Tyler shook his head. “Passed out.”
He turned his back on his brother, picked Shannon up and carried her down the hall to his own room, where he laid her gently on the bed and smoothed her hair back from her forehead. He turned on the bedside lamp.
“You’re safe now, Shannon. I’m going to lock the door. Don’t open it until I come back.”
Shannon looked up at him. He looked exactly like Jordan and yet not like him at all. His gray eyes were full of concern. She saw anger there, too, but she knew it wasn’t for her.
“What’s the password?” Shannon whispered.
Tyler frowned. “Password?”
“So I’ll know it’s you when you come back,” Shannon said.
“Right, of course, the password. What do you think it should be?”
Shannon thought for a moment. This was important. Then she had it. “Shane,” she said. It was from her father’s favorite Western, the one where the hero, Shane, stood up to all the bad guys in the town. Tyler had watched it with her a few months ago, when it came on one of the cable channels. He’d talked her mother into letting her stay up late to see it.
Tyler smiled. “Shane,” he said. “Perfect. I’m going to get Mrs. Hale to stay with you. I’ll be back in a little while.”
Shannon sat up so fast she got dizzy. “No, I don’t want Mrs. Hale! She won’t wake up, anyway. Jordan put sleeping pills in her juice.”
“What? That sneaky little bastard. Wait until I tell Dad—”
Shannon’s heart thumped hard. “No! You can’t tell Ray. You can’t tell anyone!”
“Don’t worry, Shannon, Jordan will never hurt you again.”
“You said he wasn’t dead,” she said.
“No, I just I knocked him out. I think I broke his nose, too. I hope to Christ I broke his nose. Now I’m going to make him go away. I mean it, Shannon, you’ll never have to worry about Jordan again. I’ll make sure of that.”
“Tyler, please,” she said, “you can’t tell. And you have to tell Jordan we won’t tell anyone, ever.”
“We have to tell, Shannon. He has to pay for what he did.”
“No! Make him go away, but don’t tell, please! It has to be a secret!”
Tyler’s eyes searched her face. “Why, Shannon? Why don’t you want anyone to know? It wasn’t your fault. No one will blame you.”
Jordan would. Frantic, she shook her head. “Please, Tyler, please! You can’t tell, you can’t! You have to promise him no one will ever know what he did!”
She was shaking again, trembling from head to toe, her breath coming in great, gulping sobs. Tyler stroked her hair, soothing and hushing her.
“It’s all right, Shannon, it’s going to be all right. I won’t tell, I promise.”
“And you’ll tell him we’ll both keep it a secret?”
“If it’s that important to you, I’ll tell the sick bastard we’ll keep it a secret. I have to go now, before he comes to, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Calmer now, Shannon nodded as he pulled the bedspread over her and kissed her cheek.
“I’m going to lock the door now.”
She watched him turn the lock on the inside of the doorknob, then she thought of something she wanted to ask him.
“Tyler, why did you come back?”
He turned and smiled at her.
“I left the tickets on my dresser,” he said, then he frowned. “When I came in, the movie was playing too loud. I went to ask you to turn it down so you wouldn’t disturb Mrs. Hale, but you weren’t there, so I turned it down and went looking for you. Then, when I found your door locked, I got this weird feeling, like something was really off—”
He stopped and closed his mouth in a hard line. His hands clenched into fists.
“I’m glad you forgot the tickets,” Shannon said.
“So am I, Shannon,” he said, “very, very glad. Why don’t you try and get some sleep now? I’ll be back soon.”
Shannon had never been so tired in her whole life, but she couldn’t go to sleep. She curled up in a ball and waited for Tyler to come back, waited for the password: Shane.
TWENTY-FIVE
By the time Shane finished, her voice was nearly gone. Exhausted, she rested her head against Matt’s chest. She hadn’t noticed until now how tense his muscles had become. His arms around her felt like iron bands, and he was unnaturally still. Terrified that her worst fear had come true, that he could no longer love her, she tilted her head back and looked up at his face.
