She gasped and opened her eyes to see sinuous Shadows, swirled with Ethan’s forest-green, tightening around the peaks of her nipples, tugging and twisting in time with his tongue.
“Oh God. Ethan….”
He grinned and licked a heated line into her center, pushing his tongue inside her as his Shadow clamps pulled and tugged, and she threw her head back, eyes closed, fisting the sheets as every muscle in her body tightened.
She was almost mindless with sensation. Overloaded with his Shadows, fingers, and tongue all working in concert to drive her insane. So close. So very close.
He pulled away to grab a condom and she whimpered at the aching emptiness, then he lifted her in his strong hands and spun her over onto her front. She heard the rip of foil just before he wrapped his hand under her and pulled her up to her knees, his Shadows still clamped tight to her nipples.
His breath was hot on her back as he leaned over her, whispering roughly. “Such a good girl. So strong. So beautiful. Are you going to open for me, Kay?”
She was too far gone to answer. She simply widened her legs and dropped her forehead to the bed. He entered her in one smooth thrust, their Shadows dancing in a frenzy around them.
His fingers found her clit while his Shadow clamps continued their torment, tugging and twisting her nipples, and his teeth grazed along her back. She lost herself in the slide of damp skin, the ecstatic fullness where he pumped into her, and the swirling molten mercury of their joined Shadows, bright and hot, filling them both.
They consumed each other; pushing into each other as if they could merge entirely, their skin, heat, and Shadows combining and crashing over them like a scorching tidal wave. The sensuous dance of their Shadows swelled and billowed as if they were a massive swirling kaleidoscope welded into one searing entity. The essence of their souls joined, building ever higher until they exploded into ecstasy, and they flew over the peak together.
Kay collapsed onto her front, gasping, with Ethan heavy on her back. He lifted off her and disappeared to remove the condom. A moment later, he was back, pulling her around to face him, their bodies pressed close together.
She wrapped her leg over his hip, tucking herself under his chin, enjoying the slight scratch where his short beard caught in her hair. They held each other while their heartbeats gently slowed, quietly immersed in the heat of their bodies.
Eventually, Ethan lifted himself on one elbow to look down at her, a strange expression on his face that was part exposed, part resolute.
Kay ran her fingers down his jaw. “What is it?”
“I was thinking of a climber problem.”
“Mmm?”
He frowned, eyes serious. “It’s that feeling you get when you know you’re going to fall and there’s nothing at all you can do about it.”
She stilled. “And is that how you feel?”
He stroked her cheek with his thumb, his fingers lingering against her face, but he didn’t answer. He stayed silent, watching her uncertainly, and she realized that she didn’t need him to say it. She could do this for both of them. “It’s okay, Ethan; I’m falling too. I want to fall. With you.”
She wrapped her arms around him, hoping to show him with her body all the things that she was feeling. How she could truly be herself with him. How he had come to mean so much to her. And that he was safe with her as they fell, side by side.
He let out a long, slow breath, relaxing in her arms, and they drifted off to sleep together.
ChapterEighteen
Kay woke from a deep sleep,still tangled in Ethan, to the sound of banging.
At first, it incorporated itself into a vague, complicated dream, and there seemed to be a perfectly logical reason for the jarring noise. But then the banging started again.
She pushed herself onto her elbow, blinking. There was someone at the door.
Ethan opened his eyes and started hauling himself, still half asleep, out of bed and into his jeans. She glanced at the alarm clock and groaned. No one should be at the door at seven in the morning on a weekend.
In the distance, she heard Ethan opening the front door, and then she heard a male voice that she vaguely recognized.
It didn’t make any sense. She lowered her head to the pillow and closed her eyes. From the other room, she thought she heard Ethan ask, “Are you looking for Kay?”
The man replied in a low voice. It was difficult to make out clearly, but it sounded like, “Kay’s in Wales. I’ve come to speak to you.”
That made even less sense. Whose voice was it? James’s? No, that wasn’t possible. Although he did expect her to have gone to Wales. The voices lowered to a deep, unhappy rumble.
It was warm and soft in bed, it smelled of Ethan, and she didn’t want to walk out to the door in nothing but a sheet, no matter who it was. She pulled a pillow closer and snuggled. The voices dimmed and she drifted back to sleep, waiting for Ethan to come back.
