Ryan's Rules

by Alison Kelly

  ‘Take my car, Talbot—the red Bronco in the parking lot. I can get one of my apprentices to pick me up.’

  Surprise only momentarily slowed Ryan’s reaction, then, grinning, he grabbed the keys and bolted for the door. ‘Thanks, mate,’ he called to Nichols over his shoulder. ‘I owe you one!’

  ‘Just invite me to the wedding so I can kiss the bride without ending up with a broken nose like Rick!’

  Ryan was in too much of a hurry to tell Nichols not to rely on tradition to protect his good looks!

  As he drove past the sign indicating that he was entering the Central Coast suburb of Avoca, where Kirrily’s parents now lived, Ryan’s heart started pumping faster.

  She had to be here! She had to! It was almost eight hours since he’d taken off after her and he was running out of places to look.

  When he’d left the office he’d made the short trip to his Cabarita house, expecting to find her packing, but either he’d just missed her or she’d packed before coming to see him, because there were no signs that she’d ever been there. Worried she might have elected to return immediately to Melbourne, he’d checked at the airport to see if she’d booked a flight, relief flooding him when there’d been no sign of his car in the car park. Then, figuring she must have driven back to Bowral, he’d headed towards the Southern Tablelands at speed, earning himself a speeding ticket before even clearing the outer limits of Sydney. But when he had finally entered the house he’d left a week ago he’d known the sense of emptiness he experienced had nothing to do with the lack of furnishings; Kirrily wasn’t there.

  With hindsight he’d realised it was stupid to think she’d choose to hide somewhere that belonged to him; had he been thinking rationally, her parents’ home would have been the first place he’d have looked. Of course, he hadn’t been thinking all that rationally today.

  Today? Hell, he hadn’t been thinking too rationally for the best part of fifteen years! Dammit, she had to be here! She simply had to!

  The crash and tinkle of crushing metal and glass had Kirrily pressing her forehead against the bay window and scanning the darkened front yard and driveway.

  ‘Oh, no!’ she wailed, her eyes settling on the image of a large vehicle with its front end pressed hard against the rear of Ryan’s Jag. ‘I don’t believe this!’

  Praying she was hallucinating, she hurried to the front door, barely remembering to punch in the security code before opening it.

  ‘Please let me be imagining this,’ she muttered, stepping with closed eyes out onto the veranda. ‘Dear God,’ she prayed aloud, ‘when I open my eyes let me not discover Trev Nichols has rear-ended Ryan’s beautiful car…’

  She opened her eyes and found that God was on a coffee-break.

  ‘Aagh!’ she screamed. ‘Trevor, you bloody idiot, what have you done?’

  ‘It’s not Trevor who’s the idiot—it’s me.’

  The voice from below almost caused her to topple over the railing of the elevated veranda.

  ‘R-Ryan! What…? How…?’ She knew she sounded incoherent, but at least that was consistent with how she felt. She glanced back at the red four by four, the muted glow of the entrance light sufficient to confirm that it was empty, then back to Ryan, who was climbing the steps to her left.

  Her pulse-rate was manic in a combination of fright, fear and an overwhelming relief that he didn’t appear hurt. Actually he didn’t even seemed fazed that he’d driven a mean-looking bull-bar into the backside of an expensive luxury car. His expensive luxury car.

  ‘I guess I wasn’t firm enough on the brakes,’ he said, halting only an arm’s length from her. ‘You know…not used to the car.’

  ‘What…what…are—?’ Kirrily shook her head and started again. ‘What are you doing here with Trevor’s car?’

  ‘You mean besides playing demolition derby in your folks’ driveway?’

  ‘Ryan! How can you joke about doing that much damage to—?’ Her voice stalled when two large but gentle hands cupped her face and angled her head until it was only inches from his own. Completely transfixed by the man holding her, she felt rather than heard his hoarse whisper of her name.

  ‘What I’ve done to the cars only requires cash to repair it. I’m more worried about the damage I’ve done to us, to our future.’

  The emotion in his voice and the reverent caresses of his thumbs over her cheekbones as he studied her face filled Kirrily with what she could only call spiritual warmth.

