Chapter 9
Tyler
Shelby rested her hand on my belt and met my gaze, her beautiful, blue eyes expressive in the half-light. She’d lit candles and placed them on the coffee table the minute we’d gotten in from the restaurant.
“I love you,” she said.
Oh god. The words I needed etched onto my skin. “I love you too,” I said. “More. I’m crazy about you.”
“Not as crazy as I am.” She undid my belt and whipped it free of the loops, then worked on the button and zipper. “Crazy for you. Crazy with you.” Her breaths caught in her throat.
I wormed one thin strap off her shoulder. She’d chosen a red cocktail dress for our dinner and she hadn’t worn a bra. The entire evening, I’d had to focus on her face because when my gaze slipped down to the two perky globes, nipples pressing against the fabric, I lost my mind.
I lost my will to do anything but touch her. And now I didn’t need to hold back.
My jeans fell to my ankles. I stepped out of them and pulled off my shirt. Shelby bent picked them up and tossed them over the back of the sofa.
The second strap on her dress dropped, but her breasts held the fabric in place. “You’re gorgeous,” I said.
She reached up and undid her strawberry blond hair. It fell to her shoulders, brushing against the skin.
“Follow me,” she said, and led me toward the bedroom. She dropped her dress but it caught on her hips. She halted, wriggled out of it, and let it fall, exposing everything.
I couldn’t restrain the moan. God dammit, she was perfect to me.
We entered the bedroom, lit only by the moon which hovered in the inky sky outside the window.
Shelby crawled onto the bed, on top of the covers, then lay back, hair fanned across a pillow. She opened her legs, reached between them and massaged herself. She gasped and shuddered. “Oh, that’s good.”
“Wh-what are you doing?” I asked. Even though I knew exactly what she was doing and it made me throb for her.
“Come over here and feel for yourself,” she said, and sucked in another breath. “Tyler, you’re so hard.”
I looked down. She wasn’t wrong. Shelby did that to me. I couldn’t replicate this level of arousal on my own and I hadn’t experienced it in the past with any other woman.
I crawled onto the bed and up her body, peppering her with kisses, starting at her calves, moving up to her knees and the insides of her thighs. I worked my way up, up, until her fingers bumped my forehead.
I lifted them and replaced them with my tongue. I ran it between her folds, tasted everything she had, then focused on her clit.
Shelby cried out and grabbed two handfuls of my hair. She guided my movements and jerked her legs around. She shuddered.
I focused everything I had on pleasuring her. She’d given me so much and I needed to return the favor. I’d work at it every day for the rest of our lives because Shelby’s pleasure was mine. I figured it was the same for her.
“Ty, stop,” she whispered, and pulled my hair. “Stop, I’m going to come.”
“Good,” I said, around a mouthful of her. She had the cleanest flavor. I could do this for hours.
“Tyler.”
I sucked on her clit and swirled my tongue, slow, hypnotic circles. Each flick sent her higher. She arched upward and pulsed against my face, moaning her release. She collapsed onto the bed and sighed. “Oh god,” she whispered. “I hope we’re not done yet.”
“Of course not.” I gave her tight, hot little mound a final kiss, then leopard crawled up her body. I kissed another trail of warmth over her stomach, up to her breasts. I took her left nipple into my mouth, sucked and pawed her breast, then moved to the right and did the same.
Shelby’s stare took in every movement.
I claimed her mouth as mine, tasted her, shared her own flavor with her, then reached for my cock and aimed myself at her entrance. I loved this part. We were both on the edge. I could push us over with a simple thrust.
That power to please us both was the best sensation in the world. Better than climaxing.
“Please,” she said.
Another thing I adored. I plunged into her, buried myself to the hilt in her silken heat, and we both cried out again.
Shelby slipped her arms around me, scratched my back, then wrapped her legs around my waist and forced me into her. “More,” she said.
I pounded into her, brought closer and closer to the edge. Our bodies sweaty, blurred by the pleasure. The beginnings of my orgasm rocked me hard enough that I almost collapsed onto her.
Her flavor and wetness on my lips. The look in her eyes. The strokes of ecstasy. It added up and I was outside of myself. Past the point of no return.
I jammed into her, grunting, my forehead pressed to hers. She craned her neck and kissed me, carrying me through the last throes to paradise on the other side.
