Skin Deep Read online

  “Yes,” Angela sobbed, unable to believe this was really happening. “Yes, of course! I love you Shane, so much. Nothing would make me happier than being your wife.”

  The crowd laughed when he breathed a huge sigh of relief and slid the ring onto her finger. She wasn’t surprised that the fit was perfect. Leaning down, she tugged him to his feet.

  “Forever, Shane,” she promised, linking her arms around his neck. “Forever and a day,” he replied before claiming her lips with his.

  ****

  It took Shane a while to find out where she was. She heard him checking the living room and the kitchen before deciding to look in his study.

  Angela sat cross-legged on the edge of his desk, facing the door when he came in. He stopped short when he saw her. She’d purposefully changed into the same white dress and pink shoes she wore the first day they met. She wondered if he noticed that the first few buttons on her dress were already undone, displaying much of her creamy ebony cleavage. She hoped she didn’t look silly, which she almost felt. She’d been going for sultry but she’d never really tried out a seduction scene before. Not in reality that was for sure.

  “Angela.” He walked in and shut the door behind him. She couldn’t tell if she read the gleam in his eyes right. Did he seem ready to pounce on her and ravish her where she sat? She hoped so. That would mean that they understood the same language.

  “First, I have a few more questions,” she said in her best sexy voice, re-crossing her legs. In her seated position, her hips seemed extra curvy.

  “Okay.”

  Angela bit on her bottom lip to stifle a smile. She definitely heard the catch in his voice.

  “When did you buy the ring?” She held up her hand for the hundredth time to admire the sparkling diamond. “It’s perfect you know.”

  He smiled. “I hope so. If you must know I called Tiffany’s to discuss designing the ring the morning after you forced me to dance with you here in the study.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Forced you?”

  “Okay, coaxed me, seduced me. Whatever you want to call it. I knew the moment you danced for me that I wanted it to last forever. I made up my mind at that moment that I would do whatever it took to make it happen.”

  His words took her breath away. If only she’d known then. So much heartache on both their sides could’ve been prevented.

  “Any other questions?” he asked, now reaching where she sat perched. He slowly slid his hands up her thighs and under her dress. His fingers teased around the rim of her panties.

  “One more. If I’d said yes that first day…I mean to your proposition to share your bed as part of the contract. Would you have thought worse of me?”

  He paused to think about it. “Actually, no. I guess I’d have convinced myself you must have felt the same pull I had; and that like me you’d have wanted to explore it further.”

  “Well, you would have been right,” she said in a slightly purring voice. “I won’t lie; your suggestion got me hot under the collar. I was disgusted, infuriated, even dismayed. But beneath it all I felt impossibly turned on. It made me feel dirty and bad that I wanted to give in to your whim. To become your sex toy for hire. That night I dreamed of you being inside me. It was the hottest fantasy I’ve ever had. I knew then that at some point, it would happen.”

  “Damn, Angela,” Shane said gruffly. His eyes trailed over her face and down to where her dress gaped open. He lifted a hand to trace the tiny gold medallion hanging to rest in the cleft of her breasts. “Then why didn’t you make the first move?”

  Angela smirked, lifting her hands to rest atop his broad shoulder encased in his black polo shirt. He looked so thrillingly handsome. He’d lost some weight and there were shadows embedded in the depths of his gorgeous grey eyes. She wished every dark cloud over him away. If she had a hand in causing him pain, she’d take as long as she needed to make things right again.

  “You absolutely do not ‘get’ females, Mr. Davis,” Angela told him teasingly.

  “Yes, I admit I’m a bit slow on the draw – especially since it was almost a year since I let myself get close to anything remotely like an adult female,” Shane returned in the same tone.

  Angela’s eyes widened. “Wow. Well…I guess you’re the type who’s very picky. But then it’s good that you were waiting for the right time.”

  “The right person. I was waiting for you,” he said, staring unwaveringly into her eyes.

