by Roz Lee
All the talk about fucking her, how she wanted him inside her, had lodged in his brain like a burr in a sock. It itched and pricked at him until it consumed his every thought. He’d have her all right, on his terms this time. Before the night ended, she’d be on her back with his cock buried deep inside her.
Room service delivered the no utensils needed dinner a few minutes before she expected Ryan to arrive. Candace placed the tray in the center of the bed and checked her appearance in the mirror one more time before turning out all the lights, except the one over the desk. She’d done what she could to make the small room more romantic, so she perched on the end of the bed and waited. With a little luck, Ryan wouldn’t be too worn out to make love to her tonight. So far, he’d shown remarkable stamina, but he’d been unstable on his feet when she’d undone the restraints. For a moment, she thought she’d pushed his trust too far, but the heated look in his eyes told her otherwise. Maybe he’d let her do it to him again sometime.
Would there be a sometime in the future, or was this nothing more than a shipboard romance? She didn’t even know where he lived. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. They’d only known each other for a few intense days. Even though Ryan had said he loved her, she knew she shouldn’t read more into the situation, shouldn’t make plans beyond the next few days.
Did she want the relationship to continue after the cruise? Candace chewed her lip. She instantly regretted the nervous move and got up to fix her lipstick. Her heart beat wildly as she took in her appearance once again. Her eyes smoldered with desire and anticipation. The thought of Ryan rejecting her tonight sent a jolt of dread through her body. She had her answer. She did want to see Ryan after the cruise. Somewhere in the last few days he’d come to mean a lot to her. But what if he didn’t want to continue the relationship?
Candace knew she’d be devastated if that happened. She glanced in the mirror again. She’d never been good at hiding her emotions and this time wasn’t any different. She’d fallen in love with Ryan. Why else would she be planning this seduction, freely giving herself to him? She wouldn’t, unless she loved him.
“Oh,” the knock on her door jolted her. When she opened the door, she would be putting everything on the line, her body, as well as her heart. Candace glanced around the room to make sure everything was ready, even though she’d checked and double-checked, and knew down to every strawberry that everything was in place. Ryan knocked again and Candace took a deep breath and let it out before she opened the door.
“Hi. Thanks for coming to pick me up.”
“No problem. Are you ready?”
“Why don’t you come in?” She stood back and Ryan squeezed past her into the small room. She closed the door and leaned against it, turning the deadbolt to-Do Not Disturb -as she did so.
Ryan turned and raised one brow when the deadbolt clicked into place. “Candace?”
“I thought we would have dinner here.” It’s now or never. She fingered the tie around her waist and let the sarong fall open. A shrug of her shoulders sent it to the floor with a soft swish. Her heart beat so hard against her ribs she feared Ryan would see it, or worse, hear it in the silence. She should have thought of music, anything to fill the awful silence that screamed humiliatingly at her. Ryan hadn’t moved, hadn’t acknowledged her blatant invitation. It might have been seconds, but it felt like hours, standing there in her skimpy black lace lingerie.
Why wasn’t he saying something? Candace fought the urge to snatch the sarong off the floor, or dive into the bathroom and wait for him to leave. Hot color started on the swell of her breasts and swept toward her face like a red tide. Shame and humiliation flooded her system. Where was an iceberg when you needed one?
“Candace. If you don’t let me out right now, I won’t stop at eating a few morsels of food.” His voice rumbled low and predatory. He took a step closer and the heat of humiliation smoldered into something all together different. It crossed her mind that she’d misread his hesitation. His next words confirmed it. “If you don’t want me to have you for dinner, you’d better step aside and let me out of here.”
That’s exactly what she wanted. She stood her ground.
Ryan advanced one slow calculated step at a time, until he’d closed the distance between them. “I need to hear you say it, Candace.” He still hadn’t touched her. “Is that what you want? Do you want me to have you for dinner, every last inch of you?”
She nodded her head, or at least she thought she did, but still he didn’t touch her.
