Chapter Two

 

 

Dante was about half a second away from dropping to his knees and thanking the ever-loving universe that he’d talked himself into coming to this party tonight. Even as he’d driven over here, he’d known it was going to be just another exercise in futility. He’d get to see Aurora, flirt with her for as long as she could possibly stand his presence, and then he’d leave. He knew the routine at this point. He’d been doing it for four years.

She was the one woman that he couldn’t get out of his head. She’d steadily rejected him with exactly zero holes in her armor and it wasn’t difficult to guess why. It wasn’t because she wasn’t attracted to him—he saw the flare of desire in her eyes even when she tried to hide it. And it wasn’t because she found him unlikable or dull—another thing she was bad at hiding was the smile she couldn’t quite bite back at times. He suspected Aurora’s refusal to entertain any possibility of dating Dante was because of his reputation for being a ladies man. God knows he’d earned it. But most of that was in his past. Once his little sister, Michelle, had come to live with him, he hadn’t exactly been in a position to carry on as he had been. And the truth was, the lifestyle had already started to bore him. Now, there were plenty of nights when Dante found himself kicked back, watching Inside Out with a little girl at home. Or, unfortunately, sometimes watching it with her in a hospital, since Michelle had a rare blood disease called Von Willebrand disease, which required quite a few trips to the doctor’s office and even a live-in nurse at times. He found a woman when he needed one, but it wasn’t often. His life was a far cry from the clubs and bars that he used to frequent.

But he didn’t miss his old life much at all.

He did, however, miss Aurora when they were apart. And that was just his bad luck.

He wasn’t pining for her, wasn’t in love. He didn’t know her well enough to love her. But he knew they would be good together if she ever gave him a shot. When his aunt had invited Michelle to stay the night with her tonight, Dante had thought, what the hell? Why not go and get rejected by Aurora again.

Funny how getting rejected by her was far more appealing to him than dating any other woman.

Now here Aurora was, the dim light of the hallway wrapped around her like a blanket, her huge, gorgeous hazel eyes blinking up at him through the dark, the red silk dress she wore making Dante certain she’d taste like cherries.

All the blood in his body rushed south at the exact same time his breath left his chest. He felt as if he were standing on the edge of a cliff, trying to time the ocean waves so he wouldn’t hit the shore when he took the leap of his life.

His body screamed for him to close the distance between them. It was two steps. They’d stood two steps apart plenty of times in his life. But tonight, for some reason, it was two steps with the knowledge that she wanted him and was finally ready to do something about it.

He found himself leaning toward her but then his brain wrapped a leash around his dick and yanked himself backward. The phrase for some reason echoed in his head as he crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed Aurora. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told her that she was the most beautiful woman in any room she ever walked into. Dante often found himself with a racing heart and sweaty palms when he sat across from her at business meetings.

And here she was, those gorgeous, plump lips parted, just a peek of her pearly teeth. Her eyes looking up at him like, touch me. But there was something else there, too.

For some reason, she’d said. For some reason she was considering being with him.

“Mind if I ask what the hell happened to change your mind after four years of turning me down flat?” He heard the words leave his mouth and could barely even believe it. Why the holy fuck was he questioning her?

Aurora’s expression immediately flattened. Her hand came to her lush hip as she tossed her mane of glossy blonde hair back over one shoulder. “Look, Callaghan. Either you want me or you don’t. This offer expires in about five seconds.”

Welp. He’d tried. And when she put it like that…

Dante’s body yanked the leash back away from his brain and he closed the distance between them in one giant step. He had her backed up against the wall, her eyes wide, and her arms pinned up over her head in two seconds flat.

The heat kicking off of her skin was insane. Almost feverish. She was searing him even through their clothes. He circled her wrists in one of his hands and the other one trailed down the outside of one of her pinned arms. His hand stuttered as he dragged it down her side. Jesus. Her skin was literally softer than the silk of her dress.

Dante leaned forward, crowding her. He was deeply obliged to see heat flare in her eyes, to feel her panting breath wash over him. His eyes dropped to her lips, and then he was leaning forward, wanting nothing more than to suck on that lower lip that had haunted him for half a decade.

Aurora quickly turned her head to one side, giving him access to her long, sleek neck, but avoiding his mouth.

