rather than dissipated—and it was cool rather than hot. Liam stayed crouched at her side.
He feels it too.
He turned and looked up at her. His look was feral. His shoulders heaved with his breath. His eyes flared.
Oh, yes, he feels it too.
His intense stare frightened and thrilled her. Toni’s nipples tingled and tightened. Heat rushed between her thighs and she grew wet. He let go of the towel and wrapped his hand around her ankle.
Toni slid her right hand from between her legs and combed her fingers into his thick black hair. She cupped the side of his head. She could feel his panting breath on her bare hip. In her periphery, Toni watched the door slowly swing shut. Without being touched, the doorknob latch clicked and the bolt turned to locked.
Toni’s rational self was being pushed below the surface of conscious thought, but it called up from the depths that she should be afraid.
But I’m not. I remember this feeling. I remember how it felt when the ghost of John Buckman was around—that energy—that glorious, transcendent sexual energy.
The steam continued to thicken until Toni felt like she was standing in a cloud.
Touch me!
As if he could hear the pleading inside her head, Liam slowly rose, sliding his hand up her right ankle, the inside of her calf, her knee, her thigh, as he stood. Her pussy throbbed. Just before reaching the spot that ached for his touch, he slid his flattened palm across the front of her left thigh then upward until it lay on her hip, stroking the deep inward curve of her waist with his thumb. His right hip was on hers. She dropped her hand from her breast and laid it on his corded arm.
He turned his head and she was pinned by his intense black gaze.
Liam squeezed the soft swell of her hip and guided her until they were face to face. When he pulled her against him she could feel the hard bulge behind his jeans pressing into her belly. She snaked her arm around his narrow waist and urged him closer. He stared down at her and wove his fingers into her damp curls. With her free hand she trailed a featherlight touch over his forearm, then upward—pausing at the rock-hard swell of his biceps before resting her palm on his broad shoulder. The feel of his skin fuelled her need. She reached behind his head and pulled his face down to within inches of hers. His eyes flared. The lights surged and then flickered. The filaments popped and the bulbs went dark. The sunlight from the window filtered weakly through the dense steam.
Sound outside of them did not exist. She heard only her thundering heartbeat and his panting breath.
Kiss me! her mind pleaded.
“Yes,” he said aloud.
Toni’s eyes widened. Had he heard her thoughts? She felt his long fingers spread over the back of her head before he pulled her roughly into him, crushing her mouth against his. He splayed his hand over her round ass and pressed her against his straining cock.
She moaned. He parted his lips and hers followed. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, expertly searching and probing. His whiskers abraded her soft skin and she revelled in the sting of it. Pain and pleasure fed on one another as the two groped and squeezed and grasped, scrabbling for purchase to bring their bodies yet closer.
Liam ground against her, torturing her naked clit against the rough fly of his jeans. She tore her mouth from his and incoherently screamed her ecstasy into their private cloud.
When she inhaled, she heard pounding. It grew louder and faster, insinuating itself into Toni’s dream state. She squeezed her eyes shut and set her jaw against the sound of the voices that were trying to chip through to her consciousness.
No. Leave me alone. Leave us alone.
The voices grew, seeming to multiply in Toni’s head. She knew that Liam had heard them too, because his embrace softened and he pulled his pelvis back from hers.
No. Please, no. Don’t stop.
A sharp crack shattered the spell. In an instant, Toni was pushed away from the door
Brian Keene, J.F. Gonzalez