In the Firelight, page 14
Shea closed her eyes, willing away the passion that burned through her. She didn’t answer, instead taking deep calming breaths.
Rhys stepped out into the cold winter air and crossed to the passenger side of the truck. As he opened it, Shea turned her head away angrily.
“Gotcha, we’ll do it this way,” he muttered, and he pulled her from the pickup, carrying her into the cabin and kicking the door shut behind him. Rhys tossed her on the bed and she scooted back up against the headboard, watching him closely as he unbuttoned his dress shirt and slowly unbuckled his belt. After pulling it free from his belt loops, he laid it on the bed and reached for Shea’s ankles. With a heavy tug, he pulled her straight towards him, her skirt riding up to almost uncover her panty-less body from the waist down. Shea’s hands reached for the rough-hewn pine headboard, grasping it firmly to prevent him from pulling her all the way to him.
With a wicked smile, Rhys straddled her torso, using his weight to hold her down as he reached for the belt. With one large, strong hand, he held her wrists and wrapped the belt around them with the other, slipping it through the rough log frame of the headboard before finally buckling it tight.
"Makes you crazy, doesn't it? This lack of control. You don't always have to run the show, Shea. You might like letting someone else take the reins. Just let go, sweetheart"
"I can't," she weakly keened, pulling at the restraint holding her tightly to the bed.
"You can... You just have to free yourself."
“God-dammit, Rhys!” Shea breathed out heavily.
With her hands firmly bound to the bed and his body trapping hers, his own hands slid down her arms to her shoulders and down across her breasts. Shea moaned as he bent down to lave his tongue along her collar bone, finishing with a little nip. His hips slid back slightly, enough to tug her skirt up around her waist, and the cool air hit her moist heat like a shot of lightning.
“Mmm… I like this no underwear look, sweetheart.”
Shea shuddered at the sexy tone of his voice, ripe with promise. His finger swept through her wet folds, up along her clit where he circled it firmly. His hands then continued to push up her dress, over her stomach, slowly scraping it over her tender breasts, finally lifting it over her head and tucking it into the belt that held her captive. Shea felt like she was going to die by the time he was done.
With her eyes tightly shut, Shea waited breathlessly for his touch. It was sheer torture, being pinned down like this, unable to move her arms. Every squirming movement of her body only seemed to increase the burn deep within her. It was like he was punishing her for making him crave her so much.
“Oh God… touch me, Rhys.” Shea writhed below him, feeling his eyes rake across her.
Finally, a single finger traced along her body from her shoulder, pausing to circle the tight bud of her nipple, then down to her hip. Then again, another finger joining the first, followed by his fingers on the other hand, and he lightly caressed her skin leaving a burning trail that made her tremble. His hands skated along her stomach to the apex of her thighs.
Shea opened her eyes to look at him as he watched her body undulate with his touch. His eyes followed his fingers as they slowly moved back up to her aching breasts, and he bent down to take a hard nipple in his mouth.
“Fuck, Rhys,” Shea moaned. “Don’t stop. Don’t you dare fucking stop.”
Rhys stopped, frozen in his tracks, and Shea gave an agonized cry.
“You’re not in control right now, Shea,” Rhys murmured as he ran his finger down from her neck, along the center of her breasts, trailing again down to her soft, damp depth, dipping inside to swirl through her wetness. He nudged his knee to part her thighs and he settled between them, spreading them wide until the cool air of the room touched her sensitive heat. “But I’ll give you one little choice, baby—your pussy or your ass?”
“Rhys, please…” she sobbed with a broken cry.
“What will it be, sweetheart? I think you want me in your ass, don’t you?” He pulled up at her knees, tilting her pelvis higher, and his finger traced down along the cleft of her backside.
She burned for him, her body wracked with flashes of sensation. Her body craved his touch… everywhere. Even there.
After the sensation she’d experienced in the dressing room today, especially there.
“Shea,” he cradled her face firmly in his hands. She could smell the scent of her on his hands, so strong and erotic. “Your pussy or your ass?”
