“No, I don’t mind, go ahead and take it off,” she said.
If my glass wasn’t already propping up my bottom lip I’m sure my mouth would have fallen open. I had expected her to ignore me, walk out of the room, hell, even laugh at me, but not this. She dropped the shirt she had been holding and stood with her hands on her hips.
“What?” I said, too wine-stupid to lower my glass.
“I said go ahead and take the damn robe off.” Her mouth was tense and I could see the anger in her very stance .
Okay, Mia, this is where you apologize and slink off into some corner of the house.
“Oh wait, let me guess. That was a tease too, huh? You just wanted to see what I would say?” Ryan said.
Now I was angry. Good. Anger was way better than embarrassment.
My hands went to my robe and I stood up. Why had I even started playing this game? There was no way I could win, and what if I did win? What then? She admitted that she was still attracted to me and then what? There was still the fact that she didn’t want a relationship with me.
“You want me to take it off?” I asked as if it were a threat.
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“You’re the one who asked if you could. What are you waiting for?”
“Fine.” I was angry that she had called me on my bluff and angry that she didn’t seem to give a shit either way. If she didn’t give a shit, why did I? “I’ll take the damn robe off.”
I let it drop to the ß oor and stood there in my Vicky Secrets, glowering at her.
That only lasted about two seconds, though, because she was staring at me as if I had lost my mind. When it dawned on me that I was actually standing there in my underwear and she was fully dressed, I felt like crying. I couldn’t bend down to pick up the robe and I didn’t want to run out of the room, because my panties were already riding up a lot higher then they should have.
“What are you doing?” Her voice was so soft that I almost didn’t hear her.
“I’m acting real stupid,” I said, and I realized that I was about two seconds from crying.
“Why?”
“Because I am real stupid.”
“Uh-huh. Come here,” she said.
Pepito came trotting into the room and stopped. He looked at me and then looked at Ryan before ambling over to my robe and lying on it.
Now I would not only have to bend down to pick up the robe, I would have to knock him off it. I felt trapped.
“Come here,” she said again.
“No.” I bit my bottom lip hard.
I watched Ryan wipe her hands roughly on the towel she was holding before dropping it onto the newly polished ß oor. She was frowning and I was about to cry, and Pepito had front-row seats. He whined.
“Go get in your bed, Pepito,” Ryan said softly to him, but her eyes never left mine.
I couldn’t look away from her, but I saw a ß ash of movement and the clicking of Pepito’s nails as he left the room. Pepito, unlike me, was no damn fool. I felt my chin wobble even more as Ryan moved closer.
In my fantasy, she always smiled when she threw me down and made love to me. She wasn’t smiling now, and if I were smarter and not so afraid that I had developed a major wedgie, I’d turn around and get the hell out of there.
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“What exactly are you trying to do?”
“I don’t—” I broke off because I had been about to tell the truth. I didn’t know what the hell I was trying to do, but I certainly hadn’t planned on standing there in my underwear. New or not, it was embarrassing as hell.
The scent of the citrus lotion I had rubbed into to my skin seemed overpowering. Had I put it on because I thought she liked it? Of course I had, dumbass that I was.
It seemed like an eternity before she was standing within touching distance of me. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t to have her warm forehead pressed against mine. I was trembling with embarrassment.
“Why are you so damn beautiful?” she asked in a low whisper, and I burst into tears.
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CHAPTER TWENTY
At some point she must have realized her gentle shushing was getting nowhere, so she kissed me. It wasn’t the passionate kiss we had shared at the front door or in the kitchen, but it was warm and soft and somehow communicated how she felt about me more than either of those passionate moments.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m acting like this,” I mumbled against her lips.
“You’re just frustrated. I am too. I’m trying to do the right thing, but you’re making it so hard.”
I felt like a complete brat when she held the sides of my face and kissed both of my eyelids. My eyes swollen, my nose red, and my lips puffy, all wrapped in black silk underwear. Goody would have said I looked a hot mess. Ryan didn’t look much better. I reached up to hold her face as she was holding mine. Although I didn’t think she had been crying, her nose and eyes looked as red as mine.
“I hate when people cry. Especially you,” she said, answering my question before I could voice it.
“I don’t mean to,” I said. “I just feel like Brenda has me over a barrel. I would have never guessed that I would feel this way about anyone, let alone so soon, but—I didn’t ask for this, Ryan. You didn’t either, and I’m scared you might…”
“Scared I might what?”
“Change your mind about waiting for me. I don’t want to lose this before I Þ nd out what it is.”
“You don’t know?” She worded the question so cautiously that I hesitated to answer.
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GABRIELLE GOLDSBY
“I don’t remember ever feeling this way about anyone. How can I feel so good and be so angry at the same time?”
“At me?” she asked.
“No, of course not.” I leaned away from her. “I feel good when I’m with you. I’m angry at Brenda. I feel like she’s managing to keep us apart even though she isn’t here.”
Ryan smiled sadly. “If she was here, I probably wouldn’t be.”