  ‘I love you, Kirrily. I love you more than I’ll ever be able to tell you or even show you. You’re more precious to me than my own life and I’m sorrier than you’ll ever know for what I’ve put you through. I’m a fool for—’

  ‘Shh.’ She covered his mouth with her fingers. ‘You’re not a fool, Ryan Talbot.’ She smiled, absently tracing his mouth and jaw. ‘The proof being I’m way too smart to fall in love with a fool and I definitely fell for you big time.’

  ‘Only hours ago you said that was the dumbest thing you ever did.’

  ‘I said a lot of things I had no right to say.’

  ‘Yes, you did, because everything you said was true. My life has been controlled by guilt. Logically I know the accident was just that, an accident, but I can’t help wondering if—’

  He swore softly, before burying his face in her hair, and instinctively Kirrily nestled closer, tightening her arms around him to convey her understanding, her trust and her love. She knew there was a lot Ryan still needed to work through, that he couldn’t simply shrug himself free of the past because he wanted to, but at least now he believed it wasn’t wrong to try.

  When he finally lifted his head his expression told her he’d heard everything that had been in her heart.

  ‘I don’t just love you, Kirrily,’ he said, his voice rough with emotion, ‘I need you. I need you to make me whole again, to help me get my life back in order. I need you in my life, on a daily basis.’

  The sound of love was behind every one of his words, seemingly giving wings to her heart, yet she ached to erase the too humble expression on his handsome face. How could he ever think she’d turn him down? She reached up and caressed his puckered brow. ‘Oh?’ she said, determined to goad him back to normality. ‘Does that mean you’re offering me a permanent position in Talbot’s accounts department?’

  ‘What?’ He looked completely poleaxed and, struggling to contain her amusement, Kirrily continued.

  ‘Well,’ she mused aloud, ‘I could certainly use a job—’

  ‘Damn it, Kirrily!’ he snapped, giving her shoulders a quick, sharp shake. ‘I’m not talking about Talbot’s! I’m proposing and you know it!’

  The joy flooding her system was prompted as much by his adorable exasperation as by the words themselves. ‘Oh!’ she said with pseudo-shock. ‘I guess I just always assumed the guy who asked me to marry him would at least smile as he did it. Not,’ she added quickly, linking her arms around his neck, ‘that a smile is essential for getting an affirmative response from me.’

  The return of genuine amusement to his blue eyes made her chuckle.

  ‘Does that,’ he asked, rubbing her nose with his, ‘mean yes?’

  Easing some space between them, she adopted a considering look. ‘Does a yes mean I’d get to set a few of the rules in our marriage?’

  He groaned and tugged her back against him. ‘That depends,’ he muttered against her neck, ‘on how many I’d have to keep.’

  ‘Only one,’ she whispered, rising onto her toes to be closer to his warmth.

  ‘And that would be?’

  She lifted her eyes to his. ‘That you love me for ever…’

  ‘I already have,’ he groaned, lowering his head to hers.

  The myriad emotions that Ryan’s kiss inspired within her were beyond anything Kirrily could have imagined, much less described. It was as if everything she’d ever felt from him or for him—warmth… friendship… desire… irritation… amusement… frustration… tranquillity… excitement… tendernes
s… passion—had all blended in a huge melting pot until the only element strong enough to retain its true identity was love. A love so powerful that every aspect of her existence was now flavoured with it. Almost limp with the need to experience again her lover’s total possession of her, Kirrily murmured a grateful sigh as she was swung into his strong arms and carried into the house.

  Ryan’s good intention of getting to Kirrily’s bedroom before he lost all control went to hell in a basket the moment the woman in his arms set her frantic tongue loose at the base of his throat. In the wake of its eager, slickly seductive journey along the column of his neck and across his jaw, it was all he could manage to heel the front door closed and slump against it, before lowering her to the floor.

  The feel of her body sliding the length of his was painfully erotic. In his desire-drugged state he saw the solution being to draw her tighter against his arousal, a guttural groan breaking from him as simultaneously Kirrily, too, pressed for greater contact rather than distance. With one hand he clamped her hips to his as the other grasped her hair and dragged her delectably sweet mouth back to his. Her response was instant, ardent and heated.

