Beautifully Insightful

by K. C. Lynn

  Getting the urge to touch the perfection I’m seeing, I get to my knees and make my way to the end of the bed. He stops the works of his pants as I approach, the button and zipper left undone. I hesitate for a moment, feeling unsure. As if reading my thoughts, he encircles my wrist and lays my hand flat against his chiseled abdomen. “Touch, baby, all you want, it’s all yours.”

  All mine? I like the sound of that. Smiling, I roam my hands along his hard, warm body. Starting at his powerful chest, I feel his heart thrum rapidly under my palm as I learn every line and curve. I move to his right shoulder and trace the intricate black ink of his tribal tattoo that’s woven down to his forearm. “Did you have this in high school?”

  “Yes, the ones on my arms I did. But the one on my ribs I got done after I graduated from Quantico.”

  I look to the left side of his ribs and see a script. I had briefly noticed it when he didn’t have a shirt on the other day, but obviously I couldn’t read it. “What does it say?” I ask softly.

  He clears his throat, seeming a little uncomfortable now. “Against all odds; but in the end I prevailed.”

  My breath catches at his words, the quote so fitting for him. I glance up to see him watching me with an expression I can’t decipher. I trace the writing with my fingers. “That you did, Ryder,” I whisper before placing my lips on the tattoo and giving it a gentle kiss. His fingers thread through my hair, urging me to continue my exploration. I trail my lips down to his abs, my tongue darting out to lick along the dips and grooves of his muscles. With a rough groan, his fingers grip my hair tightly, but not painfully.

  Once I finish exploring him with my mouth, my hands move to the waistband of his jeans and I look up at him, suddenly feeling a little nervous. “This is going to be the first time I ever see a penis,” I blurt out my thoughts stupidly, then feel my face immediately flame. Seriously, Emily? You could have kept that to yourself.

  “And it’s going to be the only one you ever see, baby. So get well acquainted,” he replies with a sexy smirk.

  My laughter erupts around the room, breaking the awkward tension, and I quirk a brow at him. “Feeling pretty confident, Jameson?”

  “Not confident, it’s a fact.”

  “Hmmm, maybe.”

  He grunts, not amused by my teasing. Not wasting any more time, I slowly begin to push down his jeans, but it clearly isn’t fast enough for him because he takes over and disposes of them quickly, taking his underwear with it and leaving him gloriously naked before me. With wide eyes I stare at his massive erection. Oddly enough, it looks similar to what I expected… I think. Reaching up, I grasp him in my hand, loving the hard, but smooth, feel of him.

  He hisses in a breath and pumps himself into my firm grip. “Fuck, Em, your touch feels so goddamn good.” His voice is tight and strained. A drop of clear fluid spills over the top. Getting the urge to know what he tastes like, I lean in and lick the smooth tip then moan, loving the salty, erotic taste. He growls, his hips jerking, as he pumps himself into my hand. Pleasure warms inside of me, loving that I can make him feel that good. I want to take him in my mouth but I’ve never done it before and I don’t want to do something wrong. I look up at him hesitantly and see his eyes wild with lust. I don’t have to voice my thoughts, he already knows them. “Open up, Em, take me in your mouth. I’ll help you.” I look back down at his erection in my hand then lick my lips before leaning in again and taking his hard length into my mouth.

  “Ah, fuck yeah!” he groans, his fingers now causing a slight sting that shoots straight between my legs. “Take me a little deeper.” He moves my hand to the base of his shaft and guides my head to take more of him. I hum my approval at his control. “Now suck back to the top.” I do as he says. Hollowing my cheeks, I suck back to the top and swirl my tongue around his tip. It’s something I remember Cece telling me when we would have our sex talks.

  “There you go, baby, fuck that’s good.” His words spur me on and I start sucking him with more confidence. “You have no idea how many times I thought about fucking this sweet, hot mouth of yours, Emily. I jacked off to the image in my mind so many times.” I whimper at his dirty words, the ache between my legs becoming so strong it’s almost painful. He starts flexing his hips, thrusting himself deeper in my mouth. He stills when he hits the back of my throat and I instinctively swallow. “Fuck!” he growls and pulls out of my mouth. “All right, baby, no more, it feels way too fucking good. I need inside of you, right now.”

