WLUV Box Set: Ignited, Consumed, Burned (22 page)

“Better,
lamb? Are you okay?”

“Better.
Perfect. Next time I’ll be on top.” She giggled and sighed and nuzzled into
him.

“When will
that be? I’m hoping soon.” Mac said.

“I’d say in
about five minutes.” They lay on the floor entwined, somewhere between asleep
and awake…for three minutes.

Shelby’s
mind was officially blown. She’d read about it, seen it in movies, and danced as
if she knew, but until Mac made love to her, followed by banging the hell out
of her, she hadn’t really gotten it. Now she did, and she wanted it on the
regular.

She was
perfectly positioned on top of the hulking man that was Mac, and she wanted to
explore. So she did. She didn’t know what, if any, were their limits so she
decided to wander around him with her lips, her tongue, her breasts, and her
hands.

Mac’s
scars appeared to be carved into the granite that was his muscle. She’d never
seen him really do anything besides work and well, make love. The thought made
her smile. But as she ran her fingers over him, up and down, exploring, she
realized he must work out, a lot. There wasn’t an ounce of softness on him.

He had a
scar on his shoulder so she kissed it, then trailed up his shoulder, under that
chin of his, the one that almost hurt with its stubble and sharp-edged jaw. She
feathered a kiss there too. Shelby couldn’t quite believe how aroused she was
by draping herself against him. He was still. He seemed to be indulging her
little expedition. Was she naïve, juvenile, maybe even a little unworldly? She
didn’t care, she realized. She wanted to see, feel, and know Mac. He kept a
loose hand on her hip as she traveled with her body over his.

It was
easy to feel that when he was near he had the same level of heat as she did.
Dare she explore farther south? Yes, she decided, if Mac was used to an exotic,
worldly or who knows what kind of woman, she would show him that she was the
woman that could love him the best.

Even
though she wasn’t entirely sure what to do, she continued downward and the
sight of what she’d inspired in him gave her a thrill. Shelby used her tongue
on him first, a bit tentatively she realized, but then she got bolder, especially
as Mac moaned when she encircled him with her mouth. It was heady, being in
charge of him. So she improvised, taking cues from his moans, his thrusts. When
he grasped her hair and pulled, she knew the motion was driving him wild.
Little Shelby Virtue had Mac in the palm of her hand, well the back of her
throat, she thought, but this wasn’t a time for semantics.

She felt
him grow frenzied and he lifted her up, forcefully.  She was sad that she
couldn’t finish him off, remain in charge, but Mac slid her on top of him.

“I want to
see you.” She was poised on top, straddling him as he lay back, positioned for
optimal viewing. She was slow at first, still in the lead of this new part of
the dance. But the control she’d been so proud of started to slip away—he was
hitting a spot she didn’t know she had before this moment.

She rode him,
but he was hardly restrained by her slight weight. It felt so ridiculously
good, like something molten was roiling around in her and coursing over them
both. Shelby threw her head back and it had the unintentional effect of jutting
both her breasts upward.

“That’s
it, baby.” Mac breathed and then he leaned up and buried his mouth at the
juncture of her breasts. They rocked together violently – there was really no
other way to describe it – until they both screamed another release, more
intense than the one they’d had together only a few minutes before.

Shelby
wrapped her legs and arms as tightly around him as she could as the waves
rolled over her and she returned to earth. Mac nuzzled, cooed, and whispered
sweet things into her ear as deep fatigue settled in. He lifted himself up, and
her right along with him, since she was still wrapped around him, and he found
the bedroom. There was just the one, and, fortunately, it wasn’t very far.

He turned
down the covers and deposited her in the cool sheets. He slid in next her and
enveloped her in a protective embrace.

“That’s my
lamb.” He whispered into her ear, kissed it.

She slept
like one.

When she
woke up, he was already awake and staring down at her.

“What?”
Shelby rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Mac brushed her hair from her cheek
and behind her ear.