“I’m dying here, Candace. I want you so bad I may spontaneously combust, but I’m not going to touch a single hair on your head until you tell me that you want me to make love to you.”
“I…,” she began. She wanted him more than anything in the world, and his restraint, when everything about him telegraphed his need and desperation, went straight to her heart. He’d asked if she wanted him to make love to her, not if she wanted to be fucked. Her heart slowed into a more normal rhythm and love swelled up inside her, giving her the courage she needed. “Yes.” She pushed the word past her lips. “I want you to make love to…”
Ryan swallowed her last word with his mouth over hers. He braced himself with his hands on the door on either side of her head, so only his lips touched her. His kiss urged her to respond, and she did, meeting him on equal terms. He took, and as if sensing her need, backed off and let Candace take the lead. Their mouths danced a primal mating dance, tasting, arousing and promising.
Candace couldn’t think. Her body responded to Ryan’s like a marionette to a puppeteer. He pulled the strings, and she followed, until the momentum shifted, and she realized he wanted her to take the lead. She did, kissing him with all her limited skills and every bit of passion she had in her. His hands came off the door and framed her face. Candace ceded control back to Ryan, sliding her arms around his waist and molding her body to his. His skin radiated heat and she tried to get as close to it as possible.
His lips left hers to trace a heated line along her jaw, down the pounding pulse in her neck to her collarbone, and lower to the swell of her breasts above the black lace bra. His hands followed, skimming down to rest on her ribcage. Her breasts ached for his touch. She sucked in a harsh breath as his thumbs scraped along the bottom curve of her breasts. Candace cradled his head in her hands and arched her back, urging him on.
She wasn’t disappointed. He explored every inch as promised, but he did it at a pace so slow she thought she might go insane. “Ryan,” she begged, but he ignored her pleas. His tongue and lips slipped along the top of her bra and nuzzled her nipples through the lace. Her nipples pebbled and he nipped at them with his teeth. Candace cried out at the pleasure-pain, but still he ignored her. She wanted the bra gone, wanted to feel his mouth on her breasts, without the fabric between them.
As if he’d read her mind, Ryan slid the bra straps down, trapping her arms to her side. With a rough tug, he wrenched the fabric down to expose her breasts. She’d leaned against him and he pushed her back against the door and stared at her aching breasts. What a sight she must be, she thought. Her lipstick had to be all over her face, her bra half on, baring her to his gaze.
“My God, you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” His hands came up to cup her breasts in the most tender caress possible. “I’m going to suck your breasts.” Ryan raised his eyes to hers. She saw wonder and desire, and a subtle question in them. Once again, he offered her a chance to call it off.
Candace raised her hands to cover his and arched her back, thrusting her breasts toward him. “Suck me, Ryan.”
He didn’t have to be told twice. Candace groaned as Ryan feasted on her breasts, alternating between them, but always touching them. While he sucked one, his hand worked the other, squeezing and pinching the nipple between his fingers; tugging and teasing until she tried to pull his head away from one breast to move him to the other. In answer, he yanked her bra down to her waist, trapping her arms lower.
Candace surrendered control to him. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the door. Her pussy softened and engorged, preparing for mating. Liquid heat pooled between her legs, but Ryan continued to worship her breasts like a man starved for nourishment.
Her knees weakened and she slipped lower against the door. Ryan swept her into his arms and carried her to the bed. He made short work of removing the dinner tray. His sarong landed on top of the tray on the floor.
He crawled across the foot of the bed toward her. His eyes never left hers, again, giving her a chance to say no. With her arms still trapped at her side, she spread her legs in invitation. Ryan crawled between them and bent his head to her, picking up where he’d left off.
Candace stared up at the mirrored ceiling, expecting to see a frightful mess. Instead, she saw a woman aroused, and thoroughly in love with the man kissing his way down her body, inch by maddening inch. Her reddened nipples and areolas attested to Ryan’s thorough attention. The thin band of black fabric beneath her breasts and around her arms made her body flush with arousal. He’d bound her, but at every turn, he’d given her the choice to continue or not.