  “In a hurry, Jameson?” I ask sassily, feeling a little proud that I could make him feel that good.

  He doesn’t smile like I expected him to, instead he reaches up and cups the side of my face, his intense gaze holding me captive. “Yeah, I am. I’ve been waiting six years for this moment, Em, and I don’t want to wait another fucking second.”

  His words have my breath catching and my heart turning over in my chest. I lay my hand over top of his then turn my face to the side and press a kiss to the palm of his hand. “Me too,” I whisper truthfully. The only difference is instead of waiting for this moment, I prayed for it, because I didn’t think I would ever see him again.

  Taking his hand, I lean back, pulling him with me. He comes over top of me, blanketing me with his warmth before taking my mouth in another kiss, one that reaches the very depths of me. I wrap my leg around his hip and try to urge him on, needing to feel him inside of me, but he hesitates. “Em, are you on the pill?”

  His question catches me off guard and I quickly realize I should have thought about protection too. “Yes.”

  “I’ve never been without a condom, but I don’t want to use one with you, baby. I need to feel all of you.”

  “Yes,” I whisper again, wanting that just as badly. Richard is the only other person I have been with, and he always used a condom. I don’t want that with Ryder. I want to feel all of him too.

  Leaning in, he presses a soft kiss to the corner of my eye, my heart melting at the familiar act from all those years ago. He slightly rises up on one arm and grasps his erection before sliding it through my slick, wet folds, lubricating it with my arousal. I whimper when it skims over my clit and wiggle underneath him. “Ryder, please. I need… Ahhh!” I scream as he enters me in one powerful thrust, stealing the breath from my lungs.

  He freezes. “Oh fuck! You okay, baby?”

  “Yes,” I moan breathlessly, and reassure him by lifting my hips to bring him deeper. With a growl he starts thrusting inside of me with deep, hard strokes, filling me completely – body and soul.

  “Goddamn, Emily, you feel even fucking better than I remember, and I didn’t think that was possible.”

  I never forgot how incredible this felt with him. Never forgot a moment of our time together. Six years ago Ryder and I created a world of our own, one where money and status never mattered. Nothing mattered but the two of us.

  As I stare into his heated gaze while he fills me with utter perfection, I can’t help but get thrown back into the past, to the night he snuck in my bedroom window and claimed not only my body but my heart.

  “I hate that I can’t see you right now.”

  “You see me, Em, far better than anyone else ever has.”

  Closing my eyes, I reach up with both hands and frame his face, seeing him the way I did all those years ago. He slows his pace and encircles my wrist before kissing the inside of my palm.

  “No one is going to fuck with this, Emily. You hear me? You are mine and no one is going to take you from me.”

  My throat goes tight as I remember that feeling of impending doom, the fear of us not getting to be together and what my father would do when he found out. It turned out to hurt so much worse than what I could have ever expected. My heart swells painfully with the remembered pain of the past, and before I can stop it a single tear escapes.

  Ryder stills, staying buried deep inside of me then drops down and rests his forehead on mine. I keep my eyes closed with my hands framing his face. I don’t need to tell h
im what’s wrong because he knows. Like always. “I thought about you, Em. All the fucking time, baby, I thought about you. I wish I would have came back sooner, I wish I wouldn’t have been scared.”

  My eyes shoot open at his admission, shocked to hear he was scared. I didn’t think it was something he was capable of feeling. “Why were you scared?”

  He stares at me indecisively, conflicted on whether to answer. “I was fucking terrified to come back and find you with someone else. Leaving you all those years ago gutted me, but if I would have come back to find out you belonged to someone else, to know you couldn’t be mine, it would have fucking destroyed me.”

  For the first time, I realize how much this also hurt him. The pain that I felt all those years ago at the well he felt too, and it’s all thanks to my father. I wrap my arms around him and bury my face into his neck. “I never stopped being yours, not in my heart. I missed you so much it hurt.”

  “I missed you too, baby.” I feel his breathing turn heavy as he struggles to hold in whatever emotions he’s feeling. “No one is going to take you from me ever again, Emily. You are mine!” He follows up his statement with a hard thrust.

  I gasp and my back arches off the bed at the exquisite burn. “Yes, yours.”

