by L. A. Casey
This caused him to raise an eyebrow. “Why’re you sorry?”
I lifted my arm and scratched my neck. “For being so awkward.”
He smiled again, and really tempted me to bite a chuck out of him.
“It’s not awkward,” he said. “It’s nervousness, which is the part I don’t get.”
I felt my cheeks heat up. “What don’t you get?”
He lifted his arm and stretched it out on the booth seat behind me before he leaned in closer. I felt his breath on my face and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes back as it invaded my senses.
I want to taste him, my mind wickedly whispered.
I blinked my eyes when Ryder’s voice gained my full attention. “I don’t get why a woman who looks as edible as you is so shy.”
I didn’t know whether to run away with embarrassment, or fuck him where he sat.
“I don’t usually do this,” I swallowed. I’m not one to walk up to men and talk to them which is why me friend physically pulled me over to you.”
Ryder’s eyebrows rose with surprise. “Usually I’d call bullshit, but I think I believe you.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing. This decision prompted him to lean even closer to me which had my heart slam into my chest. “What is your name?” he asked me, his eyes scanning my face with an intensity that caused me to suck in another very large breath. “I didn’t hear your friend very well when she introduced you both.”
His. Voice.
I could hear it very clearly now that he was so close. A man’s voice had never caused an ache to rapidly pulse between my thighs, but Ryder’s voice was doing exactly that. It was a little unsettling because my body was reacting to him in such a way that scared me.
“Branna,” I whispered.
He dipped his head even closer to mine and said, “One more time, beautiful, I didn’t catch that.”
Sweet Jesus, my mind gushed. Did he really mean that?
Aideen and my sister had told me enough times that I was beautiful, and some boys I dated over the years mentioned it here and there; but never a man, and that was exactly what Ryder was. A knicker dropping, fuck me hard as you can, man.
I cleared my throat and tried my best to ignore the sinful thoughts that had invaded my mind, but Ryder’s closeness allowed his delicious scent to surround me, and I had trouble concentrating because of it.
“Branna,” I said louder, licking my dry lips. “Me name is Branna.”
Ryder’s heated eyes returned to mine, and a smirk curved his mouth. “Branna,” his voice was low and husky when he spoke.
Shit. Fuck.
“Yeah,” I rasped, refraining from throwing myself at him and begging him to take away the aching pain between my thighs that he so brutally, and unknowingly, caused.
“I’m Ryder,” he said and held his hand out to me.
I swallowed, and with a trembling limb, I lifted my arm and placed my tiny palm in his very large one. “It’s nice to meet you, Ryder.”
He gripped my hand and tugged me closer to him until our chests touch. He gazed down at me, a grin playing on his plump lips as he said, “The pleasure is all mine, Branna.”
If he said my name in that low, husky seductive tone one more time, I was going to jump him in front of all of these people. Fuck my pride and dignity.
“Feel free to jump me at any given time, Branna,” he said and licked his plump lips. “I’m more than ready.”
I widened my eyes. “I beg your pardon?” I asked as my stomach churned a little.
He grinned at me. “You said you would jump me if I said your—”
“Omigod.” I gasped and pulled my hand free from his so I could cover my face with it.
I said that out loud? I cringed. How bloody mortifying.
“I’m so sorry,” I began, “I didn’t mean to... not out loud... this is awful.”
I was blowing this; I was single handedly fucking up speaking to someone. I was grateful for the loud music because I didn’t want to hear Ryder laughing at me. I jumped and dropped my hands from my face when I felt a hand on my bare thigh. I looked up and found Ryder was grinning down at me.
“Hi,” he said, smiling wide. “Branna was it?”
He knew good and bloody well what my name was, he was teasing now.
I cleared my throat. “Hi back... Ryder was it?”
“Yeah,” he smirked. “I’m Ryder.”
Yes. He. Was.
“Ryder,” I repeated.
He lowered his head back to mine and said, “You’re beautiful.”
I blinked, dumbly. “You’re beautifuler.”
