Captured In Ink (Art of Love Series) (20 page)

Reesa laughed and patted his cheek with her hand. “How do you feel about banana chocolate chip pancakes?”

“WHAT?” Shane asked. “Is that what kind you make?”

Reesa nodded. “Yes. Why? It’s the kid’s favorite kind. We always have them on Sunday. I’d like to put walnuts nuts in them instead, but not everyone around here likes nuts.”

She went back to the griddle and poured another batch without waiting for his answer.

Shane looked down the table at Zack, who was smiling at him.

“I like pancakes too,” Shane said.

“Does that mean you have to stay with us forever?” Zack teased.

“I don’t know what it means,” Shane said truthfully, sipping the coffee in relief. “What are my chances of talking your aunt into it?”

Zack looked around the table at Shane’s holey jeans. “You need to fix some things first. I am not talking my aunt into keeping a boyfriend who can’t afford jeans without holes.”

Shane snorted. “I will get a haircut and lose the eyebrow ring, but I will not give up the jeans. A man has to have principles.”

“I like your holey jeans,” Chelsea said, walking up behind Shane. “Or maybe I’m just getting used to them. They seem pretty normal for you now. I guess you’re just a casual kind of guy.”

“Is that an insult?” Shane asked, looking at Zack.

“Don’t ask me,” Zack said. “I had a fight with my girlfriend because I told her black was a depressing color. She said it was thinning. What does that mean? I like how she looks. If I wanted skinny, I’d date skinny. What’s the big deal?”

“It means you need to stick with telling her she looks great no matter what color she’s wearing,” Shane said dryly, drinking coffee.

Brian walked by the dining table and flinched when Shane jumped at him like he was getting up to tackle him.

“Dude—you’re going to give me a complex,” Brian said. “And I seriously don’t need any more.”

Shane laughed. “It’s okay. I’m a head doctor. I can give them AND take them away,” he said wickedly.

Brian laughed. “That’s just wrong.”

Shane laughed. “What time is it Brian?”

“Look around—you got eyes don’t you?” Brian demanded.

Shane put his coffee down and acted like he was standing up.

“I’m not your watch, but it’s eight-thirty,” Brian said, laughing. “What is your problem?”

“I’m not a morning person,” Shane told him. “I need a lot of quiet and civility in the mornings.”

Reesa brought a huge platter of pancakes to the table. “Here’s some to start. I’m making more, but I don’t want these to get cold.”

Zack handed Brian his plate. Shane watched amazed as Brian very politely put three pancakes on it and passed it back. Zack thanked him and started eating.

“So what’s that? You save your all social skills for Sunday morning pancake breakfast?” Shane asked, giving Brian a questioning look.

Brian laughed and held out a hand for Shane’s plate. Shane handed him the plate and watched as he repeated the process for Shane.

Then Brian plated up pancakes for Chelsea and Sara. He even cut Sara’s into bites for her. When everyone else had food, Brian fixed a plate for himself.

Shane shook his head, staring at Brian. “Dude—your niceness in the mornings scares the hell out of me.”

“Shaney, you said another bad word,” Sara said, her mouth full of pancakes.

“Sorry,” Shane said to Sara, who pointed her fork at him in warning like Zack had pointed his finger yesterday.

“Sorry, Brian,” he said to Brian, who was openly smirking.

“Don’t do it any more,” Sara ordered, going back to her pancakes.

Shane sighed as Zack and Chelsea just ate and laughed.

Reesa brought the coffee pot and refilled his cup. “Is that leggy blonde looking better to you yet?” She squealed when Shane pulled her mouth down to his for a hard kiss.

“Stop teasing—it’s not funny. Is everyone around here a morning person but me?” Shane demanded, frowning when he let her go.

“No,” Zack said morosely. “And I hurt people who harass me before I’m awake. You’ll learn.”

Shane nodded. “Reesa, stop cooking and come eat,” he ordered.

“Last batch,” she promised. “The last one always has the most chocolate chips in it. And it’s mine, all mine.”

Shane watched her carry her pancake to the table like a prize. That pancake and sleeping with him were the only two semi-selfish things Shane had ever seen Reesa Callahan do for herself.

He was going to have to tell her he loved her. He was going to explode if he had to keep it inside much longer.

“Reesa, there’s something important we need to talk about tomorrow morning.”

“What would that be?” she asked.

“Can’t tell you right now. By the way, you make the second best banana pancakes in the world,” he told her. “My father makes the best. He says he puts love in them. Do you put love in yours?”

Reesa swallowed the bite in her mouth as the kids looked from Shane to her and back.

“Is there any other way to make them?” she asked, playing along because he hadn’t given her much choice saying such a thing in front of Sara.

“An answer—and yet not an answer,” Shane said, looking accusingly at Brian, who just grinned. “There’s a lot of snarky people in this family.”

“Get used to it, dude,” Brian told him.

“Oh don’t worry,” Shane said, grinning wickedly at Brian. “I’m very adaptable.”

“Is that another way of saying
lame
?” Brian asked, never ceasing to eat.

Without missing a beat, Shane stood, leaned in Brian’s direction and punched him hard in the arm, sliding him sideways in his chair.

Never dropping his fork, the boy just laughed and rubbed, but went back to his food.

Reesa frowned and pointed her fork at both Shane and Brian.

“No fighting at the table. Brian, watch your mouth. Shane, drink your coffee and stop being so sensitive.”

Brian snickered as he ate. It was the most fun breakfast he’d had in a while.

Sara was shaking her head. “Shaney, you’re always in trouble.”

Brian burst out laughing as Chelsea and Zack rolled their eyes.

Shane sighed and went back to eating his pancakes. There was obviously no winning for him in this crowd this morning.

