by Moira McTark
Ryan swung his legs off the bed and looked over his shoulder. “You’ve been planning like this since before college?”
“I knew what I wanted.” That was true. Though, neglecting to mention the circumstances that forced her revelation bordered on deceit through omission. She could live in the gray area this once.
He walked into the bathroom and rifled through one of the drawers. “Okay. I know you’re driven, almost pathologically so, but why no men? You could still date and get ahead in the company.”
“I date,” she corrected, the indignant tone in her voice unjustified.
Returning to the bed with a small bottle in hand, he stared at her, waiting. It wasn’t as though they’d just met.
“Fine. I rarely date. There isn’t time in my schedule for romance. You know what our work is like, how often we’re gone.”
“I know.” He wasn’t giving. And in the hope of preventing him from telling her how much he dated, she gave him what he was looking for. “Romance is distracting, and honestly, my limited forays into it weren’t that great. Mostly, I just didn’t miss not having it in my life.”
“Mostly?” He poured a small portion of what she now saw was scented oil into his palm. Setting the bottle aside, he rubbed his hands together and then reached for her thigh, massaging slow, strong circles into her muscle. “So there was something you missed. Tell me about him.”
“Him?” His hands moved down her leg to her calf, his thumbs slid around the muscle then worked through it. God, this was good.
“Yeah. I want to know what you missed. Was it one guy, something sexy, emotional?”
She considered. She couldn’t deny there were times she felt a longing, but they had very little to do with the men she’d been with. She would watch a movie, or read a book, and envy the connection between the hero and heroine. But it wasn’t a firsthand experience.
“It’s funny to say, but I think what I missed is something I’ve never actually had.” She looked away feeling shy. “Until now.”
His hands slid, fingers splayed, warm and strong, up her leg to her hip and across her belly.
She covered his hands with her own, following the path he laid. “I’ve never felt like I couldn’t stand to not touch someone before. I wondered what it would be like.”
Ryan looked up at her, taking their hands up over her ribs to cup her breasts within his palms. Her hands remained over his, following his movement even as he slowly massaged the full globes and circled her nipples.
He was making her wet again.
“What do you like, Beth?” His voice was deep, his words slow. “What excites you?”
Her gaze locked on him. She swallowed. “You do.”
A subtle smile quirked his lips. “I like that, but I mean before this trip.” He slid one hand down between her legs, and before she realized what he was doing, he’d reversed their hands so that his was on top and her fingers were tracing the slow, steady circles around her clit.
“Tell me what you thought about the last time you touched yourself like this.”
A blaze of heat scorched her cheeks and chest. Her breath caught. She knew exactly what she’d been thinking of.
She tried to pull her hand away, but Ryan caught it. “You shook on it. You have to do what I say, answer what I ask. Right now, I want to watch you make yourself come, and I want to hear what you think about when you do it.”
Placing her fingers back at her sex, he returned to massaging her thighs.
It was exciting in a way she’d never imagined, to have him watch as she touched herself. She parted her legs wider, thrilled by the way his gaze traveled to the source of her pleasure. Her breath came faster as sparks and jolts of pleasure streaked through her body.
Her knees dropped open, her hips rocking with the rhythm of her strokes. “I thought…about you.”
He froze and, his hands mere inches from her sex, peered up at her. Slowly, he began to massage her again, his oil-slicked fingers sliding firm against her muscles. “Then I’m going to have to make sure I live up to your fantasies.”
Ryan poured more oil into his palms and rubbed it into her inner thighs. “In your fantasies, do I kiss you?”
She nodded, rubbing a finger on either side of her clit.
“Like this?” He pressed his lips against her open thigh, pulled at the skin with a gentle suction that slowly built until it almost hurt. She gasped as a spasm ripped through her core.
Nothing like that. She shook her head, unable to speak.
Moving to the juncture where her inner thigh met her torso, he dragged his teeth along the tendon pulled taut beneath her skin. He angled his head and licked a long, slow line up one plump pussy lip and drew it softly into his mouth. Sucking gently, he ran his oil-slicked fingers down to the curve of her ass, drifting across the tight knot of her anus, and then brushing slowly around it.
Her eyes went wide, her hand stilled at her clit, and her breath caught in a gasp as her pussy clenched hard. No one had ever touched her there before. She’d never dreamed it would feel so, so arousing. Enthralled by the sensations ripping through her, and near insane with her need for release, she resumed play at her clit, thrilling in the rush of pleasure pounding through her and the newness of the experience.
Ryan continued to suckle the lip of her pussy, his nose rubbing against her hand, while his thumb slipped into the opening of her pussy.
She stroked her clit, faster now, as the spiraling need accumulated low in her belly. Her nipples were so tight they ached.
His finger traced lingering circles in ever decreasing orbits, ever increasing pressure around her anus, closer, closer…
Her hips rocked as the pleasure sliced through her. Her teeth set into the meat of her bottom lip…
Closer, until he centered over the puckered opening…
“Please!” The guttural cry ripped through her as he pushed past her tight threshold, shooting spasms straight through to her clit. Her muscled ring clenched around him, pulsing with the throbs tearing through her core.
