Reflex

by Madelynne Ellis

  He was a very different person now.

  Build trust.

  Just take it a step at a time.

  Alle sat in profile to him. Even with her expression fixed and vexatious, it still turned his heart over to look at her. There was a larger collection of freckles on her nose this evening than there had been that morning, before they’d wandered about in the sun. He saw her laughing as she had earlier, squealing as the spray from one of the fountains hit her. He’d wanted so badly to lick those beads off her skin.

  And lick her in a dozen or so other places too.

  It was time he slayed some demons. He bent towards her. “Shall we leave?” he whispered in her ear.

  Even in the dark, her eyes were like jewels. “It’s not over yet.”

  Nor did the actors seem in any hurry to wrap things up. He traced a finger along the thin strap of her sundress, then diverted the touch to the side of her neck. “I’ve had enough. Haven’t you? I’ve no clue what’s going on.”

  “Me neither,” she sniped, tongue like a barb. He deserved that.

  “Come back to the hotel and come to bed with me.”

  Okay, that got her attention. Her head turned. Starlight shone in her eyes as she read his expression.

  “I want to make love to you.”

  “What does that mean, Spook?”

  “It means I want to make this right.” He made to clasp her hand, but she moved it away from him, raising it to loop a stray strand of fiery hair behind her ear.

  “By fucking me?”

  He shook his head. It was still too soon for that. “There’s more than one way to be intimate.”

  “So you’re going to light a candle?”

  Yes. He gritted his teeth. In order to tip the damn wax all over her. Maybe. His jaw clenched tighter, as an image of him doing exactly that flared like a beacon in his brain, and lit up a score of pleasure points. “The only way you’ll find out is by leaving with me. What do you say, Alle? Are you staying here to finish transforming into a crystalline statue, or are you coming to bed with me?”

  She sighed, but put her hand in his. “This better be good, Mr. Mortensen.”

  “Oh,” he promised, anticipation lighting him up through to his toes. “It will be.”

  -23-

  Spook didn’t linger in getting them back to the hotel. They caught a cab that dropped them at the door. It was a beautiful evening, but he couldn’t risk the possibility of talking himself out of this. Crazy, but when you’d lived with the notion of the sky falling down for as long as he had, your ability to change your mind on a whim was well-developed. As it was, the walk through the hotel foyer and the interminably slow ride up in the lift meant that when they finally reached the room, his first port of call was the mini-bar.

  Three miniatures, one after the other, provided the Dutch courage required. He finished with the warmly spiced rum. Only when Alle turned the lamp on did he realise he’d done so in the dark. The lamp light caught in the bright wavy strands of her hair as she walked towards him. Quietly confident, she took the last of the three empties from his hand. “You’re cute when you’re nervous. Relax Spook, I’ve no expectations.”

  Somehow, he doubted it.

  “Spook.” She linked their fingers, folding her smaller digits over the top of his. “Sometimes I forget the things you’ve said; that you’re a mess, and that this is no easy matter for you, no matter how put together you seem when you’re smiling. I know I’m pushy, but I’m not wholly selfish, or lacking a heart. I get that this is probably more difficult after the other night too.”

  “What happened in Genoa has no bearing on us.”

  Clearly she disagreed, for her touch skimmed over the marks still evident on his skin. He took her point. If they still weren’t healed, how could the internal hurt possibly be?

  “I’ve no intention of going back on my word, Alle. I’m just quieting the monsters.”

  “With alcohol. Isn’t that more likely to make them riot? Or are you trying to tame what’s rattling the bars down here?” She sunk a hand down towards the line of his fly. Spook stopped the descent, holding tight to her hand. He lifted it to his lips and kissed their still entwined fingers. “It’d take more than a few measures to fell that beast.”

  She peeped at him, tongue twitching between her pink lips as her cheeks lifted in a barely suppressed grin. “Are you going to kiss me, Mr Mortensen?”

