Shadowed Read online

  “All right, sweetheart?” His silver eyes were half-lidded with lust, and his lips were already shiny with her juices. “Not hurting you, am I?”

  “N-no,” Nina stuttered breathlessly. “Feels…good. Right.” She didn’t want to admit it, but she couldn’t help it—it was the truth. He’d barely started, and already her body was calming down and opening up. She no longer felt quite so panicked—it was as though part of her knew on a very visceral level that she would be all right, now that he was here.

  “Good.” He held her eyes with his for a minute. “Because I’m about to lick you now. Gonna spread your sweet pussy wide open and lick you long and hard until you come. Because that’s what you need, Nina—you need to come with my tongue in you. Come all over my face while I eat your hot little cunt. You understand?”

  “I…yes,” she nearly moaned as her body jumped into overdrive again. God, she was going crazy. Just because she no longer felt like she was going into cardiac arrest didn’t mean the desire was any less—if anything it was more. But it was focused now—focused on the man between her thighs. “Please,” she begged brokenly. “Please, I need…need…”

  “It’s all right, sweetheart,” he growled softly. “Just relax and don’t worry. I’m going to give it to you. As much as you need and more.”

  Then he spread her outer pussy lips wide with his thumbs and bent down to give her a long, hot lick, dragging the flat of his tongue from the bottom of her entrance all the way up to the top of her slit.

  Nina cried out and clenched her hands into fists at her sides. But it wasn’t enough—she needed something to hold onto. Reaching down blindly, she found his head and curled her fingers into his long, blue-black hair. Reddix growled deep in his throat and licked her again, clearly enjoying the feel of her hands on him. Encouraged, Nina tugged harder, pressing her pelvis up to meet him, spreading her thighs even wider to give him better access.

  He responded by sucking her clit into his mouth and lashing it with his tongue. Suddenly, it was too much. Nina gasped and stiffened—the orgasm hitting her like an oncoming train. Her whole body trembled, and she actually saw stars exploding before her eyes for a moment.

  “Oh!” she cried as sparks of pleasure danced along her nerves. Her nipples tightened into painful little peaks at the tips of her breasts, and her whole body went rigid for a moment. Just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, Reddix lifted his head.

  “That’s right, sweetheart,” he growled hoarsely. “Come for me. Come all over my face.” Then he bent his head and began licking her again, licking and sucking and lashing the engorged button of her clit until Nina felt like her entire body was being electrocuted with pleasure.

  “Reddix,” she gasped, tugging at his hair and pressing her pussy up shamelessly to grind against his face. “Oh God please…please don’t stop! Don’t stop.”

  He growled in approval and licked even harder. Reaching under her ass, he scooped her up, tilting her pelvis as though it was a bowl of water, and he was dying for a drink. His tongue seemed to be everywhere, lapping, caressing, flickering over her most tender parts until Nina felt like she was going to go crazy.

  She kept her sanity, but she came again. And again and again. So many times she lost count. Finally, she had to push him away.

  “I can’t,” she gasped, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. “No more.”

  “All right, sweetheart. You feel better now?” He sat back and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

  “Yes…and no.” Nina sat up shakily and somehow managed to draw the black robe around her. “I can’t…I’m not…” She shook her head. “Not over it yet, but I need a break. I can’t keep going like this forever.”

  “I can.” His eyes flashed silver with lust. “I can eat your pussy all night if that’s what you need, sweetheart.”

  It wasn’t what Nina needed—not exactly—but she couldn’t admit that. Couldn’t admit or explain the deep emptiness inside her, the growing ache and need to be filled. I’ll be fine, she told herself sternly. I’ve already let him in enough. Not going to go any further.

  “Let’s talk,” she said, crossing her legs and wincing at how sensitive she was—he had nearly licked her raw. Not that she hadn’t begged for it. Nina pushed the embarrassing thought away. “You said you had something to tell me,” she said. “The reason why you acted like such a jerk.”

  He sighed and sat on the couch beside her. “Yeah, I do. I’ll tell you, but I want you in my lap while we talk.” He patted his legs. “Come here.”

  “What? No!” Nina exclaimed. “We’ve gone far enough. I don’t think…”

  “Fuck thinking,” he growled. “I want you in my lap so I can keep an eye on you and make sure you’re over the worst of it. You scared the hell out of me just now. If I hadn’t gone down on you when I did we might be in the med center instead of sitting on the couch talking. Now come here, Nina.”

  Reluctantly, she scooted over to sit beside him. Reddix promptly scooped her up and situated her so that she was sitting sideways on his lap with her legs on the couch.

  “That’s better,” he said, frowning. “Now I can see your face while we talk and touch you if you start having problems again.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she protested, shifting uncomfortably. She could feel the hard ridge of his cock under her ass, rubbing against her through his black flight trousers. She tried to cross her legs, but that only made it worse as the hard, hot shaft pressed against her sensitive pussy.

  “Yeah, you seem fine,” he said dryly. “Stop shifting around so much—this is hard enough as it is.”

  No pun intended, she thought, feeling a hysterical giggle rise in her throat. She swallowed it back down and forced herself to relax.

  “Okay, fine—so talk. What reason can you possibly give me for being such an ass back on Tarsia?”

  He sighed deeply. “First of all you need to know I’m not here to get back with you or try to start a life together.”

  “What? Then why even bother coming, you jerk!” She tried to get off his lap, but he held her down, his hands firmly around her waist until she stopped struggling.

  “Sit still, damn it! I’m here because I owe you an explanation.”

  “Fine.” Nina was fuming now, her arms crossed over her chest. “Explain.”

  “I’ll try…” He shook his head and ran a hand over his face. “Okay—to start with, I need you to know I wasn’t just using you to get my RTS fixed. I had the original agreement with the witch—the one I made with her before I came to kidnap you in the first place—but I had no other contact with her after that. I didn’t know she was going to lure you into the swamp. I wouldn’t have had any idea where you went at all if the lthss she put on my wrist hadn’t started shrinking.” He shook his head. “When I saw that, and I knew she had you…I can’t even describe how I felt. I was fucking crazy, Nina. So worried she would hurt you…kill you…” His deep voice grew hoarse, and he cleared his throat. “I didn’t know what I’d do if something happened to you. Especially when it was all my fault.”

  Nina nodded thoughtfully. Against her will, his words were making an impact on her. He didn’t seem to be trying to shift the blame for anything—he was taking it all on himself, admitting he was the cause of what had happened.

  “All right,” she said at last. “But that still doesn’t tell me why you let me leave thinking you just used me and threw me away like a broken toy you didn’t want anymore.”

  “Did I break you?” he murmured roughly, cupping her cheek. “Did I, sweetheart? Because it damn near broke me to watch you fly away. To see that ship disappear into the sky and know you were in it and you weren’t coming back…”

  “I wasn’t coming back because you sent me away,” she reminded him tartly.

  He sighed deeply. “Yeah, I sent you away—but for your own good.”

  “What?” Nina frowned at him. “How could breaking my heart be for my own good? How can you