Keep Me (Shelter Me #3) (13 page)

“When it comes to you I will fantasize, dream, or whatever the hell I have to do to keep you present in my thoughts, Shelby. Now, move that ass.”

In my quest to get her to unpack, my hand travels seductively down her back until it lands on her bottom. Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. The moment I have her, I smack her ass, let her go and attend to unpacking my own shit as I watch her out of the corner of my eye. Steam flows out of her ears like a freight train.

“You want me to
what
?” she says incredulously, boldly resisting and challenging me.

I thrust some long underwear, snow pants, and a jacket toward her, along with all the other accessories she will need for snowmobiling.

“Come on. Trust me, Shelby. It’s fun.”

“Fun, my ass. You manipulated me into coming up here and freezing my fucking ass off, didn’t you?” she accuses, placing her hands on her hips.

“I did not. Now go get changed, or so help me God, I will show you trickery and manipulation when I strip you butt ass naked and toss you into the snow.”

I’m teetering on the edge of laughter and seriousness. If I strip her ass naked, I most definitely will not be tossing her in the snow. She’ll be tossed on top of my bed with me tossing myself on top of her.

“You’re an evil man, who just might be sleeping on his couch this whole week.”

She points her finger at me, and with a huff, she plucks all of the garments up off of the floor. Straightening her spine, she changes direction and walks into the master bath, slamming the hell out of my door.

“Challenge accepted, Firecracker, whether you meant for it to be one or not.”

I’m an intelligent man, typically quick to recover from most anything except her being away from me. The months we spent apart slashed me in half. The urge to lather, rinse and repeat myself in the depths of another woman are long gone. It’s crazy how I never thought I would find someone I wanted to be with twenty-four seven, show her all the things I love to do and have her do the same.

Finding her the way I did, and having her shut me down time and time again at first was a challenge for me. Then, hearing her speak those words about how she really thought of me when she left changed me, made me want to be a better man, if only for her.

The minute she walks out of my bathroom dressed in the pink and white attire I bought her is the moment I know she’s the one for me. Shelby is a painkiller. Pain I never even knew I had until the day she walked out of my life and went back to Texas. Call me a selfish prick; I really couldn’t give a shit, but this woman standing in front of me looking like an innocent snow angel can never leave me again. I can’t and won’t let it happen.

Chapter Fourteen

Shelby

I am not standing in front of this mirror in this ginormous bathroom ready to give myself a mental pep talk. No, not me. I also did not just have my first orgasm from a man, either. A man who occupies my every waking thought. A man who played my body like a slow vibrato on a guitar, picking up his tempo as his masterful fingers led him right into a fast paced solo sending electric currents sizzling throughout my body.

So many times I have laid awake in my bed at night going over and over in my mind the pleasure he could make me feel, then turning around and pleasuring myself as I pictured him, afterwards blushing alone in the dark.

I surprised myself today by not being at all embarrassed at him seeing me bare. The thought of him seeing me naked doesn’t scare me anymore. I feel at ease with him. I really don’t know why, and the wonderful part of it all is that I don’t care to know, either. All I do know is I want him just as badly as he wants me.

The world stopped the moment his expert finger entered me. All I could do was moan. Thank God he had me put my hands on the sink, or I would have crumpled to the floor. I’m no fool, I know what I have been missing not giving myself over to a man sexually. I’ve watched porn, seen a man’s dick to know what it looks like both soft and hard. As soon as Antonio pressed himself against my ass, I recognized he is very blessed, definitely in the above average department, which I have no doubt will make my experience all the more powerful as he stretches me wide for the first time. 

Never in my life has anything felt as good as his finger did. I smile at myself as I pull my shirt over my head, unzip my jeans, and tug them off as I grab the long underwear and start to put them on. Realization hits me square in the face. I’m glad I waited for Antonio to be the first person to touch me intimately besides myself. He makes me want to feel, he makes me want to love for the first time in my life.

The funny thing is, I’m not scared anymore. I, Shelby Morris, want to jump in head first with a man who I now know wants more from me than just sex. That feeling of being wanted by someone is so new to me. I’m not sure if I will ever get used to the fact that he wants me. When I first met Antonio, I thought for sure all he wanted was to have his fun and then leave. He has proven me wrong. I’ll admit it to both him and myself if needed.

My fingers scrape across the smooth ridges of my mother’s necklace as I pull my Payne Construction sweatshirt on, which makes me think of Erin. I wish I could talk to her right now and tell her everything. Well, maybe not
everything
, per se, I say to myself, blushing slightly.