  “It’s possible,” he teased. “Is that something you want to happen?”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Just establishing consent.”

  “I consent to whatever naughtiness your mind can come up with.”

  “Ooh!” He blew a stream of rum infused air between her gently parted lips. “Careful. You’ve no idea what sort of hot water that might land you in.” Except, maybe she did. She wasn’t entirely oblivious to his kinks. Certainly, the thought of him doing dirty things to her was clearly titillating. It wasn’t cold in the room, especially not after the chill of the night breeze, but the peaks of her nipples were clearly visible against the line of her sundress.

  “Let me help you.”

  Her gaze stayed on his fingers as he unfastened her dress and slid the straps from her shoulders. Thicker patches of freckles interlaced over her milky skin where the sun had kissed her. He didn’t waste any time in relieving her of her bra, too. This lady was gorgeous. He rapidly followed up with a whisper light caress of her throat and shoulders, followed by slower sweeping circles around her nipples.

  Alle shivered. He pinched.

  Her gasp at the little explosion of pain, he caught as he kissed her. He pinched again, harder, as he breathed the combined fire of whisky and rum into her eager mouth.

  “Mm,” she groaned, opening to him like a flower, head turned to the sun. Spook scooted them both backwards to the bed, and tipped her onto it. It was a task of a moment to free her of fabric. He turned her naked upon the sheets and licked a long trail up the indents of her spine, before rolling her again and reclaiming her nipples.

  Alle groaned, her hands clawing his shirt. Each sound goaded him to greater effort. Each determined press of her body into his unravelled a little more of his restraint.

  It wasn’t long before her nipples were fiercely red, and her cries a combination of hisses and deep needy sighs. When he lifted his head to blow on them to cool their fever, that’s when she struck, ripping his shirt over his head before he had the opportunity to prevent it.

  He didn’t even protest its descent onto the carpet.

  “You’re too damn gorgeous to stay covered up. Besides, I want your skin against mine.”

  Gorgeous? She was the one that moniker ought to be attached to. She’d intoxicated him from the first moment he’d seen her. Made him want, when he never desired or expected to feel that pull again.

  Alle wriggled against him, her hands sliding over his back and then squeezing his arse. “Are you gonna take these things off too?” She tugged on the back pockets of his jeans.

  “Maybe.” Not immediately. Not until he’d shown her considerably more of a good time. Also, maintaining a few barriers between them meant his mind wasn’t settled upon how close he was to holding her down and screwing her. “You’ll get what you want eventually. A little patience now, Allegra.”

  Patience was not her middle name. Too bad, because delayed gratification was definitely his.

  “Hands above your head.”

  “But I like them where they are,” she protested. His arse was subjected to another vicious squeeze. The bite of her fingers turned him on more than he cared to admit, which was all the more reason to restrain her.

  “That’s quite enough of that. Do something useful. Pass me my belt.”

  “Your belt… Oh!” Perhaps a little too eagerly, she slid the buckle, and worked the leather free of his belt loops. The moment it was in his hands, she rolled onto her stomach, and lifted up her arse.

  “Uh-uh.” Spook tipped her onto her back a
gain. “Arms out.” He bound her wrists, fastening the leather around them and sliding the pin into a suspiciously positioned hole.

  “No one has a waist that size,” she observed. “You made that hole after the last time.”

  “Did I?”

  Damn right he had, while he’d simultaneously been telling himself that he was never going near her again. Really, though, there wasn’t any staying away from her. Allegra Hutton didn’t take no for an answer. She chased and didn’t give up. It was one of the many things that attracted him to her.

  Once her wrists were securely fastened, and he was no longer at risk from her wandering hands, Spook finally consented to tugging off his jeans. After a day of sweating into them, that involved a certain amount of wriggling. Alle watched him, her bound hands settled in her lap. “Shorts too,” she insisted. “If I’m not allowed to touch, I should at least get to see what you’re withholding.”