Matt was staring across the room at nothing, his jaw set, his eyes filled with anger and something else, some strong emotion she couldn’t name. What was it? Sorrow? Disgust?
She waited for him to look at her, to comfort her, to tell her he still loved her, but he acted like she wasn’t even there.
It felt like Jordan’s knife in her heart.
She broke free of his rigid embrace, sliding to her feet off the far side of the bed. Her body pushed her, compelled her: She had to run, right now, fast and hard, or she would shatter into a million pieces. She made it to the door, threw it open and ran out into the night, gasping in the dry desert air, letting the bitter tears fall.
There was nowhere to go except down the length of the parking lot. Grit bit into the soles of her bare feet, but she hardly felt it. She needed the hills, the mountains, the fresh, cool air. This place was flat and barren, the night air warm and stale as she ran, fists pumping, lungs heaving.
She didn’t know Matt had followed her until he grabbed her shoulder, halting her headlong rush to nowhere. He turned her into his arms, pulled her against his chest, crushed her mouth in a searing kiss.
“Shane,” he said when he raised his head from hers. “I love you. I love you.”
Her heart opened and the wall inside her trembled as she clung to him. “Burn me up, Matt,” she said, her voice a ragged whisper. “Burn it away. Please, please, burn it all away.”
She heard him growl deep in his throat and he lifted her into his arms in one swift movement.
As he carried her back across the parking lot and through the door of her room, she rained kisses on his neck and the hard line of his jaw. His skin was warm and damp and tasted of salt and desire.
Kicking the door shut behind them, he turned toward it and set Shane on her feet. Her knees had gone weak; she would have fallen if he hadn’t leaned into her, molding his body to hers.
He yanked at the hem of her T-shirt and she raised her arms to let him pull it over her head. Her hair was loose; she felt it cascade to her bare shoulders, warm and silken.
She was breathing hard and fast, hungering for him as she’d never hungered for anything else in her life. She fumbled his T-shirt out of his jeans, slipped her hands beneath it, reached around to mold her hands against the smooth skin of his back.
Shane heard fabric rip as he yanked his shirt over his head, his breath coming fast and hard to match hers. “Yes,” she murmured, “yes.”
She wanted his skin on hers, couldn’t stand it that their clothes still kept them apart. She tugged at his jeans, wanting all of him, now, right now.
He captured her hands, pulled them up over her head and pinned them against the door. His mouth came down on hers again and she arched against him. She’d never felt anything as powerful as this, never imagined it could be like this. The empty, throbbing ache at her center grew stronger and stronger, until she thought she’d die if she couldn’t have him inside her, filling her, possessing her.
Matt trapped both of her wrists with one hand, slipped his other hand behind her back and released her bra, then let her arms down, let the strip of white fall to the floor. Now she was bared above the waist, ripe for his touch, his mouth. Holding her against the door with his hips, pressing into her, he looked down at her with hooded eyes.
“Shane, you’re so beautiful,” he breathed.
He held her arms high on the door again, clasping her hands, intertwining their fingers. Then he ducked his head and took one hard
pink nipple into his mouth.
Shane gasped with shock and pleasure as his teasing and suckling seared a path straight to her aching core.
“Matt. Oh, God, Matt.”
Her hoarse whisper whipped along his nerves like fire. Letting go of her hands, he yanked her jeans down past her hips to her ankles, taking her white cotton panties with them. She lifted each foot to let him strip them off and he felt her legs trembling. He stripped off the rest of his clothes, kicked them away.
His gaze raked Shane’s body. He was on fire for her. It had never been like this for him, this fevered, this urgent, this desperate. He needed to be inside her like a starving man needed food, like a man dying of thirst needed water. And he knew by the look in her eyes, the urgency of her mouth on his, that this was not the time for slow and tender. He knew she wanted him, needed him, as desperately as he wanted and needed her. She’d begged him to burn her up, to burn her past away, and that’s exactly what he was going to do. After tonight, she would remember only him.