Chapter 12

After an incredibly productive Sunday afternoon and evening of drawing, Shane pulled his bike into Reesa’s driveway on Monday morning, grateful for the layers of clothing he’d worn and the padded jacket. October was getting almost too cold to ride the bike. He pulled his helmet off and unlocked the luggage compartment to pull out a bag of donuts. They had cost him a trip across town, but the bag was still warm despite the bike ride.

The door swung open as he walked up to it, but with no one there. He heard Reesa yell from behind it, “Stop gawking Larson, and get in here”.

Laughing, Shane came through the screen door. When he closed the main door behind him, he noticed Reesa behind it. She had wet hair and was wearing a towel.

“Do you always answer your door in a towel?” Shane demanded.

“I peeked out the window when I heard the bike. Don’t turn into a dweeb on me,” she ordered.

Shane sighed and held out the bag. “Hot donuts,” he said, hoping his gift sufficed as a peace offering.

“Hot woman,” Reesa countered, tossing the donut bag on an end table before dropping the towel where she stood.

Shane said nothing for a moment as his gaze took in her goose bumps and perky nipples.

“See anything you like yet? You’re looking hard enough,” Reesa said, grinning at the flush climbing his face even as his eyes darkened to the color of chocolate chips.

“I like everything I see. How do you feel about cold donuts?” Shane asked.

“Better than a cold woman,” Reesa said, bringing hands to her hips.

Galvanized by knowing she had undoubtedly planned this, Shane shed his jacket and tossed it into the chair where he’d tossed the helmet just moments before. He peeled his hooded sweatshirt and T-shirt off in a single move, and tossed them on the pile as well.

Bare-chested now, he lunged for Reesa, only to have her evade and run back to the hall entrance, disappearing into the darkness of the hall.

Shane stood there for a moment and let her go, savoring the anticipation of what was waiting for him when he found her again.

By the time his legs cooperated with his brain, he could barely walk for being excited. He unfastened and unzipped his jeans on his way, liberating the three condoms he brought from his pocket and moving them to his hand.

In the bedroom, he found Reesa kneeling on the mattress. She looked like some primitive offering to the gods in the middle of the giant bed.

“What took you so long?” she demanded, laughing loudly when Shane climbed on the bed and knocked flat on her back with no finesse whatsoever.

“How rough do you like it?” Shane asked, reaching down and biting her shoulder lightly. “I’m not feeling very nice this morning.”

“You can trust me to complain when it’s too much,” Reesa told him, dragging his mouth to hers.

Together they wrestled him out of his jeans, and she put a condom on him while he kissed her and touched her everywhere he could, as much as he could.

“
Hurry
,” he ordered harshly, laughing when her hands shook as she finished rolling the condom into place.

Shane didn’t even touch her intimately to see if she was ready for him. He knew she was from the flush covering her body and the wild look in her eyes. Winding his fingers into her damp hair, he pressed into her warmth, never stopping until he was completely inside her where he damn well belonged.

One night, two weeks, or two months—time had nothing to do with the rightness of this connection, he decided. Call it love at first sight or fate or whatever. Shane didn’t care so long as he could have moments like this with this woman.

“Reesa,” he said, the desperation in his voice scraping his own nerve endings. “I want to do this with you forever.”

Before she could reply or deny or anything else but manage a groan, he unleashed the tidal wave of arousal she had caused in him, kissing her mouth as he did what he wanted to the rest of her. Several strokes had her coming apart under him, but Shane only laughed when she wanted to stop.

“Not yet,” he said, slowing his pace to kiss her neck, but moving—always moving—savoring.

“The bed is moving as much as I am,” Reesa said, shivering around him as he laughed.

Shane pulled her head back to bare her throat to his lips. He put his mouth on her there, biting and licking to her collarbone while she struggled to loosen his hold.

Sliding out of her, Shane moved to her breasts, tugging each hard nipple into his mouth until her hands came to hold his head. He ignored her fingers tugging in his hair because he wasn’t letting her call the shots today.

He kissed his way down the front of her to her stomach and across her hips, rolling her over until he could bite her like he’d wanted to do yesterday morning watching her dance. His mouth was hot on the curve of her back as he held her hips in his hands.

“Can we do it this way?” Shane asked, hovering over the back of her thighs and hoping.

Reesa arched her hips off the bed in reply, hissing when Shane took advantage of her unspoken permission and slid into her from behind. They both groaned at the intense contact. The man fit inside her like no one else ever had, Reesa thought. She could feel Shane pressing the exact spot that needed pressing.

“And I thought it couldn’t get any better,” she said contritely, laughing and putting her hand between them to feel their connection. It rendered her weak to find him completely inside again. “You fit me so well.”

“I know. Would this be a bad time to mention that this is yet another first for me?” Shane teased, his voice breaking as he moved in deeply with every thrust. “You feel so damn perfect, Reesa.”

He slid one hand under her to hold her hips up to better receive his thrusts. Shane put one hand on the headboard to brace himself and the damn bed which
was
moving just like Reesa had said. How was that even possible? That certainly had to be fixed.

“Reesa? How close are you, baby?” Shane asked.

“Close. Let me show you how to help,” Reesa said, moving Shane’s hand on her stomach down, until his fingers slid across the front of her. “Don’t stop moving, just press gently but firmly—right there. Oh my God—yes, that’s it. Now a little
harder.
God—Shane. . .”

Then there was another shared climax between them, with Shane following her as he felt her pulsing around him. The pleasure seemed to go on forever for both of them, and there was even a point where Shane felt he might pass out from it. His breathing was ragged when he finally lowered them to the bed, cradling Reesa from behind as he rolled them to their sides. Her heart beat furiously against his arm wrapped solidly around her.