Standing in the Shadows (McClouds & Friends #2)(48)

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 f*ck 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 f*cking 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?"

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 f*cking 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.