She came hard. Her hips bucked off the mattress, and her head thrashed from side to side. Wordless cries of pleasure poured from her between her gasps for air.
Fisting the sheets in her hands, she bore down over his finger, taking him into her virgin sheath with a scream of release as the ecstasy slammed throughout her body.
She would never think of anyone but him again.
Ryan gently withdrew his finger and crawled up her body to lean into a kiss. She could taste her essence on his lips and, as thoroughly sated as she was, a new twinge of heat coursed through her.
She looked up at him and whispered, “I’ve never done anything like that before.”
Closing his eyes, he brushed his cheek against hers in a gentle caress. “You are going to have to tell me everything every other man you’ve ever been with has done to you.”
She blinked. There wasn’t much to tell. “Why?”
“Because, I’m going to do it better.” Shifting between her legs, his cock pressed into her channel. “That sexy body of yours might have distracted me once, but don’t think you’re off the hook.” He slid in and out of her with slow, steady strokes. “I want to know more about you.”
“What do you want to know?” she gasped.
He pulled out to the head and pushed back in, capturing her over-sensitized clit between them. “Everything.”
She ran her fingers over the line of his jaw, stroked the hair back from his face, skimmed her knee up his hip, taking him even deeper. “Everything might take a while.”
He cupped her ass in his palm and drew her up to meet his downward stroke. “I’ve got as long as it takes.”
“You’ve got until 7 a.m. tomorrow,” she whispered, her body quaking through his every thrust. “And then your rule over me expires.”
Ryan paused. “Ahh, I see. So you’ll only tell me because of the bet?”
“No.” She softened in his arms. “I’ll tell you because,
for the first time, I want someone to know.”
Chapter Seven
January 24
They’d talked late into the night, about her mother, about her friends. They’d talked about TV and played a variation on the game Trivial Pursuit, earning sexual favors in lieu of the tiny plastic pie pieces. She’d made him laugh, made him think, made him want. They’d barely scratched the surface of what made Bethany who she was, but Ryan felt like he knew her better than he’d ever known anyone. The details needed to be filled in, but the emotions, the feelings, where there.
Now, assembling the lobster meat BLTs he’d planned for lunch, Ryan’s mind kept tripping back to the same thought. This is more than a fling. More than an itch that needed to be scratched. It might have started as a challenge, an attraction he couldn’t explain or deny, but when Bethany let down her guard and let him in, he found himself in a place he never wanted to leave. Their connection was intense and incredible.
It was perfect.
He’d known they made a good match in business, balancing each other out—no matter how infuriating it was at times. But seeing what it was like with her on a personal level, he had no doubt they were a team that should stay together. He would tell her about his plans for the company and get her on board with him. Maybe she wouldn’t want to leave Jared, and he could live with it, though the idea of her spending all that travel time with one of the other team members made him grit his teeth.
He wanted her to spend her time with him. He wanted her to spend every night with him, to wake up in his arms every morning, and to spend cold Sunday mornings in front of a fire with him. Not stuck on an airplane with some jackass who didn’t know the first thing about how to make her laugh. Or worse yet, with some jackass who did.
Bethany’s head popped around the corner, a gleam in her eye, excitement in her voice. “Ryan, look what I found.”
She held a pair of cross-country skis in her hand.
“And they have boots in every size back there. We’ve only got a few flurries outside. Let’s go out.”
He piled their lunch onto a couple of plates and walked over to check out the skis. “Nice. How about after we eat?”
Her eyes tracked down to the sandwiches he held out before him, widening in appreciation. “God, you’re good.”
“It’s all part of my master plan. I’m going to wheedle my way into your heart with food.”
Leaning the skis against the wall, she took a plate and headed out to the fireplace where they’d begun picnicking on the floor. “Wheedle away.”
Ryan sat down across from her and took a bite. It was rich, good. Bethany had lemon butter dripping down her chin, which she wiped away with the back of her hand.
“Delicious,” she groaned around a mouthful.
He could barely see the tightly wound woman he worked with. This was Bethany relaxed, more than he’d ever imagined she could be. It was damn sexy.
Glancing up at him, she still had the sparkle in her eyes. “I haven’t been on cross-country skis in years. I’ve got a Nordic Track in my living room, I enjoy the exercise, but I’m suddenly dying for the rush of cold air on my cheeks as I glide over the snow.”
That was another one. “So, you’ve got a Nordic Track, a treadmill, and a stationary bike in your living room? Sounds like you’ve got everything you need to almost do the activities you love. What’s next? A swimming lane in the hall?”
Mid-bite, she froze. Then slowly she set her sandwich down, swallowed, and looked up at him.
The jab was meant as a joke, but he saw he’d touched on something deeper and darker than he’d meant to. “Beth, I was kidding….”
She shook her head. “No, you’re right. I’m afraid of everything I used to love. You know, I used to ski, snowboard, I did triathlons. I loved to rock climb, hike, mountain bike, even skydive.”
He didn’t know what to say. It didn’t sound like the woman he knew at all, but suddenly he could see her doing all of it. “What happened? Why’d you stop?”