It wasn’t lost on Dante. So that’s how it was going to be, huh? No affection at all? Not even kissing. Well, that was fine by him. He’d take however much he could get. That was the story of his life, actually. And he didn’t see why tonight would be any different.

He ran his nose from her collarbone up to her ear. Her smell was completely natural, bare. Nothing manufactured or sprayed on. It was just woman, earthy, raw, somehow delicate, like a leaf unfurling in the first weeks of May.

He couldn’t restrain the groan that her scent tore out of his throat. The sound of it was desperate, even to his own ears. Time to get things moving. He took a step back from her and her eyes fluttered open in surprise.

“My car’s out front.”

He started to tug her toward the coat check but she stumbled behind him, yanking at his hand.

“Wait,” she said and then tugged that fucking lip between her white teeth. “There’s a perfectly good coat closet right here.”

She looked up at him from beneath her thick fringe of lashes, her dark eyes like a black hole sucking him in. Dante considered the option for all of two seconds before he dismissed it.

“I’m not going to fuck you within 100 feet of George fucking Junior.”

Aurora laughed, obviously surprised by his words. He turned just in time to see the light of humor dance over her face. It made his chest tight to see it.

“Besides,” he continued. “Coat closets are for a fast fuck with clothes on. If we’re doing this, Aurora, I’m not going to be interrupted while somebody looks for their other glove. Fuck no.” He stepped back and took her chin in his hand, staring her right in the eyes. “If we’re doing this, it’s not going to be some discreet close-your-eyes-and-think-of-England. If we’re doing this, then it’s going to be absolutely indecent. You and me. Destroying each other. Understood?”

He thought, for one terrifying second, that his words had been too much. That he’d lost her. But then her little, pink tongue peeked out to wet her lip and she nodded.

“My coat is that one there,” she whispered, pointing.

Dante reached back and ripped it off the hanger. He held it up for her to slip into and for the first time in living memory, didn’t inwardly groan when she covered up her body in a coat. Because now that he knew he was going to see the rest of her, he wanted her to be zipped up throat to ankle. No other man got to look at her tonight. Tonight she was all his.

She quickly did the buttons on her coat and looked up at him. “Get your car. I’ll meet you outside.”

Something twisted in his stomach; she didn’t want to be seen leaving with him. For some reason, it annoyed the shit out of him. He was usually a very live-and-let-live sort of guy. Whatever made it work for a woman, he was game for. But it had been a long time since a woman straight up didn’t want to be seen with him. These days he was used to having the opposite problem. He was used to women wanting to be seen everywhere with him.

Considering he’d basically been begging for this for four years, Dante was not going to question or push her any further. Still… He couldn’t just leave like this either. The thin string that was pulling them both along tonight was liable to snap if he left her side.

So Dante stepped forward again and took her chin in his hand. He let his thumb grip her tightly while the rest of his fingers fanned out softly along her jaw. “Fine. But you are not going to talk to anyone else. You’re not going to look at your phone. You’re not going to do anything but imagine what it’ll feel like to have me ten inches deep. You understand?”

Her eyes widened and he could have sworn she was pressing her legs together beneath her dress. Time for the final nail in the coffin. “And if you’re not outside in four minutes, I will come back in here and drag you out over my shoulder. In front of anyone and everyone. Understood?”

Aurora nodded and she looked so sincere, so honest, so unbelievably turned on, that Dante felt his chest get tight again. He turned away from her, jogging out toward his car. He didn’t care if that looked overeager. He didn’t give a flying fuck. All he cared about was getting the hell away from this party and getting a second of time alone with her.

He pulled his Mercedes up to the curb in two minutes and he was deeply pleased when she immediately came walking out. If he wasn’t mistaken, she looked a little nervous, a little turned on, and a little sad. Funky combination. Dante wanted nothing more than to make this night a hell of a lot simpler for her. All he wanted was to make her feel good as hell.

The light spring breeze played with the ends of her golden hair and made Dante’s fingers itch to do the same thing. She slid into the passenger seat as he pulled smoothly from the curb.

“Rihanna?” she asked, a small smile playing on her full lips.

“Girl’s got pipes,” Dante said, cracking the windows just a bit. He wanted her hair to float around again.