Shea felt tears slip from her eyes with the force of her shameless need. Finally, as he lowered his lips back down to hers.
“Which one, baby?” he softly breathed into her.
She whispered back, “My ass…”
In a fluid motion, Rhys quickly flipped her over weightlessly, plunging his fingers deep inside her soaked sex and spreading the wetness up through the cleft of her backside. And then his finger slipped inside the tight little pucker of her ass. She cried out against the bedding at the unfamiliar intrusion, moaning with the feel of his finger swirling around inside her.
As he played with her tight, pink bud with one hand, he tugged her hips up with the other. His knees forced her legs apart as he aligned his cock with her aching pussy. “Gotta get it good and wet,” he growled and roughly thrust into her hot and wet core, causing Shea to cry out in sheer bliss. “And you’re so damn wet. Soaked… all the way down your soft, silky thighs.”
“Fuck,” Shea moaned as he pumped into her a few time, still fingering her tight rear entrance, drawing the moisture upwards from her drenched sex.
“I can’t fucking wait… Such a sweet, sexy ass, baby…” Shea’s hips tilted, helping to line him up with the tightness of her back entrance, and then he was stretching her, slowly pushing inside. It was just ever-so-slightly-painful, but such a marvelous pain as she took him all. She whimpered as he started to withdraw, but then he filled her again and a deep throaty cry erupted from her throat. Out and in, out and in, starting slowly and quickening his pace.
Rhys straightened and rose up on his knees, his cock pulling her impaled body up with him as one hand lifted her, pushing at her sensitive mound. It was incredible, his pounding force, punishing her with pleasure in what was, before him, a completely untouched part of her. She was mindless, feeling as though she was floating… coursing through the air like lightning.
Every nerve fiber in her body was focused on the exquisite sensations of his hot, thick, pounding length. Her wrists were still bound to the bedframe. Her face was buried in the thick blankets of the bed, and his fingers dipped to her clit and circled, causing her to detonate around him. Shea screamed into the bed below her, convulsing with astounding force as he continued to fuck her ass. With a loud groan, Rhys pulled out as he began to come, shooting spurts of semen across her buttocks and lower back.
Shea lay there trembling with her ass in the air as she felt his fingers trace through the warm liquid he spilled onto her skin. As he touched the wetness and spread it out on her flesh, she could feel it cool, and a shiver coursed through her.
“God, that’s fucking beautiful, sweetheart,” he groaned.
After a few moments, Rhys reached above her, loosening the belt that bound her wrists. He pulled her hands free of the tangle of leather and fabric. Rubbing the sensitive, almost raw skin where the belt had chafed against her, he pulled her to lay prone on the bed, her head listlessly lying on the pillow. He left for a moment, going into the bathroom to clean up, and came back out with a warm, damp towel that he used to wipe her clean. The heat of the towel left, and her dewy skin was chilled until he curled up tightly against her, tugging the blankets over the top of them.
And, without another second of thought, she fell into an exhausted sleep.
Shea's eyes blinked open at the touch of Rhys' warm, hair-roughened skin against her bare thigh. The room was still dark, and for a moment, she struggled to remember where she was. She had slept so deeply, sated and weary.
Slowly, her mind registered that they were in his bed without so much as a scrap of fabric between them. She was snuggled against his defined chest, curled into his arms, sheltered and protected. Her body felt tender and so alive. His hand skimmed along the delicate skin of her back, and she unconsciously pressed tighter against him.
He held her still for a moment before pressing his lips to her forehead, drawing her from her stupor. Pushing up on her elbow to look down at him in the almost darkness of the room, she momentarily admired his awe-inspiring appearance. Thick lashes, his angled jaw, the fullness of his lips.
She truly loved waking up with him.
Dammit.
Frustrated with her own uncontrolled thoughts, she furrowed her brow.
"You look pissed again," Rhys murmured.
"Not pissed. I just, um... just a few more days, right? Before you leave?" she asked softly.