“My dad...he was the one who got me into all of that stuff. He loved it, made me love it. Anything and everything. The bigger the risk, the better the high. He lived life to the max, never caring what was next, never caring about anything but the next big thrill. He lived like that right up to the day he got killed. Right up to the day he died and left my mom and me with nothing but a bunch of beaten down sporting equipment and a pile of bills we didn’t have the money to pay. When he died, I got scared. I stopped living, I stopped doing, because I was afraid of how much there was to lose.”
Ryan reached out and cupped her cheek in his hand. “I’m sorry. That must have been tough. How old were you?”
She leaned into his hand, making him feel like his touch had some small power to soothe. Making him feel the slightest bit less helpless.
“I was sixteen. Old enough to get a job after school and help out with the bills. Young enough that I had the time to work hard at school, make sure I got grades for scholarships and a decent college. I grew up in a hurry, got smart about my priorities. The rug wasn’t coming out from under me again,” she finished with a dismissive shrug of her shoulders.
Shoulders he couldn’t help but think had held a burden bigger than they were built for. No wonder she was so tough. So driven. So obsessed with playing it safe.
Unease crept into his gut, tugged at the comfort he’d been feeling. Something was about to go wrong. Something he didn’t want to deal with, but now more than ever, he knew he was going to have to. Not this minute. Bethany had just confided her deepest secret to him. He needed to let her get her grounding back before he threw another curve ball.
She glanced up at him, curiosity in her eyes. “What?”
“Nothing. I always kind of wondered what made you so strong. Now I have my answer.”
“I don’t know that I’m so strong. Focused, might be a better way to put it.”
“Persistant? Stubborn?”
She rolled her eyes and relaxed her posture. “Okay, where are you going with this?”
Finished with lunch, Ryan jumped up and put out his hand for her. “Cross country skiing. You ready to get back into action?”
“You better believe it.”
—
Ryan propped his skis and poles and laughed as Bethany jumped into his arms. “You look like a kid on Christmas morning.”
“I feel like one,” she said, wrapping her legs around his hips as she rained kisses over his neck and face. “God, that was so amazing. I can’t believe how long it’s been. The rhythm of it, sliding over actual snow, the cold air in my lungs. It doesn’t get any better! It was so great. You’re so great.” She pulled his earlobe into her warm, wet mouth and flicked her tongue over it, making him hard as she gripped him tighter with her legs. With her lips grazing the outer edge of his ear, she whispered, “I don’t want this rush to end. Take me inside and do something crazy and deviant to me.”
The sexy demand was something he would happily accommodate.
Kicking their shoes, jackets and hats off, they couldn’t get naked fast enough. His cock pressed hard against his jeans as he ground between her legs, pinning her back against the hallway wall.
She tore at his shirt, pushing it over his shoulders, and jerked it down his arms. She was wild with lust, and not being inside of her drove him insane.
They crashed against one wall long enough to get his shirt off of her, staggered down the hall, kicking off their jeans and sweats, and slammed through the doors to the spa, each wearing a pair of Ryan’s boxers. He, though, had a foil condom packet tucked into the waistband of his.
Bethany’s eyes were smoky, her breath puffing in short pants. Standing on the cool, tile floor in front of him, she dropped slowly to her knees and hooked her fingers into the top of his boxers. His cock jutted out through the front opening, and she carefully pulled the elastic over the tip then slipped the shorts down to the floor.
She splayed her fingers wide over his legs as she ran he
r hands up his thighs and over his balls to circle his cock with a hold too light to be considered anything but torture. She peered up at him and, leaning forward, parted her lips to take him.
The hot, wet pull of her mouth over the head of his cock was pleasure in its purest form.
She opened wider and took him inch by inch into her mouth until he met the back of her throat. Her tongue swept under his shaft, and she relaxed, somehow taking him further into her tight depths.
Pulling back almost to the head, she swirled her tongue around the tip and let out a low, sultry moan that had his balls tightening. Then she pushed forward over him, again taking him deep into her throat.
His fingers sifted in the sexy tangle of gold curls she constantly wrestled with, gripping her scalp as she moved back and forth over him. He let her lead for a moment then nudged her off his cock. Kneeling before him, she looked up with eyes filled with questions.
“I’ll never last if you do that, and I’ve got other plans for right now.”
He helped her up and leaned in to kiss her pink lips, swollen from sucking him. God, she was gorgeous. Slipping his tongue between them in a tease, he ached to have his cock back inside her. He guided her over to the edge of the spa where he turned on the jets then jumped in before helping her step down into the steaming water.
Buoyant in his arms, he spun her around so her back pressed against his chest. With one arm wrapped across her breasts, he held her against him, while the other arm extended down between her legs to stroke her pussy. The soft strands of her tight curls teased and tickled his fingers as a thousand tiny bubbles released with the brush of his hand.
Her head rolled back, and she let out a tiny mew that had his cock throbbing against the soft crack of her ass. He nuzzled his mouth against her neck, close to her ear. “Put your knees on the shelf and hold onto the ledge, baby.”
She pulled her legs forward and spread them wide over the sunken seat at the side of the spa. The jets started slow, but he could already feel the gentle rush of water against his hand as he lazily fingered her opening.