She laughed, just a small, husky note. And it made Dante rock hard against his zipper. He’d made her laugh twice tonight and it was doing something to him. He’d never heard her laugh before. She was always so serious, so professional, so perfect. He was deeply looking forward to getting her messy.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Her eyes shuttered immediately. “Maybe.”

Dante cleared his throat and turned to look at her bathed in the red light of the intersection. He didn’t want to miss her reaction. “What’s a fuck boy?”

He was not disappointed. Aurora threw her head back and laughed with abandon. “Excuse me?”

He grinned at her. “You said you were a magnet for fuck boys. What did you mean?”

“It’s something us younger folks say.”

“Rude. I can’t be that much older than you, can I?”

“What’re you, forty?”

“Ouch. Thirty-eight.”

“You’ve got a decade on me.”

She was younger than he’d thought, but as he looked at her, a ghost of a smile on her lips, the swell of her breasts pushing against her thin coat, Dante didn’t give a flying fuck how old she was long as she was legal. He shrugged. “So what did you mean?”

Aurora tilted her head, thinking. “Well, it has a few meanings. But it’s somebody who only wants to fuck. Who’ll do whatever he can to make it happen. And then he disappears. But he kind of messes with your head in the process.”

Wow. Christ. “You said I was a fuck boy when you thought I’d called you ‘Jessica’.”

She shrugged. “Well, maybe you’re a fuck man.”

He eyed her, one hand on the wheel. “You think I’m being a fuck boy right now?”

Aurora studied him, turning in her seat to face him. He got the strange feeling that she was looking straight through him, at some part of him that even he didn’t know about, and it was pumping blood straight to his cock, even as he waited for her answer.

“No. I don’t think you’re messing with my head.”

“I’m not,” he responded instantly. “I won’t.”

She shrugged before turning back to face the road.

“Do you live far?” Aurora asked, and then for some reason, her cheeks went a little pink and she cast her eyes down. “Um, I mean, is wherever we’re going far?”

She thought he was taking her to a hotel? Hell to the absolute no. “I live about five minutes from here. And my bed is about twenty seconds beyond that.”

She looked up at him and he thought he detected relief in her gaze.

“Alright.”

Some of the intensity from the hallway had started to ebb away from them. In its absence, Dante was starting to sense her nervousness, her vague unease. Well, fuck that. The only thing she was going to feel tonight was good, if he had anything to do with it. Wanting to distract her from whatever thoughts were haunting her, Dante took her hand and brought it up to his mouth.

He kissed her palm, just once, almost absentmindedly, before he nipped his way down her wrist. His eyes on the road, all he could do was listen to the sweet little gasping sound she made.

“Aurora, sweetheart, if you’re particularly attached to that dress, you better start unzipping it now, because it’s not going to last long once we get through my front door.”

Once again, she made a little gasping noise that had him gripping the steering wheel hard in order to keep the car on the road.

She pulled her wrist out of his grip and then Dante thanked god for the red light that allowed him to turn and stare as she flicked one button after another on her coat. Her skin was golden, even in the dim light of the car and the crimson of her dress was muted to a deep blood red.

Her coat fell away and he watched in hypnotized slow motion as her hands went around to the side of her dress.

Dante cursed as the car behind them honked. He stepped on the gas and turned onto a side road. If she was stripping down, he did not want some teenager on his way home from his shift at a gas station able to peek in and see. He turned down another and another side road, officially taking the long way home, but he didn’t care. The street lights fell away and the houses gave way to trees. There weren’t any headlights on the road but theirs.

Dante’s heart tried to crawl up his throat as he watched her zip the side of the dress down. He could feel her eyes on his face but he was looking nowhere but at her breasts as she let the top of her dress fall away and her red lace bra was revealed.

Holy shit, she was going to kill him. He felt his blood pressure rise up and he licked his lips. Her breasts, large and golden and spilling over the confines of her bra, were panting up and down with her breath.

He reached out with one of his hands, unable to keep from touching her, but she moved at the same time and he only grazed her warm shoulder with the backs of his knuckles. Dante would have complained but she was moving toward him. She stretched her seatbelt and leaned over the center console. He felt her breath on his neck and then those soft, plump lips against his throat. Just the sweetest little press.

Her breasts pushed against his arm and Dante tightened his grip on the steering wheel. He wasn’t going to be able to touch her tonight if he crashed the car. So he laser-focused his eyes before him and took a deep breath. And then she opened her mouth, just the tiniest bit, and he felt her tongue trace over him.

