He pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the edge of the blanket, drawing her gaze to his tanned, well-muscled chest. “You look pretty focused, too.”
She couldn’t help it. She laughed as he broke the lingering tension.
Although they weren’t totally alone—a few couples were far away on their own spots around the lake—she knew nobody was paying attention to what she and Ryder were doing, too wrapped up in each other to pay attention to anyone else.
She shifted to her knees, lifting the dress, easing it off her head, and placing it on top of his tee.
He patted his lap. “Lie down and let’s chill.”
Scooting forward, aware of her skimpy suit, she positioned herself until she could place her head in his lap and stretch the rest of her body out on the blanket. She inhaled and took in his now familiar scent, the heat of the sun feeling good against her skin, and she sighed with pleasure.
“Remember when we used to do this under the big tree in your yard?” he asked, looking down at her.
She nodded. “It was hard to find places where we could be alone. Even there I was never sure one of my brothers wasn’t looking out a window, watching.”
He laughed. “I’m glad I just have an older brother. No sisters to worry about.”
“How is Andrew?” she asked.
“Still a workaholic. Still looking for a woman able to tolerate him.”
His lips lifted in a grin and she knew he was kidding. He’d always been able to joke about his stuffy older sibling. But they both knew it was thanks to Andrew that Ryder hadn’t just stayed home to work at his father’s business but had gotten his degrees.
“And your dad?” she asked.
“Retirement is good for him. Good for his heart. So is Elsa, his next-door neighbor in Florida, where he moved. They’re together without living together.”
She smiled. “Cute. I’m glad everyone is well in your family.”
“What about you?” he asked. “I know how your brothers are, of course, but how are you? How’s work? Are you happy?”
Her job as the head of the Social Media Division for Knight Time Technology made her happy. “I love the work. I appreciate being able to contribute to the family business by doing something I not only love but I’m good at. It’s fulfilling. And I have a good staff and friends. So my work life is great. Personally, family-wise, it’s been tough.”
“Ethan,” he said and she nodded.
“It was hard, him losing his wife that way. And when Sebastian and Ashley went to San Francisco to figure out some company issues, they ended up asking me to do some digging—and I’m the one who found out Mandy had been cheating on Ethan.” Her heart squeezed hard in her chest.
She hated that her brother was so unhappy. As the unofficial head of the family, he took care of everyone else, and he deserved more from life than he’d gotten so far.
Ryder squeezed her bare shoulder in support. “Ethan’s tough. He’ll come out on the other side.”
“Eventually, I hope,” she murmured, as she relaxed into his lap.
Ryder reached over and picked up a strawberry, its bottom covered in chocolate. “Hungry?” he asked.
“For chocolate? Always.”
He grinned and held the small piece of fruit over her mouth so she could take a bite. “Mmm,” she said as the mixed sweet and sour flavor exploded on her tongue.
“Does it taste good?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
He dipped his finger into the wineglass and ran it over her lips. She slid her tongue out and licked her mouth, catching his fingertip, too. She sucked the liquid off him, watching above her as his gaze darkened with unmistakable need. And beneath her head, his erection swelled and thickened. She felt the arousal in her own body, her breasts suddenly heavy, a slick pulsing between her thighs.
She wasn’t surprised when he tossed his hat and leaned his head down, his lips pressing hard against hers.
Chapter Four
Ryder kissed her, not caring about their awkward angle, taking in her sweet taste and wanting more. He needed to touch her, so he cupped his hand around her neck, then glided his fingers over her collarbone, feeling her delicate body beneath his hands. With a groan, he continued his exploration, dipping his fingers along the neckline of her bathing suit top, the pads grazing the swell of her breasts.
She shivered and her nipples puckered into tight buds, making his mouth water. He shifted her so she was lying on her side instead of straight out in front of him, giving him easier access to slide his hand where he wanted. And what he wanted was to touch every inch of her he could on his path down to her pussy.
He moved his hand, ignoring her breasts, another destination in mind. He splayed his hand across her stomach and she moaned, obviously enjoying it.
Mine, he thought.
Not wanting to freak her out completely, he kept the feeling to himself. When he’d gone to the church yesterday, he’d had no idea he’d be here with her today, trying to cement his place in her life. But with his hand possessively on her belly, he had a vision of her pregnant with his child. He swayed, suddenly dizzy, in shock at the course his thoughts had taken. But with everything inside him, it felt right.
She felt right, not just to the touch but to the emotions swirling inside him.
“Ryder?” she murmured. “Is everything okay?”
He glanced down at her, taking in the freckles on her nose, and grinned. “Couldn’t be better. I just like the feel of you beneath my hand.”
“Mmm,” she said, closing her eyes. “I like it, too.”
He shifted his stare to his tanned hand against her paler stomach and swallowed back a groan.
With her pleasure as his sole focus, he slipped his fingers beneath her bathing suit and she jumped in surprise.
“Shh. Let me play.” Her sex was bare, which turned him the fuck on. He ran his fingers over her pubic bone and lower still, finding her pussy wet for him.
