Master of the Deep (16 page)

She held herself open, and he closed his eyes. “I love the way you smell,” he said.

“You can smell me?” Her voice was strained.

“I can.” He opened his eyes. Monroe held herself open, but nominally only; the barest tip of her little clit was visible. He leaned forward and placed his hand over hers. “Hold yourself like this,” he said as he pressed her fingers into her soft flesh.

Licking her hadn’t been his intention, but right now, with her naked pussy just inches from him, it was impossible to resist. He didn’t waste time with fancy tongue pirouettes; his tongue flicked right to her juicy center, then he swiped and licked up between her spread folds.

Her hand was trembling, but she managed to do an admirable job of holding herself open for him, so he rewarded her with a few moments of attention to her engorged nub.

Monroe’s gasps were musical, and when he leaned back, his hunger temporarily sated, he decided he didn’t like how quiet it had gotten.

Well, he’d have that fixed in short order. He smiled.
 

“Use the index finger of your right hand to rub your clitoris,” he said, and this time she swallowed nervously.

“I”—another nervous swallow—“thought this was about being punished.”

“You will be,” he said. “My idea of punishment, at least.” Which was to drag this out, wallow in the knowledge that her discomfort turned her on. “Finger to clit,” he prodded.
 

Her head came up and she stared straight ahead as she carried out his order. She was trying to act like she didn’t enjoy it, like she was disengaged, but he knew better.
 

“How do you feel right now?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said quickly.

“Anything else?”

Her shell-brown eyes darted guiltily to his. “Chilly,” she said.

“Bullshit.”

“Well… what I mean is that I think I’m starting to get cold.”

“And that’s why your nipples are erect right now?”

Her breath hitched, and he laughed. Her reaction was to cross her arms over her chest and snap her legs together. “I’m not going to stand here and humiliate myself if you’re going to laugh,” she said.

Oh, he liked her very, very much. “We need a bed,” he said as he stood. He scooped her up, one arm under her knees, the other supporting her back and shoulders and holding her against his chest. With her in his arms, the alternately sharp and throbbing aches in his back were almost easy to ignore. What wasn’t easy was forcing himself to walk rather than run upstairs to the master bedroom.
 

“You didn’t sleep here last night,” Monroe said as he lowered her onto the sheets.

“I slept in the chair next to you,” he said. He decided not to mention the pool as he hadn’t been sleeping so much as dazed. “How did you know?”

“The pillows are the same as when I got up yesterday morning,” she said.

Hm.
“It wouldn’t have occurred to me to notice something like that. But then, my ears, eyes, nose and ability to detect electrical vibrations tell me everything I need to know.” He spread her knees apart, revealing glistening, puffy skin. Maybe he would bury himself in her right now. After all, it was what they both wanted.

“What do you mean
everything
?” she asked, her voice trembling.

He released her knees and stepped away. Apparently, they were going to do this instead. “I told you that my senses are always stronger than those of a human.”

“Yeah, but I thought… I didn’t think…” Her fingers twisted nervously in the sheets. “For example?”

“Your pulse is racing, there’s a combination of scents that typically means a human is worried and scared, your breathing has gone shallow. I can also smell that you’re turned on by this. And oh, there was a surge of adrenaline just released.”

Chapter 15

Monroe buried her face in her hands. She’d thought standing there in the well-lit bathroom and holding her pussy open was humiliating, but that was nothing compared to this.

“To know those things, how close do you need to be?” she forced herself to ask.

He was quiet. She wanted to peek through her fingers at him, but she knew what she’d find: one shifter with large pupils and blue irises staring intently at her, and she’d bet anything that his expression would confirm the answer she wasn’t ready to hear.

The mattress shifted, and she felt the heat of his body over her. One of his hands pulled at her wrists. Gently but resolutely, he tugged her hands away from her face.

“Look at me,” he said.

She shook her head quickly and a little violently. “Tell me,” she said.
 

“I know what you’re really asking. You want to know if I could smell your attraction when we first met. The answer is yes.”