“I can
look at your beautiful face much better if you’re not talking.” A smile curled
at the corner of Mac’s lips, “You’re rarely still and quiet.” Shelby nudged him
with her naked backside.

“Is that
supposed to be a deterrent?” Mac leaned down and planted a deep kiss on her
lips. She let a little moan escape.

“So what
were you saying to him?” He tightened his grip on her when he asked the
question.

“Him?” She
was honestly baffled.

“What’s
his name, wannabe-Mayor Brick Fucker, the guy that had his hands all over you.”

“Oh, him.
We were dancing, not anything else.” Shelby was surprised that after the weeks
of trying to get Mac to give in to her kisses it was seeing an innocent dance
with another man that did the trick. She filed that one away.

“What did
you whisper? You did it three times.” This guy didn’t miss a thing.

“Well, the
first thing I said was ‘rip my dress off.’ Then I said ‘take my panties off
with your teeth.’ And finally I said ‘bang me senseless on the floor of my
apartment.'” Mac stopped her little list by kissing her again.

“Interesting.”
he mumbled as they nibbled at each other’s lips.

“Yep, and
it’s funny how he totally didn’t listen, but you picked it up from across the
room.”

“You’re
welcome.” Mac dragged her out of bed and unceremoniously threw her over his
shoulder.

“What
the?”

“We’re
going to shower, you’re going to tell me what you really said, or I’ll punish you,
and then if you’re good, we’ll go get eggs.”

“What if I
want waffles?”

“Depends
on how good you are.”

They took
the longest, steamiest shower in the history of showers though Shelby didn’t
know if anyone kept those types of records.

**

Shelby sat
across from him in the diner booth. With no makeup, wearing yoga pants and a
hoodie, she looked impossibly young, especially compared to last night’s glamor.
Both Shelbys warred in his heart for his favorite, along with the earnest
Shelby doing her best job on a story. Then there was the goofy Shelby, trying
to make him smile, or asking a million questions, as she did now.

“So how
old are you, lamb? I’m not sure I want to hear this, but I’m pretty sure you’re
over 18 so at least I’m not going to be arrested. Lay it on me.” Mac braced
himself.

“I’m
twenty-four. And a half.” He groaned and rubbed his face in his hand, “Yeah,
I’m really too old for you.”

Shelby
grabbed his hands and put a kiss on his knuckles. Everything she did sealed his
heart’s fate. And even after last night he’d wanted to do her in the car on the
way to the diner; he wanted to do her right there in the booth, everywhere.
You’d think he was 24, too.

“So spill
it, Grandpa. How old are you?  I know you’re so very wise, but chronologically
speaking, what? 30? 33?”

“No need
to flatter me, you’ve got a little vice grip on my heart right now without it.”

“Well?”
Shelby batted her lovely eyes at him.

“37.
And-a-half.”

“Okay, so
13 years…not so bad. Stop worrying.”

“Yeah,
let’s change the subject.”

They sat
in comfortable silence and finished their meal. Mac opened the car door for
Shelby and she climbed in. As he slid behind the wheel, though, she popped onto
his lap.

“I can’t
drive this way.” He kissed her mouth, roughly. It just seemed to need it.

“I want
you to stay tonight. And tomorrow. Can we go get some groceries and stuff, and
whatever you need from your place? Then you can just stay with me.” It was the
earnest Shelby.

“What,
until we go to work Monday?” Mac asked in between nibbling at her soft pink
lips. She was not moved by his kisses; she wanted an answer. Yes, it was
definitely earnest Shelby, the reporter who didn’t want to take no for an
answer, perched on his lap, doing things to him she didn’t even realize. Or
maybe she did, based on last night…

He didn’t
know where this whole thing was headed, but he was damn sure he wasn’t going to
disappoint her this weekend. And he also realized that any time she was on his
lap she’d get her way. This was starting off very bad for his sanity – this,
whatever it was – with Shelby.

