My brain short-circuits.
I think that’s literally what happens because white-hot sparks flicker and dance over my arms and hands. But I can’t help it. He’s fucking glorious. He’s lean instead of bulky, but there’s clear muscle there beneath his soft, olive skin. His abs are well-defined just enough to look like they may have been carved out of stone, a light dusting of hair leaving a trail that disappears into his slacks. The sleeve of tattoos on his left arm goes all the way up to his shoulder and disappears behind his back.
Reese grins when those sparks coming from my skin flick into the air like embers. “Getting a little too excited?”
I glare up at him. “Stop teasing me, or I might accidentally electrocute you.”
He chuckles as he places his hands on my stomach and moves them up, his touch steadily growing rougher, harsher, as his palms travel up to my chest. Then he takes both my nipples between his thumbs and fingers and pinches hard enough to have me cry out and my back arch off the bed.
“Are you going to behave, little menace?”
Panting, I scowl up at him again. “Fuck no. When have I ever done that?”
“Good,” he says softly as his hands move back down. “Wouldn’t want you any other way.”
When he reaches the top of my jeans, he pops the button. Immediately after, the shadows that have been lingering in the dark corners of the room rush forward, sweeping up toward the bed. Reese snaps his head to the side and growls like a fucking beast. They freeze in place as though they’re simply part of the darkness.
Okay, so…that was wild.
And was that possessiveness? Because I’m fucking here for it.
“Um,” I mutter, trying to search for the right words for my question. “Aren’t they like…a part of you?”
“Yes. But it’s a little more difficult to control them when they want something badly enough. And right now, they want something more than they’ve ever wanted anything.”
Is this what swooning feels like?
Stop being fucking lame, Case.
“So let them have it,” I say breathlessly.
Reese’s brows dip. As though he needs time to consider, he yanks my jeans and underwear down until my dick springs free. It comes to rest against my belly, already leaking precum. For several seconds, Reese simply stares at it as his shadows twitch like they’re dying to move. Then his eyes darken, and he maneuvers us so he’s able to pull all my clothes off and toss them away.
As soon as I’m naked, he moves over me again. He’s still wearing his slacks, and when he settles between my legs, holding himself up with his hands on either side of my head, and grinds down on me once more, the friction of the fabric has a moan slipping out of me.
Reese waits until my gaze finds his again, then he says, “I thought you didn’t want them.”
“It’s not that I didn’t wantthem,” I tell him honestly. “It’s that I wantedyou. I wanted you to touch me, and I wanted to touch you too.”
Something passes over his face, but I’m too busy trying to figure out how to explain my complicated feelings in words to translate it.
“I hated the distance between us and that feeling they gave me, which was really only making what I was already feelingworse.” I wrap my legs around him again, my hands once more splayed across his back just to feel the touch of his skin. “But if I have you like this, in the way I really want you, then maybe I won’t feel like that.”
He’s silent for a while, his eyes locked on mine long enough that I’m able to recognize what it is that’s deep within them. Guilt.
My guess is confirmed when he says, “I’m so sorry, Cason.”
I give him a small smile that slowly morphs into something closer to a smirk. “It wasn’tthatbad, but…” Thrusting up against him, I add, “You could always earn my forgiveness.”
“Is that so?” He grins and briefly glances over at the shadows still lying in wait. “Do you want them to earn your forgiveness too?”
I don’t have to consider it too hard because just remembering how it felt to have all their hands on me makes my cock harden more beneath him. The second I nod my head eagerly, they take that as their signal to strike.
Reese moves at the same time. As the shadows reach me and brush against my arms with ghostly fingers, he dips his head down to kiss another path along my throat, making the occasional stop to bite and suck. He does the same across my chest, marking me more and more. While he moves lower, his mouth traveling down my stomach, his shadows take his place, pinching and rolling my nipples until I’m panting worse than before.
Just before Reese’s mouth reaches my cock, shadows wrap around my left wrist, pulling it up and over my head, holding me there while they leave my other arm free.
Reese peers up at me from down my body. “One arm tied to my bed, the other free to touch me.”
