No More Masquerade

by Angel Payne

  “I meant it, you know.” I declared it as I sat back on my haunches and brought her knees forward, giving me the chance to untie her boots and slide them off her feet. “I’m your genie, baby. Your wish is my desire…” I paused, biting my lower lip for emphasis. “Right after you feed mine.”

  Her eyes flared. Then darkened. “Of course, genie,” she breathed. “Command me. Use me in any way you need to stoke your…magic ways.”

  I rose to my feet and brought her along with me. Keeping our bodies nearly entwined, I claimed her in a deep, sweeping kiss that left out the coy and cautious this time. I spread her lips as far as she’d let me, stabbing my tongue at hers in open caveman possession. Claire, her blood already spiked from fighting off the asses in the alley, scratched all the way down my chest. I broke our kiss to reward her with hisses as she tore her way down my pecs, barely giving my nipples a bye on the slashes. When she was done, I impaled her with a stare that gave her no choice of reaction. She was going to obey me. Period. She licked her lips for a fast second, conveying how she already agreed.

  “Walk over there,’ I instructed. “To the bed. Strip for me. Then stand and wait for me.”

  She lifted a sultry smile that turned my heart into mush and my cock into stone. “As my genie wishes.”

  Thank fuck I still knew how to maintain self-control. It took every ounce of the shit that I had to stand in place and watch her, a miracle of grace and color and movement, as she slid down her jeans and panties, revealing every curve of her incredible body. Dear God, how I longed to take her picture. At no other time had I yearned more to capture a moment with her, perhaps even to paint the image soon. She was perfect and bare, bathed in the silver moonlight and peach streetlight filtering in past the dingy shades, turning her creamy skin into a pastel palette that hypnotized me.

  And lured me.

  Unable to tolerate the distance between us anymore, I followed the path she’d just taken. Along the way, I got rid of my boots and set free the top button on my jeans, though I left my fly up. I had a few shreds of common sense left and one of them decreed that if the zipper came down, all bets were off on how fast my dick would demand to be inside her. Tonight would not be like the mindless, pointless fuck we’d had on the yacht.

  Tonight was for keeps.

  I intended to show her that…no matter how thoroughly it killed me.

  Or how much this felt like the first time I’d made love to her.

  The impression wasn’t as meaningless-pop-lyric as it sounded. In so many ways, this was the first time we’d be together. Without my masks. Without the illusions I’d given her because of them. Yeah, that included the cavalier cad I’d pretended to be on the yacht—playing another role because I had no idea who to be otherwise.

  Now, there was just me. Only inches away from the most perfectly-created woman since Eve, standing so still that she really seemed my sacred gift, waiting…for my worship alone. I hadn’t lied; the concept of this was fucking scary. At least on paper. My body hadn’t gotten one word of that memo, especially the blood engorging every inch of the flesh between my thighs. Christ. Did every part of me have to feel fifteen again?

  I took another step toward her. As the floorboard creaked, she visibly shivered. The movement shifted the light that glinted in her hair, making her strawberry strands glow. I reached to touch them first, sliding fingers reverently over her trendy, slightly asymmetrical style. The shorter cut made it easier to get to her neck, the slender column all but begging for my kiss, my licks, my sucks.

  But not yet.

  I flowed my fingers across her shoulders, back again toward her spine, into the hollow at its base, over the sweet swells of her ass. Her breath hitched as I applied deeper pressure there, pulling her silky cheeks apart with the force of my thumbs. I smiled as she arched for me, unknowingly begging for more of my illicit exploration in that warm, tight grotto.

  I snuck my thumbs deeper in.

  Claire pushed and moaned back at me.

  “You look like a fairy princess, baby…but you’re begging for sin like a naughty little sex demon.” I lowered to my knees behind her, taking the chance to bite at her firm flesh as I did. “Be careful what you wish for. I’m not an uptight Stone anymore. God only knows what I’m capable of.”

  “Ohhhh.” She finished it off with a lusty grunt, turning me on in about twenty new ways. “Oh please show me what you’re capable of.”