He leaned in and claimed Shane’s mouth once more with a deep kiss. He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, coming to rest with his full weight on top of her warm and pliant body. He thrust a knee between her thighs, heard her gasp as his fingers found her warm, moist center.
Shane knew what was coming and welcomed it with a fierce joy. She didn’t want gentleness, not this time, not the first time. She wanted his need, his desperation. She wanted the heat she saw in his eyes, the fire that raged in him.
His strong, insistent hands were on her thighs, pushing them farther apart, pushing her knees up, opening her. She arched her body, lifting her hips, straining toward him.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, yes.”
He plunged into her and she went up in flames.
The relief of it was almost more than she could bear. This was Matt inside her, thrusting deeply into her, filling her, claiming her, cleansing her, making her whole, making her new.
Matt, Matt, Matt. She said his name out loud and his mouth took hers, burning, searing, seeking, taking, giving, loving.
Loving.
She closed her eyes as the tears came once more, tears Matt burned away with the kisses he rained over her eyes, her cheeks, her mouth. She kissed him back, wrapping her arms and legs around him, riding the surging flames with him, drawing him deeper inside her, so deep, so good, so good. Matt deep inside her felt like a miracle.
The fire in her belly gathered into a molten, rolling, rising ball of tightening, clutching heat that took her up and up and up until she nearly screamed with the wild joy of it. When he took her over the edge, she screamed his name as they peaked together and rode together and plunged together down the last, long slope.
Afterwards, limp and sated and reborn, Shane fell asleep in Matt’s arms.
TWENTY-SIX
When Shane woke up hours later, the lights were out and they were under the covers in spoon position, skin to skin. Matt’s warm body pressed into hers, his chest against her back, his knees tucked into the bend of hers. One arm was wrapped around her, holding her close.
She could hear his deep, even breathing and thought he was sound asleep until she stirred and his arm tightened, pulling her even closer against his body. She felt his mouth, warm on the back of her neck.
“Hmmm?” she murmured sleepily, arching her back a little, pressing into him.
She heard his quick intake of breath as his hand moved to cup each of her breasts in turn, rubbing his thumb across her nipples until they stiffened.
Her breath came faster and her heart beat harder as his hand trailed down her stomach to find her, his fingers stroking and pressing until she squirmed and moaned, her muscles taut with desire.
In one smooth move, he turned her onto her back, looming over her as he parted her thighs with his knee to give his seeking fingers better access. His mouth came down on her nipples, sucking and tugging them in turn, nipping with gentle teeth until she was crazy with wanting him.
She reached for him, took him in her hand and heard him gasp. She couldn’t wait any longer. “Now,” she said.
He shifted to settle his weight between her legs and she guided him inside her. He filled her, completed her.
Her eyes filled with tears. This was what her body was made for, this joining. With Matt, only with Matt. They were two halves of the same whole. She’d been waiting for him her whole life, and now here he was, in bed with her, inside her.
Matt smiled down at her with sleepy eyes. Then he began to move rhythmically, his arm and shoulder muscles flexing as he held his body above hers, his palms flat on the bed on either side of her. He pushed deeply into her and then pulled back, again and again, arousing her further, tantalizing her with languid, deliberate strokes. He leaned down and kissed her mouth, suckled at her breasts, trailed his tongue along the line of her jaw, around the whorls of her ear.
It was almost more than Shane could bear. She’d thought it couldn’t feel any better than the first time, but it did. Somehow it did.
She ran her hands down his back, felt the slick sweat over his rippling muscles, the narrowing as she reached his waist, the hard ridges of muscle over his hipbones. She cupped her hands on his tight buttocks, pulled him harder against her as she lifted her legs and wrapped herself around him. She arched high, taking him even deeper inside her, moving with him, matching his rhythm.
She saw his eyes widen. No longer teasing, no longer languid, he thrust powerfully into her, again and again, triggering a thundering waterfall of sensation she couldn’t have stopped if the room had been on fire. Wave after shocking wave of pure pleasure burned and rolled through her. Where it joined with Matt’s her body was blossoming, blooming, exploding, turning inside out with ecstasy.
