Part 25 (1/2)
”I really hope they nail him.” She looked at him, her hazel eyes wide, sh.e.l.l-shocked from the events of the past eighteen hours. ”I'm just glad you got the girls out before...” Her throat convulsed over a swallow.
He threaded his hand through her hair and pressed her face into his neck. ”Don't think about that. It's over now.” He pulled her tighter against him and buried his face against her hair. He kissed the top of her head and trailed kisses down her cheek.
”It was so awful,” she said in a choked whisper. ”Hearing the gunshots, not knowing if you were okay.”
”Yeah, it kinda sucked for me, too.”
She laughed a watery chuckle and lifted her mouth, her lips parted, to brush his. She wove her fingers through his hair and held his face to hers. ”You could have died. I was afraid you were going to die.” She'd been holding it together, composure never slipping as she'd stayed on task, but now he could feel the tremors coursing through her body as delayed trauma hit her with devastating force.
He clung to her, holding her steady as she kissed him with adrenaline-fueled desperation. He opened his mouth, welcoming the invasion of her tongue. She tugged his s.h.i.+rt up his chest and ran her hands up the hot skin of his back.
Her hand ran up his rib cage, pausing when it came across the bandage on his left side.
”What is this?”
”Nothing,” he said, grabbing her hand and pus.h.i.+ng it down to his waist.
”You're hurt,” she said, her voice catching. She yanked his s.h.i.+rt over his head and leaned in for a closer look.
”It's just a graze,” he said, trying to distract her as he felt her fingers go icy against his side.
”I swear to G.o.d,” she said, her voice trembling, ”if you try to tell me it's just a flesh wound I'll punch you.”
”It is.” He chuckled, wincing as he peeled back the bandage the EMT had put on to reveal the angry-looking furrow. ”I didn't even need st.i.tches.”
Her fingers traced the outline of the wound before she carefully replaced the bandage. Then her palm slid up to his chest, pausing over his heart, warming over the steady thrum. Her other hand curled around his neck and she pulled him down for a kiss. ”I need you,” she whispered against his mouth. ”I need to feel you inside me.”
He slipped off her gla.s.ses and tossed them in the direction of the coffee table without breaking contact with her mouth, starving for the taste of her. He knew what she was feeling. After dodging several rounds of gunfire and feeling a bullet graze his side, he felt it, too. The need to connect, to prove he was alive in the most primitive way possible. His c.o.c.k thickened to full hardness, eager to give her what she needed.
Her shaky fingers fumbled with his belt and tugged at the b.u.t.tons of his pants. He shoved his pants down his hips, groaning when her hand closed around his erection, stroking, squeezing almost enough to hurt.
”I want this.” Her grip tightened in emphasis. ”I want you inside me. Now.” She kissed and stroked him, panting and almost frantic with desire.
This was a side of Toni he'd never seen, aggressive, hungry, needing him like no woman ever had before. Her hunger stoked his own. His c.o.c.k swelled in her hand. He felt bigger, harder than he'd ever been in his life. Somehow he got her pants off, shoving them and her panties down in one motion. They had barely hit the floor before she toppled onto the sofa, pulled him down on top of her, and guided him between her thighs.
The sweet heat of her p.u.s.s.y closed around him, so slick and tight he had to use every ounce of restraint not to come right then and there. She s.h.i.+mmied under him, trying to urge him deeper, but they kept sinking into the too-soft cus.h.i.+ons of the couch. With a groan of frustration, Ethan caught her legs around his waist and lifted her off the couch and onto the floor.
She moaned and arched her back as his hips surged forward, taking him deep. He tried to slow down, tried to restrain himself from pounding her into the floor the way he wanted to.
Toni's fingers clawed his back. ”Don't hold back,” she said, shoving her hips against his. ”I don't want you to be gentle. I want you to f.u.c.k me like you mean it.”
He felt her tighten around him, tightening her inner muscles, kneading him from the inside until he saw stars behind his tightly closed lids. ”Jesus,” he muttered, unable to resist her demands. He thrust without restraint, pumping inside her so hard he had to hold her hips to keep her from sliding up the floor. He was lost in her, every cell focused on her, giving her what she needed, his own pleasure almost too much to stand.
She arched and moaned under him, her hand coming up to caress his face. Her thumb traced his mouth, he caught it and sucked it between his lips.
”Ethan.” His name was a broken sigh, her eyes were wide, filled with something like wonder as she gazed up into his face.