A strangled whimper escaped her throat, and she tried to pull her hands up again, but Koenraad wouldn’t allow it.
 

“Hey,” he said, his voice soothing. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Her eyes snapped to his. “Easy for you to say. Your thoughts aren’t on display for me to read. Everything I know about you, I have to work to find out.”

He flinched, but he didn’t move away. “I know other shifters,” he said. “So I do know what it’s like.”

“But that doesn’t help me.”

“Monroe.” He caught a strand of her damp hair between his fingers. “You don’t need help. I like everything about you, and I can say that because I know a lot more than a human male would. I’m the one at risk here.”

“You?” She looked into his eyes, and while she was ashamed to admit it, she hoped what he said was true.

“Isn’t it obvious? All that I am, it could be seen as baggage to you. I never know if you’ll learn something that will make you want to run from me.”

“Why not just date a shifter? No… culture clash or whatever this is.”

“Because I like you a lot,” he said. “I could fall in love with you so easily.” He said it in a breathless rush, and then his mouth was on hers, the weight of him pressing her onto her back, his body lightly damp from the tub, his stiff erection throbbing and feverishly hot against her stomach.

She tried to shift her hips up, but he pressed harder, from his mouth down to his hips, pinning her against the bed.
 

Never had she been kissed like this. Desperately. He pulled back, his eyes glazed, and traced his thumb over her lips, still tingling from his kiss.

“I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I want you. Part of it’s biology, but it’s so much more than that.”
 

Incredible. He was rich and gorgeous and had so much power, yet he was worried she’d reject him. She didn’t think she was total crap, but… c’mon. A guy like him couldn’t be this serious about someone like her. Could he?
 

“Do you have some other secret you’re not telling me?” she asked. She’d meant it as a joke, but his face stiffened, and he opened his mouth to speak.

She cupped her palm over his lips.
 

Enough already.
Treat a trustworthy guy like he was untrustworthy, and he’d walk away. And for good reason.

She could do better than that. Much better. “Let’s not share any more secrets right now. Please.” She held his gaze, hoping that he could somehow sense her absolute sincerity. To underscore her point, she brushed her fingertips down his chest. “Just fuck me,” she said. “I think it’s what we both need right now.” Her voice dropped to a husky whisper. “At least, I do. Badly.”

Heat ignited in his eyes, and a thrill of deep satisfaction ran through her.

Koenraad moved her hand from his mouth. “Since we’re both naked, I supposed I can do that.”

“You’re so considerate,” she said.

“I wasn’t finished. I suppose I’ll do that if you touch yourself to my satisfaction. And I want your eyes on mine while you do it so I can watch you blush all those gorgeous shades of pink and red.”

His words alone made her cheeks warm. “Why? If you can magically know what I’m thinking?”

“It’s not magic. I told you before that I’m not psychic. And I have a second reason. I want you to see what you do to me. You, my beautiful, charming lover, have so much power and don’t even realize it.”

He took her wrists and moved her hands between her legs. Then he sat back.

“Spread your thighs, Monroe. I want to see everything.”

Slowly, Monroe slid her legs farther apart.
 

“You know what to do,” he said. “Eyes on me.”

Staring at him but not really seeing him, she spread her sex and placed a finger on her clit. She massaged lightly around her nub, and blood thundered in her ears
.

Koenraad palmed his hard cock, then squeezed himself in a fist. She wondered if he let the barbs come out when he masturbated.
 

Hell. If he was going to make her do this, the least he could do was answer a question. “Do you get cut up when you jerk off?”

“Sometimes,” he said with a shrug. “I heal quickly, though.”

Wow.
“I want to see,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. If he denied her now, after telling her that he knew her emotional state because of her physical reactions, she would die.

His smile nearly made her heart stop. “If I do that, we can’t have sex. I can’t pull them back in until after I orgasm.”

She nodded, her mouth dry. “That’s fine.”

“Then you keep playing with yourself, and you’ll get what you want.”
 

