Shifter's Dance (5 page)

When it occurred to her to touch him back and she
reached for him, she touched naked skin, warm and covered with soft
hair.

A heartbeat oriented her just as her fingers skimmed
a nipple. His chest. She explored him with her hands, listening to
the changes in his breathing as she touched him, running her hands
down his chest, first gently, then with more confidence and fervor
as her own lust roared inside her.

When his mouth closed over her nipple, her head
lolled back and his name flowed from her lips over and over again.
A huge hand plucked and rubbed at the other nipple before he
switched sides, lavishing wet heat over her entire breast before
swirling his tongue around the peak. Her breasts had always been a
traitorous bit of femininity that she had feared would threaten her
dancing, but under his hands, with his mouth teasing out her
response, she learned to cherish the feelings that sang through
them as she arched into his touch. Each gentle draw against her
nipple brought an answering tug from within her core until she
finally pushed him away so she could catch her breath.

“Stephen, do you have condoms?”

He stilled.

“I think there’s one in my wallet,” he answered.
“Shh, lay back, let me love you. I’ll get it when it’s time.”

Again he stunned her with his patience, as this time
he made his way down her body with light nibbles and nips. Finally,
parting her knees, he kissed back up her inner thigh, spreading her
wide.

A long moment passed while her heartbeat raced.

“What are you doing?”

“Just…looking.” His voice was rough. “Ah God, Romy,
you’re incredible.” He held her hips in his hands, lifting her body
to his lips. When he tasted her, a shudder rocked her.
Too soon,
yet not soon enough, all at once.
His tongue swept over her in
tiny circles before spearing deep, her head falling back and a
sighing, gasping, aching sound echoing from her lips. When he slid
two fingers inside her and began to ply her body in earnest, the
tension wound her up, and for a split second, she fought it, trying
not to let the sensations sweep her out of control. Her hips lifted
against his face, and her arms clutched at the bedspread as her
back bowed.

“Please…” she begged, and he knew exactly what she
needed; one big hand rode up to the flat muscles of her belly,
holding her immobile, making her take everything he had to
give.

Tonight, with sight just a memory, he filled every
other sense until her body leaped off the bed and a shocked cry
tore from her lips. Waves of heat and need spun out of control, and
she held him tightly to her body, her fingers laced through his
hair as the orgasm took her out of her senses.

“Oh my God,” she murmured as he stroked her slowly
back down, the aftershocks still pulsing through her. She reached
for him, but he took her hand in his, pressing a kiss to her
knuckles.

“Shhh. Do you know how beautiful you are right now?
Your face is flushed and your eyes are glittering and your lips are
swollen. You look like a woman who’s been loved senseless.”

“I wish I could see you.” She pouted, then
continued, “I bet you’re magnificent when you come.”

His rough groan filled the room, sending another
wave of heat through her.

* * * *

He watched her eyes close as she relaxed her head
back onto her pillow. Of any of the things he might have expected
her to say, that wasn’t one of them.

“You’re not shy at all are you?” he asked, leaning
forward to palm one rose-tipped breast, teasing the nipple back to
firmness.

“About sex? No. I grew up under stage lights.
Dancers who tour together often form intense relationships,
sometimes for the duration of an evening, sometimes for the
duration of a tour. Sometimes for a lifetime. I’ve seen those
relationships. I’ve always known going in which kind I wanted.”

As she spoke, she sat up, straddling him. She ran
her hands over his chest. The sharp, tense heat that filled him
when she wrapped her arms around his neck and drove her body tight
to his almost made Stephen regret the words that spilled out.

“Which do you want with me?”

Her hands stopped stroking across his chest and her
head came up, a frown stealing across her features.

“I don’t know. I feel like I
need
you, and
I’m scared because I don’t want to have to depend on anyone.”

He saw the uncertainty in her expression, but then
she folded her head onto his shoulder hiding her face. With a
little pang of loss, he steeled himself to pull away. As much as he
wanted to make love to her and to mate with her, he needed her to
be fully on board with it.