“Okay,
I’ll get a bag from my room and then we’ll shop for food since you’re draining
all the energy out of me.” Shelby kissed him this time and he leaned back in
the seat as she put her hands on his face and darted her hot little tongue into
his mouth. God, he’d need to get her off him so they didn’t get arrested in the
diner parking lot.

Mac
plopped back to her seat and buckled her in.

“Now keep
your hands to yourself.” Mac decided to meet her little pout with a face of his
own. His serious badass face, the one he’d given her for weeks to scare her.

“You don’t
scare me.”

Yeah,
apparently it had never worked on her.

**

In one
short weekend, they’d gone from warring strangers with mixed connections at work
to, well, love. Shelby was in love, at least. She’d known it from the time he
caught her before she nearly crashed to the ground in the photographer’s
locker. Maybe that was lust, she admitted to herself, but not long after that
she fell hard for Mac.

Being with
him, finally being able to express what she’d been repressing, felt amazing.
She didn’t know if he felt the same, but he seemed to. He wanted her that much
was obvious. He’d proved that the time on the floor, the three times in the
bedroom, the time in the bathtub, and the time in his hotel room.

But what
else did he feel? Shelby was rushing headlong into Mac, even if she knew he was
wary. She didn’t care. What was life without love, risk, and this all-consuming
passion they shared? She was beyond playing it coy or cool. She had already
given Mac everything and she was hoping it didn’t backfire on her and leave her
with a broken heart.

Monday
approached. They’d both have to work the next afternoon. Even on Sunday evening
as Mac helped her clean the dishes from the spaghetti dinner they’d made, they
still hadn’t broached the subject of work.  Sure, they’d be together, but would
it be awkward? Shelby watched him rinse out one of the pans. He loved her body
and seemed to like to talk with her, but his thoughts were still hidden from
her.

She bent
over the dishwasher and without a bit of warning, he was behind her, sliding
off her yoga pants and then pushing her panties down to the floor.

“We’re
going to do it like this, baby.”

Like
what
? It didn’t
take long for her to figure it out. Mac moved her over to the kitchen table,
reached underneath her T-shirt and pinched and twisted her peaked
nipples—they’d hardened the second he growled his order. He handled her rather
roughly, and she liked it. Her own growl escaped her throat, and she liked
that, too.

He pushed
her over the table which was thankfully up against the corner of her tiny
kitchen because they were going to need something solid to brace against.
Before Shelby had a moment more to think about it, Mac invaded her from behind,
hot, fast, and hard. This was a different kind of scenario altogether and she
nearly exploded right from the beginning. But that was good, very good because
Mac was in no mood for slow. He stood behind her and pumped into her as she
held on for dear life. It was the most delicious bit of animal lust he’d
expressed – anyone had ever expressed – and she felt her muscles tighten up and
spasm out of control. Mac rasped her name into her the back of her neck as he
finished.

“God, I’m sorry,”
he whispered.

“For
what?” She asked as he twirled her to face him.

“Did I
hurt you?”

“Only in
the best possible way, I’ve never done it like that before.”

“No?”

“No…almost
everything we do I’ve nearly never done before.” Shelby felt suddenly shy and
exposed. Mac gently embraced her.

“Really?
Well, as for this just now, I imagined you at work, bending over and realized
how hard it’s going to be not to grab you when we go back there. So,” Mac
cupped her backside and then gave it a playful slap, “Carpe Derriere, as they
say.”

“Seize the
ass?”

“Yes. But
I’ve got a new problem.”

“What?”

“Now this
kitchen table is going to be on my mind every time you walk in front of me.
Just so you know.” She squealed when he clapped his hand on her butt one last
time, for emphasis, and then he made a point of helping her restore her
discombobulated undies and pants. There was spaghetti to be cleaned, damn it.

They
watched a movie together then, quietly. It was almost better than the sex, just
this watching a movie on her couch. She shifted positions and a small bit of
soreness ignited the memory of the kitchen table. She wondered too about how
she was going to control herself at work.