Review: Fighting Shadows by Aly Martinez

I dropped to my hands and knees, following the noise. “Got it!” I shouted, stretching my arm under the bed and barely catching the alarm clock with the tips of my fingers.
I quickly turned it off, and he had apparently found the second alarm, because the room fell blessedly silent. Well, that was until I heard Flint breathe, “Fuck,” from behind me.
It was then that I remembered I was naked and kneeling with my chest to the carpeted floor and my ass sticking straight up in the air. I glanced over my shoulder to find him standing, staring down at me, his already large cock thickening between his legs—a sight that had me returning his curse.
“Don’t move,” he commanded when I started to sit up.
As Flint’s heated eyes leveled me, there was a part of me that felt as though I should have covered up. But I didn’t feel insecure at all. Under his gaze, I felt more secure and wanted than I had in my entire life, and for that alone, I pressed my ass even higher into the air.
“I lied. Get on the bed, but right back in that position.”
First, I had other plans. I sat up but didn’t push to my feet. Instead, I spun on my knees and slowly crawled over to him.
“Don’t do that,” he warned, but his eyes said otherwise.
“I have a few apologies to make.” I licked my lips.
“On the bed, Ash.”
“No,” I responded.
He arched an admonishing eyebrow, which I ignored.
“You did a lot of things to me last night—things I loved. But there was something I wanted to do.” I wrapped my hand around his hard-on, steadily gliding to the tip and back again. “I’m going to suggest you sit down.”
And for once, Flint didn’t have a retort. He backed up to the edge of the bed and dropped his crutches to the floor. I smiled in victory as I followed him forward, running my hands up his thighs until I reached the base of his cock. Then I lowered my head to kiss the tip.
“Wait,” he urged.
But I was done taking his orders. I slid his length as deep as possible into my mouth. “Fuck,” he hissed.
“Wait,” he repeated as I glided back up his shaft. He pulled me upright before bending forward to kiss my shoulder. Using my chin to tip my head, he forced my eyes to his. “I said wait.” He chastely kissed my mouth and teased his hands down my sides to rest on my hips.
Then the ground below my knees disappeared and the entire world turned upside down.
Literally.
A loud laugh escaped my throat as Flint flipped me onto the bed to join him. He juggled me like a rag doll until he until he found a position that suited him—kneeling over his face.
I stopped laughing immediately when his mouth sealed over my clit.
Then I cried out as his long finger found my opening. His other hand darted between us and lifted his cock toward my mouth.
With a swirl of his tongue, he dropped his head to the bed long enough to say, “Now, apologize all you like while I have breakfast.”
I gasped as his fingers began a rhythm inside me that left me unable to focus on anything else.
“Are you sore?”
“A little.” I managed to pull myself together long enough to find his cock again. But I instantly regretted my answer when he removed his finger.
“Then you come on my mouth, but you better get busy.” He swatted my ass deliciously hard before using each cheek to pull me down to hover only a centimeter from his mouth. “Because I’m coming in yours too.” He pulled me down until I completely covered his face, licking and sucking in a deep and greedy way I should have been embarrassed by.
But embarrassment would have required thoughts, and right then, every single brain cell I possessed had abandoned me in the hunt for climax.
I came on his mouth, all right. Then, when I finally got my act together, he came in mine as well. And Flint being Flint, well, he was such an overachiever that he insisted on showing me exactly how much he accepted my sexual apologies. So, before I fell asleep on his chest, I came one last time with his hand between my legs.
I decided I could live with two alarm clocks if that was the wake-up call they provided.

Fighting Shadows is the second book in the ‘On The Ropes Series’, and is Flint’s story. It is a second chance romance that is both quite funny and heartbreaking all in the same.

Flint was consumed with anger and guilt wanting who he couldn’t have and suffering life altering paralysis from saving his brothers wife. He was suffocating in his brother’s home, because everywhere he turned was a constant reminder a life he would never have. He needed to find his new him, figure out who he could be. He couldn’t do that as long as he was there, so he left.

“I missed her. I missed Till. I missed Quarry. I missed Slate. But most of all, I missed Flint Page.”

When Ash Maybe “jumped” into his life she brought laughter. She was a firecracker, so full of life that he couldn’t help but notice.

“She burst out laughing, throwing her head back and howling loudly, I wanted to snap at her to keep it down, but it was an incredible sight to see her losing herself in a stupid snarky comment.”

And that was the thing about Ash, even though she had lived a crappy life, one that would hold most people down, she lived life to the fullest. She didn’t judge people based upon their looks, or their circumstances, she judged them upon their character.

“In that moment, she reminded me that I was still a man.”

Ash was the perfect person for Flint. She was strong and didn’t take his crap. But she was also filled with unconditional love for the man in the wheelchair. Likewise, Flint (once he learned to love himself) was the perfect match for Ash. Because he showed her that she was valuable, despite the things she had done to survive  – that she too, deserved to be loved.

Ms. Martinez is a go-to-author for me. I have read all but one book of hers. (And it is sitting on my Kindle – Slates book, Among the Echoes) She easily switches POV’s from male to female, always making me revel in the male POV. She is among my favorites!

I love these brothers, Till, Flint and Quarry. I cannot wait to read Quarry’s book, Fighting Solitude.

4.5 Stars!