“We don’t have to do anything more tonight,” he
whispered into her hair, stroking a hand down her back.

“I want you—nothing’s changed.” Her lips found his
collarbone, and the sweet kisses she swept across it inflamed him.
He let her push him down to the bed.

“Since I can’t see you, let me get to know you with
my hands.”

He lay back, let her explore his body with an
exquisite thoroughness as his own eyes drifted closed and he lost
himself in the sensations she gave him. A feather-soft touch
skimmed his face before her hands slid down his chest.

“You’re very hairy,” she observed, wringing a
chuckle from his tense abdomen.

“Thanks?”

“Lots of dancers wax. I like you better.”

Pride ripped through him: pride that she preferred
him, pride that his bear genetics had predisposed him to a rougher
appearance. Next to her he felt giant and rough, but the way she
touched him exalted him. When lips closed over his nipple, lust
burst behind his eyes and his already hard cock seemed to swell to
the point of pain.

“Careful there, big guy.” She took him in her hand
and stroked, making him gasp.

“Is there any part of you that isn’t huge?”

He laughed, then, but his laughter turned to a hiss
as he felt the heat of her mouth closing over him. His eyes flew
open, and he looked down to where she knelt between his legs. He
learned a new lesson in self-control as her hair finally fell out
of its knot and spilled across his belly, lighting a thousand nerve
endings on fire.

“God, Romy.” Stephen tried to keep his hips still,
but when she hummed around him he couldn’t help but buck into her
mouth. She hummed again, taking him deeper and white-hot heat
spread through him.
Oh God, just like that…
The heat was too
overwhelming, too sudden, he had to push her away.

“Don’t you want…?”

He looked down the bed at where she perched between
his knees, confusion clear on her face.

“Hell yes. But not tonight.” He reached for his
pants, dug out his wallet, grateful to discover that yes, indeed,
there was a condom in there. He wished they didn’t need it, wished
he had told her what he was, that she was safe with him, but he
needed her,
now
; that conversation would have to wait.

“I’m putting a condom on now—do you trust me?”

“Yes.” There was no hesitation in her voice, and she
reached, finding his hand with her own, and helped him stroke it
down over his shaft. Then she was back in his lap, kissing him
fiercely. The sweetness of her kiss was breathtaking, and he knew
no matter what happened, no matter what she decided she wanted once
she knew the whole truth, he was giving himself to her now—he would
be irrevocably hers. She bit down on his lower lip, wrenching a
groan from him. Spilling her backward out of his lap, Stephen
followed her down to the bed and pressed himself to her
entrance.

“Now, Stephen.” She wrapped her legs around his
waist, and he sank into welcoming heat, stunned.

For a moment, everything stopped, suspended, and
then she shuddered against him, rocking her hips up to invite him
deeper. He found her clit with his fingers, stroked and rubbed,
finding the rhythm and pressure she liked best. Before he knew it,
she was driving herself up against him in time to his thrusts and
he was trying not to lose his mind. He pressed his lips to the
fluttering pulse in her throat, loving the taste of salt on her
skin, that beautiful sensual taste and scent that was his Romy.

“Stephen, I need…”

“I know.” And he did; her body was speaking to his
in a language older and deeper than simple lust, her soul calling
to his, inviting him into this mating dance. He shifted his weight,
changing the angle so that he dragged against sensitive tissues on
each slow stroke, still teasing at her clit with his fingers.

The cry as she came pierced into him, shattering his
control. Her body shook and tightened down, detonating what felt
like a nuclear event along the line of his spine. His hips snapped
forward and her name exploded from him in a roar.

He was lost in her; he was found in her.

His breath came back to him in waves as he stilled
inside her body. Slowly, he pulled himself back, a smile tilting
his lips up at her whimper as they parted.

“Stay.” Her voice trembled as she said it.

He looked down at her; lashes fluttered low on her
cheekbones, making her look fragile and beautiful.

“Of course.” He went to the bathroom to dispose of
the condom, then came back to find her curled up on the bed. He
spooned himself behind her, loving the way she felt in his
arms.