  “You can’t imagine what it means to me to hear that,” Angela whispered. Her hand traced over the burned side of his face. Could scars be beautiful? Because Shane’s were. He made them seem so much a part of him she couldn’t imagine him without them. Couldn’t imagine wanting him without them. To her, his looks made him all the more exciting, and unique.

  Shane turned his face into her palm and kissed it moistly. Angela shivered, feeling his hands settle on her waist. “When I woke up that morning and found you gone…I wanted to smash everything in the house. I almost went…berserk. I was torn between rushing out to find you and drag you back, or closing my mind to the chapter and maybe, trying to follow your advice and find someone for real. So instead what did I do? I pined away. At the same time, I tried to do what I felt would make you proud. I stopped reacting negatively when I felt undue stares from strangers. I hung out more with my friends at public venues of their choice. I thought you’d be happy knowing I was at least making the effort.”

  “I am, believe me. I always thought about you, wondering what you were doing. Hoping you were happy. And wishing that you were missing me too. I was terrified of looking in the papers one day and seeing you with pictures of your beautiful fiancée or…heaven help me, your bride. It would have killed me. I can’t even think about it.”

  “I never wanted anyone for a long time before I met you,” Shane said soberly. “And once you came into my life, I never looked at another woman again. I’d always heard people talk about soul mates, but I never understood its meaning until now. It crushed me to think I was too late, that you’d found someone else to take my place.”

  “Never,” Angela told him firmly. “Every other man seemed like a waste of time after you. I was worried I’d never feel that way again for someone else. I’m so glad I never have to worry about that.”

  “I love you, Angela.”

  Angela shivered at the way Shane made her name sound like an endearment in itself. She gazed up at him with an impish smile. “What are you going to do about it handsome?” she asked him in a brisk tone, before reaching for his buttons, undoing them quickly.

  “Anything you want me to,” he replied in a voice that grew decidedly thicker. His hands were smoothing upward to rest just beneath her breasts. Angela hummed sensually, her hand slipping inside his unfastened pants to cup his promising bulge. Shane let out a feral groan.

  “Shane…I know we’re going to have a lot of ups and downs,” Angela said with sudden solemnness. “Not so much between us, no. But from the outside world who are going to have their own opinions why we shouldn’t be together. I’m promising you here and now that that’s never going to be a problem for me. I’ll never let the hang-ups of others interfere with what we share. Can you promise the same?”

  For a few moments, Shane chose to respond by crushing his lips to hers, kissing her with a heat and hunger that spoke to the strings holding her heart together. He broke off to rest his temple against hers briefly before he spoke again and she could tell he struggled to speak through his emotions.

  “Angela, nothing would make me happier than to make this just about us. Yes, I want to know your family, your friends and everything that’s important to you. And I too would do my best to make you feel accepted no matter what circles I may find myself. But it all boils down to one thing: when it comes to my feelings for you, other people’s opinion has zero influence.”

  “God, you look so sexy when you talk like that,” Angela cooed, sliding her hand lower to seek out his balls and cup him lovingly
. He gasped, his grey eyes darkening at her sultry touch.

  “I’m going to need a little more convincing, stud,” Angela said, grabbing the hem of his shirt and together they stripped it over his head. Angela licked on her lips at the sight of his broad, hairless chest. As always, she didn’t flinch at the sight of his scars and she loved that he’d grown so comfortable being shirtless around her. At that point she couldn’t wait to see him more than shirtless.

  His eyes were glinting grey coals. “I’m more than up for the challenge, sweetheart. The question is can you handle what I’m bringing?”

  “Oh, something’s definitely up,” Angela returned with meaning as she jacked his cock, her teeth nibbling on her pouty lower lip. She was stroking him faster, her thumb smudging on the precum he spilled from his bulbous tip. She was so hot for him she was losing air. “And baby, I should be asking if you can handle me right now because the way I’m burning up inside for you…”

  The growl that vibrated deep in his throat sent Angela’s pulse racing. She knew she’d set fire to the beast when he grabbed her head and mashed their lips together, kissing her hungrily for one scorching minute.

