Shane parted her thighs and surged inside her wet heat when his cock was free. She whimpered at the burning pain, and he held still until she nodded to indicate she was ready for him to proceed. With her assent, he pushed into her hard and fast, shoving her into the mattress. Even in the throes of his wild thrusting, his hand was between them to shield her incision from the hard impact of his body against hers.
Each stroke of his erection inside her sheath made her cry out at the sensation as he hit her most sensitive spots with precision, even though he maintained only tenuous control. As the head of his cock dragged against her g-spot before thrusting upward to rub against her clit through her walls, she tightened her thighs around him. “I love you, Shane.” Mia barely managed to say the words as she clutched his shoulders and arched against him in her climax.
Her sheath contracted around him, and Shane surged deeper inside her. The cords in his neck were prominent as he called out her name. Hot spurts of his release filled her, and she stroked his shoulders with her fingertips. When he buried his face against her throat, she caressed the damp strands of his hair before turning her face to press a kiss to his temple.
She had gone from wild need to sweet tenderness in the space of seconds. Mia knew they had no reason to fear boredom in their new lives. They would find all the highs and lows they would need in each other. Their relationship was a study in contrasts—tender and savage, loving and angry, sweet and animalistic.
It was unorthodox and perhaps crazy. Theirs was no textbook definition of love or a fulfilling relationship, but she had absolute faith that they would grow old together. No one else would suit her so perfectly, and she was certain Shane felt the same.
Epilogue
They traveled for ten months before they found a place that felt like home. For two metropolitan people, it was surprising to end up at the ends of the earth on a sheep station in New Zealand. It was such an incongruous fit, but they both felt at home immediately. Clovis had also settled into country life with ease.
Curled up on a porch swing, surveying their newly acquired property, currently lacking any sheep until they decided just how rusticated they wanted to become, Mia moaned softly as he pressed his thumb into the ball of her foot. “That is heaven.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Shane slowed his strokes, turning from therapeutic to teasing. “I live to please you.”
She snorted. “Yeah, sure.”
He quirked a brow. “Did I not please you four times last night? In a row?” He moved his jaw in a manner suggesting it was sore.
Mia blushed, embarrassed by how much she wanted him these days. It was crazy, and she couldn’t seem to get enough of him or the earth-shaking orgasms he bestowed. “I’ll concede that point, but are you really keeping track?”
“What else do I have to do out here?”
She frowned. “Are you bored? I thought you liked this place.”
It was his turn to frown. “No, I’m not bored, and I love our little sanctuary.”
Mia sighed. “It’s just so far from the lives we had last year. For me, that’s a good thing, but I guess I’m worried that you miss it. Do you?”
“Do I miss moving illegal guns and killing people?” Lifting a shoulder, he said, “I suppose a bit, sometimes, but it’s not that I want to go back to that life. I’m glad to be free of it all. Mr. Murphy gave me options and a family when I needed it, but it took finding you to realize my needs had changed, and I required something else to be happy.”
She grinned. “You’re so sappy, Shane. What happened to the forceful mobster who kidnapped me and kept me?”
Shane’s eyes gleamed. “Do you want to see some of him? Because he’s in here, honey. I can still tame you.”
Mia’s body thrummed with excitement as she imagined one of their rough sex sessions, where she fought and he conquered. It was still hot, and she didn’t think she’d ever get tired of their bedroom games. A grin teased her lips as she imagined them in their seventies, still playing their kinky sex games.
“What’s funny, love?” When Mia shared, he laughed. “I can tie you up with your oxygen line.”
“And I can gum your cock to free myself.” She giggled before sighing. “I want you to take me, Shane.”
His eyes darkened with hunger, but he shook his head. “Nope. Not yet.”
“Yeah, I know.” She trailed her hand across her rounded stomach. It would be a few more months before either of them felt comfortable with being too rough or wild. “I’m a little scared.”
“Of what?”
“Him.” She rubbed her stomach.
He gave her a look full of gentle mocking. “He’s a baby, and he won’t hurt you.”
Mia snorted. “Are you kidding? Did you see those videos at that birth class?”
Shane paled, clearly remembering and not enjoying the images they had seen last week. “Point taken, but you’re a tough bitch, baby girl, and childbirth won’t beat you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Your way with words, Shane…” Sighing again, she said, “It’s not the pain—well, that scares me a bit, but not as much as being a mom.” She bit her lip. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”
He shifted, scooting closer so he could put a hand over hers. “Me neither, but he’s coming either way.”
That was the truth. Mia had been surprised to discover she was several months along, having attributed her symptoms to continued use of Depo-Provera. She hadn’t realized her cessation of periods meant something more than a side effect of the shot until her tummy started to round, and she felt a weird fluttering sensation. By the time they discovered the failure of their birth control, she was out of the first trimester.
When she had tentatively asked if he wanted to keep it, Shane’s emphatic yes had gone a long way toward easing her anxiety about parenthood. Still, she had her moments where the fear overwhelmed her despite his quiet strength. “What do I know about being a mom? My own was an addict, and I still don’t know if that was her choice or Vadim’s control. I’ll never know if he really killed her, or if she accidentally O-Ded, or if she did it on purpose to escape everything, including me.”