I cringed the second the words left my mouth.
He snorted and asked, “Who’s sweet talking who here?”
Not me, I knew that much, I was talking out of my arse.
I shuddered. “You can sweet talk me, I’ll be quiet.”
There was less chance of me making a complete arse of myself if I kept my big mouth shut.
“I don’t know,” he mused. “I like this. You saying what you want to say then getting embarrassed over it. It’s very cute.”
I flinched.
Ryder blinked at my reaction. “Did I say something wrong?”
I shook my head. “No, it’s just, I call me sister cute all the time and because we look similar it just weirded me out for a second.”
“How old is your sister?” he asked, the corners of his eyes creasing.
“She turns eighteen next month,” I said, and then found myself frowning. “She’s growin’ up very fast on me.”
Ryder raised a brow. “On you?”
I nodded. “Yeah, our parents died when she was nine. I was nineteen at the time and refused to let anyone raise ‘er but me, so I put everythin’ on hold and brought ‘er up. She’s a good kid, too. I think I’ve done a good job with ‘er.”
Ryder was staring at me with his mouth agape, and what we were just conversing about hit me like a cold shower.
Fuck.
I think we had been flirting and I somehow managed to fit in the fact that I was a mother figure to my kid sister and that I’ve spent most of my life raising her. What I should have spoken about was sex related things, not baggage related things. I was really fucking this up. I felt my cheeks heat up.
Talk about a mood killer.
“I’m so-sorry,” I stuttered. “I didn’t mean to take a huge turn in the conversation.”
Ryder shook his head. “No, don’t apologise, I was just a little caught off guard. So, you’ve raised your sister?”
He was interested in the information that much was obvious. I just didn’t get why. I bit down on my lower lip and nodded.
“All on your own?” he questioned. “No boyfriend?”
I shook my head. “No one serious, I brought a man home once for dinner but me sister—who was eleven at the time—didn’t like him because he couldn’t say her name right. He was from Spain and his English wasn’t the best. She ran him out of the house while I was cookin’ and we never saw him again. I stopped datin’ after that.”
When I finished speaking, Ryder had his head tilted back with the soothing sound of his laughter tangling up with the music. It was alarming how relaxed his laughter, and overall presence, made me feel. He was a stranger, but I felt very comfortable next to him. It was odd, but in a really nice way.
“Your sister sounds incredible,” Ryder said with a big smile on his face after his laughter subsided.
I nodded. “Yeah, she’s me world.”
Ryder used the arm that was over the back of the booth to drape over my shoulders. I went as still as a statue as he pulled me closer until the side of my body moulded against his.
“Where is she tonight?” he asked, his lips almost pressed against my ear.
I swallowed. “At home. She’s probably sleepin’ now, she had a long week at school.”
Ryder hummed. “I’ll have to bring you to my place then, I wouldn’t want to wake her up. She mig
ht do more than kick me out.”
I felt my eyes widen and my heart come to a complete stop.
“Branna?” Ryder murmured.
I snapped out of my momentary shut down and turned my head to him and said, “Look, you’re gorgeous, and trust me when I say that I really, really want to go back to your place with you...”
“But?” Ryder offered.
“But,” I swallowed. “I’ve never had a one night stand before, and to be honest, the prospect of it kind of scares me.”
Ryder’s eyes scanned over my face when I finished speaking. “Would you believe me if I said we wouldn’t have to have sex?”
I blinked. “Why else would you want me to come back to your place?”
He laughed and shook his head. “This is going to sound like bullshit, but I like talking to you, and listening to you speak. From what I’ve heard, you sound like an incredible friend and sister. You’re independent and that’s hot, but you know what’s downright sexy?” he asked and I shook my head, not being able to verbally speak yet. “Your shyness and nervousness. It makes my dick hurt. You’re beautiful and have a sense of humour. I haven’t come across all that goodness in a woman in... ever.”
I had to look away when blood rushed to my cheeks. Ryder laughed and placed his hand under my chin, forcing me to look back at him. “Yeah,” he grinned. “That shyness is definitely hurting my dick.”
