Shadow Warrior, page 33
part #4 of Shadow Rider Series
Her body shuddered, and she gasped. He lifted his head. “I haven’t heard what I want to hear.”
“I can’t think straight. You’re making it difficult.”
He smiled wickedly at her and bent his head again. A moan escaped her, and he felt the muscles in her belly ripple beneath his spread palm. Smiling, he attacked, sucking, drawing out what he craved and then when she cried out, flattening his tongue and stroking until she was nearly sobbing. He changed tactics and flicked her clit hard with his tongue until she was close to exploding. He pulled back, wiping his face on the insides of her thighs.
“Vittorio.” She wailed his name.
“I am listening, mia vida.” He blew on her gleaming curls and then lower still.
“You know I’m staying.”
“You may have said so in the past, but there was no vow. I didn’t hear a vow.” He lowered his head and indulged himself all over again.
He loved the taste of her, but he also loved that she was so sensitive and responsive to him. Within minutes she was gasping out his name, her fingers curling in his hair, begging him. He loved that note of desperation in her voice. He had never played when he was with a woman, but Grace made him feel as if they had all the time in the world to enjoy themselves. She made him feel as if she gave him the freedom to play. To tease her. To enjoy every square inch on her body.
“I’m loving you, Grace.” He whispered it to her against her belly, unable to contain the truth. The feeling was overwhelming and so huge it spilled out of him until he had no choice but to tell her. “I’ll never stop.”
She went still, her hips quiet, and her gaze widened to drift over his face. “I never want you to stop, Vittorio. No matter what, I’m staying with you for as long as you want me. We’ll see it through together.”
He let himself look his fill, drinking her in, and then he couldn’t look anymore because his eyes were burning. He lowered her legs to the floor and rose over her to find her mouth with his, sharing her taste, half expecting her to turn away, but she didn’t. She kissed him, that slow burn he needed from her, igniting a hundred explosions in his belly, all the while conveying absolute love.
“I want you on your hands and knees, gattina.”
Her eyes searched his and then she moved, rolling over obediently, her face to the fireplace. He rubbed her buttocks, loving the look and feel of her. His hand settled on the nape of her neck, pushing her head toward the floor very gently.
“I’m going to take you hard and fast. It will be rough. You have to protect your shoulder, Grace, so lower yourself all the way down and put more weight on your good shoulder.”
She turned her head to look back at him but lowered her upper body more until she was resting on her elbows, her good shoulder taking most of her weight. He rubbed her bottom again, tracing his finger along the seam of her cheeks and then leaning in to nip with his teeth until she gave a little yelp and pushed back toward his hand.
He knelt up behind her, his cock heavy in his hand. He wasn’t going to last nearly as long as he would want to. Not with the firelight playing over her body the way it was. Not with her kneeling, presenting herself to him the way she was. He pressed the thick, flared head of his cock into the scorching heat waiting for him. She gasped, and he looked down at her face.
She was looking at him with her green eyes, those long feathery lashes framing them. There was that look he would never get enough of—the one that told him she definitely belonged to him. Watching her face, he slammed home, driving through her tight folds to bury himself as deep as possible. A streak of fire threatened to engulf his cock in fiery flames as her sheath closed around him, seeking to grasp and hold him tight enough to strangle him.
The air rushed from his lungs. He heard her sharp little cry, abruptly cut off as she gasped for breath. He caught her hips in his hands and began to move. Hard. Fast. Just like he’d promised her. Deep every time. The scorching heat was almost too much. Her channel was so tight he wasn’t certain if he was feeling pleasure or pain. It didn’t matter, because the combination was perfection. He couldn’t stop. He wanted to live right there, with the fire burning him clean.
It was too good. He knew it even as he resolved to prolong his time inside her. Every bit of his discipline seemed to fly out the open doors into the night as he slammed into her over and over, riding her hard, never wanting this time to be over. He felt her muscles clamp down and then her sheath was rippling around him.
“No.” He groaned it, knowing she would take him with her. He was too close. There was no pulling back.
Her breath whistled out of her and the wave grew larger and stronger, sweeping him up, pouring all around him until her body was a vise. She burned him in a silken fist that refused to let up, only tightened more, so much so that he felt her every heartbeat pounding into his cock. Blood thundered in his ears. Roared through his veins. Roiled in his belly and centered in his groin so that his release started in his toes and swept upward, consuming him. Destroying him. Killing him. He felt every wild jerk of his cock in tune to the rhythmic clamping down of her scorching channel around him. Over and over, hot jets splashed her walls, coating her, triggering heavier shocks.
The explosion was all-consuming, enveloping the two of them, sending them soaring. He held on to her tightly, his cock shuddering, his body trembling, as hers rippled and pulsed around his. Her cries were a soft counterpoint to his guttural and very harsh gasp of her name. Grace. His woman.
