Meant to Be

by Sophia Ryan

  Noah pulled the pickup to a stop near the house and killed the engine. He opened the door and got out, holding it open so she, too, could get out. Hand-in-hand, they walked to the dock that connected the house with the water.

  Moonlight swam naked in the dark, sparkly water, the gentle waves lapping the shore, their soft sighs whispering of the joy that awaited them in this treasured place. When she and Noah made love in a few minutes, that chorus would applaud their ecstasy.

  He shifted behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, and they stood at the end of that wooden tongue, looking out over the lake, taking it all in, and imagining what was coming for them. She released a sigh of awe and pleasure.

  “That’s how I feel every time I see it,” he whispered, telling her he understood her reaction. He nuzzled her neck. “Wanna go for a swim or…?”

  She turned toward him. “Or,” she said and kissed him, running her hand along the ridged outline of his dick, making it clear why she wanted to go in.

  “You still on the pill, using condoms?” he asked.

  A few years ago, she’d shared with him the details of her birth control choices, and he’d let her know that condoms were a must for him, no matter what the girl was using. Had there been a change, they’d have told each other.

  She nodded. “You still using condoms?”

  “Every time. But if you don’t mind, I don’t want to use one with you.”

  She grinned. While she required any guy she was with to use a condom, she didn’t want Noah to use one. She wanted to feel him, not the condom. “I don’t mind.”

  “Inside it is,” he said.

  Inside, Claire kicked off her shoes, then watched Noah kick off his and pull off his T-shirt. His hands moved to his jeans and unfastened them. He shoved them and his boxers down and kicked out of them.

  By the light of the full moon streaming in through the windows and screen door, she took in his naked physique. It wasn’t light enough to see any one feature clearly, but what she could see was amazing. Muscles that went on for miles, angles where she was curves, length in all the right places, and a growing cock hanging between his legs that made her mouth water.

  As if he thought she was moving too slowly on the “fuck me all night long” part of her wish, or was on the verge of changing her mind, he stepped closer and lifted her shirt off over her head. Her heart tripled its pace when his hands settled between her breasts and his fingers flipped open the front hook of her bra so easily it was like he’d been doing it forever. His fingers whispered up her arms, slipped under the straps and pulled off the bra, dropping it to the floor with his clothes.

  Her nipples had pearled up in her bra cups during his striptease and hers, and his gaze zoomed in on the tight points, setting off a tsunami of tingles in her body. His hands moved up and palmed them, brushing them briefly—too briefly—then his fingertips traced down her stomach to the waistband of her panties, again stripping them from her body.

  His gaze crawled over her naked body, his eyes glittering with a dangerous need. It ignited fires all across her skin that even the cool breath of the lake breeze coming in though the screen door couldn’t douse.

  He held out his hand, and without hesitation, she took it. It was warm, big, tight on her hand, comforting. Like always. But now, it also felt possessing, like her body was his to touch, to hold, to take at will.

  “Did I ever tell you how fucking beautiful you are?” he asked, his voice clear in the quiet night.

  He often told her she looked hot. But he’d told her she was beautiful only once. In first grade. Kevin Myers had told her she was ugly when she’d come to school the day after giving herself a bad haircut. She’d run to Noah in tears, buried herself in his arms, and told him everything. He’d hugged her, listened to her, then told her Kevin was an idiot and that she was beautiful, even though her haircut wasn’t. He’d said the words with sincerity then, but it didn’t compare to the intensity in his voice and gaze at this moment.

  “I feel beautiful whenever you look at me,” she said.

  He smiled, and it reached his eyes, where sparks danced. He kissed her palm, then swung her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom. He laid her on the bed and settled over her. The feel of his body on hers ricocheted desire through her. She was ready. For all of him. For whatever this night would bring them.

  “We should have done this years ago,” he said.

  “Yes,” she said, ecstatic he felt the way she did. “And I should have touched you like this.” Her hands slid up his wide, hard chest, his nipples, then down his body, wanting—needing—to touch everything that was him.

  “And I should have kissed you like this,” he said, kissing her again, long and hard, with open mouth and twirling tongue, and his mouth fused with hers.

  His cock stabbed hard and wet against her, and she knew he wanted this as much as she did.

  “Now, Noah. Please. Let’s make up for the years we could have been together like this.”

  Not needing any convincing, he dipped his head and kissed her face, her neck, her shoulders, her chest, and he did so slowly, as if wanting to relish every taste. His hand teased her tight nipples before his lips took over, sucking them into his mouth, rolling his tongue over them, one then the other.

  She glided her hands over him, across skin, muscles, a sprinkling of hair. Across his arms, chest, stomach, his tight ass, his back. She kissed his mouth. She grabbed his cock, stroked him, knobbed the bullet head, swirled her thumb over the wet slit. It thrilled her that she knew how he tasted and knew that his flavor would forever be a part of her.