  Ryan’s kiss swirled through Kirrily at the speed of light, igniting her blood and blurring her mind to everything but him, until she was barely aware of their muted moans, her desperate gasps for air and Ryan’s chanted endearments. She wanted to tell him such verbalising was redundant because she could feel love emanating from him, but words were beyond her, her body keyed only to the senses of taste and touch. The touch of Ryan. The taste of Ryan.

  The contact of his hands against her bare skin as they slipped beneath the hem of her sweatshirt had her own feverishly joining in to help wrench it off. Within seconds their unspoken co-operation resulted in their lying naked in the carpeted hallway of her parents’ home.

  ‘You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.’ Ryan’s voice was raspy as he looked down at her, his eyes bright with adoration. ‘So goddamn beautiful,’ he muttered, lowering his head.

  The muscles in her belly contracted and she moaned with pleasure as his lips laved the aroused peak of one breast, then the other, the sensations he triggered all the more incredible because she knew they were spawned from their unique love—a love that had grown as they’d grown but that would stay young even as they aged, a love that because it had no clear beginning could have no end.

  Ryan’s tongue had moved down to probe and tantalise the depth of her navel and Kirrily’s anticipation began contributing, with his slow oral assault, to draw her closer and closer to screaming point. In her ears all she heard was the rhythm of her pounding heart and her own ragged breathing, as both her body and soul cried for complete reunion with his.

  ‘Easy,’ he crooned as she bucked beneath him, her hands tightening in his hair. ‘Ea…sy.’

  ‘No!’ Hands urgent, she pulled at his hair, the action raising his head just far enough to make eye contact with her. ‘I need you now, Ryan,’ she whispered, her hands gentling. ‘All of you.’

  The emotion in her voice and the emerald depths of her eyes gave her words the sentiments of a prayer rather than a plea and Ryan was incapable of denying it. Their gazes locked, he repositioned himself above her. Automatically he reached for his jeans, hastily extracting his wallet, but Kirrily snatched it away.

  ‘Uh-uh,’ she said. ‘I just want you, Ryan. No barriers—not the past, not even a condom. Just you, me, the future and whatever it holds for us.’

  With a groan he accepted her ready warmth, knowing this woman’s love was his personal salvation.

  EPILOGUE

  ‘JAYNE’S here,’ Kirrily noted, looking from the kitchen to the pool area where both her parents and in-laws were welcoming the late arrival. Ryan joined her at the window.

  ‘Aw, hell,’ he muttered. ‘She’s still got Trevor Nichols in tow.’

  Kirrily gave her husband of four months a frown. ‘I thought you liked Trevor?’

  ‘I do. I just don’t like him panting after my sister. He’s too experienced for her. Heck, he’s married with four kids—’

  ‘Divorced—’ both Kirrily and Ryan spun in the direction of the intruding voice ‘—with three,’ corrected Jayne, wearing an amused grin at her brother’s sheepish expression. ‘And don’t worry about him panting after me, big brother,’ she said, standing on her toes to reach Ryan’s cheek. ‘I’m more than capable of bringing him to heel.’

  Kirrily laughed and hugged her sister-in-law. ‘Ignore him and date whoever makes you happy,’ she advised.

  ‘Are you happy, sis?’ Ryan asked gently.

  ‘Yeah.’ A light blush rose on his sister’s cheeks as she glanced outside. ‘Very.’

  Ryan grinned. ‘Then I guess I’d better go give Nichols a beer.’ Slipping his arm around his sister’s shoulders, he steered her towards the glass doors leading to the patio. ‘But he makes one more crack about my driving ability and he’ll wear it!’ he warned.

  Kirrily watched from the window as Ryan warmly welcomed the only man Jayne had shown any interest in since Steven’s death. The presence of Trevor’s three teenage children seemed to indicate that their relationship was more than casual. Good, she thought, wanting her sister-in-law to be every bit as happy as she was, although seriously doubting that was possible. The last six months of her life had been more than she could have dreamed of…

  Within weeks of their parents arriving back from Europe they’d married and set up residence at Bowral. Eager to re-establish himself as an architect, Ryan had eased himself out of Talbot’s, restricting his involvement to simply a consulting basis and leaving the day-to-day running of the place to Ron Hemming.

