I gathered my courage and grabbed his jacket lapels, pausing to search his fathomless eyes. When I found what I was looking for, I yanked him in for another kiss. It didn’t take much else. In a split second, I was on my back, tucked beneath the sheltering weight of his powerful body.
Trace snatched the quilt over us, cocooning me in warmth as his hungry mouth devoured mine. He caught my lower lip, nibbling and sucking, before delving back in for a deeper kiss, making me blind to everything but him.
By now our pelvises were aligned, with his thick sex lying between my legs. I pressed myself against his erection. He circled his hips in response, grinding into my center, urging me to do the same, his pace slow and unrelenting.
Several minutes of this pushed him to the brink again. “No. I won’t take you out here…on the ground.” A breath gushed out of him. He sucked in another and closed his eyes. “Not for your first time—not while you’re still wearin’ his ring.”
I understood. It wasn’t like I wanted to lose my virginity out here either, yet I refused to leave him unsatisfied again. The hanky story was still fresh in my mind.
So I ignored his protests and unbuckled his jeans, yanking the rough fabric down until nothing separated us but his cotton boxer briefs and the thin wool of my leggings. I couldn’t see anything beneath the quilt, yet I felt him—hot and impossibly hard.
“You once told me you could orgasm just by doing this.” I cupped his backside. “Let’s test that theory.”
He bit his bottom lip when I ground myself into him like he’d shown me. Only now, I could feel his every ridge, and he could feel…me. I rotated my hips once, and again.
“Shannon, you’re—” He groaned when I repeated the motion. “Fuuuuuck. You’re gonna…you’re gonna make me come.”
“That’s the idea,” I said in a determined voice.
Another groan tore from his throat several beats later. “Okay…okay…you win! Shit.”
Closing his lids briefly, he stilled and dragged in a breath, then another. His body trembled above mine as he fought to compose himself. Half a minute inched by before he spoke.
“Now here’s the thing,” he rasped as he slowly began rolling his hips against me. “If you want this, there’s a price you’ll have to pay…‘cause I’m gonna mark you.” He tapped a finger against my temple. “Right here. Understand?”
I shook my head, my lids weighted by the slow-building pleasure.
Trace gazed down at me, desire raging in his eyes. “I’m about to take you someplace you’ve never been,” he gritted out in between strokes, “and when you come back, you’ll always remember it was me who took you there.”
With that, he shoved my sweater up, yanked my bra cup down, and sucked my nipple into his mouth. An invisible line of fire burned from my breast to stoke the blaze between my legs, sending me on a pulse-pounding spiral.
He buried a hand beneath me to tip my pelvis so his erection caressed me right where I needed him. Pleasure seared me like wild fire.
I gasped, “Trace….”
“Yeah, that’s it,” he breathed. “I love it when you say my name.”
Lost in the maelstrom, I clung to him as he swirled his tongue around my nipple and drew deeply, tugging at the tight bead. It glistened when he released it and a sigh of cool air breezed over my flesh.
He cradled my face and locked his gaze with mine. His eyes were like twin flames of golden hazel. “Do you need me, Shannon?” he urged. “Do you?”
Tears stung. “More than anything.”
Trace covered my mouth in a soul-stealing kiss as he continued to stroke the same spot between my legs. When I moaned, he fisted my hair, his powerful hips never missing a beat, until the inner tightening began, until the world burned away and I shattered beneath him, crying out his name.
Moments later, Trace hung above me on unsteady forearms. He gasped and stared deeply into my eyes—his were soft, helpless, and filled with wonder. I’d never seen anything more beautiful. Then his lids trembled shut and he pressed his forehead to mine as his rock-hard penis slowly pulsed against my softness, once, twice, then three more times. Within seconds, a warm dampness seeped into the thin fabric covering my stomach.
As soon as the storm passed he collapsed.
“Shannon.”
I hugged him fiercely. “Oh, God, I wanted—”
“So did I,” he whispered. “So did I.”
I ran my fingers through his hair and held him close. We lay with him on top of me for what seemed like forever…touching, whispering, kissing, sighing, and breathing each other in.
Reality was kind. It didn’t invade or taunt. Just kept a respectful distance, giving us ample time to live in the moment.
Something wonderful had just happened between us, something amazing yet frightening. I closed my eyes and waited for the familiar pang of guilt, but it wasn’t there. Sadness was though, along with a stark fear that had plagued me for some time, a fear I’d finally found the courage to acknowledge.
I’d fallen in love with Trace Dawson.
Again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A Maleficent Encounter
SHANNON
____________________________
Reality’s ‘kindness’ was short-lived. It slammed into me the next morning when Darien called. It struck again when I picked Trace up several hours later. He must have sensed something was wrong; I could see it in his eyes, but he didn’t press the issue, thank God. If he had, I would’ve been forced to tell him the truth. That Darien was on his way home and I had no idea what I was going to do. Given everything that had happened yesterday, I’d tossed and turned all night, weighing the pros and cons, yet every solution came with its own set of consequences.
Who I wanted wasn’t the question. My heart had already chosen Trace, but my brain—haunted by twenty-six years of conditioning—had other ideas.
When we finally arrived at my godfather’s house, Eddie Gray’s belligerent greeting from the doorway was a welcomed distraction.
“Y’all best get the fuck off my daddy’s property.”
Trace was first out of the car. He approached his old nemesis with a smile. “And if I refuse?” he said over the noise bleeding from a TV inside. “Oh, by the way. Congrats. I hear your wife just hatched another gremlin.”
Eddie moved to lunge, but Trace shoved him back.
Knowing Trace wouldn’t throw a punch, I stepped between them, but Eddie was a different story. I braced the pig’s chest. “Keep this up and I’ll make sure you don’t work anywhere in this state or beyond. That’s the last thing you need with another mouth to feed.”
Eddie’s nostrils flared. “Hidin’ behind the lady’s skirts again, Dawson?”
Trace chuckled. “Naw, I just made a resolution to avoid bullshit, but I can break it one last time if you want. You know where I live. We can finish this discussion whenever you like. Hell, I figure if you’d wanted to settle stuff, you’d’ve come by long ago. But you’re a pussy, Eddie. Always have been.”
As the two men traded barbs, I called out to my godfather. “Uncle Jackson. You can either talk to the prosecutor’s office or me. The choice is yours.”
The sound of rebel yells, gunfire and bugles evaporated with the audible click of a TV remote. “Let ‘em by,” came the rusty voice from the darkness inside. “Go back to the hospital, boy. Tell Dee Dee I got held up.”
Eddie yelled, “But Daddy—”
“Go on now. Leave. Come back in an hour.”