“Get out of dreamland, Shelby, and hurry the hell up.”

Giving myself a swift kick in the ass, I finish getting all this garb on. I check myself out in the mirror. Nice. I look like a white bunny rabbit. Reaching for the pink gloves, I fold and place my jeans and shirt on the counter. I put my feet into the soft wool socks he gave me and open the door. My eyes and body betray me when I see him standing there dressed in black from head to toe. All I can think of is that I want to climb him like a big, thick oak tree.

I’m having an Antonio-gasm right here on the spot. I’m wet. I’m flustered. And I am standing in front of the man who has most definitely cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony of ‘candy coated lollipop, lick it and it’s yours’.

The sound of Antonio’s deep voice makes me blink, slowly bringing my mind back to earth.

“You look fucking hot in that get-up, Firecracker.”

“Uh. I feel like a bunny.”

“You look like an angel to me. Are you ready?”

He approaches me in one long stride with his long, toned legs. Cupping my cheek, he tilts his head to the side as he studies my expression.

“Are you nervous?” he asks gently.

“No. Not at all,” I respond before thinking.

Hell yes, I’m nervous. If I didn’t trust Antonio, there is no way in hell I would be getting on the back of a snowmobile zipping around in the flipping snow, but not wanting to bust the excitement I see in his eyes is what makes me tell this little, tiny white lie.

“Good. You won’t have to do a thing except hold on to me tightly and enjoy the scenery. It’s breathtaking, really. One of the reasons why I bought this piece of property was that it’s so close to the state trails for snowmobiling and small ATVs and such. Come on, you’ll see.”

Removing his hand from my face, he bends and picks up two helmets I didn’t see earlier on the floor. Handing me one while he places the other under his arm, he grips my free hand in his and leads us down the hallway toward  the back of the house, through a side door which takes us through to a very large garage filled with every kind of outdoor toy for every season you can imagine. Snowmobile, quads, jet skis. I let a low whistle showing how impressed I am.

“You really do like the outdoors, don’t you?”

I stroll over to the black and green snowmobile, lazily running my hands over the black leather seat. Heat pools everywhere inside of me as I take stock of how small the seat really is and how close I will be sitting to him. Yum.

“You thinking the same thing I am, Firecracker?”

Our eyes make direct contact. Mine never waver as I see pools of desire in his, observing his pupils dilate with as much heated desire as my skin.

“You keep looking at me like that, Shelby, and I won’t be able to stop myself from ripping all those damn layers of clothes off of you and begging you to let me have you.”

His words shoot off inside of me like the nickname he has for me. I reach up and wipe the sweat starting to form from my brow.

“How am I looking at you?”

The atmosphere in here cranks up a hell of a lot hotter than the temperature outside. This rising of my body temp is becoming an everyday occurrence around Antonio as images of him taking me and making me his have flooded my brain, leaving room for nothing else.

“Like that innocence you possess is gone, your taste buds crave something you have never had before and no matter what, you are going to find a way to have it. It’s the same damn thing I have running through my mind right now. You see it and know you sure as hell feel it. Except-”

He walks around the snowmobile snakes his hand around my waist and pulls me into him.

“I’m anything but innocent. I am pure wickedness. And I crave you, too. More than anything.”

“Oh, God,” I whimper.

It’s me this time who becomes the aggressor when my arms go up around his neck, pulling his mouth to mine. I devour him like the starved woman I am, nipping at his bottom lip as I suck it into my mouth. Full-fledged growls come out of him as his hardness grinds into my core. I want him.

He lets me have control of his mouth for a brief moment; before I know it, I am being lifted up and pressed against the seat of the snowmobile where his lips leave mine and trail the slowest, most torturous kisses down my neck, across the underside of my chin to the other side, and back up again. I am panting, squirming underneath him. I come undone until he lifts us both back into a standing position, leaving us both resting there nearly out of breath.

“Fuck, babe. I want you so damn bad it physically hurts, but when I have you for the first time, it will be in my bed. The place where you deserve to be, the place where I want you to be. As tempting as it is to make love to you right now, I won’t take you on my garage floor.”

He runs his hands through his hair like he’s frustrated. I’m not quite sure what to say. Is he mad because I basically threw myself at him? Am I being too presumptuous?

“Hey. Don’t be having those kinds of thoughts.”

He places his hand back on my cheek.              

“How do you know what kind of thoughts I’m having?” I say defensively.

“It’s written all over your face. Whatever it is you’re thinking, it’s not true. I want you, and only you.”

“I want you, too.”