  Already a house he’d designed and supervised the building of for a prominent musician was nearing completion, and he was being inundated with requests for future projects. Currently he was working out of the den at home, but at this rate they were going to have to build a bigger, separate office away from the house, if only to guarantee professional credibility; with them both at home, all too often they confused the boardroom with the bedroom!

  Though Kirrily had secured only a two-episode part in a Sydney-based drama, she was kept busy with voiceovers for radio and television commercials and the small interior-design business Ryan had encouraged her to start. To date she’d only done a couple of small redecorating projects for friends of their parents, but the results were beginning to lead to ‘outside’ requests for her services. A good thing too, since she was going to have to turn down her agent’s latest acting job offer.

  ‘Hey, how come so serious?’ Ryan asked, slipping up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. ‘Worried your mum will discover the pavlova is storebought?’ he teased, nibbling her neck.

  ‘Shh!’ she hissed. ‘She might hear, and I’m trying to impress her with domesticity and home entertaining skills.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he murmured, with lips that skimmed her bare shoulders. ‘Your “home entertaining” impresses the hell out of me. Want me to tell her what you can do in a hallway?’

  She laughed. ‘Don’t you dare! I can just hear her now. “You made poor Ryan roll naked on the carpet when there was a perfectly good bed inside?”’ Her body felt his quake with amusement. ‘Gosh, it’d be worse than the time I put the milk carton on the table when Reverend Evans came to visit.’

  ‘Worse than that, huh?’ He turned her around and managed to send her weak-kneed with just one very thorough kiss.

  ‘Much worse,’ she agreed, clinging to him until she was sure she could stand. ‘Mum likes you heaps more than she did Reverend Evans.’

  ‘How about you? Do you like me better?’

  ‘Yeah.’ She grinned.

  ‘Glad to hear it.’

  ‘I’ve got something else you’ll be glad to hear. I won’t be doing that second condom commercial.’

  Ryan felt guilty that he’d obviously come out the victor in what had been an ongoing disagreement between them since her agent
had advised her about the commercial three weeks ago. While he couldn’t deny that Kirrily would be donating her talents to a deserving campaign, the script for the proposed commercial was risqué enough to attract the interest of weirdos, and Ryan hated the thought of her being in that particular line of fire. Still, he felt like a heel.

  ‘Look,’ he said, tilting her chin, ‘if you really want to do it…do it.’

  Her delight was evident. ‘You mean it won’t bother you?’

  ‘Hell, yes, it’ll bother me! But you’ve got to do what you want to do, not what I want.’ He sighed. ‘It’s entirely your decision.’

  Her gypsy beauty was illuminated with a wide, selfsatisfied smile. ‘You look so cute when you’re being noble,’ she teased, drawing a finger along his lower lip. ‘But the decision has been taken out of my hands by a higher power—although you’re partly responsible.’

  He groaned. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart,’ he said, genuinely contrite. ‘I guess the producer didn’t appreciate me telling him the script stank?’

  ‘Oh, that didn’t bother him!’ she dismissed. ‘He told Carole he doubted you had a creative bone in your whole body.’

  ‘Smart-alec—’

  ‘No, what he didn’t appreciate was the idea of having one of the stars of a safe sex infomercial pregnant-something about it lacking credibility…’ Kirrily paused and waited. And waited and waited. ‘Ry…an!’

  ‘You’re pregnant! You’re going to have a baby?’

  She fought for a droll look. ‘No, I’m pregnant and going to have a kitten! Of course—’ She was hoisted into the air with a whoop of male joy so loud that they must have heard it in Sydney, but the pure unadulterated love shining in Ryan’s face as he held her above his head spoke even louder. He lowered her back to the floor with infinite gentleness.

  ‘When?’ he asked.

  ‘Mid-July. I…I found out yesterday, but I wanted it to be a New Year’s present for you.’