She was tasting him?

Yeah. The driving part of the night was over. Dante pulled the car off the side of the road.

Aurora instantly pulled back from him, confused. But he’d had enough. Couldn’t take it another second. He pushed his seat all the way back from the steering wheel, unbuckled his seat belt and then hers, and then grabbed her around the waist, dragging her into his lap.

She gasped, gripping him around the neck to steady herself. Dante had to lean back and look at her. Her dress pooled at her waist, preventing him from seeing her panties and he couldn’t abide it. He gently yanked the soft fabric up over her head and tossed it into the passenger seat.

Holy god. There she was. Straddling him, raised up on her knees, her hair spilling over her shoulders. Fragrant and tumbling and adorning her body like it was jewelry. Her lace bra matched her red lace underwear and Dante’s mouth went completely dry.

“Jesus god,” he muttered, tracing his hands up her perfect, tight little waist. His hands paused over her ribs, framing her lush breasts. Where to start? He reached up to kiss her and again she turned her head, softening the rejection by offering her neck to him.

The same frustration he’d felt before opened up inside of him. But he couldn’t let it ruin the moment. He dropped his head to her pulse point and kissed her there like he would her mouth.

Aurora’s body tightened and liquefied all at once. He grinned against her skin when she moaned, deep in her throat. He skimmed his hand over her back, strong and sure, straight to her ass. And then he pulled her right down over him. Her heat landed over the zipper of his pants and she let out a helpless, desperate sound.

Dante broke away from her neck and landed his forehead against her collarbones. He stared down at her breasts as one of his hands played with the seam of her panties at her ass.

“Damn you for ruining red lace for me, Aurora,” he muttered.

“What?”

“I fucking love red lace. But no one will ever look this good in red lace again. It’s ruined for me.”

Aurora started to chuckle but it ended on a moan when his tongue licked the swell of her breast, dipping under the lace of her bra.

The heat of her pussy was burning him, even through their clothing, and Dante couldn’t help but push upward.

Aurora moaned and her head fell back. Dante felt the tips of her hair tickle his knees. He couldn’t help himself, with her all laid out like that for him. He pushed up with his hips again, driving his hard cock against her.

“Never thought I’d fuck you in a car,” he murmured, anchoring his hands at her hips and thrusting up again. His fingers dug into her ass as he pressed her down onto himself. One of his thumbs tucked under the lace of her panties and inched toward her core.

“Where’d you think about it being?” Aurora asked breathlessly, lifting her head and eyeing him with those dark eyes.

“Everywhere. I hoped it would be in your office. Over your desk. You bent forward. One of your tight little skirts up around your waist. I wouldn’t even care about closing the fucking door.”

Aurora moaned and pressed her hips forward again. She liked that. Well, that was easy. He could do that all night long.

He slipped his whole hand into her underwear now, tracing circles on the smooth skin just above her pussy.

“I pictured fucking you in the back of the club where we ran into each other last year. Remember that? The dark room, flashing lights. You were wearing that snug little dress.” She nodded her head, showing she remembered. He plowed on. “That idiot bartender kept talking to you and I wanted to slam his head into the bar, pick you up and drag you into the bathroom. I would have put your hands on the sink and made you watch in the mirror while I fucked you.”

“Yes,” she moaned, arching her hips, obviously trying to get his fingers to slide home. He just kept tracing tantalizing circles.

“But one of my favorites is your house.”

“What?” her eyelids fluttered open just a little bit as she looked at him through a haze of lust.

“I’ve dreamed about fucking you at your house.”

“You’ve never been there.”
“But I can imagine it. I imagine knocking on your door. You’re wearing pajamas. I don’t ask. I just come in and pick you up. Slam the door and carry you back to your bedroom. Your room is clean and girly and smells like you. Everything smells like you. When I’m in your room I’m completely surrounded by you. Your bed has pink sheets. You got pink sheets, Aurora?”

She couldn’t answer, only moan, as she gripped his shoulders and worked her hips against him. His thumb, just briefly, teased her clit and she immediately tensed, raising up off him and letting her eyes roll back.

When he took his thumb away again she moaned in disappointment. But he leaned forward to speak right into her ear.

“I fuck you on those pink sheets. So many times that we pass out. The sheets smell like me when I leave so even when I’m gone, you’re surrounded by me.”