The words and delivery were calm, in control, but Monroe suddenly understood. What Koenraad knew about her was just part of who he was, how he saw the world. But this, her exposing herself, was more on the level of what she’d been asking from him.

Dipping a finger down to the entrance of her slit, she drew slippery moisture back toward her nub.

Koenraad knew that doing this made her uncomfortable, and he knew it turned her on. He couldn’t help but know. But she could show him more. She could be vulnerable, just like she’d asked him to be over and over and over again. All the secrets she’d wanted him to give up, and she’d thought she had nothing to reciprocate.

But she’d been wrong. He wanted to see her.
 

Her breath caught, and her brow furrowed. She tilted her head back slightly but made sure to keep her eyes on Koenraad’s. His hair fell across his face in a blond mass as he stared down at her. At the moment, he looked more male model than man with a secret.
 

He leaned in, and she closed her eyes as firm lips rasped down her throat. He tongued the soft spot at the bottom of her neck until she whimpered, then he licked and nibbled his way back to her ear. His hair felt like silk against her skin, and she caught a hint of the woodsy body wash he kept stocked in his bathrooms.

“Promise you won’t run away,” he whispered. He sounded composed, almost commanding, but that he was saying this at all told her he was worried.

“I promise,” she said. Because no matter what happened, no matter his secrets, she wasn’t going to run. She knew that.
 

He sat up, his eyes trained on hers. “You can look,” he said.

She held his gaze a moment longer. This was what she’d wanted, right? To see? To know?
 

Suppose she didn’t like it?

Suppose she did?

Slowly, nervously, she dragged her eyes down, her gaze catching on his full lips, which were settled into a firm line. Her attention jumped to the hard plane of his muscular chest, then to those rippling abs.

Mentally bracing herself, she looked down to his hands.

The air choked out of her in a staccato rush. She snapped her legs up, squeezed her knees and eyes closed. Her entire body felt like it had been set afire, and her mouth was completely parched.

“That could have gone better,” Koenraad said dryly, “but at least you’re still here.”

“I’m sorry,” she said through her halting breaths. “I thought it would just be the barbs.” In fact, she hadn’t even noticed the barbs. That little detail had escaped her notice because where there had previously been a single thick, hard cock…
 

There were now two.

Or she assumed they were still there. She couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes and look again.

“I thought I’d get the whole thing out of the way.” He sounded a little hurt… and very irritated.

“Please don’t be offended,” she pleaded.
 

He coughed out a bitter laugh. “Why would I be?”

Damn
. She hadn’t meant to hurt him, but he’d really caught her unawares. She forced herself to look again.

This time, she was prepared, but it was still shocking.

Oh, yes, there were definitely two of them, side by side. The bases stood close together, but the heads were several inches apart. Both shafts strained away from his body at a steep upward angle. They were mirror images, right down to the pulsing veins that twisted around the thick lengths. She licked her lips, her mouth suddenly not dry at all, and he seemed to throb.

She became aware of Koenraad’s stomach moving as he breathed, and she looked up and saw he was staring intently at her.

“You’ve used them both at the same time?” she asked.

He nodded slightly, and she looked down at them again. “That is… not something I’m sure I’m up for tonight,” she said. “But I’d like to try. I know this isn’t something women usually need to ask a man who’s got his… stuff out, but can I… touch you?”
 

He’d lifted an eyebrow at her fumbling for the right words. “Watch out for the barbs,” he said. “Only stroke from the top down.”

She pushed herself up and moved closer to him, but instead of immediately touching
them
, she raised up on her knees. “Do your partners like it? I mean… both at once.”

His eyes bored into hers, and when he spoke, his tone was matter-of-fact. “They beg for it. Only a shark shifter can fill his partner’s body in this way. I think you would like it very much.”
 

Scorching heat burned her cheeks, and she quickly looked down at him again. “I’m surprised you’re still hard given how poorly I reacted.”

“It’s because I can smell your excitement,” he said. “Surprise and fear, but also a strong physical response.”