Seduced in Shadow (5 page)

Antonin was big, bigger than any man she’d ever been with. She wanted him to fill her and ease the ache that throbbed between her thighs. Her lips parted and her lungs struggled to take in air. Tightening her grip on his balls, she loosened the hand on his cock until it barely touched the skin then let her finger drift over the tip, feeling the moisture gathering there.

His hips thrust just once as if he couldn’t control himself then he groaned and covered her hands with his. He lifted them away from his groin and placed them on his shoulders. Her fingers gripped those broad muscles. She loved the strength she felt there. Then his hands came down on the bed to hold his weight over her.

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Seduced in Shadow

His eyes opened, his gaze connecting with hers. With slow, deliberate movements, he placed his knees between her legs, spreading her, making her open for him. The hair on his legs felt coarse, tantalizing her skin.

A rush of wet warmth flooded her sex. As he sank on his haunches before her, her arms fell away from his upper body and onto the bed at her sides.

Reaching for the bedside table, he opened the drawer and pulled out a condom.

Once he had covered himself, his hands settled on her waist, his long slim fingers dragging along her skin until they reached her thighs. He pulled her forward, spreading her legs even more.

The silky sheets allowed her body to slide easily but he drew her nearer at an almost unbearably slow pace. Ellie wanted him to hurry. Soon she would get what her body was begging for but if he didn’t move just a little faster, she was going to take matters into her own hands.

Her butt slid up his thighs, the light covering of hair abrading her skin, until she was finally spread wide, her moist center almost touching the base of his cock, her legs wrapped around his back.

Antonin didn’t move. His eyes dropped to stare at her as she lay there, exposed and wet for him. Ellie felt as though she should be embarrassed, but she wasn’t.

His gaze met hers and she forgot about being embarrassed or frightened or anything other than hot for him. The look in his eyes was pure passion—all for her.

She tried to lift her arms to reach for him, to grab his cock. She wanted to make him take her, end this ache, ease her pain. But her arms were way too heavy. As if he’d read her mind, he leaned slightly forward to touch the underside of his cock to her clit. The power in that touch made them both draw in a hard breath and her eyes shifted to his mouth.

Where the rest of his face was all angles, his mouth was a perfectly masculine curve with a slightly fuller bottom lip. She desperately wanted to feel it on hers.

35

Stephanie Julian

Antonin pressed his cock down with one hand and fitted himself to her opening.

He slid his other arm around her shoulders to lift her off the bed. Then gravity kicked in and she slid onto his shaft while he covered her mouth with his.

Ellie wanted to cry out in relief to finally be filled where she needed it most but couldn’t because his tongue swept into her mouth and stole her breath. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she returned his kiss, tasting his unique flavor, while her sheath clenched around him. She inhaled his scent, a little woodsy, a little musky, a little like a cool breeze on a hot night.

He wildly slid his tongue in and out of her mouth, tangling with hers, but his lower body was completely still.

Ellie couldn’t bear that inactivity and started moving—just the tiniest bit, up and down his cock. Just enough friction to make her moan. Antonin tore his mouth away from hers to draw in a deep breath, obviously as affected by the sensation as she was.

“Don’t move,” he whispered as if he couldn’t get enough air to speak. “Let me.”

She turned her head, opened her mouth on his neck and let her teeth sink into his skin. His cock jerked fiercely inside her and his hips finally began to thrust.

She licked the spot she’d just bitten. “Then move. I want to come. I
need
to come and I know you can make me. I want you to come with me. I want to feel you shoot inside me.”

Antonin thought his eyes rolled back in his head as the sheer carnality of her words shot through him like the taste of fine whiskey.

Ellie’s pussy clamped tightly around his cock like a vise and he reveled in her heat.

He had to move but he knew if he did, this would be over faster than he wanted. She was wet and sleek around him and she smelled so damn good—fresh and earthy and all sweet woman. And her mouth… The taste of her mouth was the finest aphrodisiac, going straight to his balls, making them hard as rocks.