He had the presence of mind to ease her legs out straight so she was lying flat on her belly as he collapsed over top of her, still pulsing, still buried in her. She took his weight, even though there was no give in the floor beneath the rug. His lungs refused to draw air as her body continued to milk his. Pleasure swamped him. Stayed. His heart beat too loudly. Too fast. Chaos reigned in his brain. His world had narrowed to this one woman, her body and his connected just as their shadows were. Sharing. Riding that wave of pure passion together.
The night breeze came off the lake, stealing through the open glass door to play over their bodies. Teasing his buttocks and back. Drifting over his head to ruffle his hair.
She lay very still, her sheath clamped around him. Very slowly, her small muscles began to ease their death grip around his cock. He couldn’t find the strength to move. Each little movement of her body sent ripples through both of them.
“If you weren’t so heavy, I could sleep here.” Her voice came out muffled and a little breathless.
“If I was a gentleman, I’d attempt to move, but I’m not. And I can’t.” He used what little air he had left in his lungs to separate from her, rolling as he did so, to get his weight off of her. She wasn’t asking, and it wasn’t exactly a complaint—he knew Grace would have let him lie on top of her until she really couldn’t take a breath.
He rolled over onto his back beside her, looking up at the ceiling. “You’re a fucking miracle, gattina.” He couldn’t tell her that enough. It was the truth.
“That was both of us, so I would have to say you’re the miracle. I don’t know what I’m doing, remember?” She rolled over onto her back and lay close to him, their thighs touching. Her red hair looked like gleaming silk in the firelight. Her body was covered in a fine sheen, and every breath she drew was a temptation to sin.
He threw one arm over his eyes. It was dark, the only light came from the flames of the fireplace dancing over them and the moon reflecting off the surface of the lake.
“That isn’t what I meant, Grace.” He forced himself to roll to his side and prop his head up in one hand. “You said you’d stay with me even after I told you what my family does.”
Her gaze flicked to the side, meeting his eyes, but she didn’t turn her head. “I do love you. I think you knew that before you told me. You didn’t have to. You could have kept it a secret. It’s not like too many people would believe you could travel through shadows. I’m still not clear on how.”
“I had no choice.” He couldn’t help but touch her. He laid his palm on her stomach, right over her belly button where he hoped their child would be nestled someday. “There are consequences if our shadows tangle together too much. We spent quite a lot of time together and I didn’t hold back my feelings at all. I didn’t even try.” He made the confession in a little rush.
“What consequences?”
“If we ripped apart our shadows, I would be unable to be a rider. I was born a rider and I trained all my life, it’s who I am; it would be the worst thing that could happen to me other than losing you. You wouldn’t remember we were in a relationship. You would have thought we were together in order for me to help you because you were shot in the parking lot of our nightclub.”
She went silent. He was used to her taking her time before her response, but he was very tuned to her and tension in her had gone up several degrees. He kept breathing. Stayed conscious of the air moving in and out of his lungs. He kept his energy low, nonthreatening. No fear. No anger. Just breathe. He kept the mantra going in his head. She had said she would stay and Grace Murphy was not the type of woman to go back on her word.
“You lead a difficult life, Vittorio.”
“I suppose that’s true. It’s the only one I really know, so for me it doesn’t feel difficult. Grace.” He turned her head toward him deliberately, forcing her to look at him. “I swear to you, you’ll be happy with me. I’m the same man you fell in love with. We talked, remember? I know what you like, and you know what my preferences are. We fit. You’ll be happy in my family. They’ll welcome you. Eloisa will back off. She snipes at all of us, but she’s also intensely loyal.”
“I’m not worried about Eloisa, Vittorio. I’m worried about you.”
He bent his head to brush a kiss across her mouth just because he detected a slight trembling of her lips. “I’m extremely good at what I do.”
“You live life on the edge all the time. You hunt and kill criminals.”
“I bring them to justice when no one else can.”
“It doesn’t matter how one words it, that’s what you do. There is excitement in that. It’s high adrenaline, right?”
He studied her face while he gave her a nod of confirmation. “Yes. It’s a rush. It takes a while for the adrenaline to recede and in the meantime, I’ll warn you now, the rush goes straight to my cock. I’m going to come home to you and want a day or two of constant sex every way I can get it. That’s a fact.”
“So an adrenaline rush and hot sex for days after.” She turned her head straight so she was back looking at the ceiling.
“Talk, bella. You need to voice your concerns. We promised each other.”
“I’ve seen the things you do. Skydiving. Driving race cars. Flying planes. Climbing mountains. Sailing. It’s all there to read about over and over in the tabloids and magazines. I’ve read them all, every story about you, and I looked at the pictures. The proof those articles weren’t made up. You really do all those adrenaline-junkie sports.”
“I do.”
“I don’t.”
“You didn’t,” he corrected. “You will.”
“I wouldn’t know how. I’d be terrified. I’m a boring person, Vittorio, and within a month, you’ll be bored out of your mind.”
“That’s been your hesitation all along, hasn’t it?” He rubbed her belly, those muscles flowing like silk under her skin.
“You have to admit, it’s a genuine reason to be concerned.”
“You already agreed to try the things I want in the bedroom. Some of those things are bound to scare you, but you’ll trust me to make things good for you, right?”