  Next thing he pulled her to stand on her feet, turned her round and had her gasping when he undid the back zipper of her dress and yanked it down along with her panties to her feet in one smooth, swift motion. Angela was breathless and shaking with lust as she was bent over the desk while she hurriedly stepped out of the puddle of clothes at her heels. Shane soon had her positioned just how he wanted her, ass up with her elbows braced on the desk. When his fingers traced the line of her slit from top to bottom, she wailed with passion.

  “Wet. Hot. Fuck, Angela I need to be inside you now,” he groaned, slipping in two fingers easily into her already soaked pussy. “I’ve missed you so much, I can’t wait another second. I need you now.”

  “Yes, now,” Angela moaned, bucking into his hand. “Give it to me. Every inch, Shane. Hard, fast and rough. That’s the way I like it.”

  Shane swore beneath his breath, his fingers pulling from her twitching walls to knead at her curvy ass. She felt his cap tease her entrance and she almost lost control. She loved that he didn’t hesitate any longer but simply speared her pussy in a plunge that would have pulverized her. She screamed, spasming around him in countless mini orgasms.

  He started pumping into her repeatedly, making her use language she’d never dreamed she even knew. The angle of his thrusts had his cock hitting spots inside her that made her eyes see stars. She couldn’t seem to stop writhing and panting.

  “Fuck me…yes! Fuck me…oh fuck!” she groaned in an endless stream. Behind her, Shane gasped and groaned, gripping her hips hard as he kept her still for his conquest of her squelching walls. The harder he rammed into her, the wetter she became. She blinked as her senses began to ring warning bells of an even more explosive climax. Shane kicked her legs wider apart for an even more intense penetration. Angela’s back arched as he slammed in deeper than ever before.

  “I love fucking you, Angela Neil,” Shane growled after a pause which had them both holding still, each reveling in the filling of her pussy and its tightness around his shaft.

  “I need to know how much,” Angela gasped. “Make me cum, Shane.”

  “With pleasure,” he rasped, and slid out of her until the tip nudged her cunt lips and then he lunged in again to the hilt. Angela’s cry rent the air and she happily splintered around him. She could just barely hear his sharp intake of breath as her walls pulsated and clenched on him. Once her whole frame stopped juddering, he began to move again, his thrusts growing choppy with each passing second. His hand slipped underneath to cup her breasts and pull at her swollen nipples. Angela let out a whimper, already edging into another boundless release.

  “Shane!” she half-sobbed, right before his shaft slid in at just the right slant to hit her g-spot and send her spiraling into a mind-consuming release that triggered his just a second later.

  "I love you, Angela," Shane whispered in her ear, his chest heaving where it pressed up on her back as they both flattened over the desk. "Always and forever. Can we get married tomorrow?"

  Angela giggled, catching the dash of humor beneath his husky voice. "I love you too Shane. But I’m holding out for my big wedding. At the farm in October. With a bluegrass band and barbeque. And I’m not kidding either.”

  “I think you’re my mom’s dream daughter-in-law,” Shane said with a laugh.

  ****

  Angela’s heart started to flutter the moment she woke up and saw that Shane was already seated in a chair across the room.

  He sat forward with his elbows on his knees, but with the sun rays at his back, spilling through the window he managed to stay half in shadow making her unable to make out his face.

  Angela wished she could tell him he didn’t need the shadows anymore, not with her. All night long, she’d shown him, in every way, that with them imperfections were celebrated, not abhorred.

  “Hi,” she heard herself say breathlessly. “Been up long?”

  “Hours,” he said with a light tone, and she could almost hear his smile.

  Angela felt her face flush with embarrassment as she realized he must have watched her sleeping. The covers had fallen when she’d risen from the pillows, and now she was half-bared to him. Any other time and she’d have rushed to cover herself, conscious of a small bulge here, a slight birthmark there. But her new-found unselfconsciousness with her body stemmed from every tender gaze, every reverent look of admiration Shane had given her and gave her still, their eyes meeting in a laser beam of constant awareness.