  I didn’t answer her in words. Instead I dipped my head lower, breathing in the salty, heady scent beckoning from the pink peach of her sex. I slid my hands from her ass to silently direct her into a new position, head on the bed, torso bent over, legs parted even farther for me. As she complied, I pressed my thumbs into the exact same position. At the shadowed doorway to her most forbidden entrance.

  She trembled as I teased that delicate little hole, brushing just the edges, pulling her apart by excruciating degrees. I relished every second of her fast little gasps as I stretched my index fingers forward, sliding them into the slick folds of her pouting pussy. When I joined my mouth to the effort, she abandoned the gasps for a full outcry.

  “Killian! Jesus!”

  I chuckled. My girl had the most creative talent for stringing metaphors sometimes.

  And the most intoxicating taste on the planet.

  Her folds really were like the most delicious fruit, bathing my tongue in her intoxicating taste, infused with the tang of her creamy lust. I explored every inch of her in ravenous need, sucking when licking simply wasn’t enough. Her moans and profanity, turning into pleas to the saints themselves, were like the most sensual rendering of Bolero to my ears. Her body was my orchestra and I relished every new, carnal note I conducted from it.

  Before long, my fingers were drenched. I dragged that extra moisture to the little aperture I’d been exploring with my thumbs, giving them extra lubricant to penetrate her ass deeper. My new exploration was answered by a high keen and an invocation of more saints I’d never heard of. Her ass clamped on my thumbs. Her sex sucked on my tongue. I matched the rhythm of my attention in both places, fucking her with my fingers and my mouth, ramping the speed to correspond with every shudder and thrust she gave me in return.

  “Killian,” she pleaded. “Oh, Killian…I’m going to…so good…so good…”

  She bucked and screamed. Then stiffened.

  And came.

  And came.

  And came.

  They were the most perfect minutes of my life. And when they were over, my cock was harder than I ever remembered.

  Lowering my zipper was agony. Getting my jeans and briefs pulled off, a lesson in restrained torment. I hissed from the pain, giving my shaft a cursory glance just to make sure it had made it out in one piece, before feverishly kicking the clothes from my legs and mounting the bed, sliding up behind her.

  It was my intent to kiss my way down her body and steadily warm her up again, but apparently I had one more idiot card left in my deck. The moment I felt her beneath me, warm and moist and compliant, my mind swam from the effort of fighting my cock. The damn thing had been switched to Claire-seeking missile mode and wasn’t about to be deterred. Even the woman herself didn’t help, lifting herself toward me, offering the sexiest angle of her delectable ass. The position gave me such a tantalizing view of the pink ambrosia I’d just sampled I was stunned my eyes didn’t roll back in my damn head from the bliss.

  I tempted fate by seating my hips behind hers but managed to keep my erection nestled between her labia, rubbing us both into greater need, as I tucked my mouth against her neck.

  “You’re the most incredible sex-demon-fairy-princess I’ve ever known.”

  Her soft laugh, finished by an aroused gasp, was just the right amount of distraction from my craving to fuck her raw this second. “I’ll bet you say that to all the sex-demon-fairy-princesses that you give mind-blowing orgasms to.”

  “Only you.” I scraped at her neck, in the sensitive spot between her ear and nape
, as punctuation. “There’s only you, Claire. There only ever will be.”

  She sighed, but not for very long. A long moan took over, flushing her in heat that permeated me as well, as she curled both fists into the comforter and shuttled her body back against mine. The effect on my cock was instant heaven—and hell. Her tunnel held me, milked me, and taunted me, beckoning the liquid heat in my core to power down my swollen length.

  Fuck. Not yet. Not…yet.

  I punctuated it with an ominous growl before sinking my teeth into her shoulder. Her provoked keen made my eyes roll back. Damn, she was sexy in animal sex mode.

  “Oh my God, Killian.” Something in her breathy emission stirred me to shift my mouth to the other shoulder. And bite her just as hard. “Ahhhh!” she screamed—then laughed.

  “Can’t help it,” I snarled. “I have a craving for fairy tonight.”

  “Shit! Mmmmmm. Shit. Shit.” She kept up the little whimpers, shooting new blood into my cock with each one, until finally blurting, “Goddammit, Beetlejuice. Fuck me now or I’m putting on the Docs and marching out of here!”