Rhys pushed her back, rolling up over her. "No, you don't get to do this. Not yet. I've wanted you from the minute I first saw you in the firelight. Right out of the fucking gate.” His hand cupped her cheek to hold her gaze steady with his, and his voice lowered. His knee nudged its way between her legs, spreading them as he nestled his growing hardness against her. “Reality doesn't get to intrude yet. Right now, it's just my body and yours."
Shea gasped with a renewed need, and his lips caught hers for a hard, fast kiss before he pulled her tightly against him and growled in her ear.
"Just you and me, sweetheart..." he groaned as he sank into her deeply, smoothly. But oh so full, forcing a hoarse moan from deep inside her. Her hands grasped his forearms tightly, pillars of solid muscle that supported most of his weight above her. As wet as she was, she was a little sore, overly sensitive from his touch. She could feel the slow slide of his cock push into her until he was fully inside, stretching her tender, abused flesh and wringing a ragged groan.
"Fuck, honey..." Rhys whispered as her back arched with his slow withdrawal. He pulled out almost completely before shifting and filling her again. The sensation sent tingles throughout Shea's entire body. A sharp cry escaped her as he lowered his head to catch her tight, throbbing nipple in his mouth, and he teased the peak vigorously before trading sides to tickle and torment the other breast.
“You’re mine right now, Shea,” he gruffly uttered. “You don’t get to think about being away from me, not yet.”
So she didn’t.
She willingly focused all her attention on his hard thrusts, his clenching fingers, his labored breathing.
And she loved every second.
Rhys lay quietly in the growing morning light, watching Shea sleeping soundly beside him. Lightly, his fingers traced the smooth curve of her cheek, the gentle arch of her brow, the softness of her hair. His body was sated, but his mind was whirling.
She was incredible.
He had to stop McHugh.
He had to do something. Over the past few days, he’d begun to see things through her eyes. He’d begun to feel a bit tied to this small community, this family of sorts.
It would be the end of his work for McHugh. The man was not forgiving. Bitterly cold and heartless. Sentimentality had no place in business. Until this point, until this job, Rhys had never had a problem with it.
But something about this place—this woman—was different. This independent and feisty soul who seemed so strong and controlled. Until he got under her skin, poked and prodded. Until she succumbed to him and came apart around him. Until he looked in her eyes, the sparkling hazel with little brown flecks, and saw something inside that she didn’t show the rest of the world.
Shea might like her solitude, but she was lonely. He wasn’t sure she even realized it herself, seeing it as a choice. A way to prevent the loss of love. Almost everyone important to her had left her or let her down. Her parents had passed when she was so young. Her grandparents had been the last of her family. Her husband had not appreciated the glorious gift she had given him. So she kept her distance from any attachment, convincing herself that her friendship with Michelle, her pseudo-aunt role with Michelle’s kids, was enough.
He could still taste the tears that had run down her cheeks when she released the reigns last night, when she relinquished herself over to him.
Rhys, please… her shattered sob echoed through his brain, causing his gut to tighten.
It suddenly seemed so hard to take. Looking back at his life, he wondered how he’d reached this point. He’d be thirty years old in a few months, and, until now, he’d been content. Not entirely what he could call happy… but satisfied.
Now his dreams were changing, and it was terribly unsettling. How was he supposed to deal with this? Because he knew that, out of respect for her and whatever it was he was feeling, he’d have to tell Shea the truth. His reason for coming here, for initiating this seduction.
She would feel played… used.
She would hate him.
Feeling cowardly, he considered not telling her and just leaving. To try and stop McHugh. At the very least, he knew he had to extricate himself from the emotionless, tyrannical businessman.
Slipping from the bed, from the softness and warmth of Shea’s arms as she slept, he quietly dressed and left to make a call.
McHugh looked at the display on his ringing cell phone. Rhys calling to check in. Good boy…
He answered with a brusque tone. “Rhys, how are things in Snowcreek? Anything new?”