She flexed her fingers, wanting to run them through the dark head of hair bent over her stomach. Fascinated, she followed Ryan’s progress down her torso. His broad shoulders and back drew her attention. Her eyes followed his spine down to his firm ass and long legs sprawled between hers, and a feeling of utter contentment swept through her. Ryan had shown her how to express herself sexually and asked nothing in return. Now it was her turn to give.
Ryan hooked his fingers under the band of her panty and Candace, unable to rise on her elbows to see because of the hobbling bra, watched in the overhead mirror as Ryan drew the fabric down to reveal the crystal heart with his initial in the center. What would he think? Was it too much of a declaration, too soon?
His hands stilled with the panty low enough to reveal the tattoo and a hint of her waxed mound. The heart shaped tattoo refracted the scant light, sending tiny multi colored spears flashing around the room. Candace held her breath, waiting for Ryan to say or do something. His finger traced over the heart and the scripted R inside. She let her breath out, only to have it catch in her lungs as Ryan lowered his head to her once again and placed a soft kiss over the heart.
Ryan growled like a crazed animal and rose to his knees between her legs. Her panties ripped in his hands and seconds later he was sheathed and poised to take her. With rough hands, he lifted her thighs and shoved them up and out, holding her at the back of her knees so she was open to him. She’d broken through his wall of restraint at last.
“Mine,” he grunted and speared her with his cock.
Candace closed her eyes and screamed his name as he buried to the hilt inside her. It felt so damned good, better than she had imagined. Ryan drew all the way out and plunged back in again, seating himself against her womb. “Mine,” he repeated and dropped his hold on her legs and came over her, holding himself above her on his forearms.
“Look at me,” he commanded. Candace opened her eyes and saw the fierce possessive gleam in his eyes. His strokes were hard and fast, claiming her as she’d never been claimed before. Candace reveled in it. With every pounding thrust, Ryan showed her how much he loved her. She cradled him between her thighs in welcome, giving over all she was to the man of her heart.
Ryan reached beneath her and flicked the clasp open on her bra, freeing her arms. She wrapped her arms around him and stroked his back, his shoulders and down to his firm, flexing ass. “Mine,” she whispered.
“Forever,” Ryan said against her lips.
“Forever,” she agreed.
He kissed her with heart melting tenderness, slowing his thrusts to match the poignant moment. His claiming turned to sweet loving. He gave instead of took. His hands roamed her body as hers did his, giving and receiving love, until the exquisite gentle torture built into a raging need inside both of them.
Ryan stoked the fire inside her. Candace ached, clawing his back, striving for the glorious release Ryan promised with every masterful stroke. She ground her clit against him in the age-old rhythm of lovers. Candace gasped every time her swollen bud pressed against the rough hair around his cock. With each thrust of Ryan’s powerful body, the tension inside her grew. Release taunted her with its nearness, so close yet beyond her reach. She wanted to weep, her mind and body begged for sweet abandon.
Candace bucked her hips off the mattress, clinging to Ryan, reveling in the feel of his cock inside her wet sheath. Every stroke was a sensual assault on raw nerve endings. Her pussy made small sucking sound as Ryan pulled almost all the way out of her, as if trying to suction him back in. Over and over his cock made the torturous slow slide out, and back in. Wet skin slapped against wet skin. His balls ricocheted off her perineum with each downward thrust.
Like a mountain climber’s, her lungs burned for oxygen, as Candace climbed higher and higher. The summit shifted further away as she approached it, distorted and elusive in its simplicity. She had to reach it, and so she concentrated on the center of her universe, where Ryan’s body joined hers.
Oh God, he felt good. Each bold thrust stretched her, filled her, and moved her closer to the elusive peak. Ryan shifted and changed the tempo. With each stroke, he buried to the hilt and ground against her clit before pulling out again.