  My mind took that visual suggestion and ran with it. Only in my fantasy, she stomped around in nothing but the trendy combat boots, sashaying her naked curves, tossing back her cute little haircut, flashing her adorable golden eyes—until I grabbed her in all that fiery beauty, shoved her back down on the bed and—

  “Fuck.”

  I rammed deeper into her, subjugating her to my pure sexual need. She was drenched and ready for me, flipping the switch on a thousand more possessive instincts. I gave into them without compunction, stretching my hands out over her wrists and pinning them to the bed while I rocked hard, harder, harder, claiming every inch of her as thoroughly as I could.

  As my balls constricted around their impending release, I scored her neck with my teeth again. I wanted—yearned—to reinforce what I’d told her during those dark moments in the alley.

  “Mine,” I grated.

  “Yes,” Claire whispered in return.

  “Yes what?” I needed to do this. To push her—and me. To lay my claim over her mind and her heart as well as her body and soul. To hear it from her lips, and know it was really true once more. “Yes what, Claire?”

  “Yes, Killian. I’m yours. Always. Always.”

  Her surrender…opened the floodgates of mine. Like Bolero’s final timpani roll, my release pounded through my cock and exploded into her. As my climax burst into her core, Claire’s lips burst with my name. Her walls clenched my cock, squeezing every last drop of my heat out.

  The world was a bizarre blend of real and surreal. While the bliss of my body was pretty damn great, it was also a secondary pleasure, almost a pleasant bonus to the glory and beauty of really fusing with Claire again. Molding our spirits again.

  Joining our lives again.

  A long time later, I finally withdrew then rolled to my back, falling to the pillows with the first perfect exhaustion I’d had in months. It was one of those rare nights in San Diego when the weather reminded me more of Chicago, sticky and hot, so I lay bare atop the comforter while the ocean breeze cooled my skin. Claire snuggled against me, one leg curling around one of mine, and we both fell fast asleep.

  I was roused—make that awakened with the equivalent of a heart attack—by her shrill scream.

  “Claire? Claire!”

  What the hell? Where was she? Not in bed with me anymore, that was for damn sure. A frantic scan of the apartment’s main room didn’t turn her up, either.

  A thousand awful thoughts slammed me, topped by the sickest of them all: that one of the bastards from the alley had followed us last night and was here to dish out payback.

  “Killian! Oh, my God! Aaahhhh!”

  I bolted out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Thank fuck she hadn’t locked the door. I wrenched the knob and slammed back the portal, looking up to see her braced on the narrow ledges of the shower, brandishing my shave gel in one hand and a rolled hand towel in the other. Even in the awkward position, she made my jaw drop with lust.

  Until she jarred me back with a higher scream.

  “Fairy, what the hell?”

  “Behind the door!” she shrieked. “You’ve trapped it, I think. Oh God, no you didn’t! It’s coming back out!”

  I peeked behind the door. The only thing back there was—

  “It’s Felix.” I gave her a quizzical look. “Baby, come on. It’s only Felix.”

  “It’s a rat, Killian. A rat!”

  “Okay. Technically, yeah. But he’s a good guy. Aren’t you, dude? He’s probably hungry, too. I haven’t seen him in a few days.”

  “So…he’s your pet?”

  “Not really. I just found him here. He’s kept me company.”

  “He’s—kept you—” Her face twisted into a bunch of different expressions, so gauging her reaction was impossible. I didn’t move, though. She was fascinating as hell to watch. And sexy? Standing there with her naked legs spread and her frantic breaths making her breasts jiggle like that? My twitching cock filled in the answer to that equation—until she noticed. And followed up with a censuring glower. “Get me out of here,” she dictated. “Right. Now.”

  Once I swung her into my arms, carried her into the main room then set her down, the woman stomped to her Doc Martens. I had to chomp the inside of my cheek to prevent my wide smirk as she brought my fairy-in-combat-boots dream to life. And ohhhh yeah, the reality was much better than the fantasy, made even better when she turned, planted hands on her hips, and glared me down like a misbehaving grunt in her sex platoon.