The pulse between my thighs throbbed so hard I had to rub my legs together to try and soothe the ache. Ryder’s eyes dropped down to my thighs and caught the motion, he kept his eyes lowered, and a smirk slowly curved his mouth. He knew I was aching.
“It’s only fair,” he murmured when his gaze returned to me. “If my dick hurts, I want your pussy throbbing.”
Oh, Christ.
“Ryder,” I breathed and squeezed my thighs tightly together. “Don’t talk like that.”
He growled at that and brought his mouth to my ear, breathing into it. “Why not?” he asked. “Your clit hurts so good right now, doesn’t it? It’s begging to be rubbed, licked, and sucked.”
I lifted my hand to his thigh and squeezed in warning. “I’m serious,” I panted. “I will do somethin’ insane if you don’t stop.”
“Yeah?” he said as his teeth nipped my earlobe. “Like what?”
I lost a little bit of my control when I said, “Like fuck you where you sit.”
I heard Ryder’s quick intake of breath, and felt his leg muscle tense under my palm. “How would you fuck me, sweetness?” he asked after swiping his tongue over my skin. “Would you ride me slow and deep? Or fuck me fast and hard?”
Screw being in control.
“Let’s find out,” I almost snarled.
Ryder pulled back and looked at me with wide eyes, but before I lost my nerve, I let the pulse between my thighs urge my movements. I turned, bent my knees and crawled onto the seat. I cocked one leg over Ryder and sat on him, not being able to resist rocking my pelvis forward.
I groaned out loud when I felt the thick hardened length of Ryder’s cock press against me, causing a shiver to spread throughout my body. I looked down to Ryder when I felt his hands clamp down on my arse. He squeezed my flesh between his hands and lifted his head up to mine. I lowered my mouth to his, and let it hover a hair away.
“You’re coming home with me,” Ryder growled. “I don’t fuck in public, but darling, you’re making me rethink that.”
I groaned and rocked my pelvis against him once more. “I think I can come from doin’ this alone,” I said into his ear and then pulled back and snaked my tongue across his lower lip.
Ryder’s hips bucked up into me. “Prove it.”
Was he challenging me? I thought, my inner vixen smirking.
It was very rare that I let her out to play, but Ryder was coaxing her out into the open. Shy Branna was taking a backseat to Naughty Branna, and, for once, I did so willingly.
I covered his mouth with mine and squeezed his shoulders with my hands when I heard him groan at the contact. He plunged his warm, wet tongue into my mouth and growled as I rolled my pelvis against him. I continued to rock against him, panting as the added friction of our clothes roughly rubbed against my throbbing clit.
I pulled away from Ryder’s mouth to try and catch my breath, but he wouldn’t allow it. As soon I detached my lips from his, he lifted a hand from my behind and fisted it in my hair and roughly pulled my head back towards his and covered his mouth with mine once more. He bit down on my lower lip before sucking it into his mouth.
Fuck.
I moaned as he bucked his hips up and pushed his hardened length against me. I hissed and rolled my hips back and forth until my breathing became laboured. I could feel the sensation that was building up in my core. At first it was little licks of pleasure I felt, but the harder and faster I bucked against Ryder, the more intense the licks became until suddenly it was excruciating pleasure. I sucked in a breath and held it as I was thrown over the edge into bliss.
I felt kisses and a tongue trail along my jaw line, but I was only pulled back into reality when teeth bit into my neck causing me to cry out. The mixture of pleasure and pain was so intense I let go of Ryder’s shoulders and started to involuntary lean to the right. Before I had a chance to fall, Ryder gripped onto me and pulled my chest against his. He held me against him until the cloud of ecstasy lifted from me and I blinked reality back into focus.
Heaven, my mind purred, that was exactly what I experienced.
“Holy Christ,” I panted.
“You were right,” Ryder growled. “You could come from just grinding on me.”
I allowed his words to sink in, and the realisation of what I just did became very clear.
