Too Hot to Handle (15 page)

“Look at me. Please. Look at me.” He needed that. Needed her to know who was inside her. Needed to see her eyes as her body took him in. No one had touched her this way in so long, and he wanted to know that she’d chosen
him
.

Her eyes finally fluttered open. She watched him with worry or doubt or some other sorrow. He notched himself against her and pushed gently in. “Shane,” she gasped, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

He hissed at the feel of her. The tightness and heat that squeezed him until it was a pleasure close to pain. He eased out after only a couple of inches and pushed slowly in.

“Oh, God.” She sighed. “Yes. Just…
Yes
.”

Yes.
Hell,
yes. He pushed deeper and deeper still, slowly sinking himself inside her delicious body. “Jesus,” he growled, “you feel so damn sweet.”

“You feel…
big
.”

He couldn’t believe she could drag a laugh from him at this point, but she did. “Is it okay?”

She nodded and buried her face in his neck, but he couldn’t complain that she’d looked away. He needed to look away himself. If he kept watching the gorgeous pleasure on her face, he’d come right away.

Slow, he reminded himself. Go slow.

And he was glad for that, because she responded to every slow slide of his cock like it was a wonder. She sighed and gasped and made a sexy humming sound that shivered over his skin. And she was so damn wet that he knew he didn’t need to be careful, he knew it’d be good for her no matter what. He kept a slow pace, but he took her harder, deeper.

She threw her head back and pulled her knees up so he could settle deeper into her body. “God,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “That’s so good.” He pressed her knee higher and fucked her harder, loving the way she cried out for him, loving that she wanted more.

He raised up on his arms to look down at her, and that was a brutal mistake. The sight of her was too much. Her white skin and dark nipples and her lip caught between her teeth as she fought for her pleasure. It was an image he’d never forget. Sweet Merry, wicked and wanton as she took his cock.

Fuck. His body tightened in warning. But he couldn’t come yet. Not yet.

Shane pressed her knee back down to his hip and slowed his strokes. He eased his body higher on hers, changing the angle until he could feel his shaft rub tight against her every time he thrust. A trick he’d learned from an old lover, and he was damned thankful for it now.

She gasped in surprise, and he clenched his jaw and told himself not to hear her, not to see her, not to indulge in the exquisite pleasure of watching her get off as his cock rubbed her clit with each stroke.

But oh, fuck, she sounded so damn sweet. Her hands slid down his back to clutch his ass and pull him tighter. Her nails dug into his skin. “Yes,” she moaned. “Shane. Oh, God, Shane. Fuck me.”

Christ, was she trying to destroy him? Had anything ever sounded so filthy as Merry Kade begging to be fucked? He couldn’t hold on. He couldn’t. She was so hot and tight and her nails carved tiny bites of pain into his body, and she needed this. She needed him and he was—

“Oh, God,
yes,
” she screamed. When her hips jerked against his thrusts, Shane opened his eyes and let himself go. He fucked her harder and let it take him under. His cock pulsed and jumped and he groaned in desperate release.

Thank God. Thank God he’d held out. He wasn’t sure how long it took him to come back to his senses, but when he did, he could feel Merry trembling beneath him.

He raised his head from the pillow. “Merry? You okay?”

“I think so,” she whispered.

“I didn’t hurt you?”

A shy smile flashed over her face. “I think I’ll recover.”

He collapsed beside her, shaking himself, although he was shaking with laughter. “Are you putting me in my place?”

“No!” She covered her face with her hands then seemed to remember she had other parts to cover as well. He watched her cover her breasts, then a helpless hand hovered over that lovely triangle of hair for a moment.

“Could you, um…” She tugged desperately at the covers. “Could you get up for a second?”

He wanted to say no and make her lounge naked for an hour, but instead he got up and went to the bathroom. The bedroom was dim in the evening light, and when he came back he switched on the light, but Merry squealed. “Turn that off!”

“Are you shy?” he teased.

She threw a pillow at his head. Shane caught it and tossed it back, but he switched off the light. That was the extent of his concession, though. He slipped under the covers with her, but tugged them down to expose her breasts. Merry immediately snatched them back up.

