Shadow Keeper

by Feehan, Christine

  “How do you feel about being with me?”

  She ran her fingers down his chest to his groin. “Obviously, I like being with you. I think about you when we’re not together and I worry. I think you’re hot, if that matters. I just don’t know if I can really fit into a lifestyle I don’t even understand and can’t really imagine.”

  “Kiss me, baby. I need you to kiss me.”

  She leaned into him, her full breasts brushing the heavy muscles of his chest. An electrical charge flashed through him straight to his cock. He’d just had her, but he wanted her again. And again. Just looking at her did that to him, let alone the memory of how she felt. And then there was that elusive taste.

  Her lips pressed against his. Soft. Firm. Cool. Heating fast. He slid his tongue along that delicious seam and his teeth tugged at her lower lip, demanding entrance. If she thought to tease him, it wasn’t going to happen. He took over, his tongue sweeping in, claiming that mouth. His hand cupped her breast, fingers tugging her nipple. Rolling. Claiming her breast. His other hand slid from the nape of her neck down her spine and shaped that beautiful bottom, claiming her ass as well.

  Once was definitely not enough. He rolled her over, his thigh between her legs, pushing them apart. He kissed his way down her throat to her breasts. They were beautiful. He’d caught a glimpse of them in the club, and just that small, brief sight had taken his breath and fueled his fantasies.

  He kneaded the soft flesh, watching the marks come up on her pale skin. His teeth and fingers teased her nipples, his tongue licking and tasting, and then he was sucking her deep into his mouth. He started out gentle and roughened his actions, watching her carefully. Every gasping response to his teeth and fingers told him she’d been born for him and his particular brand of loving his woman.

  “I’ve waited so long for you.” He rubbed his bristled jaw in the valley between her full breasts. “I want to have a jeweler make you a special chain that goes from here”—he touched one breast and then the other—“to here. The clamps have to be sapphires to match your eyes.” He tugged on her left nipple with his teeth, biting down gently. “Would you wear it for me? Just that and nothing else?”

  His gaze caught hers. He was nearly holding his breath. Even his cock, and it had been jerking and pulsing, went still. Waiting. He didn’t honestly care if she would wear it, or if it appealed to her or not. If not, they wouldn’t play in that direction. For him, it was more of an acceptance on her part. Did she want him the way he wanted her? Unconditionally? If she said an irrevocable no, then he still couldn’t be certain she wanted him the way he was. If she said maybe, he would know she was on board with the way he was made.

  Sasha reached for his hand, slid it down her body to press his palm between her legs. “Feel how hot and slick I am just hearing you say that. Of course, I’ll wear it for you. I might even dance for you, if you’re good and promise me all sorts of things in payment.”

  “Like what?” He curled his fingers, pushing one into her. At once, her muscles bit down hard. His heart nearly beat out of his chest. She definitely accepted him. She didn’t mind teasing or playing. Best of all, Sasha spoke her mind. If she didn’t like something, there would be no pretending. She simply would tell him whatever they were doing hadn’t worked.

  “I think it will be necessary for you to devour me. Eat me. I’ve been dreaming about that ever since I laid eyes on you at the club. Once was definitely not enough, although it was hot as hell in the car.”

  “Done.” He agreed immediately.

  “Your cock whenever I want it.”

  “I suppose I could arrange that, but only if you promise me I can have you anywhere I want you.”

  “Like the car and restaurant?”

  He nodded, his fingers moving in and out of her. So hot. He wanted her again.

  “Where else?”

  “I know this little park right in the middle of Ferraro territory. I want to take you there at night when the stars are out, strip you naked and claim every inch of you. The roof of my house. Especially if the moon is full. The plane. That’s a must.”

  “I like the idea. We might try one other place.”

  “Lots of other places. I’m inventive.” He kissed his way down her belly and then knelt between her legs. “Spread wider. What other place?”

  “At the club. When the music is playing, each time I’m on my break. I want you to earn several thousand dollars for us.”