The words just pop out of my mouth without a second thought. It’s the truth, I do want him. The biggest smile I have ever seen spreads from corner to corner of his lips, clear up to his eyes as they stare right back at me.

“Those are the best words I have ever heard in my entire life. Now, before I change my mind and take you back into the house, I really want you to see the beauty of this land.”

Antonio treads with confidence when he punches in a code on the wall. One of the garage doors opens, bringing in the crisp, cold air from the mid-afternoon. The snow has stopped falling, leaving a light dusting of fresh snow on the ground. I shiver as the frigid air seeps inside.

“Come here, Shelby,” he calls, picking up my helmet from where we sat them on top of a counter when we walked in.

I pace slowly in his direction. Now that the time is here to ride this darn machine, my nerves spike. The idea of Antonio and I becoming one flew out the garage door when he opened it, I am going to die on the back of this thing I know it.

“Would you stop fidgeting?” he smirks as he puts a pink mask over my face, tucking it into my jacket and then placing my helmet on my head, securing it tightly.

“Do you trust me?” he questions.

“I don’t know yet.”

His eyebrows arch.

“Seriously?”

“I’m kidding. I do. Doesn’t mean I’m not scared to get on the back of this thing, though.”

“I’ll go slow, but I know that before long, you will most definitely be begging me to go faster.”

His statement insinuates something more than just a snowmobile ride with the way he drags out the words in a husky voice, shifting his sight straight to my lips.

“Come on, my cute little snow angel. Climb on the back of this thing.”

Antonio shows me where to step as I swing my leg over and plop down on the back. He turns the key, making it rumble to life, and I jump from the sensation of the vibrations directly under my ass. He lets it warm up a few minutes while he places his helmet over his head.

With one fluid motion of his powerful body, he’s on the snowmobile standing up in front of me and giving me the pleasure of staring at his perfectly sculpted ass lined up perfectly with my view. I grind my teeth back and forth to force myself from biting his sweet behind. I’ve stripped him naked in my mind right through his snow pants, envisioning licking and sucking every inch of his body. It’s going to be a long ride the way my hands are twitching to reach out and grab him, and we haven’t even left yet.

“You ready?” he smirks with a cocky gleam when my eyes divert from his ass to his face.

“Yeah,” I sigh.

“Flip that shield over your face, then put your arms around me and hold on. I promise to go slow, but when we go around the curves on the trail you lean the opposite way I do to kind of balance us out. Got it?”

I nod as I have already put the shield down. I squint my eyes to try and adjust to the dark tint. He sits down, revs up the gas a little, then pulls my legs in closer to him. I am very well aware my weeping core is now pressed up against his backside. My arms encircle his waist; he presses on the gas, ever-so-slowly gliding us out of the garage and onto the snow. I yelp as he takes off unexpectedly, forcing me to clutch him tighter. My helmet smacks into the back of his, feeling his laughter through his jacket as we zip over the snow-covered lawn toward a large wooded area.

Upon entering the woods, Antonio stops and tilts his head in my direction. He flips up his shield, his forest green eyes a shade lighter than the pine trees surrounding us. The colors are enthralling, like a kaleidoscope blending in with our surroundings, hypnotizing me as they suck me in. God, he is so damn beautiful.

“You good?”

His voice echoes over the load roar of the snowmobile. When I shake my head ‘yes’, he flips his shield back down, taking off into the woods.

An adrenaline rush oozes through my veins as we glide across the snowy trails. Antonio takes the corners with such perfection and agility. I, for one, feel so close to nature out here, taking in the snow-covered trees, the small cabins nestled deep in the woods, dark and yet inviting while awaiting their owners. It’s peaceful out here.

My guess is we have been riding for fifteen or twenty minutes with only the magnificent roar of the sled disturbing the silence of this massive forest, when we come across a lake, frozen over and covered with snow. Antonio brings us to a stop, killing the engine with a flick of a switch. The moment he disconnects his body from mine, a shiver runs through me, immediately missing the warmth.

“This is my favorite spot out here.”

He motions to the lake after removing his helmet and mask. My heart does some sort of little ping when I skim over his hair flattened to his head, reminding me of bed head. Thoughts of admiring this view of him in the mornings rattle through my head. A woman could get used to relishing waking up next to Antonio every day.

“Come here, Firecracker.”

Disengaging my thoughts from lying in bed, I stand up as he helps me climb off by placing his hand in mine. He bends and unsnaps my helmet as well, hanging it on the opposite handlebar from where he just hung his. The corner of his mouth lifts up into a sexy grin.

“What do you think? Was I slow enough for you?”