I rolled off her, but tucked one arm underneath her body and guided her head to my chest, heart pounding. I stroked her cheek with my knuckles. “Thank you,” I said.
“That was something else,” Shelby replied. We lay in silence for a while, the shadows on the ceiling our only company.
She kissed my cheek and sat up. Moonlight traced a path down her spine, illuminating her milky, white skin. I leaned forward a little, sheets gathered around my waist, and kissed a trail by that sliver of light.
She shivered. “Stop, you’ll get me going again,” she said, voice husky.
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” she said. She kissed me on the lips and bathed me in that unique Shelby scent. My cock stiffened. Not five minutes had passed and she had me ready to go again.
“But I’m going to get some water before we do anything else,” she said and scooched to the end of the bed.
I groaned in response. “Don’t be long. I need you here. Something’s come up,” I said, and gestured to the sheet.
Shelby giggled. “Hilarious.” She rose from the bed, then pulled on an oversized t-shirt. It covered her ass and brushed the tops of her thighs. True temptation. “I’ll be back in a sec. I love you.” She said it tentatively and I loved that. I loved that this was new and fresh, but that we were in this deep already.
“I love you,” I said.
She hurried out of the bedroom and I lay back again, hands behind my head. I hummed under my breath. God, it was good to be here. I could forget all the shit that waited for me outside. I could forget whatever Abernathy’s new job was – I still hadn’t checked it out – and Anthony’s behavior. Man, that’d made me want to break his face against the table in the cafeteria.
Here it was just Shelby and me. Lost in our moments together. As long as we had each other, nothing else mattered. Except it did. I had to do right by her this time. But first I had to figure out what that ‘right’ meant.
“Tyler,” Shelby called.
The alarm in her tone had me out of bed and to the door in two seconds flat. I left the sheet behind. “What’s wrong?”
She stood by the window in the living room, gripping a glass of water and shaking so much the fluid trembled.
“Shelby?”
“There’s someone out there. There’s someone staring up at the apartment.”
I jogged across the living room and stopped next to her.
Down behind a car, under the tree, a man stood and looked up at the window. He wore a hoodie, face concealed from us by the shadow of it. It had to be Anthony.
“It’s him,” I said. “That fucking bastard.”
“What?”
“Abernathy.” I grabbed my jeans off the back of the sofa, then tugged them on. “Stay inside. Lock the door. Don’t open it unless you hear my voice. All right?”
“What are you going to do?” Shelby paled.
“Whatever I have to,” I replied. I sprinted to her front door and let myself out into the hall. It took me two minutes to get down the stairs and out into the darkness. I ran for the tree, and the hooded figure broke from cover and hurried off in the opposite direction.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Anthony, you fuck!” I pumped my fists back and forth, punching the air. The wind streamed over my naked skin.
The hooded figure skipped between cars, vaulted over a fence, and disappeared down an alley between two buildings.
I slammed into the metal links, fingers slotted into the gaps. I rattled it once, considered jumping over and following him, but left it. Shelby was up in the apartment waiting for me, and I didn’t trust Anthony wouldn’t double back and sneak in while I was out looking for him.
Protecting her was my priority. I couldn’t do that out here in the dark, half naked.
Shelby let me into the apartment five minutes later. I shut the door behind me, checked the chains and locks, then pulled her into a hug.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Are you kidding?” She gave a weak laugh. “I’m not the one who ran out there to chase down some creepy stalker dude. What if he had a gun, Ty? You could’ve been hurt or worse.”
“But I wasn’t,” I replied. “Don’t worry about me when it comes to stuff like that. I can look after myself.”
She nuzzled into my neck and I kissed her cheek again. “Let’s go back to bed.” She led me through to the room by the hand and we lay down together.
I couldn’t concentrate on giving Shelby my everything with thoughts of Abernathy polluting my mind. God dammit, he’d ruined the only place I considered sacred. I wouldn’t let him get away with that.
“Are you all right?” Shelby asked, and placed her head on my chest.
“Yeah. I just can’t lose you again,” I said. “I keep thinking about it. How much you mean to me. How much I need you. How I can’t afford to lose you.”
“You won’t lose me,” she said. “I promise.”
I really wanted to believe that. I didn’t, though.