  He kissed down her stomach, across the curve of her lower stomach, nuzzled her mound. Her body electrified at the touch of his mouth, his tongue, on her. She opened her legs to him, eager to give him all of her again.

  His hand slid between her legs, and his finger plunged inside her wetness, stroking her in a mind-blowing rhythm. While his finger stroked, his tongue teased between her folds and parted them so he could find her clit, suck it, lick it.

  Her breath shuddering out of her mouth, her hands went to his head to hold him closer to that spot, and she clenched his hair as her whole body tensed. And for the second time that night, she came, her body shaking to the core from the pleasure he’d built and bedded inside her.

  Kissing his way back up, he sucked her nipples, first one then the other, licking them, nipping them until she was flying high, the need building again.

  When his lips took hers again, she grabbed his cock and guided it into place at her slick, ready entrance.

  He eased back and stared into her eyes. “I’m gonna make you mine, Claire.”

  Her eyes locked on his so he could see the truth in her words. “I’ve always been yours, Noah.”

  With a groan, he buried his face in her neck and surged against her, burying himself deep inside her aching pussy. A heady sigh of contentment rolled from her throat as her body stretched to welcome him. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him in to feel every inch.

  He kissed her as he moved his hips against her, and she dug her fingers into his back and her heels into his ass, wanting him to sink into her soul, wanting to melt into his, wanting to give him all of her and take all of him.

  As if he could feel her orgasm mounting, his thrusts became deep and forceful, and her pussy throbbed and tightened around his cock each stroke, as if trying to capture him for now and always.

  Noah’s eyes locked on hers, and he rammed into her. Again and again. Until she was trembling beneath him, her pussy clenching him in sweet desperation.

  Then, pushed over the edge of reason, she dropped her head back, and her throat arched in a silent cry before a wild groan broke through, followed by his name.

  ****

  At the height of Claire’s release, Noah found his. He clenched her tighter, thrust harder, again and again, filling her pussy with his cum, marking her, making her his. After one last deep push, he stilled, his breath ragg
ed in his heaving chest, his body trembling with the power of their union.

  “Oh, God, Noah,” she exclaimed in a gasping rush that rumbled through his body.

  He didn’t have the breath to talk, so he kissed her, tenderly and lovingly. Her mouth. Her eyes. Her forehead. Her mouth again. She was as perfect as he’d always imagined.

  Holding onto her, he shifted off her and onto his side, and she turned to face him. Legs entwined with hers, he ran his palm over her thigh, her hip, her ass, her side to keep her body connected with his. He kissed her face, her mouth, and breathed in her scent.

  Having her body against his, having her hands on his skin, having the thud of her heartbeat against his ribcage was something he never wanted to end.

  One night with her wouldn’t be enough. Hell, one lifetime wouldn’t be enough.

  Could he convince her to stay? Could he be a selfish jerk and ask her to give up her dream of going to the university she’d wanted practically forever?

  It would depend on her reasons for initiating this incredible night.

  “Why tonight?” he asked after their souls had returned to their bodies.

  Her sweet lips curved into a smile. “You mean why I chose tonight to jump your bones?” She ran her hand along his side and over his ass, and he still couldn’t believe her touch was real.

  He nodded.

  “I feel the tick of every second you and I have left, like a nail in my heart. I knew that if I didn’t do this now, I might never have another chance.”

  “If you wanted me so bad, why didn’t you say something sooner?”

  “We’ve been best friends practically our whole lives. The thought that I could ruin the most important relationship in my life by crossing that boundary scared me. As good as our friendship is, I wanted more, and I knew I’d always regret not asking for what I wanted. But it took time to decide whether the potential for more was worth the risk of losing what I had.”

  “You don’t know how many times I wanted to do this, too, wanted to tell you how much I…” He licked his lips and shook his head, keeping hidden the end words in his statement. “I thought about telling you tonight, here, but like you, I worried it might destroy our friendship.”

  She chuckled. “It’s crazy! We have no problem being brutally honest with each other in all other areas of our life. But when it comes to sharing our deepest feelings, we were little chicken shits.”

  “I’m glad you were brave enough to take that step.” He chuckled. “Fuck, I about shit myself when you told me you wanted to suck my cock.”

  She laughed. “Okay, not my most eloquent delivery. I just had to get it out!”

  “It was perfect,” he said and kissed her. “But I gotta ask… Where does this leave us? I mean, what’s next?”

  She stilled, as if carefully selecting her words. “If you love me, Wolf, ask me to give up my wings.”