“How long will you stay?” she mumbled, and he
realized she wasn’t talking about tonight.

“As long as you want me. As long as you’re safe.” He
kissed her shoulder, his eyes drifting closed.

He listened until her breathing grew steady. As long
as she wanted him. As long as she was safe. He wanted forever, but
he’d take what he could get. As long as she was safe.

Romy could feel the early morning light on her
eyelids, and just like every morning since she’d learned her
blindness was permanent, she felt a brief glimmer of hope that
maybe today she’d wake up and find it was all a dream. But when her
eyes opened and nothing appeared in front of them, that hope
snuffed out again.

This morning, the loss was all the more poignant
when she felt the warm, solid body beside her.
Stephen.
They’d had sex—no,
made love
—the night before, and she’d
asked him to stay. She rolled toward him, feeling the muscular arms
and chest beneath her fingertips. Without seeing him, she couldn’t
really comprehend the scale of the man, except that he felt huge:
brawny, muscular in a way that made her think of a lumberjack, a
man whose body was shaped and hardened by hard physical labor. His
features, when her fingers skimmed over them, felt refined,
handsome.
Dear.

She didn’t understand what exactly had happened in
the woods the night before, but she knew there was more to the
story than just bumping into a stranger. There had been a menacing
undertone to the way Stephen had talked to him.

“What’s the matter, love?” His voice, which had
reminded her of a contra bassoon the day before, sounded even
deeper, more rumbling in the early morning.

“Nothing.” She shook her head, leaning over him to
kiss him. The kiss was sweet, and when his hand came up to cup the
back of her head, the intensity and heat flooded her. Before she
knew it, he’d rolled her onto her back and his body was rolling
against hers, bringing it to fierce, lush life. She sighed and
opened her body to his, urging him wordlessly to take what she
offered. His huge erection pressed heavy against her thigh and more
than anything she wanted to take him inside her, let him make love
to her until everything spun out of control and she lost herself in
the riptide of orgasm. Memories of the night before buffeted her
senses and sent a shard of need piercing through her.

“I can’t.” He pulled away, rolling off her.

Her body ached with the sudden loss of his warmth
and the hunger that had flared between them.

“Don’t stop, Stephen, and don’t make me beg.” She
swung a leg over him, trapping him beneath her. “Please.”

“Romy, we need to talk before we go any further.
Last night was…special, I wouldn’t normally…”

“I don’t care, Stephen. I’m on the pill and I’m
clean, so unless you have some sexually transmitted disease you
need to protect me from, I need you inside me now.” She growled
with the intensity of it as she tried to line him up at the
entrance of her body, but he was stronger, and he had her back on
her back and underneath him in a flash.

“No sexually transmitted anything. I’m clean. That’s
not what this is about. God help me, you are hell on a man’s
control.”

She loved that he felt it too: this overwhelming
need to be close, the need to lose control with her. Making love
with him was primal and satisfying and like nothing she’d
experienced before.

“I haven’t told you everything about me.” He warned
as the tip of his cock slid just inside the entrance to her body.
Not enough.
She pushed upward with her hips, taking him
another inch.

“So? We can cover favorite colors another time.”

She recognized the moment his body took over for his
brain, the dam bursting inside as he rolled his hips and his body
filled hers to aching, overflowing fullness.
Like that, lover,
never stop.

“I can’t stop this now, Romy. I’m never going to let
go.” His words echoed her thoughts as his body set hers to a
driving rhythm, his lips finding hers in a lush, sweet kiss that
sent a thrill down her spine.

“I don’t want you to.” She gasped, her head rocking
back.

He bit and licked his way down the column of her
neck, and then traced with his teeth along the tender skin over her
collar bone. Every time he touched her, a new emotion welled up,
and when his hand slipped between them and rubbed the underside of
her clitoris, coaxing her toward release, she felt the heat crash
into her, bringing with it an orgasm so fierce she could only hold
onto him as the shudders racked her body.