Her eyes flew open, her gaze coming to his, a hazy sheen covering the blue, as desire took hold. “We’re outside,” she said in a husky voice.
“And at a couples resort and nobody is anywhere near us,” he reassured her.
Using two fingers, he slid her juices over her sex, keeping his touch away from where she needed him most. He teased her, arousing her until her hips were rotating in circles, gyrating, low moans coming from deep in her throat.
“Ryder, make me come.” She begged him, both in words and with her body’s reaction to his fingers, which dipped and played around and around.
Still not touching her clit, he slid one finger inside her and she gasped as he filled her. “Feel good, sweetheart?”
“Oh God. Good but not enough to get me over.” She arched her back in silent supplication.
He wiggled her bottoms lower on her thighs so he could pump his finger in and out of her body, her inner walls clasping him in tight, wet heat. His dick was so hard he thought he might come from giving her an orgasm alone.
As he worked her with his finger, he finally gave her what she needed, circling his thumb over the tiny, hard nub that was practically begging for his attention. And if they weren’t outside, as she’d pointed out, he’d lift her hips to his face and suck on her until she came. Saving that for later, when they were alone in bed, he pressed hard against her clit, his finger shifting inside her, pressing on her spongy inner walls.
She stiffened at the sudden pressure and began rocking against his hand. “Oh, oh, God, Ryder, I’m coming.”
He didn’t stop, keeping up both movements as she flew, his gaze on her beautiful face the entire time.
And as she climaxed, her body shook, trembled, grasping his finger, the sight a gorgeous one to behold.
She collapsed onto the blanket, her breath shallow, a fine sheen of sweat glistening on her skin.
“I died and went to heaven,” she muttered, pushing herself to a sitting position and glancing directly at his lap, where his cock was hard and evident against
his bathing suit shorts.
“What about you?”
“Nothing we can do about it out here. Talk to me about something else. Anything else to distract me.”
“Umm–” She obviously searched for something to discuss, but she didn’t tear her stare from his erection.
“And stop looking at my cock,” he told her. “Or we are going to give those people on the far side of the lake a show.”
Her eyes opened wide and she leaned over, opened the picnic basket, and took out food. “Let’s eat,” she said, her cheeks flushed as she handed him what looked like a chicken sandwich.
He shook his head and laughed. “Can’t say I’m hungry for food but yeah. Let’s eat.”
They chowed down on the contents of the basket, Ryder discovering he was starving after all. Sierra talked about her job, how she was thinking of expanding her social media services to companies beyond Knight Time Technology because she had the time. She even discussed opening her own business so she could work part time from home.
They talked about how his father’s business had grown since he’d retired. Ryder and his brother, Andrew, had grown the construction business, expanding into luxury homes. The kind of home he’d like them to live in together one day.
He found himself thinking about the future and things they’d once talked about a long time ago.
“Do you still want a dog?” he asked.
“I do. But working from the office and living in an apartment makes getting one difficult. And besides, I don’t want a smaller one. No matter how cute, I’m afraid they’ll be loud and yappy.”
He grinned. Yet another thing they were on the same page about. He’d love nothing more than a big-ass dog like a Newfoundland or a St. Bernard hanging around the house he’d already built and lived in alone.
Assuming he got the girl.
“What about you?” she asked. “Still want a huge dog?”
“I do.” He met her gaze, his voice serious as he said, “I want it all. The family, kids, dog, wife, house… everything we dreamed of.”
Her eyes opened wide and a visible tremor shook her. “It’s getting late. We should get back,” she murmured and started to pack up their picnic.
He told himself not to be discouraged by her reaction, that she had a lot going on her mind and more going on in her personal life that had to be dealt with than he did.
Ryder didn’t believe in love at first sight, and in no way was that what they’d experienced. They’d built a relationship, piece by piece, despite the fact that they’d been young and inexperienced in life and love. He was close to her siblings, they shared a love of family, and had wanted the same things out of life. He’d loved everything about her, from her generous personality to the way she’d naturally given him what he needed emotionally, making it easy to return the same.
He’d loved her then. He loved her now and he didn’t want to lose her again.
With a muttered curse at the way she’d closed down emotionally, he loaded the golf cart up again.
They drove back to the resort and returned the items. He took heart in the fact that she let him hold her hand as they walked back to their room, and when they stepped inside, he was surprised by what awaited them.
The suite had been cleaned and the shades pulled down. Fake candles were lit around the living room and along the stairs leading up to the hot tub. A champagne bucket sat by a large cheese-and-cracker platter on the table. Rose petals lined the floor leading to the bedroom, where white washcloth swans had been created and sat, intertwined, on the red bed.
“Wow, this is incredible,” Sierra said, happiness in her tone as she glanced around. “And the hot tub looks inviting,” she murmured.
“Does it?” he asked, imagining them inside it.
“It does.” With a twinkle in her gaze, she pulled her dress off and immediately removed her bathing suit. Next, she slid off her flip-flops. Then she turned and walked toward the stairs, giving him an amazing view of her from behind.
He adjusted himself, squeezing his cock tight in warning to behave. It wasn’t time. Yet.