“Come on. I want to see you.”

“Shut up.”

“You’ve got nothing to hide now. I’ve seen it all.”

“Shut up!”

“From a couple of different angles.”

The pillow hit him smack in the face. Shane brushed it aside and kissed her. She still wouldn’t let go of the blanket.

“Please?” he coaxed. “If you pull down the blanket, I’ll be topless, too.” He raised his eyebrows. “Are you going to pass up the chance to ogle my chest?”

Merry finally peeked up at him. Her grip loosened. “Well…” When her gaze drifted to his chest, she finally let go of the blanket to brush her palm softly over his chest. “It is very nice.”

Shane eased the blanket down to her waist and cupped her breast gently in his hand. But then he forgot what his point had been, because instead of looking at her, he found himself watching her hands as they skimmed lightly over the hair on his chest, then settled right over his heart. She seemed fascinated, and he felt…strange. Giddy and overwhelmed in a way he hadn’t felt since he was thirteen and had his first uncertain crush on a pretty girl.

His heart raced under her fingers. He hoped she didn’t notice.

“You sure you won’t let me turn on the light?” he asked.

“Are you always like this after sex?”

His thumb caught on her nipple and he circled it carefully, watching as it tightened again at the renewed attention. “Like what?”

“You’re so relaxed and…”

He leaned down and put his open mouth to her nipple.

“And you keep…teasing me.”

He was teasing her. He didn’t know why. But he did know he wasn’t usually like this. He kissed her one last time. “You’re cute when you laugh,” he said, which was true enough, but not the whole story. Her smile made him happy, but he couldn’t say that. Ever.

“Only when I laugh, huh?”

“Oh, also when you say my name and beg me to fuck you.”

“Jesus, Shane!” She shoved him hard and dragged the covers up over her head.

He laughed. Hard. And he only laughed harder when one of her fists emerged from the covers to punch his shoulder. But he finally took pity and lay down next to her, mostly because he was suddenly exhausted. He hadn’t come that hard in a very long time, if ever. And it had been much longer since he’d laughed that hard. He felt as if his muscles had melted into pools of warm liquid.

“Christ, Merry,” he breathed. “That was good.”

She was silent for a long moment, and he was beginning to worry she didn’t agree. But then he heard her draw a deep breath. “Was it good? It felt really good.”

He smiled at the ceiling. “I think that’s the only measure.”

“I’ve never…”

Those two words trailed over his skin as they disappeared into silence. He turned toward her, but in the dark room he couldn’t see anything more than a faint glimmer of her eyes in the shadow of the blankets.

“I’ve never come like that before.”

“Like what?”

“During sex like that. With you inside me. It was…” Her smile flashed white for a moment. “Nice.”

Shane grinned. He couldn’t help it. If he had more energy, he would have jumped up on the bed and hooted while he beat his chest. Thank God his exhaustion could masquerade as dignity.

“I’m glad,” he murmured. “Because it was pretty high up in great moments of my life.”

Merry laughed so hard she snorted, which gave him another thing to tease her about. But his amusement died when she snuggled close. Shane put his arm around her and pulled her head to his chest. And as her breath chased over his skin in gentle puffs, he didn’t feel like laughing at all. He just stared into the darkness and wondered what the hell he’d done.

* * *

M
ERRY
SNUCK
INTO
Grace’s apartment, sure that dirty guilt was written all over her face. Her clothes probably looked normal, but she felt generally rumpled, and she was certain she could smell Shane on her skin.

God. She blushed at the very thought of his name, but the warmth kept traveling over her skin, falling from her face to her neck and her chest and all the way down to her thighs.

She’d been very thoroughly fucked, and she felt it in every inch of her body. There was no way she looked the same.

Luckily the apartment was empty. A glance at the clock revealed that only sixty minutes had passed since she’d left the bar. How was that possible? It had felt like hours. She shook her head in surprise but grabbed a pair of sweatpants and moved quickly to the bathroom. She needed to wash off the invisible depravity that covered her skin.

Yes,
she thought to herself as she let the shower heat up. That was how she felt. Depraved. Dirty. Wonderful.