Pushed to impossible extremes of sensation, Shane held on and rode higher and higher until she reached the peak, and then hung there for what felt like forever, her body arched tight, her mind lost in a fog of fulfilled desire.
A moment later, as she lay beneath him, trembling from the intensity of her release, Shane looked up at Matt. His face was set in tense lines, his brown eyes dark as they stared into hers. His breath came in ragged gasps. She twined her fingers in the dark curls at the nape of his neck, pulled his head down and kissed him, invading his hot mouth with her tongue as she pressed her body against his.
He thrust into her hard, once, twice, three times, then he went rigid, arching, straining back as she contracted around him. She felt him pulsing inside her as she swallowed his hoarse moan, then she peppered his face, his eyes, his neck with kisses as he collapsed on top of her.
Shane took Matt’s full weight, reveling in it, trailing her fingers over the relaxed muscles of his sweat-damp back. She smiled lazily and let her breath out in a deep sigh. Before tonight, before Matt, she’d never understood why people made such a fuss about sex. Now she did, and it was nothing less than a revelation. She had a feeling, if she stuck with Matt—and nothing couldn’t tear her away from him now—it wouldn’t take her long to earn a master’s degree in the subject. Maybe even a Ph.D.
After a few minutes, Matt rolled off of her, pulling her close to his side and wrapping a possessive arm around her. He kissed her cheek and she felt the sandpaper roughness of his jaw.
“Hey, you,” he said.
When she looked into his eyes, he was grinning. “You learn fast,” he said.
Shane laughed. “I found a good teacher.” She snuggled into him and closed her eyes, knowing nothing would keep her from sleeping like a baby.
TWENTY-SEVEN
The next time Shane opened her eyes, light was seeping beneath the curtains and the big red numbers on the bedside clock said 7:27. She was curled up on her side, facing the windows. She yawned and stretched, smiling sleepily with the memory of last night, and then she rolled over and reached for Matt.
His side of the bed was empty.
Instantly wide awake, she sat up and turned on the bedside lamp. That was
a mistake, because now she could see herself in the mirror across the room: rat’s nest hair, drowsy eyes, whisker-burned cheeks. Damn. Where was her hairbrush?
More to the point, where was Matt? There were a couple of possibilities: the bathroom or his own room. Okay, she thought with a grimace, here was another one: He took one look at her sex-rumpled, morning self and ran back to New Mexico. Or maybe he’d leaned over to kiss her and she had horrendous morning breath. She huffed into her cupped palm and tried to smell her breath. Nothing. Why did people do that? It was impossible to smell your own breath.
So brushing her teeth was high on her morning to-do list, right up there with taming her hair. She remembered taking her toiletry kit into the bathroom yesterday.
Shane was about to get out of bed when she heard the toilet flush. She smiled. He hadn’t run away. She’d known that, but confirmation was always nice. She needed to spend a few minutes in the bathroom, too, and not just brushing her hair and teeth. Her bladder felt like it was about to burst. And a shower was certainly in order. Hmmm. Was that shower big enough for two? Interesting thought.
She heard the bathroom door open and Matt came around the corner wearing nothing but a skimpy towel tucked around his narrow waist. She wanted to rip it off him. With her teeth.
Oh, God, he’d turned her into a sex machine—which was not necessarily a bad thing, she mused. She had a lot of lost time to make up for.
Her tutor leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest and looked at her with a satisfied grin. She took a long look back, her head tilted as she appraised what she saw and found it good. Better than good. Perfect.
Matt started toward her, his intentions clear in his hooded eyes and the growing bulge beneath the skimpy towel.
Her bladder chose that second to remind her it had reached its limit. “Hold that thought,” she said as she scrambled off the bed and darted around him. “I really have to pee.” She heard him laugh as she shut the bathroom door.
Shattered Blue: A Romantic Thriller Page 17