For a moment, he only heard silence before Rhys heaved a frustrated sigh. “I’m not sure about this, McHugh. I can’t crack her… And, honestly, I wonder if maybe she’s a little bit right.”
“What?” McHugh barked angrily, completely aghast. “Rhys, what the fuck is wrong with you? I don’t give a shit if she’s right. I’ve got too much money tied up in this. If it goes to hell, I’m in big shit.”
“Sir, you probably shouldn’t have started with this one. They have some valid concerns. I can’t in good conscience go along with this anymore.”
“Since when the fuck do you have a conscience?” McHugh sneered. “Listen, son, I don’t give a shit about their concerns. If they don’t like the resort, they can fucking move. It’s a free God-damn country. Nobody says they have to stay. In fact, knowing some of the backwoods imbreds that likely live there, it would probably be better for business anyway.”
“I’m not doing this, McHugh,” Rhys said steadily. “I’ve done a lot of shit for you over the years…”
“And you’ve been well-paid to do it,” the older man bellowed.
“…but I’m done. I’ll be back in a week or so to clean out my office.”
McHugh could practically hear the finality as Rhys clipped a short goodbye and disconnected the call. After hanging up, he sat tapping his fingers on his desk. Rhys had always been a sure thing. He’d never let him down. Over the past eight years, he’d always done everything necessary—everyone necessary—to ensure McHugh’s deals went through.
But all good things must end, and apparently Rhys was at the end. He’d lasted longer than some of others had in the past. But it was time to cut the boy loose.
McHugh reached again for his phone, punching in the number for Jeff in the company’s IT department.
“Yo, boss,” Jeff answered.
“Need you to do something for me, Jeff. I need you to do a search in Rhys’ email. Anything related to Shea Madison and Snowcreek, Montana. Forward all of it on to me.”
Chapter 16 ~ The Truce
It was the feel of him deep inside that awoke her. Him filling her. Withdrawing. The delicious push and pull as she tightened around him.
The next thing she noticed was the sensation of his smooth, hot skin on her fingertips as she dug into the rigid muscles of his back.
The rough texture of him as he moved against her. The dusting of hair trailing down his abs that rubbed against the smooth skin of her stomach.
The puffs of breath in her ear, followed by a throaty moan.
The grip of his heavy hand on her thigh, pulling her leg up beneath his arm to spread her wider for his possession. In a dreamlike state, the pressure built inside her and she tightened around him.
“Rhys…” she breathed.
“Shea,” Rhys groaned into her hair. “Fuck, sweetheart… what you do to me…”
He wrapped her tightly in his arms as he began to move faster, drawing tremors from her body with every stroke. He was so deep inside her, entangled so tightly around her. She teetered over the edge for a moment before she fell with a gaspy cry into shuddering abandon as the flush of his orgasm washed through her.
He kissed her so softly, along her eyelids and down the curve of her cheek, making his way to her tender lips. Her eyes opened slightly as she felt him raise his head, and he gazed down at her with an unreadable expression while he ran his fingers along the sensitive curve of her neck.
“You’re beautiful, you know,” he whispered. “I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”
“Ditto…” she said softly.
For a time they just lay there in the afterglow of their lovemaking. Shea explored his features with the soft pads of her fingers. His strong cleft of his chin, his intense blue eyes. His short growth of beard that spread across his jaw.
What would it be like? If this were something to hang onto, would it all work out in the end?
Or would she just lose him eventually, too?
Pained by that thought, finally Shea spoke. “I should get home pretty soon. Wolfie is probably feeling rather abandoned at this point.”
Rhys nuzzled her forehead in response, placing a soft kiss between her brows, and his arms tightened around her momentarily before he released her and rolled to his side to rise.
Shea watched the play of the muscles of his back as he stretched and scrubbed his hands over his face, running his fingers through his tousled, just-fucked hair. He looked back at her with a soft, almost sad smile. “I’ll find you something to wear. You put that dress back on, and you’ll likely never get to leave this room again.”