And then he slid a thick finger right into her.

“You’re wet. And tight.” Dante dropped his head to her shoulder and tightened his eyes closed. God. She might not be able to take him. There was a big size discrepancy here. But she pushed forward on his hand greedily.

Aurora was like a woman possessed and he’d never seen anything more beautiful, more arousing. Her soft fingers dexterously undid the buttons on his shirt, roughly untucking it from his pants. She groaned in frustration when she realized he wore an undershirt underneath. And then he changed the stroke of his fingers inside her and hit a spot that she apparently couldn’t multitask through.

Aurora leaned against the steering wheel, her eyes rolling back as one of her hands slammed onto the ceiling of the car and the other threaded into Dante’s hair.

Yes. Just yes. She was spread out on his lap, her breasts trapped and straining under her bra and Dante couldn’t stand it.

With his one free hand he tugged her bra down and her breasts popped free. He lost the breath right out of his lungs. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.

“You’re fucking Aphrodite.”

And then there was no more time for words as he leaned forward and buried his face in her breasts. He suckled, tugged, licked and nipped. He couldn’t be stopped. He groaned against her soft, fragrant flesh and burned every second into his brain. Somewhere, dimly, he was aware that she was more than ruining him for red lace, she was ruining him for other women. But how could he dwell on that thought when she was grinding down on his fingers, when her wet channel was starting to tense, when her hands clawed at his shoulders.

He lifted his head from her breasts, wanting, knowing, that he had to watch her face when she came for him for the first time. There was no other option.

Her face was almost painfully beautiful. Blissful, straining, and so, so pleasured.

Dante worked her through the orgasm, one hand curling and petting her from the inside and one hand roughly handling her breasts.

Aurora vibrated, tensed, called out. Her body was a trembling live wire. And then she liquefied against him. She went lax and pliant, falling forward onto him and burying her face in the crook of his neck.

He couldn’t help but put his free arm around her, hold her close. He stroked a strong, sure circle over her smooth back and tried desperately to remember how to speak English.

He would buckle her back in and drive her to his house. He could wait until then. He wasn’t an animal.

And then her tongue snuck out of her mouth and tasted him again. The hollow at the bottom of his throat. He’d thought she’d be sated, tired, needing a moment to rest. But suddenly she reared back over him and was scrambling for the button on his pants. Her breath was panting, her mouth slack with desire. Her eyes were dark with lust. For him.

He didn’t waste time. Lifting his hips, he helped her unbutton his pants and shove them down. His cock sprang free and Aurora’s eyes went wide.

“You—you weren’t kidding.” Her voice was breathy and tinged with something he couldn’t quite read.

“About what?” He could barely add two and two right now.

Her eyes slid up from his cock and then back down. “About the ten inches.”

“Oh,” Dante grinned. “No. I wasn’t.” He traced a hand up her back and down. “We’ll go slow, sweetheart.”

Her body was tensing again, even though they were barely touching. She panted and lifted her hips towards him. “I don’t think I can.”

She was worried about their size difference. He could understand that. She wouldn’t be the first woman who’d looked at what he was packing and felt nervous. He laced his fingers through her hair. Leaning forward, he kissed along her neck, wishing she’d let him kiss that pretty mouth. Even if the words were killing him, he ground them out. “We don’t have to fuck, baby. There’s plenty of other things we can do if you’re worried you can’t take it.”

“No,” she pulled away from him, a fierce look on her gorgeous face. “No, I meant I don’t think I can go slow.”

She pulled that juicy lip between her teeth and rocked against him. He blinked twice, absorbing her words, before he flipped up the center console, grabbed a condom and sheathed himself.

Aurora breathlessly smiled. “Someone’s eager.”

“Been waiting four years,” he growled, sliding her panties down her legs. He helped her out of them, jamming them in the pocket of his pants, and then settled her back on his lap.

Dante swiped a thumb through her heat and couldn’t resist sucking her sweetness right off. Sparks flew in his vision as he finally tasted her. He cursed himself that he couldn’t have waited until he got her in a bed, because there wasn’t enough room in this car to go down on her. But all thoughts of regret disappeared as she lowered herself down on him, the head of his cock sliding into her.

She paused, barely able to take more than an inch. She made a greedy, desperate noise as she tried to sink further, but couldn’t.