“Oh God, Ryan!” she cried. She dug her nails into his back and clawed her way toward the summit. One more step, one more stroke, one more slick slide inside her. Her body sang as euphoria overtook her. Ryan buried his cock against her womb and pushed her over the edge. For a timeless moment, Candace hung suspended above the world, hanging on by a rope woven with the fiber of their love, before she plummeted heart first down the mountain.
Her pussy clenched around Ryan’s cock as waves of sweet, torturous release swept through her body. Every muscle quaked with the force of it. Swept away on a current too strong to fight, Candace drifted in an altered state of consciousness. Ryan flexed his hips again, drawing all the way out before he slid in one more time, arduously slow, until he touched her womb. His groan vibrated through his chest, and bounced against the paneled walls of the cabin as his body responded to hers, and he plunged over the edge with her.
With what little strength she still possessed, Candace wrapped her legs around Ryan’s thighs and held him close as his cock spewed inside her.
Ryan dropped his head into the crook of her neck and nuzzled her between short choppy breaths. He’d braced himself on his forearms and they slid out from under him, pressing her into the mattress. One arm cradled her head next to his, his face buried in the crook of her neck. His breath fanned across her shoulder in hot ragged puffs. Candace raised her arms, splaying her hands across his sweat soaked back.
When his breathing evened, he slid out of her and to her side, pulling her with him so she lay half across his chest. Cool air on her damp skin made her shiver. Ryan tightened his hold on her and pulled the edge of the comforter up and over them. Long minutes passed as they savored the momentous occasion. Candace felt loved and cherished, and safe, cradled against Ryan’s heat. His hand stroked a lazy path up and down her arm under the covers.
“I love you, Candace.”
“I love you, too.”
Silence followed their declarations.
Ryan spoke first. “I didn’t hurt you, did I? I got carried away when I saw that heart with my initial in it. When did you get that done?”
“This morning.” She traced lazy circles on his chest with one fingertip. “I wanted to do something for you.”
“I liked it. Does that mean your heart is mine?”
“My heart, and everything else.”
“Do I have to shave my groin and get one too?” he teased.
“No, I don’t think that will be necessary.”
Chapter Ten
Ryan retrieved the dinner tray and they sat cross-legged on the bed with it balanced between them. “Tomorrow is the one
and only shore day. Are you going to go ashore?” he asked.
“I don’t know. It’s a private island, isn’t it?”
“Uh huh. The cruise line owns it. It’s the only place this ship can stop, for obvious reasons.”
“What is there to do?”
“Actually, there are a few of the usual choices, snorkeling, parasailing, and scuba diving for trained and certified divers. There’s the usual sunbathing, and massages on the beach. There’s a band and a barbeque for lunch. Oh, and the entire island is clothing optional.”
“Really?”
“Really. It’s private enough.”
“Snorkeling sounds good, but I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“Your cabin steward should provide you with one tonight, in case you want to wear one. Snorkeling equipment is available on the island.”
“What about you? Are you going ashore?”
“If you are, otherwise I’ll stay on the ship. There’s a full list of things to do onboard too.”
“Let’s go snorkeling. I think it will be good to get off the ship for a while.”
“Snorkeling it is.” He smiled his best pirate smile at her. “I think I need some practice first, though.” Ryan made short work of removing the dinner tray and pulled Candace to lie on her back. Before she had time to question his motives, her legs were spread wide by Ryan’s shoulders, and secured by his arms. The first flick of his tongue across her clit had her struggling against his restraints, but he held her fast, and dove in.
Every thought, every feeling, once again centered on the spot where Ryan’s body joined hers. The man derived as much satisfaction from her pleasure as she did. She’d never experienced anything like it before, but knew she could easily become addicted to it. He sucked her clit into his mouth and her eyes rolled back in her head. She arched her back and her hands came up to grasp his head. Her fingers clawed his scalp for purchase as a climax clawed its way through her body, threatening and taunting her with the need to let it free.