  Spook hooked a thumb into the top of his underwear, and stood poised as if considering. They were definitely safer on. Even tied, she’d find a way to seduce him. Sure enough, as he watched, Alle linked the very tips of her fingers with one another forming a tunnel between her palms. “Unless you want to offer me a feel.”

  This woman, she was a devil. Did she really imagine he was going to fuck her palms?

  “This is supposed to be about me pleasuring you.”

  “Anything that allows me to get my hands on your hot bod leaves me in raptures. I don’t want this to be one sided, Spook.”

  But he did. A little, anyway. Touching her brought immense pleasure. Likewise, listening to her mewls and her sobbing out his name.

  What she did to him when she touched him though, that got him riled up in a rather more frighteningly unpredictable way. When Alle had her hands on him, anything was possible.

  “Spook?”

  He gently shook his head. “It won’t be. Promise. They stay on for the moment. Maybe if you’re good, you’ll earn yourself a reward.”

  “When am I anything less than angelic?”

  He laughed. “A devil more like.”

  She preened like he’d delivered a compliment.

  Truthfully, she was a goddess.

  The fire he’d poured down his throat finally hit his bloodstream, releasing some of the tension in his limbs. “Okay,” he conceded. Some air on his skin did sound like a welcome proposition. Having slipped off his shorts, Spook strode towards her, not bothering to hide the fact he was at full tilt. The hot promise in her stare almost stilled him at the bedside, likewise the sweep of her tongue across her lower lip. But no. He wasn’t running, or skedaddling off to quake in a corner. His demons could roar all they liked. It didn’t matter. He wanted this, and her. Especially the taste of her. He’d dwelt on the notion often enough over the last nine months.

  On all fours, he stalked across the mattress, while Alle backed up until her head hit the pillows. She’d raised her hands over her head of her own accord. Not precisely willingly submissive in her display, but Alle wasn’t in the traditional sense. Meekness, bowing to another’s orders wasn’t part of her make-up. What she got off on was sensation.

  “Meanie, you’ve made my nipples all sore.” Her pout was delicious.

  They were still rather pink. “Then I’d better kiss them better.”

  He wet his fingers and strummed one nipple while he sucked the other, and played it with his tongue. Hell yes. She was so soft. So willing. So expressive.

  Also, very much his.

  Which was not necessarily a good thing, while simultaneously being fan-fucking-tabulous.

  It’d been an age since he’d thought in those terms about another person. His band mates were his brothers. The people who he was closest to of all, but they weren’t “his”. The bond only stretched so far.

  Certainly, he wasn’t interested in worshipping any of them in the way he wanted to worship the woman prone beneath him now.

  Spook dragged his attention away from her tits and made a slow, extremely thorough exploration of her body. No single part of which escaped his attention. No portion went untouched. He kissed every precious inch.

  By the time his erotic journey took him to that needy temple between her thighs, she was already purring, head turned into the pillow.

  Spook touched his tongue once to her clit. Just an idle flick to begin with. Enough to wake her senses and focus her mind before he dived in and smeared his mouth with her pussy juice.

  Man, there was no better taste on Earth.

  “Please,” she soon begged. “Please, Spook. Please.”

  Her cries were inarticulate and non-specific and propelled him to greater effort. He sucked, and trilled his tongue against her bud until he set her hips rolling, mimicking the natural rhythms of coitus. Man, he needed a picture of this. He fumbled for his phone and took a couple of shots.

  When he then slid two fingers into her, she mewled and thrashed about, even before he started with the “come hither” motions against the wall of her sheath.

  Result. Her hips jacked off the bed, and her spine arched, tilting her head back. Mouth open wide, Alle groaned, while against his legs, he felt her toes stretch.

  Spook set the phone on the bedside, propped against the lamp and hit video record.

  “Just there, yes?” He repeated the motion he’d made inside of her, eliciting more or less the same response. “Like this?”

  She nodded frantically. “That’s amazing.”

  “That, my sweet, is your G-spot.”