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Seduced in Shadow

Her tongue licked a path from his jaw to his ear…and then he had to do it. Hands on her hips, he lifted her just enough to feel the intimate drag of skin against skin. Her deep moan sounded sexier to him than anything the most beautiful
querciola
, the Etruscan spirit of the senses, could ever utter.

Antonin let her glide back down on his cock that one precious inch before he repeated the action, this time taking her another inch higher before letting her slide back down his shaft. Magic sang through his blood, nearly making him dizzy. But he couldn’t tell if it was his
bassadone
magic or just her.

He picked up the pace now. Ellie wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her fingers were in his hair, kneading his scalp. It felt so damn good he wanted to get even closer. He needed to be deep inside her when he came.

Antonin slanted his mouth over hers again, relishing her taste in his mouth, as he thrust in and out of her body. Goddess, she was sweet. He could do this all day, all night but then she moaned and came, her muscles clamping around him.

Ellie dragged her mouth away from his to draw in a deep breath. Their eyes met, hers so lovely and amazed. Antonin wrapped both his arms around her body and held on as he exploded into her tight sheath.

37

Stephanie Julian

Clinging to the man who’d just given her the most awesome orgasm she’d ever had in her life, Ellie tried to catch her breath.

The doctor had been right. Sex really was the best stress relief. She was no virgin but she’d never jumped a guy she’d just met before.

Well, maybe I should do these things more often if they’re this good. Or maybe I should just
do him more often…

She could still feel him inside her. He was the most well-endowed man she’d ever been with. Her pussy had been stretched almost to the point of pain around him. But it hadn’t been a bad pain…more like a really good pain.

And he was strong. His arms had held her against him as if she was a feather and he didn’t seem to be straining at all.

The look in his eyes had made her sheath tighten around him, which had made his gaze even hotter.

Did he think she was a slut? Would he think her even more of a slut if she wanted to do this again soon?

“Ellie, sweetheart, are you okay?”

She looked at him and saw no condemnation in his eyes, only desire and concern. It made her want to hold on to this man who’d rescued her.

Hell yes, she was fine. So fine she wanted to go again.

But eventually they’d have to get out of bed.

Her legs were starting to cramp because she’d held them so tightly around his waist. She unlocked her ankles and he slowly pulled out of her then set her on her knees on the bed.

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Seduced in Shadow

Antonin rolled down the condom then asked again, “
Are
you okay, Ellie?”

He watched her, his smoky gray eyes narrowed as if he wasn’t sure what she was going to do or how she might react.

“I’m fine,” she said, coming up with a wobbly smile. She wouldn’t allow her gaze to drop below his chest. She couldn’t… If she did, she was afraid she’d never be able to tear herself away.

He took a deep breath but when he did, she couldn’t help herself. She watched his hard chest rise and fall.
Oh my.

Sliding off the bed, Antonin walked over to the chest against the wall and discarded the condom in a trash can next to it. Then he pulled on loose cargo pants, not bothering with underwear. He reached into a drawer for a dark blue t-shirt. When he turned back to her, he held out the shirt.

Ellie took it, pulling it over her head. Then she sat there looking at him, wondering what to do next.

This wasn’t your typical morning after. She still had so many questions but she needed to talk to Justin first. Needed to find out what exactly was going on that she needed a bodyguard…a bodyguard she’d just had sex with.

Antonin’s cell phone rang at that moment, startling her so badly she actually screamed, though not very loudly. Jeez, she had to get a grip.

Checking the caller ID, Antonin handed her the phone, saying, “I think you should take that.”

“Justin?”

He nodded.

Ellie grabbed the phone and answered. “Justin, thank God. Where are you?”

“Ellie, what’s wrong? I got your message. Why did you call me with Antonin’s phone? Are you okay? Are you hurt? What’s happened?”

39

Stephanie Julian

The hard note in her brother’s tone startled her. Justin was the most easygoing, laid-back guy she knew. As a kid, she’d followed her older brother like a puppy and he’d never sent her packing with a harsh word.

After their father’s death, Justin had thrown himself into college then work and had turned more of his attention to his research. His very strange research.