  His eyes met hers. There was honesty in her voice and amusement in her eyes. Also sincerity. “What are you up to?”

  “Your cousin was just a little smug with his winnings. Just think, Giovanni, you could get a dance. Feel my breasts, my bottom, get a blow job and go all the way. I’ll bet you know every corner where we could get away with it. You’d get your money back and we’d have fun.”

  “You have a devious mind. Wider, baby.”

  He loved looking at what was his. She was all his. Every inch of her. He caught her bottom in his hands, pressed the head of his cock into her burning entrance and slammed home. Streaks of lightning ran up his body straight to his brain, and then he was gone again, finding that place she took him to.

  “Fuck me, Sasha. Hard. Use your hands on your nipples. Clamp down just like the clamps would bite down on you.”

  She rode him while he knelt between her legs, her hips moving fast, the smooth roll to her body expert from all the riding she’d done. It was an erotic sight to watch her hands move over her breasts, to pinch and clamp down hard on her nipples, to pull them for him, roll them. To knead her breasts and arch her back while her hips thrust against him. Her mouth opened and her eyes went dazed. She was soaring, her body clamping down on his.

  “I love you this way.” He reached down and found her clit, pinching her bud hard. “You’re so sexy, Sasha.”

  She cried out and her sheath bathed him in scorching hot liquid, clamping down, biting deep, milking him for every drop of his seed while she soared high. She had taken him over too fast and he hadn’t had time to spend in her, but he would. He watched her face as she came back to him, flushed, excited, unashamed of her sexuality. Dio, he was way past falling. He’d gone straight to love.

  He leaned down and kissed her clit. “I’m getting you a beautiful sapphire clamp for here as well. The chain can extend up to the one across your breasts. Do you think you’d like that?”

  “I don’t know. It was pretty wild when you pinched me there. I couldn’t hold back.”

  He grinned at her. “Yeah, baby, you’re going to love it. You ready for a shower?”

  “I’m not sure I can walk yet.”

  He laughed and picked her up. He hadn’t been so happy—ever. Not ever. She turned his life into something fun. He hadn’t realized he’d gone to bed exhausted, sliding in next to her, careful not to wake her, looking forward to opening his eyes because she was in his world.

  “Are you going to tell me what happened last night?”

  “Not much. We found out a few things. It was definitely a bomb, but he hadn’t rigged it to go off.”

  She sat up, her blond curls falling around her face and down her back. One plopped in a long spiral right over her left breast, drawing his attentions to the marks there. He bent his head and kissed the red smudges.

  “Wait. He put a bomb in your car but it didn’t have a detonator in it? I don’t understand.”

  “Neither did we—at first. The bomb was in the driver’s seat. My seat. Had he put it in properly hidden and under the seat, with a pressure switch, the moment I sat down, I would have activated the bomb, not necessarily set it off. That would come when I got out of the car—or tried to.”

  “Why do you think he didn’t do that?”

  “Either we interrupted his work, which I doubt, or he doesn’t want you killed. You were with me. If I didn’t realize I was in trouble and the bomb went off, you’d be killed as well. I think it was a warning to me. He’d take me out if I kept on with my relationship with you.”
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  She stiffened. Her face closed down. He cupped her face firmly between his hands. “Don’t even think about breaking up with me. It’s not going to happen. The bastard is going to turn on you, Sasha. You’re his fantasy. In his mind, you’re already in a relationship with him. I’m stepping on his toes. You can’t possibly keep up your end when you don’t even know him or how he expects you to act.”

  He stepped back and took her hand. “Come on, baby. Shower.”

  “I’m tired.”

  She wasn’t. He knew that. He even heard the lie but he didn’t call her on it because he knew she wanted time to think. He wasn’t about to give it to her. “I’ll reward you. I’m not above bribes.”

  “What’s my reward?”

  “I’m very, very good with my mouth. You shower with me and I’ll eat you like candy. You smell and taste like cinnamon candy apple, and I can’t get enough of that.”