Ryan was right; if Brenda had stayed, if she had done as I wanted and communicated with me, I wouldn’t be holding Ryan now. I might have never come full circle with my family and my body-image issues.
The thought was so horrifying that I was struck speechless.
Ryan was watching me closely. “You win,” she said in a toneless, almost stunned voice. “I can’t pretend anymore. If you really want this I won’t deny that I want it too.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Why now? Was it the snot or the swollen red eyes that won you over?”
Ryan chuckled and I couldn’t help but notice that she sounded really sad when she did. “You had me from the Þ rst kiss.”
“Then why did you tell me we could only be friends?”
“Because I don’t want to be hurt, Mia.”
How in the hell could I hurt her? The pulse at the hollow of her neck was beating so hard I could see it. As far as I knew she hadn’t cried this time, but she had been close to it. She was holding me loosely around the waist, periodically wiping at any stray tear that escaped my eyelids.
I had never thought Ryan particularly sensitive, but she was telling me that she could be hurt easily. The thought made me feel protective until I realized that I would have to protect her from myself.
“I should have never moved in here. I told myself that it was convenient, but I was fooling myself. I moved in here because I wanted to be closer to you.”
“May I ask you a question?” Ryan stiffened and I winced.
“Sorry.”
“S’okay, just ask.”
I took a deep breath. “What do we do now?”
“Now we do this.” She pulled me forward until I felt her warmth against my stomach. Her lips were a lot gentler than I expected, but
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bsp; SUCH A PRETTY FACE
I was still grateful for her strong hands on my hips, both holding me close and steadying me. One or both of us sighed, and I felt a ripple of power travel through her body.
“Did you buy these to seduce me?” Her eyes hummed with electricity.
“Yes, I did,” I said with an honesty born from knowing that I was wanted.
“Nice choice. You should take them off if you intend to ever wear them again.”
“What, you mean right here?” I asked.
Apparently, she missed the newsletter explaining how she was supposed to do all the work because I was shy. Of course, standing there in my “come fuck me” lingerie made it hard to make that point without sounding like I was trying to be coy.
Her chest rose and fell. I was trying her patience, and this time I wasn’t even trying to. “Mia?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you sure? We can back off if you want.”
“No, we can’t, Ryan. I’m tired of—”
She cut me off with a kiss. “Then let’s go upstairs.”
She bent down and picked up my robe. I’m sure she didn’t mean to, but the silk brushed against my leg as she rose to hand it to me. I put it on, grateful that I wouldn’t have to walk around with only the underwear on. I had turned a corner, a huge one, by standing practically naked in front of Ryan, but I drew the line at parading around the house like that.
I was halfway up the stairs when I realized I was headed to my bedroom to have sex. As if she had read my thoughts, she said, “Mine, not yours.”
“Oh.” I meant to say okay but it never quite got out. This is what I wanted and now I had it.
I stopped at Ryan’s room, formerly my guest room, and all kinds of weird thoughts came to mind. Like the fact that her bed belonged to my grandparents and that I’d hardly ever gone into this room until Ryan moved in. She reached around me and pushed the door open. Once inside, I turned to Þ nd her standing a long distance away from me, her arms folded.
“Hey? Why are you way over there?”
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GABRIELLE GOLDSBY
She smiled and came closer. She tucked her hands neatly into the curve of my waist. “The walk gave me too much time to think, I guess.”
Her voice trembled and I leaned away from her.
“You need another look at the panties?” I was trying to make her smile, and I got Þ ve times better.
She threw her head back and laughed, one of those full-bodied things that were equal parts relief and amusement. I leaned forward and kissed her neck. When she shuddered this time, I knew it wasn’t from nervousness. My skin was so sensitive that I felt the heat of her Þ ngers against the robe as she untied my belt. She let go of me long enough to raise her arms so I could pull her tank top over her head.
My Þ ngers were drawn to her stomach. “I had such a hard time not getting caught ogling you when we worked out. I love the way you look in a sports bra.”
Ryan smiled. “Why do you think I always wore just a sports bra?
I froze my butt off down there.”
“Ah, so I wasn’t the only one playing games?”
“Maybe not.” She ran the back of her Þ ngers along the outside of my bra. I knew without looking down that my nipples would be straining against the fabric. “But you stopped playing fair when you purchased special props.”
I might be shy, but my Þ ngers weren’t. The whole time Ryan was speaking they had been working on the fastener of her pants. I told myself that I would just stop there, that we would slow things down, but my hand was dipping beneath her waistband and she was closing her eyes. She rocked forward as I came in contact with heat and moisture.
“We’d better sit down before I fall down,” she said.
“Should we shut the light off Þ rst?” I asked.
Her face became serious “We can if you want, but I’ve been thinking about being with you from the Þ rst day I met you. I’d like to see you. What if we left it on for now? If you change your mind, I’ll cut it off, I promise.”