“No, I’m not hurt. I’m curious. I, uh, met,”
Yeah, that’s a good word for it
, Ellie thought, “your friend Antonin today. Tall, dark hair, gray eyes. What’s going on, Justin? What kind of trouble did you get into that you think I need a bodyguard? You have a little explaining to do.”

“Shit,” her brother grumbled. “Yeah, I guess I do. But I need to do it in person and I can’t get away right now.”

“Well, why don’t you give me the condensed version because I gotta tell you, I do not like being told I can’t go home—”

“Whoa, wait. I thought you said you were okay.” Justin’s voice rose. “What happened? Antonin wasn’t supposed to show himself unless something happened.”

“Well, something happened this morning on my run…”

“
What
? What do you— Wait, you’re running? When did you start that?”

It figured her knucklehead brother would pick up on that. “Just a few weeks ago.

What, you don’t think I can?”

As the younger sister, she’d always been trying to catch up to her big brother. She’d been competitive enough as a kid to think she could, even with a five-year age gap between them.

Guess that’s what landed me in this mess in the first place. Wanting to follow in Justin’s
footsteps.

Before she’d left her job, she’d been on the fast track as a corporate fundraiser for the Children’s Foundation. She’d wanted to work with a company that made life better for kids who’d had a rough time—abandonment, illness, abuse. But after four years, the 40

Seduced in Shadow

pace had gotten to her, as had the politics, the constant glad-handing and the corporate game. She’d wanted to make a difference but at the Foundation, she’d just felt overwhelmed.

Justin had been the one to encourage her to quit, to use her talents elsewhere.

“Hey, brat, come on. You know I think you can do anything you put your mind to.”

He sighed so loud she could hear him through the phone. “But if I’d known you were heading out by yourself to run, I would have…”

He sighed again.

“Would have what, Justin?”

“Shit.” His frustration came through loud and clear. “I wanted to do this… Well, hell, I didn’t know how I was gonna tell you this.”

The tightness in her chest was back. “Justin, you’re starting to scare me. What are you talking about?”

“Let me talk to Antonin for a second, hon.”

“Oh no, Justin. You’re not getting out of this—”

“I’m not getting out of anything. I’ll tell you everything you want to know…in person. But first I need to talk to Antonin.”

“Justin—”

“Ellie, I promise. Just give the phone to Antonin.”

“Oh! Here.” She practically threw the phone at Antonin. “He wants to talk to you.”

Antonin blinked once and she saw something like unease cross his expression.

Pushing his dark hair behind one ear, he took the phone and turned… But not before she got a good glimpse of that ear.

It was pointed. And not just humanly, slightly pointed. It was Tinker Bell pointed.

It was the size of a regular human ear but where a regular ear had a curve, his had a definite Spock thing happening.

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Stephanie Julian

Why hadn’t she noticed that before? Well, there were probably a few reasons—

explosive sex being one of them. But the main reason was because his ears were hidden under his long hair. They didn’t stick out like Spock’s but seemed to be contoured to the curve of his head.

When Antonin put the phone to his ear and said, “What’s up, Justin?” she couldn’t see it anymore.

But it was there.

Her brain pushed a memory to the forefront. Back at the forest, Antonin had seemed to disappear and reappear at another spot…at will. She’d thought she had imagined it at the time. Had she actually seen that or had it been a trick of the eye?

She also remembered the doe telling her she’d seen an elf. Had the animal been talking about Antonin? Elves?

No, that was just too weird. Justin and their father had always believed there were beings in the world other than humans. Mythological creatures like fairies and elves and trolls. Even though Ellie could talk to animals, she’d never believed in tiny little girls with wings on their backs and pointed ears.

What the hell was going on?

She dropped onto the edge of the bed and drew in a deep breath. Wearing Antonin’s shirt, sitting on his bed, she was surrounded by him. His scent, his stuff. It was all alien and yet she didn’t feel unwelcome or uncomfortable.

She heard Antonin talking to her brother, though all he said was “Yes”, “No” and