  “Yeah,” she gasped, eyes rolling back into her head.

  He wasn’t generally egotistical, but this was a skill he’d nailed, and being out of practice so to speak, hadn’t apparently dulled his ability.

  See this, Xane, Ash. You’re not the only ones with mad skills.

  One move, and he knew he could send her soaring. Although he refrained from making it, choosing instead to keep her teetering on the edge.

  Alle cursed him, and writhed like a maniac. Musical tones bled from her throat that had him aching to feel the same way. Nevertheless, he maintained his focus on her.

  She was liquid in his arms. Her body was so fired up, it rippled and arched like it was being buffeted by a tide. He brought her to that tipping point again and again, until there was no poise left in her. None. She was putty, to mould as he pleased, and pleasure as he desired.

  “Spook, please.” It did all sorts of weird and wonderful things to him to hear her beg. “I’m going to lose my mind.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He nipped her inner thigh, and she screamed.

  Luckily, their neighbours on either side were fellow members of Black Halo, so they weren’t suddenly disturbed by concerned banging on the door. No doubt there’d be questions come tomorrow, though.

  “You realise I could keep you in this state all night.”

  “You’re not that cruel.” She spat between pants. She didn’t sound entirely confident on that point. Seemed she was learning, because he absolutely was cruel enough to keep her hanging until he’d reduced her to little more than a sobbing wretch.

  “Do you know how hard you’re making this?” The words were growled at him through clenched teeth. “I want you inside of me so badly, but I’m respecting the fact you’ve put a blanket ban on that. Christ, I don’t think I’ve ever craved cock so badly in my life.”

  “Alle, you don’t need me to fuck you for you to fly.”

  “No, I want you to fuck me because I’m fucking crazy about you.”

  That feeling was mutual in every sense. “I want you too,” he admitted. “However, I also think there’s room for a little more crazy yet.”

  The strangled gasp she made might have been an agreement or another curse. No matter, he was enjoying the tease too much to end it now.

  Alle whimpered, and continued to cream all over his fingers and tongue.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” he asked, once he had her balanced on the edge of orgasm aga
in.

  She shook her head. “Definitely not.” The way her voice collapsed into a croak rather contradicted her. Likewise the mewls she made as he freed his fingers and sucked them clean. Her eyes were wide and glassy, mouth slack. The fiery red threads of her hair were stuck to her skin with perspiration. Spook focussed his attention on her nub, while at the same time; he exerted a downward force on her lower belly.

  “Oh, Jeezus-hell-Christ! What are you doing to me?” She was gone. Gone. Eyes rolled back into her skull, body tensing ready for release. So, he dialled the pressure back a little, earning himself another string of blasphemous curses.

  “Soon,” he promised.

  “Damn.” She bit her lip. “That’s so good, but I feel like I’m gonna pee.”

  “Yeah, but you won’t.”

  “I might. I’m serious, Spook.” She brought her captured hands down in an attempt to reach him, but he batted them away.

  “Trust me. You won’t. It’s just the wiring getting a little confused.” In fact, it wouldn’t faze him if she did, but he kept that fact to himself. What he did do, was keep the pulses of pressure going.

  Alle squirmed beneath him, but the sounds coming from her—one ecstatic groan after another—told him stopping would be needlessly cruel.

  “That’s so wrong.”

  “And so right.”

  “You’re evil.” Her gasp dissolved into a bone-melting groan.

  “Have you only just figured that out? I thought you said you knew me.”

  Without warning, he hopped off the bed.

  Yes, he was a bastard, and he had just left her hanging, but the cacophony of insults barely swatted his skin, and certainly made no lasting impression. Cursing about it wouldn’t change the fact that she was his play-thing, and he intended to make music with her far sweeter than anything he’d ever coaxed from his guitar.

  Spook returned to the bed with a glass of water. “Drink,” he insisted, tilting it to her lips.

  “What? No.” She nevertheless took a sip.

  “All of it.”

  “You really are sadistic.”