I nodded and we were falling and the bed was beneath my back and Ryan was on top of me. Her denim-clad legs rubbed against my freshly shaved ones. Without breaking our kiss she used one hand to unfasten the front clasp of my bra. I was only allowed to feel nervous for an instant because she was sucking the overly sensitive nipple of my right breast while her other hand was gently stroking my left one.
She moaned almost as if she felt the surge of heat in my underwear.
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Abruptly, she sat up and a little involuntary moan of protest left my lips.
“I need to get these off,” she said desperately. She stood up and unzipped her jeans. I got a brief glance of cotton briefs before they were pushed down unceremoniously. Then I saw her ß attened triangle of hair, neatly cropped and as blond as the hair on her head. I couldn’t help myself; I scooted forward until I was sitting at the edge of the bed.
My movements must have stopped her because she met my eyes then.
“Let me help you,” I whispered and reached up to take off her bra.
She had to stand so close to me that my nose was pressed against her sternum as I unclasped her bra. She shivered again.
“Cold?” I asked.
“Not at all.”
I could feel her breathing on the top of my head. I pulled the bra from her and let it drop to the ß oor. She stepped out of her shoes and jeans and stood naked before me. She had the most exquisite breasts I had ever seen. Mine had always been too large and cumbersome. Hers were perfect for her frame. Her torso was long; there was not an ounce of fat on her anywhere. I had seen her legs before, but now that I was seeing the rest of her body, I realized how perfectly they complemented her. Long, lean, and powerful looking.
I had gone from the top of her head to her toes and back again before I realized she was getting nervous. “I can’t believe you made me wait this long to see you,” I said.
She smiled, her look of relief so apparent that I felt another rush of something warm that had nothing to do with the silky feeling between my legs. I wrapped her in my arms and pulled her close. I pressed my face into her stomach and tried to catch my breath. Her hands were in my hair, releasing it from its knot.
“I love your hair,” she said.
I kissed her stomach. She shivered and I kissed her again, this time close to her navel. I used her hips to keep her still as I kissed lower and I used my foot to ask her wordlessly to open her legs. I hesitantly kissed the line of hair. It tickled my lips and she inhaled. Her Þ ngers stroked my scalp, telling me that she liked what I was doing. So I continued to kiss the neat patch of hair until her hips urged me to quicken my pace.
I looked up at her to make sure she was okay and I had to bite my lip to keep from saying something crazy like “I could look at you like this
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GABRIELLE GOLDSBY
forever.” Her hands were still in my hair but her eyes were closed, her lips parted, and her hair hung forward, almost obscuring her face.
“I want to taste you.”
She looked startled. “I should shower Þ rst.”
“You want me to stop so you can go take a shower?”
“No,” she said immediately.
I sat down on the bed and scooted back, pulling her with me, then kissed away whatever words she was about to say. She pulled me on top of her, and this time I felt the smoothness of her legs against mine.
And where her jeans had chafed, a spark of electricity went through me. I moaned and leaned back so that I could kiss the pulse at her neck.
I worked my way down to her stomach where, now that I was lying between her legs, I could smell how aroused she was.
Her hands were in my hair again, stroking, rubbing, hinting, and when my tongue dipped into her navel she arched her pelvis, bringing her heat against my breasts so that my nipples grazed her hair. We both moaned, and this time when I
kissed her, I was close to the lips of her vagina. She arched her pelvis again and I opened my eyes to see that her clitoris was pushing between her labia, calling to me. I kissed the top of the opening and she moaned again. Her hips were moving now, and almost against my will, my tongue crept out and slid between her hot folds.
“Mia,” she whispered. Her legs tensed, telling me that she had raised herself to look at me.
For once I didn’t care about being looked at. I didn’t care if she saw the way I was shaking. I steadied her hips into a rocking motion that suited me. I was Þ nding it hard to keep my pace slow. Her breathing deepened and her head was turned to the side. Although one of her hands still dug deep into my scalp, the other clenched her pillow. I licked her clitoris from top to bottom and Þ nally let my tongue slip deep within her opening. She let out a long, loud moan that no doubt carried to the other side of the house and released my head. She used both hands to clench her pillows now, and I quickened my pace. I reached beneath her body to hold her ass to steady her movements and to lift her closer to me.
My shoulders kept her open for my exploration. A rush of moisture met my lips and I buried my face even deeper. She moaned again, this time more high pitched, more out of control. The muscles of her legs
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SUCH A PRETTY FACE
stiffened again and she tried to close her legs, but I hung on because I wasn’t quite through yet.
“Oh my…” she called out and then she began to shake, grinding herself against my open mouth.
I held her tightly against my mouth, forcing her to experience every wave of pleasure. She was sobbing now, but her hips were moving in unison with my tongue. I moved deep within her as she gave one lazy rock of her hips and I surged deep with her trembling walls. I heard my name bounce off the walls of the room.
When she stopped shaking, her hands were back in my hair, soothing me as I soothed her. I didn’t want to stop for fear of what I would see in her face. But Þ nally she did stop me by gently holding my shoulders and drawing me up.
Such a Pretty Face Page 24