And still embarrassed. She couldn’t help it. Being naked like that, being exposed…it felt so vulnerable. She’d always been in awe of Grace, who used her body for pleasure whenever the urge struck. Merry could never be that brave. To let a man
inside
her and just accept that as her right. It felt scary. And she couldn’t tell if it was scarier that she hardly knew Shane or terrifying because she knew him at all.

She stepped beneath the hot water with a groan of relief.

Thank God she’d gone to the saloon. Thank God she’d had those two martinis, or she’d never have been able to let that happen.

She cringed at her own thought. That she had to
let
it happen. That she was barely an active participant. But right now she couldn’t make the semantics matter, because it had been fucking
fabulous
.

Merry looked around the shower as if someone else would be watching, then she took a deep breath, balled her hands into fists and danced on her tiptoes to a silent squeal of triumph.

“Ohmigod,” she panted, covering her open mouth with her hands to keep the water out. “Ohmigod.”

He’d been perfect. And big. And perfect. And he’d made her feel beautiful for a few minutes. He’d made her feel like she was the woman he wanted.

God. If this was only friends with benefits, she’d take it. She’d take it and she’d worship him from across the hall and swallow her worries for her heart and she would take it
all
.

“Okay,” she whispered. “Okay, be cool.”

She could be cool. She’d kill herself being cool about it if she had to. She’d taken a chance and it had been worth every second.

Merry washed up and when she got out of the bathroom, she felt more in control. She tucked her wet hair up into a bun and fired up her iPad to send an email. If she didn’t get the answer she wanted, then she’d take one more chance. What the hell.

Life was good today. And Merry was determined to make tomorrow even better.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

M
ERRY
LOOKED
AT
EACH
of their faces, Levi and Harry, both creased and leathered by the sun, Marvin, still plump and pale under his standard fisherman’s hat, and the women: Kristen, a handsome sixty-two-year-old woman with carefully styled hair, and Jeanine, starting to stoop a little with age. To a person, each of them stood in the bright morning sun and stared openmouthed at the sign.

Black paint had dripped from the crude letters and stained the rough grass beneath the fence.

“Oh, my word,” Kristen said for the third time since she’d stepped from Levi’s car.

“I know,” Merry said solemnly. “It’s crazy. You should probably call an emergency meeting and decide how to proceed from here.”

“What we should do,” insisted Jeanine, “is call the sheriff!”

Merry’s stomach twisted as the whole group murmured agreement. “Call the sheriff? I wouldn’t say this was a crime.”

“It’s vandalism!” Harry said.

“Well… It’s really just an old scrap of wood nailed to an even older fence post. I don’t think anything’s been damaged.”

Jeanine sniffed. “Maybe not, but it’s a threat.”

“Yes!” Kristen added. “It’s intimidation!”

Merry felt her fingers go numb and looked down to see that she’d twisted them into a knot. She forced herself to let go. “It only says No More Tourists! That’s not exactly threatening anything. The sheriff has real crime to fight. We shouldn’t bother him.”

They all looked at her like she was crazy. Merry squirmed and fought the urge to blurt out a confession. “How about we take pictures of it? File a report so there’s a record.”

Levi seemed to consider it. “There could be fingerprints. Tire prints.”

Oh, good Lord. Why did they have to make everything so difficult? “As far as I know, that doesn’t really happen in a case like this. My car was stolen two years ago, and when they found it, even then they didn’t take fingerprints. Department funding and things like that. But you guys do whatever you think is best.”

“I’ll call the sheriff,” Jeanine said firmly.

Merry felt sweat drip down her neck and sneak past her shoulder blades.

She hadn’t done anything illegal, per se. A sign wasn’t vandalism. She’d been careful not to make the message scary. And she wasn’t the one reporting it as a crime. Surely she couldn’t go to jail. How would they even know it was her?

Her mind latched with a vengeance onto the hundreds of hours of television she’d watched over her life. The little clues that TV detectives always found. A hairpin. A stray drop of paint. A certain curlicue in the letter
E
that she couldn’t help but make even when she was trying to disguise her writing.