After I’ve showered and slathered myself in cocoa and vanilla body butter, I lie in Shane’s bed waiting for him. The cotton sheets are soft and cool against my hot skin and I stretch like a cat, feeling so content that I could purr like one right now too. Shane is a complicated, moody asshole, but he is my asshole, and it seems like we are finally back on track. I glance at the clock and notice it’s been over an hour since he left the kitchen to see Conor. Is this some sort of test from him? Is he trying to see how long I’m going to lie here waiting for him? I turn on my side and reach for my phone, just as he walks through the door.
“Hey,” I smile at him.
His eyes are dark as he glares at me and I wonder what I’ve done to make him mad now when I haven’t even seen him since the kitchen.
“Are you naked under there, Hacker?” he growls, and I realize he’s not mad at all. Just horny.
“Of course,” I whisper. “And freshly showered. Just like you told me.”
He arches one eyebrow at me. “It’s not like you to do as you’re told so easily, though.”
“Were you hoping I’d disobey you?” I purr as the wet heat sears between my thighs.
“No,” he shakes his head as he peels his t-shirt over his head. “I don’t need a reason to spank your ass, Jessie.”
“Good,” I whisper as he stalks toward the bed. “Was Conor okay?”
“Yes. Just busy. I didn’t get much chance to chat with him. I’ll catch up with him tomorrow.”
“Oh?” I bite my lip. So where the hell has he been?
“What?” he frowns at me.
“You were gone for a while, is all. Longer than an hour.”
He crawls onto the bed, holding himself over me. “Erin called. I had to discuss some urgent business with her.”
Her name is a like a dagger to my heart. I know that I shouldn’t let her get to me, but she is always there in the background. Making me feel like I don’t belong with him.
“Jessie!” He shoots me a look that makes goosebumps prickle along my forearms.
“What?” I frown. “She was with you on your trip too, wasn’t she? I thought you two would have sorted all of your business out then.”
He closes his eyes and I see him take a deep breath, as though he’s trying to get his temper under control. “She came to Chicago with me. For one night. That was it.”
“Did she share your hotel room?” I ask, even though I get that I’m being petty and childish, because he wouldn’t be here with me now if he was screwing Erin.
“Don’t!” he says with a sigh.
“That’s not an answer, Shane.”
“That’s because it’s a stupid fucking question, Jessie.”
Damn! He was right earlier. We do screw everything up when we talk.
“It’s not stupid to me,” I whisper, and his face softens slightly.
“Of course she didn’t share my room. Erin is a good lawyer, Jessie. She has worked for me and my family for years. She’s going to be in my life, but there will never be anything between us like that. I need you to find a way to be okay with that, because I can’t keep having these conversations with you.”
“I am okay with it. I will be. It’s just that she’s so damn beautiful and elegant — like this graceful swan, while I’m a…’ I trail off, unsure of what I am compared to her.
“You’re a what?” he arches one eyebrow at me.
“A penguin!” I offer.
Shane presses his lips together as he tries to stop himself from laughing, but it has certainly diffused the tension between us. “What kind of penguin?” he eventually asks with a frown.
“I don’t know. One of those little dumpy ones you see in the zoo.”
“I happen to think they’re adorable,” he laughs openly now.
“It’s not funny, Shane,” I make a feeble protest. “I’m trying to explain how she makes me feel.”
He sucks the air through his teeth as he stares down at me. “I have touched, kissed and tasted every part of your body, Jessie. I can hardly keep my hands off you. You’ve got my cock weeping to get inside you here, sweetheart. Whether you think of yourself as a swan, a penguin or a fucking pigeon, do you honestly believe that I don’t worship every single inch of you? I want you so fucking much.” He growls out the last words, and I feel them deep in my core.
“I know,” I whisper as his rock hard cock twitches against my abdomen through the thin sheet as though to confirm what he’s just said.
“So, can we make sure Erin never comes between us again?”
“I just don’t understand how you can feel nothing for her,” I admit.
“Why?” he frowns.
“Because you were in love with her once?”
“Yes. So?”
“I’ve never been in love before now, but I don’t understand how once you’ve loved someone, you won’t always love them on some level. I can’t imagine ever not loving you. Even when I was desperate to hate you, I couldn’t.”
He brushes my hair from my face. “I guess some people’s stories are only written in the sand. And some are written in the stars.”
Before I can ask where our story is written, he seals his mouth over mine and slides his tongue between my lips. Our mouths mesh together as he swirls his tongue against mine, and the wet heat rushes between my thighs. My hands fist in his hair as he holds my face still while he claims my mouth. I remember how long it took him to first kiss me on the lips and how much I have missed the taste of him. Running my hands down his muscular back and beneath the band of his sweatpants, I slide them over his perfectly toned ass. I groan in frustration as he reaches back and moves them, pinning them either side of my head instead. I spread my legs further apart, so he slips between my thighs and I groan into his mouth as his rock hard cock presses against my pussy. I grind myself on him, desperate to feel him inside me, but he just keeps kissing me until I’m aching for him.
I wrench my lips away from his. “Shane! Why are you punishing me?” I groan.
He pulls his head back and stares down at me. “Kissing me is a punishment?”
“Not at all! But denying me the rest of you is.”
He smiles before brushing his nose along my throat and my jawline. “Maybe I’m punishing myself, Hacker?”
“If you are, then please don’t. I want all of you, Shane.”
“Even the dark parts?” he asks softly.
“Especially those. I want every bit of you. The light and the shade.”
I hear the groan rumbling through his chest and throat before he pushes himself up onto his knees and pulls his sweatpants down until his beautiful cock springs free. Then he pulls the bedcovers off me, making me shiver with excitement and anticipation. I help him by wriggling my legs out and wrapping them around his waist.
‘I could fuck you like this forever, sweetheart,’ he whispers as he drives his cock into me and I moan loudly, hoping that he’ll do just that.
