Chapter 16 #4
“But why would you think I wasn’t real?”
He laughed at me. “Oh, come on, Red. Beauty, brains, and nerves of steel? You seem like a fantasy. My hot, sexy, indomitable red queen.”
His. Wow. Bold words, but this guy was fresh out of a long imprisonment in a uniquely horrible prison. Nothing he said could be held against him, or considered binding in any way. I had to remember that. Remind myself of it constantly.
And even so, I liked it. I liked it so much, it scared me.
“Holly really gets along with your little sister,” he said.
“Reggie is soaking it all up,” I said. “Tonight, she told me she doesn’t know how long she has in this world, so she’s going to make the most of every moment.”
I felt him tense. “Jesus. She said that? She’s so sure she’ll get sick again?”
I nodded. “She saw our mother die of Varen’s. She almost died herself, before she went to that clinic. If he actually did infect her somehow…” My voice trailed off.
“You’re still doubting it?”
“I doubt everything these days,” I said. “But Jana was very convincing. Her own mother died of Tamiko’s. But Jana discovered later that Halliwell has this collection of fake diseases to play God with. Tamiko’s is one of them. Varen’s is another.”
“Rose will be here tomorrow. She’ll tell us more. We’ll find a solution.”
“Thank you for saying that, but some problems have no solutions,” I said. “You just have to swallow the pill. Reggie told me that this evening. More or less.”
“We’ll see,” he said stubbornly. “I won’t accept that.”
I hesitated for a moment. “If we could use SmokeScreen, I could hack deep enough into the Coatesworth to find whatever compound they were sending to that clinic. Or at least find out how he’s making her sick.”
Shane was silent for an agonizingly long minute.
“It’s not up to me, Red,” he said finally.
“When I told Halliwell I didn’t have access to the code, I wasn’t lying.
The access codes were bashed right out of my head, or else I would have given them to Vincent and Nicole when they were torturing me.
Or to Halliwell, later on. The only way to resist torture is to just fucking not have the information to give. ”
“I understand,” I said quietly.
“SmokeScreen is Ethan’s baby,” Shane said. “And he regrets creating it. He was going to destroy it, but I convinced him to let me use it, just once, and then never again. And I fucked all of our lives sideways. He won’t make that mistake again.”
Not even to keep Reggie alive. That was the subtext. A wave of sadness came over me. I hid my face against his chest.
“Red—”
“Please, just stop talking,” I whispered. “It won’t help.”
“I’ll help you find a solution. I swear it.”
Yeah, he’d help look for a solution. Just not that one. The best one. And if the truth were acknowledged, probably the only one. I gritted my teeth and just didn’t say it. It wasn’t fair to him. But he heard it in the air.
“We’ll see what Rose and Demiguel tell us.” He rolled me up onto his body, straddling him.
I crossed my arms on his chest and rested my chin on them. “Hey, you.”
“I keep thinking about that kiss,” he said.
“Which one?” I asked. “All of them have been memorable.”
“The first one,” he said. “The first time I touched you. When the glass wall magically disappeared. I was so shocked by actually touching you, I forgot that bastard was watching us. I couldn’t see anything but you. And you know what?”
“What?” I demanded.
“I still can’t,” he said.
That sound in his voice just reached deep inside me and squeezed. He could play me like a fiddle. I pushed up, hands against his chest, straddling him, and leaned down to kiss him. A demanding Red Queen kiss. It caught fire right away.
Neither of us was in control, not me, not him. The kiss had its own agenda, its own ruthless demands. He tasted so good, his hard body, his thick, steely cock that I gripped and stroked. I shook with an irresistible clutch of hunger.
I lifted my head for air, my breath rasping heavily. His chest heaved beneath me.
“Jesus, Red,” he muttered.
I had settled myself over him so that my naked pussy was right over his cock, which now lay stiff and hard and hopeful against his belly.
It could have been the worst idea in the world, stupid, wrong, even lethal, but my body insisted.
I ground against him, sighing and whimpering, sliding my slick, aroused pussy lips up and down the length of his cock.
Bathing him, anointing him. Teasing him.
It made me feel wild and powerful. The Red Queen, bestowing her favors on her chosen lover. He shuddered with every slow, undulating stroke, his hands clenched in the sheets. “Red,” he rasped. “For fuck’s sake. Have mercy.”
Mercy. Something that was in my power to give. I rose up, seizing his cock, nudging it between my slick pussy lips. Swirling it around and around my clit. Petting myself with his blunt, smooth cockhead, panting in anticipation.
Shane groaned, his body rigid, arched beneath mine. He was so strong, but right now, I had the power, and I liked it. He grabbed my nightgown, tugging it down until the loose gathered neckline revealed my breasts. Cupping and caressing them.
He seized my hips, holding me steady, and drove upward. I cried out as he filled me, surging, and I threw my head back and gasped for air as we rocked and heaved toward that promise of pleasure that kept swelling, lifting me higher, and higher…
It crested, broke, and I was borne under by wild, thundering bliss.
I came to and found Shane embracing me after, his cock still inside me. Then, he rolled me over, rocking and grinding deep inside me.
“You didn’t come yet?” I asked, shakily.
“Not yet,” he said. “I couldn’t let it end yet. You ready for another go?”
I wanted to laugh but had no breath. This position made me feel pinned, wide open, utterly vulnerable, but it felt good to be vulnerable. I craved it. And I wanted to feel him come inside me. I nodded, jerking my hips up to meet him.
He covered my mouth and tongue-kissed me as he fucked me.
We moved frantically, wild and sinuous, bucking and twining together.
I was mewling beneath his mouth as wild sensation overtook me again.
This time, he followed me over the edge, pumping hard, hiding his face against my shoulder as pleasure exploded through him.
He rolled off, but pulled me very close, keeping my leg flung over his. His cock was still inside, still half hard. I felt his heart thud in time with my own. In sync.
As soon as I had the necessary motor skills, I reached out and switched on the nightlight by the bedside. I rolled back and looked searchingly into his eyes.
“What?” he asked. “What did I do? Are you okay?”
“I’m great,” I said. “I’m just wondering if that massive orgasm knocked open Pandora’s box for you. I’m just checking for, you know. Gaping chasms. Lava pools.”
He gave me a lazy grin. “I think that when you leave Pandora’s box wide open, it’s okay. It’s when you nail it closed that things get weird. I’m okay. I’m great, even.”
“Oh. Well, good.” We smiled at each other.
It was scary, how happy his answer made me. Like this could go somewhere. Like there could be hope for some kind of future.
But I didn’t dare to hope for that, on top of everything else. That was too much.
Love, with this gorgeous, powerful, mysterious, unstoppable, indomitable being that I had found in chains? Really?
That would be pushing my luck to the breaking point.