Glancing over her shoulder, she crooked her finger at him. “Aren’t you going to join me?”
She didn’t have to ask twice. He dropped his shorts, removed his shirt, kicked off his flip-flops, and followed her up.
When he joined her in the hot tub, she was playful and eager, kissing him as she grasped his shoulders and lowered herself onto his eager cock.
Whatever was going on with her emotions, sexually she was all in, and they spent the rest of the late afternoon together in the Jacuzzi and the later part of the evening and night enjoying the luxuries provided by the hotel.
The only drawback to the entire day was the emotional separation he knew was between them. He wished he was privy to what she was thinking, where her head was when it came to them and the future.
But she was keeping her feelings close, and his gut told him it wasn’t the right time to ask.
* * * *
Sierra woke up the next morning to an orgasm building inside her that wasn’t a dream. One thing she’d learned about Ryder as a man, he was a generous lover, always giving to her, not caring if he received in return. Of course, she always tried, but he was demanding, wanting to come inside “his” pussy, as he’d declared her private parts last night.
He loved oral sex, which in turn had, in two short days, taught her to love oral. He hadn’t yet let himself finish in her mouth, but he thoroughly enjoyed what she did to him before he slammed inside her and made her come so hard she saw stars.
No one could say they weren’t sexually compatible, she thought, as his mouth worked on her now. She arched her back, and unable not to, she ground herself against him as his tongue slid in and out of her sex, his teeth alternately grazing her clit.
Her climax, when it hit, was as explosive as usual with Ryder, sending her soaring. And when she came back down to earth, it was to the sight of him rubbing his mouth on her thigh with a grin.
“Good morning, sweetheart.”
“Good morning.” She smiled back, but neither the incredible orgasm nor his easy, sexy smile could prevent the unwelcome anxiety that balled in the pit of her stomach. Because it was the morning of their second day.
The end of their retreat.
Time to return to reality and everything that waited for her. She had to face the people she’d left behind when she’d willingly run away from her wedding with the man who wasn’t her groom.
“Talk to me,” Ryder said as he slid up beside her and pulled her into his arms. “I saw the minute your mind turned back on.”
She rubbed her eyes, which had stupid tears forming. “It’s time to go home.”
“It is.” His jaw pulled tight. “But that doesn’t have to mean the end of us.” He threaded their fingers together in a show of unity she wasn’t sure she could reciprocate. “I understand that just two days ago you were engaged to another man.” He paused, then said, “But he let you go.”
“He did. But that doesn’t mean I’m–”
“I love you, Sierra.”
The words she hadn’t heard in years seemed to echo around her. Words she’d come to believe were a lie because, if he’d loved her, he wouldn’t have left her.
“I have always loved you,” Ryder went on, not waiting for her to reply. “I just shoved the feelings away so you could go on with your life. The time wasn’t right then but it can be now.”
She glanced at their entwined hands. “Do you have any idea how much you hurt me back then?”
His silence told her that he did. Or at least, now he knew.
“You took all my hopes and dreams and crushed them because you decided you knew what was best for me. That just because I once wanted to go away to college, I couldn’t change my mind. You didn’t trust in me, the things I told you I wanted, the hopes and dreams I spun for us… You let them all go.”
“I–”
“I’m not finished,” she sa
id, staring at the blank television screen across from the bed, not looking at him as she let all the feelings of the past spill forth. “You let me think you didn’t love me anymore, and I know you dated other women after me. Of course you did.” The pain of that sliced through her as if it were fresh and new.
“None were you,” he said so low she had to lean close to hear.
So close she smelled his natural scent and wanted to burrow into his embrace. But she couldn’t because that would be cowardly.
Dealing with her life, then being alone were both brave and necessary. “I need to go home, Ryder. I need to talk to Jason. We need closure.”
“I don’t like it,” he muttered.
She didn’t laugh at his petulant tone. “You don’t have to. That’s just the way it is. And I need time to think.” About them, she thought, letting the words go unsaid.
“I said I don’t like it but I didn’t say I don’t understand it.” He sat up, jarring her because she’d been leaning against him.
The next thing she knew, she was on her back on the mattress and he was looming over her, his hands on either side of her shoulders, his big body warm and tempting above her. Those beautiful green eyes stared into hers, and she saw the truth in their depths. He loved her now. And she was very much afraid she loved him, too.
But she wasn’t ready. Just because she was suddenly single didn’t mean she could make decisions about another relationship or commitments to a man who’d once pushed her away.
“Ryder–”
He shook his head. “No more talking. I’m going to take you home and give you what you say you need. But I’m going to give you one last thing to remember me by before you go,” he said before his lips descended on hers.
Her hands came to his head, sifting through the silken strands, holding him tight as he kissed her. Wanting him with every fiber of her being.
Unlike many of their moments together here, this wasn’t the frenzied, hot and heavy sex she’d gotten used to. The kind with the fire that burned out of control. This was slow and sensual. As if he wanted her to feel every glide of his lips, every stroke of his tongue, and memorize the sensations.
Take the Bride: A Knight Brothers Novella Page 6