“You had Stefania.”
His reminder usually worked, but she was having an anxious day today. “She was great, but her own son was a crazy monster. Do I really want to emulate her? I don’t want to ruin our child’s life with my mistakes.”
He squeezed her hand before stretching his palm to cover the back of hers and part of her abdomen. “We’re going to fuck up. That’s us, babe. The most important thing is we do our best. We love each other, we’re going to love him, and the rest will work itself out.”
Calmness filled her, and she nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“I’m always right, baby girl.”
Mia sniffed. “Your ego is as enormous as ever, Shane.”
Clearly neither repentant nor humbled, he grinned at her. “Someday, it might even get bigger than my cock.”
~~~
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This is a standalone story, but “Cormac” features Shane’s sister, shares plot elements with, and enhances the world of “Shane.” This fits between Chapters Twelve and Thirteen if read as part of that novel.
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Cormac
R.E. Saxton
Chapter One
The pain in her neck was the only constant that Siobhan could track for the first thirty minutes or so after being shot. Even the thought made her mentally stumble and try to find some other logical explanation for her neck hurting and the blood making her red scarf sticky. People like her didn’t get shot, especially outside the ballet in some indiscriminate crime spree.
She heard Cormac, her brother’s friend, talking to the police as they loaded her
brother Shane into an ambulance.
“It seemed like a random drive-by, officer. We were standing outside the back of the Morrisey Performance Hall, waiting for Siobhan O’Mara, when the car drove by. They had already fired, I think, before anyone noticed they had guns.”
She managed a vague smile at the officer when he turned to look at her. A paramedic was busily bandaging her neck wound, and she clutched the red scarf in her hand, unable to stop scrunching the part that was crunchy with her dried blood. “I’m a ballerina.” Perhaps the cop interpreted her words as meant for him, but she was speaking her own thoughts aloud. Why would someone shoot a ballerina?
When the paramedic indicated she should climb into the ambulance, she cast a longing glance at Cormac, who was occupied with his interview and couldn’t come along. There wasn’t room anyway, with Shane in the ambulance already.
As she stepped inside with the medic’s assistant and took a seat on the bench, she glared at the two guys hovering over her brother. They were his bodyguards, but Bruno himself took up most of the extra space in the back. “Get out of here,” she snapped.
They ignored her, both leaning over her brother, who was speaking urgently. His voice was soft and strained, but she could detect his urgency when he said, “Find her.”
Wallace looked annoyed, but nodded. “We’ll find the Russian chick, boss.”
Mia. Siobhan struggled to remember her surname, having just met her brother’s girlfriend that same evening, during intermission. The name wouldn’t come to her, but she remembered it had a Russian sound.
The paramedic who had bandaged her nudged the big blond brute. “Look, buddy, you gotta get out of here. We don’t have enough room for everyone.”
“I ain’t leaving my boss.” Bruno spoke with determination, crossing his arms and making himself truly formidable—as if he’d been puppy-like before.
Wallace tapped his shoulder. “Come on, Bruno. Mr. O’Mara wants us to track down his whore. We’ll get that done and be at the hospital in no time.”
“You shouldn’t talk about Ms. Kasilli that way.” Bruno frowned at his shorter partner.
With a shrug, Wallace slipped out of the ambulance. As Bruno turned sideways to move past her, Siobhan put a hand on his shoulder. “Bruno?” At his nod, she bit her lip. “Was that woman the reason we were shot?”
After a brief hesitation, he half-nodded before leaving the vehicle. The medic closed the doors, and they were off a moment later.
Siobhan stared at her brother, who was thrashing and whispering Mia’s name. Was he going to be okay? Anger filled her at the thought of some woman endangering her brother’s life. He was her bastion of support and the main person in her life since their mother lived in Florida. For a second, she wanted to tear every dark hair out of the petite Mia’s head.
A deep breath restored some calm, and she remembered the way her brother had hovered so protectively over the other woman. His hands had stayed securely on her, and she’d seemed just as drawn to Shane. Her first impression of Mia had been a quiet woman with kindness in her eyes, haunted though they had been.
Her gaze changed to speculative as she assessed her brother. Siobhan wasn’t naïve. She knew her brother was mixed up in the criminal underworld. His involvement went way back, to the afternoon he had killed their father to save her life when she was just six years old. Too young then to understand, it had taken her years to realize Shane and his associates lived on the dark side.
Cormac was immersed in that web of darkness too. Her heart gave a small pang as she pictured the tall blond man who was the only other constant in her life. He had always treated her respectfully, almost as a kid sister, but she thought he wanted more. He wanted her as much as she wanted him, though he’d never admit it.
With a sigh, she leaned back against the metal side of the ambulance, wishing for some padding. Her head spun a bit, and she was woozy from blood loss. Closing her eyes, she tried to grasp that she had been a victim of a violent crime. Having been sheltered by her older brother most of her life, and equally protected by Cormac, she hadn’t expected to ever be so close to the seedy side of their lives.