  She was already on her feet, just because he refused to let go of her hand, so he took advantage, pulling her to the bathroom just next to their room. They had this end of the penthouse to themselves, so he had no problems walking naked with her out of the bedroom and into the bathroom.

  Giovanni could feel Sasha trying to pull away in her mind so the moment he got the water going, he circled her waist with his arm, pushed her into the shower—a long, tiled affair with multiple showerheads, water coming from every direction—got her against a wall and kissed her. Over and over. He refused to give ground. He claimed her and let her know that was exactly what he was doing. He couldn’t be without her, and he wanted her to feel the same way.

  He kissed her until her hands were sliding over his narrow hips to find his cock. He knew he’d won when she began fisting him.

  “You love my cock,” he accused.

  “I do,” she admitted. “It’s clearly going to be your saving grace when you make me crazy—and you will.”

  He knew that, too. He didn’t care. He’d use his mouth or his cock, any damn thing he had to keep her with him—and happy. He wanted her happy. He took some shower gel and began washing her, his hands gentle yet deliberately arousing as he thoroughly soaped every inch of her body. Her breath grew faster and she tipped her head back to let the water soak her hair.

  “Tell me, before we start up again, just what you learned about this crazy person.”

  “He’s been in the service at some time. It would help if we knew his age, but we have access to databases and records when we need them. He shot his load all over your panties, and that was a stupid thing to do. We’ve got his DNA. He used gloves everywhere else so there were no fingerprints. To build a bomb like that, he had to have been in demolition or special forces, one of the branches that would have taught him how to build it.”

  “Can’t you find information like that on the Internet?”

  He nodded, rinsing her off, using the wand to spray between her legs, letting the water linger and pulse against her clit. Only when she reached for the shampoo did he stop so he could take it out of her hands. He wanted to wash her hair himself.

  “Yes, you definitely can find all kinds of information on how to do anything, but he was fast and efficient. He might have built it elsewhere and carried it with him when he tailed us—and by the way, he was good enough not to be spotted.”

  “No, he wasn’t, you knew he was there.”

  Giovanni waited a heartbeat before answering her. She was his. Sooner or later she had to know about him. It was dangerous if she knew, dangerous in ways to both of them—him more so than her. He was definitely taking the bigger risk, but she was worth it. He had to make his try with her. There wouldn’t be another for him.

  “I felt him. Every time we crossed shadows. Didn’t you?” He took the shampoo and rubbed it into her hair so he wouldn’t have to look into her eyes. He was giving more and more of himself to her, but he wasn’t certain she recognized that yet. She was intelligent, and she reasoned things out fast, guessing, of course, but she always hit the mark or close to it.

  “We were in a car.”

  “But the streets were shadowed. The streetlights throw huge shadows. His car kept crossing the shadow of ours.” It was one thing to be able to feel their own shadows touching, but very difficult and specific to have car shadows touching and glean information.

  “What did he feel like?” She hadn’t called him crazy, and her voice held sincerity as if she believed him and wanted to know more.

  He rinsed her hair carefully before answering. “Malignant. He’s definitely angry. I didn’t get much of a sense of him other than that, but it was him. They were only glimpses, but I recognized that same feeling from the alley. When I first got there, I knew he was on the roof.”

  She pressed one hand to her stomach briefly. “Maybe I did feel him. For me, it was dread. That’s what I felt in the alley.” She took the gel in both hands and began to soap his body.

  It didn’t take much for his cock to come to attention. She just had to give him a smoldering look and there it was. “He left behind the bomb, which means we’ve got men tracking down where everything was purchased and how.”

  “You still aren’t going to the police.”

  He gave her a look. “It’s a family matter.” He waited for a protest.

  “What time did you come to bed? I thought you’d wake me.”

  Her voice slipped over him like a caress. Like her fingers. He’d wanted to wake her. He’d even been perverted enough to pull back the covers and look at her. She slept naked. He couldn’t blame her, she didn’t have much in the way of clothes. She probably didn’t want to take the chance that he might rip off something sexy—which he would have done this morning.