His heart swelled like a balloon in his chest, bigger and bigger until he couldn't breathe. She made him feel as powerful as a G.o.d, as weak as a child, as she wrapped her legs around him and stared up at him with such open need and and trust. He drove himself impossibly deep inside her, gasped at the slick, tight grip of her sucking him in, sucking out his soul.
He was falling, so hard and fast, the ground coming up to meet him with devastating impact. He hoped he made it out of this alive.
Toni was going to die. She was sure of it. Nothing could feel this good and not kill her. Every nerve in her body was tight as a bowstring, vibrating with pleasure, and she knew that when she came she was going to blow apart into a million little pieces.
She would welcome it, since it meant she got to feel Ethan's huge, amazing c.o.c.k tunneling inside her again and again. He was amazing. He was magic. Heating her from the inside out, banis.h.i.+ng her fear, her guilt, until nothing was left but pure, unadulterated pleasure. She wanted this never to end. She wanted to swallow him up, absorb him into her body and never let him go. She wanted to hold on to him forever so everything could always feel as perfect as it did right now.
Her fingers tensed, her toes curled, and her o.r.g.a.s.m bore down on her like a tidal wave, pounding through her in a devastating wash of pleasure. He rode her through it, sliding in and out as her body clenched and pulsed around him.
His thrusts increased in speed and her legs fell open. Suddenly he froze, muscles trembling. ”f.u.c.k.”
”What is it,” she whispered. ”Why are you stopping?”
”I didn't put on a condom, I'm safe, I promise.” He made a mournful sound, bent his head, and started to pull out.
”Don't,” she said, gripping the firm muscles of his a.s.s to keep him in place. ”It's okay.”
”What about...”
Awash in pleasure, she didn't even consider the consequences of what she was about to do. ”It's okay. I'm okay. I want you to come inside me.”
He rested his weight on his elbows and came down over her, his mouth closing over hers. His tongue slipped inside, taking up a slow, lazy rhythm that matched the movements of his c.o.c.k inside her. Pleasure curled in her belly until she was again matching him thrust for thrust, moan for moan. His hand came between them, his thumb circling her c.l.i.t in firm strokes. ”I want you to come with me,” he murmured into her mouth. He swelled even bigger inside her, filling her completely. His eyes squeezed shut and the muscles of his arms and chest stood out in stark relief. With a final thrust, he let out a harsh cry and came hotly inside her.
Another o.r.g.a.s.m rolled through her, jolting in its intensity. When she came down, Ethan was murmuring against her neck, telling her how beautiful she was, how much he wanted her. Then, so m.u.f.fled against her throat she wasn't sure she heard him right, ”Christ, Toni, I think I'm in love with you.”
The words were barely out of his mouth before every muscle in his body went rigid. Her eyes flew open. The shock in his blue eyes mirrored her own.
”I...” His voice trailed off.
She didn't have any problem completing his thought. ”Didn't mean to say that. Don't worry about it.” Her throat got tight as she struggled against the urge to say it back.
What kind of idiot fancies herself in love after less than a week?
She pushed at his shoulders and tried to roll out from under him. But he held her there, pinned. ”Don't. Don't try to shut me out.”
”I'm not shutting you out. I'm letting you off the hook.” She shoved harder at his shoulders, and this time he let her go. Avoiding his gaze, she searched the living room for her discarded clothing.
”What if I don't want to be let off the hook? What if I meant it?”
”No one falls in love in less than a week, Ethan,” she said, as much for her own benefit as for his. ”We had s.e.x. Again. That's all.” She hurriedly pulled her panties up over her hips and reached for her T-s.h.i.+rt. He was still on the floor, bare-chested, with his pants below his hips. His p.e.n.i.s was still half hard, slick and s.h.i.+ny-wet with the evidence of their pa.s.sion.
The evidence of her stupidity. Oh, G.o.d, what had she done? The damp warmth between her own thighs mocked her, a vivid reminder of how careless she was not only with her heart but also her body. ”I need to go,” she said, launching herself toward her jeans where they lay crumpled in a corner.
”Toni, you're not leaving until we talk about this.” She heard Ethan get up, heard his heavy footsteps approaching. ”How are you going to get home, anyway, when you don't have a car?”
And of course he wouldn't give her a ride. b.a.s.t.a.r.d. ”I'll call a cab,” she snapped. Her phone rang as she slid her jeans up over her hips and she fumbled it out of her pocket, grateful for the distraction.
The caller ID displayed her friend Megan's number. She'd been friends with Megan since high school, when they were the only girls in the computer club. Megan still lived in Seattle and worked for Microsoft.