  “Well, that was the last straw on the very thin camel’s back,” she stated.

  I shook my head, glad for something to do other than wrestle with my grin. “Not sure…I follow?”

  “The apartment.” She clarified by swooping out an angry hand. “This apartment. It goes, Killian. I love you, but I am not coming back here.” When she pulled the hand back in, she folded her arms, pushing her nipples straight out. Thank fuck for you, Felix. “The bed can come with you. And the easels. But the rest of the apartment goes. The rat goes. And—”

  “I know, I know.” I couldn’t contain my smile any longer. “The beard goes, too.”

  She released a relieved breath. Tacked on an adorable little giggle. As she stepped over, fitting her nakedness to mine once again, she whispered, “We’re going to get along just fine, mister.”

  I growled against her lips. “I’ve no doubt of it, Miss Montgomery. Though perhaps I can talk you into letting Surfer Jesus fuck you one more time…?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Claire

  “Breakfast is ready!”

  I called it out toward the beehive of construction workers in the backyard. They were already hard at work, hammering and sawing in the early sun, trying to beat the worst of the heat by getting an early start.

  Killian appeared through the haze of sawdust, grinning from ear to ear. I eagerly soaked up the beauty of him, his tight T-shirt hugging the V of his torso, pulled on over a pair of blue and white Hurley board shorts, with Vans on his feet. The shoes likely would have been flip flops, but closed toes were required for the construction zone, so Vans it was today. Praise to all the heavens, he’d shaved the beard off. His hair, though shorter, could’ve stood another trim. I’d force that issue when he owed me a good favor.

  For the time being, I’d settle for that body, that swagger, and that grin.

  “You look like a boy on Christmas morning,” I remarked as he entered the kitchen. He kissed my cheek as I handed him a cup of coffee. He’d been so excited about watching the crew transform the detached garage into his new art studio, filling me in on the progress every night over dinner. He’d sold a few more paintings since the Mission Bay show, of tigers instead of me this time, and was entertaining the idea of opening a small gallery on Ray Street. I didn’t think I’d ever see him in a suit and tie again. That was really okay by me.

  “I can’t believe
how fast it’s shaping up,” he marveled. “The foreman thinks they should be ready to paint next week, and the windows should be delivered this afternoon. I think everything’s right on schedule.”

  “You think?” I raised brows at the clipboard he slid onto the counter. “To the tune of knowing how long this project has taken, down to the second?”

  He laughed. “I don’t think I’m driving them too crazy with the micro-managing yet.”

  “You? Micro-managing? I don’t believe it.” I giggled as he gained retribution in the form of a long, tongue-tangling, balance-stealing kiss.

  “All right, watch yourself.”

  His growl stole a little more of my equilibrium. Thank goodness he still held me so tight. “Or what?” I challenged playfully.

  “I’ll think of something. I can be very creative when motivated. And you, Miss Montgomery, are most motivating.”

  I let him have the satisfaction of my girlish sigh. He took my breath away and there was no use hiding it. I stared up into his onyx eyes, so alive and passionate again. How many times had I been certain that look was gone forever?

  Just to confirm this all wasn’t just a dream, I tugged him closer, inhaling his rich scent, now infused with ocean wind and his own perfect musk. Okay. This was real. I could trust that I hadn’t tricked myself into thinking it was all better now, and I wouldn’t open my eyes to find out I was still alone and desperate—and without him.

  Killian’s grip suddenly tightened. “Stop,” he softly ordered.

  “Okay.” I ducked my head and blinked quickly, banishing the bad memories. “I know, I know.”

  He pressed his lips into my hairline. “I will spend the rest of my days making it up to you, fairy. I swear.”

  “You shouldn’t have to.”

  “But I will, anyway.”

  I slammed a couple of finger over his lips and beamed him a smile. And meant it. “Let’s eat. Breakfast is getting cold. And I’m starving.”

  “I’m not.” His tone was ripe with suggestion, making me blush to the bottom of my feet—including the sensitive inches between my thighs he’d used for a morning “appetizer” a few hours ago.