  He’d wanted her to get some rest. She’d had a rough few days, and he still had to convince her to accept him. He wanted to put a ring on her finger. He’d told them at the Hendrick Center that he was her fiancé because he had to be family in order for them to tell him anything or deal with him in any way. It didn’t matter, he felt like her fiancé. He knew he was going to marry her.

  Her hands were on his cock now, sliding over his shaft, squeezing and pumping until he was full and hard again. She rinsed him off and had him turn around. He put one hand on the wall and let her take care of cleaning him. She soaped him, then rinsed him off. Her lips wandered over his back, exploring like her hands had done.

  “I love your mouth,” he said. “I dream about your mouth and what you do to me with it. You shouldn’t have put that in my head.”

  “I like doing things to you with my mouth,” she admitted and promptly bit him in the butt. “Especially when you’re asleep. You wake up so beautifully.”

  He laughed and swung around, turning off the water so he could step out and hand her a towel. She wrapped her hair in it and took another one from his hands.

  Beads of water rolling off both of them, he caught her up, slung her over his shoulder and ran barefoot back to the bedroom. Dumping her on the bed, he yanked her legs apart, pulling her right to the very edge so her bottom was hanging off and held in his hands. He knelt there and put his mouth to her. He felt like he’d been waiting forever to have her like this. At his mercy, unable to move unless he allowed it. He didn’t plan to allow it for a very long time.

  The moment his mouth touched her body, she cried out, squirming, pushing into him, not away. He smiled because he couldn’t help it. There was so much joy in her. So much life. It didn’t seem to matter what waited for her when she was alone, she lived every single second. She was in the precise moment.

  He took his time, refusing to allow her to hurry him. He used his tongue first, licking and then sucking, savoring her flavor. He’d known she’d be perfection. “I could exist on this alone. Feed on you three times a day and be satisfied.”

  She bucked against his mouth, and he swatted her bottom. “This is for me. You had your fun this morning and I owe you payment.”

  “If you owe me payment, you dolt, you’re supposed to pay me the way I wa
nt it paid.”

  “You didn’t negotiate that,” he pointed out and went back to his slow enjoyment. He wanted to build the burn slowly. He wanted her heat smoldering. He was ruthless with her, licking, stabbing with his tongue, circling her clit, flicking it hard and then ignoring that taut little bud altogether. He fucked her with his tongue and then his fingers, never letting her get off. He brought her to the brink repeatedly only to back her off, his teeth nipping the insides of her thighs.

  She was sobbing his name, her fists clenched in his hair when he lifted his head. “What is it, baby? Can’t you see I’m busy?”

  “Take me over,” Sasha said.

  “Mmm. That’s not what I want to hear.” He went back to that hot little meal that was all his. He devoured her, made growling noises, driving her even higher, getting her right to the edge and then he pulled back.

  “What do you want to hear, you maniac? Giovanni. You’re torturing me.”

  “Pleasure, baby, it’s called pleasure. I’m loving this. You taste so good.” He wiped his face on her thighs. “You want a taste?” Deliberately, he half rose to lean over her, licking his way up her belly to the underside of her breasts. All the while he pressed his body tightly against hers so she rubbed her clit on him, desperate to get off. He kept moving up her body, allowed himself to be distracted by her breasts and spent some time there, enjoying the way she squirmed and mewled.

  Giovanni pushed her a little more, making certain she enjoyed the things he was doing to her body. His teeth teased her nipple, biting down, while one hand squeezed her breast, clamping tighter, tugging, pulling, while she arched and cried out. Her hips bucked against him, and he kissed her throat and then took her mouth, giving her a taste of cinnamon candy apple.

  His hand went to her sex, pressing on her clit, pinching until she nearly came, but he pulled away. “Do you like the way you taste?”

  She nodded and slid a hand down her body toward the junction of her legs. He pulled back, flipped her onto her stomach, dragged her once more until she was bending over the bed and spanked her—three smacks on each cheek. He kicked her legs apart. “You want something, baby? It’s mine to give, not yours to take.”