“Omigod,” I whispered and squeezed against Ryder, hiding my face in the crook of his neck. “What did I just do? Oh, God, you must think I’m some little—”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” Ryder cut me off, bringing his mouth to my ear. “You used my body to give yours pleasure, it was the sexiest thing I have ever seen. That was for me alone, no one else saw. I dimmed the light in our booth. Only you and I know that you just came apart.”
I widened my eyes to the point of pain, pulled back from Ryder and darted my eyes around the club. Shock hit me. I had just gotten off on a stranger in the middle of a populated nightclub.
“I just turned into the girl me parents warned me to avoid hangin’ around with when I was younger.”
Ryder’s chuckle helped me relax.
“You amuse me, sweetness.”
I looked down at him. “Sweetness?”
He nodded. “Your mouth tastes so sweet.”
“You’re so gorgeous,” I breathed, overwhelmed that someone as perfect as him seemed to like me, or at the very least liked kissing me.
Ryder grinned. “Sweet talker.”
I felt my cheeks flush, and I was about to tease him back when I heard sudden wolf whistles and catcalls. “Big brother is getting some,” an unfamiliar male voice whooped as the light in our booth—which I didn’t notice had turned off—came back on. “Damn, is her front as nice as her back?”
I pulled back from Ryder and looked over my shoulder to find four males staring at Ryder and myself. Mainly me. I could tell straight off the bat that they were the brothers Aideen had mentioned. They were all the same height, a few inches over six feet—easily. From the left to the right I scanned each male and saw similarities and differences. The main difference out of all the brothers was the kid on the far left who had hair as white as snow. He was younger than Ryder too, a lot younger.
The kid was standing next to another kid, just one with dark hair. Everything else about them was similar, and I remembered something else that Aideen said, she said they were twins. It was obvious that they were identical. I could see from the smirks they shot my way that they both rocked deep dimples in their cheeks, and it was a Godly sight if I ever saw one.
The dark haired kid had a red swollen eye that would be
discoloured in a few hours as a bruise set in. He had a small cut on his lips, and the white hand wraps around his fingers and knuckles were stained with red. He was shirtless and I was surprised for a kid his age to have such defined abs and a prominent set of oblique muscles. His arms were big with muscle, and even his thighs were ripped. He was definitely the fighter.
Fuck.
I flicked my eyes to the right and they landed on an absolute beauty. He had shoulder length dark hair, big eyes, big shoulders, and a killer grin. I saw dimples, like his younger brothers, dented his cheeks when he grinned, and my insides did summersaults at the visual. He wore a black buttoned up shirt that was rolled up to the elbows, and I saw a partial of a very colourful tattoo that wrapped around his forearm and snuck under the shirt, hiding it away. I could only imagine the rest of the tattoo he was rocking.
Shit.
To avoid openly drooling, I flicked my eyes to the last brother, and I barely managed to hide the gasp I sucked in. I openly stared at the other three males with awe, but I couldn’t not stare at the last brother even if I tried. He had supple tan skin like his brothers, and his hair was thick and dark, too. His jaw line was out of this world, and he was big with muscle all over... but his face and neck. They were scarred. Badly. I was terrified to think, let alone ask, what could have caused such damaged. He looked vicious, and unlike his brothers, he wasn’t grinning or smiling at me. He just stared at me... or maybe glared?
Bollocks.
“Fuck,” the brother that had longish hair grunted. “Definitely as nice as the back. You’re hot, baby.”
I blinked at him then looked down to Ryder when he growled. “Don’t even think about it, Alec,” he warned his brother.
Alec. Damn, his name was hot, just like him.
I glanced back to Alec and saw he frowned at his brother. “I can’t play?”
“Not with this one,” Ryder stated. “She’s mine.”
And fuck me if that declaration didn’t stop my heart.
Alec groaned out loud. “You’re no fun.”
The brother who I was nervous to look at said to Alec in a deep voice, “You fucked that black haired chick with the big tits in the bathroom, why are you complaining?”