  She couldn’t tear her gaze from him as her thoughts went over every moment of last night. They’d been insatiable. She’d never dreamed her body could be so flexible, so pliant for whichever position or angle the very imaginative Shane came up with. He’d amazed her with his no-holds-barred approach to sex, where virtually nothing had been out of bounds, or too kinky. Damn.

  She loved that Shane seemed to have lost his habitual tenseness; seemed purely relaxed sitting forward in that chair. Unspoken words passed between them and it was easy to imagine what both of them were thinking.

  Just then he rose fluidly from the chair and Angela let her eyes travel over him, dressed in just a pair of low-slung distressed black jeans. He was so graceful, yet filled with a leashed animal energy. He came forward and she could see the whole of him, his face and chest, the scars and the beauty.

  He sat on the side of the bed close to her, and she itched to rake her fingers through his hair; the gorgeous blonde, silky locks tumbling.

  She loved him so much. The joy of that made her energized to face the day. But first things first: she needed to freshen up. She began to roll over to get off the other side of the bed when his arm shot out across the space between them, closing round her shoulders.

  “Somewhere you need to be?” Shane asked.

  Angela never lost her teasing smile, resting her back against his chest. “The bathroom, hot shot. I need a shower and I’m sure you do too.”

  He pulled her closer still, setting her to lie halfway atop him; nuzzling into her shoulder so he could bury his nose in her messy curls.

  “A shower can’t solve the problem I have right now,” he told her huskily, the unmistakable rasp in his voice making her body trill. Heat seared straight through her when he flexed his hips into her and let her feel his hard staff pressed against the curve of her ass.

  Angela shivered with instant arousal. She didn’t protest as Shane urged her to rest on her side on the bed, her back to him. Already she was losing her breath. He turned her on so easily; like a light switch. Soon she felt his chest begin to rise and fall rapidly in equal reaction to their bodies’ closeness. The rightness of their sexual compatibility awed and enchanted her at the same time.

  By the time he’d stripped off his jeans and returned to spoon his warm, lithe body behind hers, Angela was in a sensual haze of desire. He was so hard and thick
, and she was so wet, that she knew it would take just one powerful stroke to have him implanted inside her.

  Angela opened herself to his invasion without a second thought, lifting her leg to hook over the back of his right thigh.

  Shane positioned his tip at her opening, aiming straight for her hidden core – not thrusting in but easing through with sublimeness as her vulva pulsated around him, sucking him in. Angela gasped at the sweet-hot pressure that stretched her continuously, even after a long night of hard, deep and welcome ravishment.

  He went still as a rock once he was inside her and Angela arched her back into him. Deep within she felt so sore, yet so ready. She couldn’t imagine a time she wouldn’t want him. She needed him so much; to feel his raw hunger, the way he liked to stroke in and out with the forceful lunge of his lust and passion for her. She wished to surrender to the dominance of him, neither of them holding back. She wanted it all.

  “Angela,” Shane said in her ear, as he started to plunge, his movements controlled and taut; solid. Angela was already melting in puddles around his thick, heated shaft. She reached back to fist his hair, and grabbed a hold. He groaned roughly when she tugged harder, and he mirrored her hunger with his next range of thrust which sent him moving like a piston inside her.

  Angela didn’t fight back her sounds of pleasure. Each time he bottomed out to the very neck of her sheathe, it made her writhe and moan. He had her going wild for him, body and mind blown. She thrust her hips back to allow him go even deeper and that seemed to push him to the edge. He grunted, the graceful slide of his strokes turning erratic, ferocious and juddering.

  Shane’s delight in her body throbbed through her nerve cells as he yanked her even tighter against him and rammed his groin into her ass over and over. The bright room filled with lewd sounds of their bodies and their sex meshing and grinding.

  This wasn’t lazy morning sex. This was a rampage, reminding Angela of last’s night’s amazing carnal journey. The heat of his breath warmed the back of her neck as he buried his face deeper into her hair. He seemed to be fighting for air as much as she was.