  At her words, the story his grandmother told them when they were kids raced through his brain. Raven and Wolf became friends, then fell in love, but…

  Claire cupped his face in her hands. “Wolf asked Raven to give up her wings and stay with him in the forest forever. Raven asked Wolf to grow wings and soar the skies with her, forever. They loved each other but couldn’t give up what made them who they were to be with the other.”

  He picked up where she left off. “So they spent one last perfect night together, and when the sun rose, they went their own way alone, doomed to be forever connected but always apart.”

  Tears pooled in her eyes, and his stomach clenched at the possible meaning of those tears. “Is that what’s going on here? One last night together before we part forever?”

  “I hope not,” she said.

  “You know I can’t go to UDub with you. They didn’t accept me. And long-distance relationships never work.”

  “Yes, but I can stay here and go to State with you this fall.”

  His breath caught in his chest. “You’d give up the thing you’ve wanted most since, I don’t know, fucking forever?”

  “I’ve wanted you a lot longer than I’ve wanted anything else.”

  He linked his fingers with hers and kissed her hand. “I’d be a selfish prick to ask you to give it up for me. You’ve worked so hard.”

  “If you love me and want me to stay, ask me. If not, then at least we had this one perfect night together.”

  He saw her love for him burning in her eyes, felt her love beating against his pounding heart, heard her love for him in her breaths, tasted her love in his mouth, and it all came together into one giant truth. He loved this woman, needed this woman, and if he was to have her, he’d have to be as brave as she’d been.

  He cupped her face. “Give up your wings, Claire. Stay with me here. And when we graduate from college, I’ll borrow, steal, or grow wings and follow you wherever you want to go.”

  She smiled, and her tears rolled down her cheek onto his hand. “For you, Noah, for us, I will. Gladly.”

  He grinned, threw his head back, and howled like his namesake, making her laugh.

  “I love you, my Wolf,” she said.

  “I love you, my Wolf-Bird.”

  He kissed her then, a promise for a life filled with love and forever.

  About the Author

  I write the kind of books I like to read—stories where sexual heat sizzles off the page and the characters fall hard into lust and soft love. When I’m not writing about passion, I’m indulging in it—yoga, hiking, laughing with friends over hot chile and cold beer, being lazy and crazy with family, and, of course, writing.

  ~*~

  Visit Sophia at

  http://sophiaryan.webs.com

  ~*~

  To chat with Sophia Ryan and other Wild Rose Press authors of erotic romance, join us at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/thewilderroses.

  Also Available

  from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  and major retailers.

  6 Days of You

  By Sophia Ryan

  Lily Ross’s uber-conservative boyfriend finally agrees to let her visit over fall break, but only if she agrees to his no-sex rule. Unfortunately, Michael has ditched her for a trip to Vail, a blizzard has hit, and she’s forced to stay the week with his grumpy, gay, but totally yummy roommate. Then the heat in the building shuts down, and she discovers two things—the sexy stud is hotter than any furnace and he’s definitely not gay. No-sex rule? How about no rules?

  After a horrible break-up, Daryl McKay’s looking forward to a quiet week without his annoying roommate. His plans go awry when a pissed off but sexy as sin blonde, suitcase in hand, barges in claiming to be Mike’s girlfriend. Daryl doesn’t have the heart to tell her Mike’s away with two gorgeous redheads, and with snow piling up and most of campus closed, he can’t throw her out. He would never move in on his roommate’s girl, but as the feisty bombshell settles in, the tiny dorm room grows smaller and certain parts of his body grow bigger. It was going to be a hell of a long six days.

  Also Available

  from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  and major retailers.

  Johnny Loves Krissy

  By KyAnn Waters

  Kristina Taylor’s biological clock just went off. She has endometriosis. Now “who’s your baby’s daddy” just took on a completely new meaning. A brilliant plan for conception includes her hot best friend, Johnny Huston. Taking him to bed won’t be a hardship—if she can only get him to play by her rules. After all, she wants to maintain their friendship. Not easy if he ends up being the best sex of her life.

  Knock her up? Krissy has to be crazy. Or is she? Johnny has loved her since high school. Her plan might not include life after baby. His does. But how is he going to show her how good they can be together with all her rules—no kissing, no touching, no caressing. He can make love to her, but she’s determined not to enjoy it. To hell with that and to hell with her rules. He’s determined to show her friendship is the best foundation for a relationship.

 
But there are always complications…

  With Johnny, Krissy is afraid to look to the future. Right now, she can’t get enough of the present, and she dreads the thought of losing what she’s had with him in the past.

  Thank you for purchasing

  this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  For questions or more

  information contact us at

  info@thewildrosepress.com.

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  www.thewilderroses.com

  To visit with authors of

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  join our yahoo loop at

  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thewildrosepress/