Immediately, Dante’s thumb was on her clit while his other hand went to the back of her neck, drawing her forward. He held his hips completely still while he stroked her and nestled his lips right in her ear.

“That’s a good girl. Just like that,” he coaxed her. She moaned and pushed her clit forward into his touch and the movement had her taking another inch. “Just work yourself down, little by little, you gorgeous fucking goddess. Good girl.”

She moaned again and he could feel her wetness dripping from her all the way down him. He struggled to remain still, refusing to thrust upward until she was ready, but it might have been the hardest thing he’d ever done. Dante gritted his teeth and continued whispering dirty sweet words in her ear. Aurora worked herself down, taking him inch by tortuous inch.

And then she was fully seated on him. She’d taken his entire length. Dante hoped that someday he’d get his vision back. But right now, all he could do was feel. Grit his teeth against the painful, delirious tidal wave of pleasure that was her pussy. She squeezed him like a fist.

A small noise from the back of her throat had his eyes fluttering open and what he saw there stunned him. He’d never seen a sexier expression on a woman’s face before. She licked at her bottom lip and Dante couldn’t help but thrust his hips up.

He was already as deep as he could possibly go but the added pressure had her head dropping back.

“Oh god,” she whispered as she rose up on her knees, almost all the way up off of him, before she pushed back down and swallowed him whole.

“Fuck,” he growled. If she did that again, the show was going to be over way too soon. Gripping her lush hips in both hands, Dante lifted her up and slammed her back down. He set a grueling pace. Hard and smooth and everything he’d wanted for years.

Her scent filled the car and Dante’s choppy breaths tried to draw it all in. He wanted her to fill his lungs. He could still taste her on his tongue and that was the only thing that was keeping him from jamming his tongue down her throat.

He bounced her on top of him as she moaned and tightened. She allowed him to guide the pace but her hips moved of their own accord. Her movements were sinuous and harsh at the same time. God, she really was a goddess. Made to be worshipped and pleasured.

“I’m going to—” She gasped. “I’m going to—”

“That’s right,” he growled. “Give it up, gorgeous. Give it to me. All over me.”

Her eyes dropped to his as her body started seizing again. A helpless gasp left her lips as he speared up into her, his body drawn to hers as if by magnet. Unable to help himself, Dante leaned up into her, and quick as lightning, drew her bottom lip between his teeth.

It wasn’t quite kissing. For a moment, he thought she might pull away. But then her orgasm crested through her, tightening her pussy around his shaft and her fingers at his shoulders. He sucked that lip into his mouth as she screamed her release.

And then she was limp again, leaning against him and unable to do more than take his thick thrusts.

“This fucking car,” he growled as his feet struggled for purchase. He needed more fucking space. He had Aurora Goddamn LeMonde in his arms and on his cock and he couldn’t even fuck her the way he wanted. Without giving it another thought, he braced his arm around her waist, flung open the door of the car and stepped out with her.

The night air was crisp and it tightened her nipples immediately. She lifted her head off his shoulders, looking around, confused as to what was going on. But there was no more waiting, no more hesitation. He grabbed his suit coat from the front seat, and strode, with her still taking his entire length, to the hood of the car. He tossed his coat down before laying her over it.

He reared back and burned the image into his brain. The moonlight on her skin, the shadows of leaves dancing over her face, her breasts, pebbled and calling to him. If anyone were to drive past, they’d see exactly what was happening. A lucky son of a bitch fucking a gorgeous woman on the hood of his car. But Dante couldn’t bring himself to care. He was beyond logic.

He pushed in, his body screaming for release in this new position.

“Yes,” she whispered, her back arching and her hair fanning out all around her.

It was all the encouragement he needed. Dante clamped her legs around his waist and planted a hand on either side of her head. And then he fucked her like an animal. Like an absolute beast. He was aware of her body bearing down on his again. Of her screaming for god. And then, most deliciously, her begging him for more.

He gave it to her, and to himself. Nothing had ever been more right. Hotter or tighter or wetter. When the fire rose up his spine and he knew he was close, Dante fell over her. His hands slid under her back, gripping her by the shoulders and holding her still while he lost himself in her. She grabbed him back, just as tight, as the brightest, darkest, slow-motion high-speed explosion tore away from him and right into her.