Heartless (Steel Demons MC #6) - Crystal Ash Page 0,80
his. “So why don’t we start there?”
Shadow needed no further instruction, his lips finding mine with a soft press. I closed my eyes to return the pressure, seeking nothing but the taste of him. We had all the time in the world now. No dangerous mission to take him away tomorrow. None of our people with gunshots or stab wounds calling me away to the hospital. We were still on the brink of war with all the worries that came with that. But right now, it was just us.
He sighed when my fingers came up to stroke his neck and face, pushing his hair back and dragging my touch along his scalp. One day, he’d figure out how much I just loved touching him.
Kissing him left me breathless. He never rushed or tried to dominate my mouth, but savored each taste along with me. A strong hand left a trail of heat up my back, while the other encircled my waist and pulled me closer. Only after several minutes of kissing, when he’d utterly relaxed into a puddle in my arms, did I prompt him to escalate things further.
My lips trailed across his cheek to his ear. “Touch me anywhere you want to,” I whispered, darting my tongue out against his earlobe. “I mean it. Anywhere.”
He let out a shuddering groan as my tongue trailed down the side of his neck, sucking lightly at the rapid pulse. His fingers curled at my hip but didn’t move for the longest time. I brought a kiss back to his mouth and then, his hand inched under my shirt to graze against my bare skin.
“Can I—”
I grabbed the hem of my top and flung it over my head before he could finish asking the question.
“Yes, Shadow.” I palmed the sides of his neck, pulling another deep kiss from him. “Anything you ask me tonight, the answer is going to be yes.”
He smiled, beautiful and unrestrained as his fingers now made tentative, exploratory trails of heat on my bare skin. Bolder now, he dragged kisses down the front of my throat. I tilted my head back to give him access, leaning into his hands still caressing me in relatively tame areas. One finger skimmed up my arm, over the tattoo he gave me, then hooked under the bra strap on my shoulder.
He dropped a kiss on my collarbone while slowly pulling the strap down over my arm. I knew he was giving me ample opportunity to stop him, to take back my enthusiastic yes, anything. But that was never going to happen.
I pulled my arm out when the strap reached my elbow and removed the other one myself. His gaze flicked back up to mine, our mouths finding each other in another sensual kiss as his hands slid around my ribcage to unhook my bra. He slid the garment out from between us and it fell discarded on the floor.
Hands and forearms covered my naked back as he crushed me to his chest, his kisses growing hungrier with each ragged breath. Just as he did with me, I grazed my fingertips along his waist and dipped them under the hem of his shirt.
“Can I?”
He froze for a moment, then leaned away from me to pull his shirt off his massive body.
For a few seconds, I could only stare and marvel. So, so many cuts that had healed and been reopened, overlapping on more that had healed and been reopened, with a few burns thrown in. So many of them were old and had stretched as his body grew. Scar tissue layered on itself again and again on top of muscle, like a type of armor. And probably to him, a kind of cage.
Shadow held his T-shirt in his fists like a barrier between us, his shoulders going rigid again. “I’ll put this back on—”
“No.” I grabbed the shirt from him and flung it away to the same dark corner where mine now resided. “Whatever you’re thinking now, stop.”
His brows lifted, eyes blinking as I tapped a finger to his forehead. “Stay out of there and just be with me.” I placed that same hand on his chest, dragging it over the planes of muscles and scar tissue unabashedly. “I want you, Shadow.” My other hand ran along the back of his shoulders, pulling him close to me again. “I want all of you.”
My next kiss was forceful, shoving my tongue into his mouth while grinding on his erection to drive the point home. The