Deciding not to think about it, she let her body slump and tried to clear her mind. It wasn’t difficult to slip into a light doze with her body feeling so weak, and her neck throbbing with every beat of her heart.
Living with rheumatoid arthritis had made pain a part of her daily life, but this was an irritating, burning kind of pain she’d never experienced before. Who knew a gunshot could be so excruciating when it hadn’t caused a serious injury? The bullet fired from that bland sedan had simply grazed her neck. The medic had told her she would recover just fine, but that didn’t take away the sting of being shot and exposed to ugliness she had tried to ignore.
***
Four hours later, Siobhan shifted restlessly again in the hard hospital chair. She looked up with surprise when a nurse came toward her holding what looked like Shane’s cell phone. Staring dumbly at the phone for a moment, she finally asked, “What?”
“There’s a girl on the line frantic for information about Mr. O’Mara, but I can’t release anything. The best I can do is let her talk to a family member.” The nurse seemed nervous, as though fearing for her job. “I’m not supposed to do that, so if you don’t want to talk to her…”
With a nod, she took the phone. “Mia?” She asked the question, but already knew the answer before the other woman spoke.
“Is he alive?”
She sounded strained and exhausted, with a strong undercurrent of worry. Siobhan had been nursing some anger toward the other woman, but it lessened slightly at her tone. “Yes.”
“Is he going to make it?”
She hesitated. “Probably. The gunshot passed near his heart, and he hemorrhaged, but he’s stable now.” That was a strong assessment. The few minutes she’d seen him, he’d been fighting the effects of anesthesia and repeating Mia’s name. As he’d regained his strength, he’d started trying to take out his IV and get up. The doctor had ended up sedating him. “He needs you.”
A soft sob was the only response for a moment. “I can’t.”
Siobhan scowled. “Why the fuck not? You love him, don’t you?”
Her voice broke on a barely audible, “Yes.”
“Then come to the hospital and be with him.”
The other woman sobbed again before the line disconnected. In shock, she stared at the dead line, unable to believe Mia had just hung up on her. She was still glaring at the phone when Cormac slipped into the seat beside her, handing her a cup of dreadful coffee from the vending machine.
He looked at the cell phone. “What’re you doing with that?”
“Mia called.” With a huffy sneer, she thunked the poor telephone onto the seat beside her. “That bitch isn’t coming.” She looked up at Cormac. “How can she claim to love him, but not be here for him?”
Cormac’s lips pursed, making his rough features even more uneven. Some might have called him unattractive, but she liked the irregular, blunt composition of his face almost as much as she liked the transformation when he smiled. “There’s more to the story than you know.”
“So tell me.”
After a brief hesitation, he shook his head. “Nah, that’s Shane’s business, princess. I don’t know everything going on between them, but maybe you shouldn’t judge her so harshly.”
She glared at her brother’s friend. “I’ll judge her however harshly I want. I saw how he was calling for her and struggling to get out of that hospital bed to find her.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Love’s complicated, and sometimes you do things that make no sense to protect the ones you love.”
Her heart stuttered, and she briefly wondered if she was reading more into his words than he’d intended. It could be a simple case of projection and wishing for what she wanted making her think he was giving her a veiled message that applied to more than her brother and his girlfriend. Before she could think of a w
ay to probe delicately, he spoke again.
“Come on. I’m taking you home.”
She shook her head, crossing her arms. “I’m not leaving Shane.”
“Yeah, you are. He’s stable, and you need to take it easy. You were shot a few hours ago.”
She touched the thick bandage without thought and winced, though she didn’t know if it was more from pain or a psychological response. “I’m fine. The doctor said it barely grazed me, and I won’t even have a scar.” The pain meds they had given her were phenomenal, leaving her with little discomfort and a clear head.
“You are going to rest.”
Scowling at his dictatorial manner, she shook her head again. “I’m not leaving my brother here.”
“Bruno is here to watch over him, and we both know Shane would want you to be in a comfortable bed. These stiff chairs won’t be good for your joints, and I know you don’t want to miss too many performances.”
Her glower lessened slightly, but her irritation rose as he struck one of her weak points. She’d already called the director and arranged to take off the rest of the weekend, but a flare-up of RA could render her unable to perform even next weekend. “It feels wrong to leave him lying there.”
Cormac nodded. “I know, but he has protection, and he’s sedated. He won’t wake for hours and won’t know you’re there, even if you sat at his bedside and held his hand the whole time.” He reached out to fold her hand in his. “I promise I’ll bring you back tomorrow, and the hospital has my cell number, and yours, in case something unexpected happens, and he takes a turn for the worse.”
He held up a hand, as though to forestall her panic. “Not that his doctor expects anything to go wrong. He told me the same thing he told you. Shane is stable and should recover, though he’s going to need to spend a few days in the hospital and some time recovering at home.”
Shane: A Mafia Love Story: Dark Erotic Romance Page 22
