I recognized you,” he said. “I’ve always known you. I’ve had you in my dreams, a million times.”

  She gazed down, as serene as a medieval Madonna. She cupped his face in her hands, tipped it up. The exquisitely gentle kiss she pressed against his forehead was like a benediction.

  “I show you mine, you show me yours,” she said. “It’s only fair.”

  She reached for his hands, placing them at the curve of her waist, and swayed forward until her head was bent over him, her hair swirling around his shoulders, her tits swaying right in his face. He smelled the sharp smell of his come, and the hot, rich scent of her female pleasure mixing with it, a rich, heady sexual spell. His swollen cock bobbed in front of him. At her beck and call.

  The invitation was obvious. He pressed his face against her breasts with a ragged sigh of surrender, rubbing her tight, puckered nipples against his cheeks, and then cupped her breasts in both hands and suckled her. He wanted to imprint every detail onto his long-term memory. Every shape and shade and contour, every sigh and shudder, every delicate difference in texture; the translucent gold perfection of her skin, the plump, lush curves and hollows, all of it calculated to drive him to screaming sexual overload.

  He lost himself. He could do this forever. He wondered if he could make her come just by sucking her tits. He’d read somewhere that it was possible. Now there was a challenge that he would readily embrace. His mouth moved over her, wallowing in her sweet, generous response, her pleading moans, the nails digging into his shoulders.

  She sagged over him, quivering, and embraced his shoulders. Her hair draped across his face, and he pushed the thick, fragrant fall of dark satiny hair out of his eyes, his gaze flicking up to her face.

  Tears stood in her shadowy eyes.

  A chill shuddered through him. His fingers tightened around her waist until she gasped. This wasn’t only to please her and make her hot for him, and she knew it. He saw it in her eyes. The witch was on to him, she’d pulled him so deep into her spell that everything was bared to her. And now she’d ripped away a mask that was so much a part of him, he hadn’t even known he was wearing it. Hadn’t wanted to know.

  Beneath it, he was raw, needy. Famished for her female nurturing. Desperate to assuage a child’s ancient grief, a loss so deep and huge, it was part of the landscape of his mind.

  Her eyes swam with tears. They spilled over, sliding down her face. He was completely naked to her. Wide open. It was unbearable.

  Shame transformed instantly into anger. For a moment, he hated her for witnessing his weakness. He shoved her away from him.

  She stumbled back, startled. When he dared to look at her again, her gaze was wide and cautious. She was wiping her eyes, covering her breasts with her hands, backing away. Too late for that. Power welled up inside him, sexual and dangerous. His cock jutted toward her.

  He advanced on her. “You want to know me, Erin? I’ll show you everything I’ve got. Let’s go into the bathroom and get started.”

  Her eyes were full of tremulous uncertainty. “Connor? I—”

  “I want to wash my come off you. Then I want to fuck you in the shower. And I want to do it now. So move.”

  Her mouth snapped shut, and she gave him a jerky nod. Her slender back trembled as she preceded him into the bathroom.

  He’d scared her. He almost relented, and then he thought of that naked moment at her breast. She had tricked him into this. No masks, no mercy. She showed him hers, he’d show her his.

  It wasn’t his fault if she didn’t like everything she found.

  The bathroom was still humid and perfumed from her hair goop. He wrenched aside the shower curtain, set the hot water running, and motioned for her to get into the tub.

  She was silent and wide-eyed, hot water pounding down and soaking her curtain of dark hair. He grabbed the shower gel, sudsed up his hands and turned her around, yanking her back against him so his cock was pressed against her ass. He washed his sticky come off her belly, her breasts, touching her with proprietary boldness. She reached down to wash between her legs, but he grabbed her hand.

  “No. Don’t wash your lube away. It’s better than soap or water, and you’re really tight and small. You’re going to need all of it.”

  She shivered at his matter-of-fact tone. He covered her soapy hands with his and pressed them against her breasts, glad for any excuse to fondle them. He shoved her legs wider so he could nudge his cock between her thighs and set his teeth against the tender curve between neck and shoulder.

  “Still want to know what’s under my mask, Erin?” He slid his fingers down to tangle in the curls between her legs. “Still convinced?”

  He was taunting her. He couldn’t help it. He almost wanted her to chicken out, so they would have to stop. So they wouldn’t slide down this slippery slope to God knew what.

  She pressed her body back against him, clasping his cock between her clenched thighs, and turned up her wet, flushed face to him. Her eyes glowed with primal female challenge.

  “Yes,” she said simply.

  Water pounded around them. If she had been any less heightened, the look on his face would have terrified her. He pushed her until she tipped forward.

  “Brace yourself against the wall.” His voice was harsh and breathless. “Spread your legs wider.”

  “Connor?” She caught herself against the cold, wet tile.

  He gripped her hips and bent her over. “You want me to put my mask back on? Just say the word if the real me is too scary for you.”

  “This does not give you the right t
o act like a prick!” Her voice choked off when he slid his fingers between her legs.

  “Oh, I’m not acting,” he said. “I thought that was the whole point.”

  He nudged the head of his penis between her soft folds, and pushed. He seemed impossibly large from this angle. Her body bore down on him, and he slowed, stroking her hips. “Arch your back,” he commanded. “It’ll make it easier for you.”

  “This isn’t for me, though,” she snapped. “This is all for you.”

  He shoved himself deeper. “You showed me yours, and I’m showing you mine. I’m just following my instincts. That’s all there is under the mask, Erin. Instinct. Appetite. We’re all just selfish, hungry animals underneath.”

  That’s not true, she wanted to cry out, but she was too overwhelmed by his body, penetrating and invading her. Her arms trembled with the strain, and her hair hung down like a dripping curtain before her eyes. He thrust into her again, and a blaze of startled heat kindled. She quivered, softened around him.

  He made a low, approving sound and gripped her hips, pulsing and pressing himself against that hot spot deep inside, a font of sensation so new, her brain barely knew how to process it. She pushed against him, seeking more, but he controlled the rhythm completely.

  “See? It’s not just for me,” he said. “You get it now?”

  She reached down to touch herself, but a single trembling arm wasn’t strong or stable enough to brace her weight against the wall. She had to use both. He slid his own hand around her hips immediately, and found her clitoris with his fingertip, teasing it tenderly.

  “I’ve got you,” he said. “I’ll take care of you, Erin.”

  Then he let himself go and took her deep and hard. She cried out and stumbled closer to the wall, bracing herself with her folded forearms. She gave in to it. Every deep, gliding thrust stoked that secret glow inside her, every seductive stroke was slicker, more liquid.

  But Connor was angry with her, and she didn’t know why. She felt the barely restrained violence with which he was using her body, and thought of how her father had betrayed him, abandoned him to die. The searing anger that must have caused. Rage that had no outlet.