“That’s different.”
“Trust is trust, Grace. If you trust me to take care of your body when we have sex, it isn’t a leap that you’ll trust me to take care of you inside the house, right? You’re already doing it.”
She nodded warily, sensing a trap.
“Then it won’t be a huge leap if you trust me to take care of you outside the house. I want you to learn to fly a plane. To climb a mountain. To scuba dive. I want to share my world with you, all of it. You have to trust that I’m going to go slow and careful with you, introduce you to things I know you’ll love.”
Vittorio rolled over top of her to blanket her body. He framed her face with both hands, so he could look into her eyes. “You’re my world. You. You’re my life. Do you really believe for one minute that I would put you into a dangerous situation I couldn’t control? You would be trained properly before you were ever allowed to try anything. I would always be with you. I wouldn’t chance losing you. I want us to share adventures together. You learn to trust me all the way, Grace, so you know you’re always going to be safe with me. Can you do that for me?”
Her eyes moved over his face. She swallowed. Hard. His heart clenched in reaction. His woman. She was going to give him this. To please him. Because he was hers to take care of and she knew he needed her trust more than anything. Trust was intertwined with love. The more he felt her faith and belief in him, the more he knew she loved him.
She nodded very slowly. “I’ll try whatever you want me to, because I know it will please you and that’s important to me.”
He kissed her gently. “Thank you, Grace,” he murmured when he finally lifted his head. She’d kissed him back without hesitation, although she breathed shallowly and he knew he had to shift his weight off of her.
“I’m very tired, Vittorio. I need to go to bed. I have the feeling I’m going to need a lot of sleep to keep up with you.”
He felt the rush of happiness and let himself feel it. Happiness hadn’t been in his life. He enjoyed his family, but he hadn’t felt complete. Whole. And he hadn’t been happy.
“I’ll get you cleaned up, gattina, and then carry you to bed.” He loved performing that little ritual after sex for her and he knew the more he did it, the more it would become normal for her. He kissed her again and got to his feet.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Vittorio got the alert from Stefano as he came out of the physical therapy room, Grace tight against his body. They’d planned to go swimming together, something the doctor said would be very good for her shoulder and she was already addicted to doing. Midnight Madness was coming up fast and she was pushing herself in order to be in the best shape she could in order to pull off the event successfully.
“What is it?” Grace asked, looking up at him from under her veil of long lashes.
He tightened his arm around her, locking her to him. “My brother. The family is on their way for another quick meeting.” That was the truth, but not all of it. He wasn’t certain how much he should tell her. She’d accepted what his family did, she’d even accepted that he was a shadow rider, but talking about being an assassin—whether it was for justice or not—and actually carrying out the order were two very different things.
She continued to look up at him as they walked down the hall toward her room. “This is about Haydon, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know for certain.” That much was true, but he had a gut feeling and his feelings, so far, had never been wrong. “Most likely,” he conceded. “I’ll tell you when I find out.”
Once in her room, he closed the door and turned to frame her face. “It’s almost over, Grace. We’re going to get him, and his reign of terror will be over. You can live free.”
Her green gaze moved over his face for what seemed like forever. He found himself holding his breath. She reached up with her injured arm, her fingers brushing his five-o’clock shadow, sending fingers of desire dancing down his spine as if that intimate touch could be felt all over his body.
“I’m already living free, Vittorio. You gave that to me. I breathe easy when I’m here. I feel safe when I’m with you. I know he’s out there, but the longer I’m with you, the more I believe I’m safe and I feel it.”
He wrapped his arms around her and brought her in tight against his body. “I’m having your clothes moved to the master bedroom today. Merry’s arranged for three women we trust to come in and make the move for us.”
Alarm turned her eyes a dark emerald. “Wait.” One hand went defensively to her throat.
He smiled down at her. “I’ve been sleeping in your bed for a while now, gattina. Why would you object?”
The tip of her tongue moistened her lips. “It’s my space.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Are you thinking that if you’re annoyed with me you could just kick me out of the bedroom?” Vittorio never took his gaze from hers. His beautiful woman. She lit up his world.
“Well,” she hedged. Her nod of assent was slow. “I did have that in mind, yes.”
“Bella, you’re priceless.” Laughter welled up and he didn’t try to stop it. Happiness was something he wasn’t used to, and it felt good to just bask in it. She was going to be the best mother, the best partner. She would give their children a happy childhood filled with laughter and fun.
She glared at him. “It isn’t funny that I need the room to be mine, so I can kick you out of it.” She took a step away from him to look around at the large space.
“What’s funny is just how you think you’re going to get me to leave. I’m twice your size. Size does count in these situations,” he was compelled to point out.
She gave him her snippiest look. “I will ask you to be a gentleman and leave.”
“Gattina.” His voice was very gentle. “We talked about what kind of man I am. There will be no throwing me out of the bedroom. If you’re upset, we will talk it out. I think this is about you having your own space, not your own bedroom. You don’t mind me being with you at night, sleeping the way we do.”