  “That’s right. You have always been mine and you will always be mine.” Rising up, he unwraps my legs from around his waist, draping them in the crook of his arms and changes the angle of his thrusts. I cry out as he hits that spot deep inside of me, and it has my inner walls fluttering around him. He groans. “You’re close, Em. I can feel it.” He’s right, I’m so close. I fist the sheets, my body wound tight as I teeter on the edge. “Look, baby. Look between us, watch my cock fuck what’s mine.”

  Slightly rising on my elbows, I look between us and watch his erection slide in and out of me. “Oh god.” The sight is so intimate and arousing that it has me crashing over the edge. I fall back on a scream as ecstasy slams into me.

  “Ah yeah, that’s it, baby, milk my cock.” He increases his pace, pounding into me relentlessly, fucking me through the most intense orgasm of my life.

  I’m barely coming down from my high when he drops on top of me, bracing his weight on his elbows and spills himself inside of me. I hold him close through his own release, my fingers threading in his hair and my lips close to his ear. I get the desperate urge to tell him I love him, that I never stopped, but I decide to wait a little longer before admitting those words to him.

  We both heave for breath as we lay in a sweaty, tangled mess. He rests his forehead against mine intimately. “You okay?”

  “Yes. It was perfect.” Framing his face in both my hands, I lift up and press a soft kiss to his mouth. “You’re perfect.”

  His expression softens. “You’re the perfect one, Em.”

  “How about we’re perfect together?”

  He grins back. “Deal, baby.”

  As he pulls out of me with a groan, his phone rings. Leaning over, he pulls his cell from his jeans then looks at the number. “Sorry, I have to take this.”

  “It’s fine, go ahead.”

  He gives me a quick, delicious kiss before answering. “Jameson.”

  Sitting up, I swipe his shirt off the floor and throw it over me before making my way to the bathroom. I clean up quickly then assess my reflection in the mirror as I wash up. My tumbled hair is messy from Ryder’s urgent hands, and my skin has a glow I’ve never seen before. I touch my swollen lips and smile as I think about how they got that way.

  Feeling happier and lighter than I have in days, I walk out of the bathroom to see Ryder sitting up against the headboard, still talking on his phone. The sheet is draped low on his hips, displaying his incredible, decorated perfection for my viewing.

  His intense gaze devours my body that’s covered only by his shirt. “Yeah, I figured as much,” he says to whoever is on the phone, then pulls the sheets aside for me to get in. I make my way over, but instead of getting in beside him I crawl on top and straddle him. His eyes darken and he grips one of my hips possessively. I smile and quirk a brow when I feel him grow hard under me, but my flirtatious demeanor vanishes with what he says next: “No, she doesn’t know where, but she does think it’s on the property. If she isn’t able to get the key we will find another way.”

  I slam back into reality and my heart becomes heavy once again. This horrific situation was easy to forget when I was wrapped in the safety and pleasure of Ryder’s arms.

  “I imagine security is tight, but if we find out what he uses we can work around it and explore the perimeter at night.” He watches me, my expression clearly giving away my feelings. “Listen, I need to go, we’ll talk more about it tomorrow. Let me know what Senator Adams has to say and I’ll let you know when I get the key.” After saying goodbye, he reaches over and puts his phone on the nightstand.

  “Nick?” I ask quietly, even though I already know the answer.

  He slides his hands up underneath the shirt and grips my hips firmly. “Yeah. He was checking in to see how it went with Rosa before he had his meeting with Senator Adams.”

  “I’ve met Senator Adams before, he seems nice.”

  “He seems to be, but he’s still a politician so…” He trails off with a shrug.

  “You don’t like any politicians?” I ask, his response intriguing me. I always thought he just hated my father.

  “I don’t necessarily hate them all. I just think the majority of them are nothing but fucking liars.”

  “It’s definitely hard sometimes to know who you can trust,” I admit truthfully.

  “You can’t trust the majority of the people in this world, baby, believe me.”

  His statement doesn’t surprise me, and I can even understand why he thinks that. He must see a lot of corruption in his line of work; not to mention he grew up with people he couldn’t trust. I suddenly remember that night all those years ago, when he showed up in my room vulnerable and hurt. He never talked about his parents when we were together. I brought them up once but he shut it down quickly, telling me they were off limits. It makes me wonder if he still feels the same.

  “Have you seen your parents since you’ve been back?” I ask cautiously.

  He tenses under me for a brief second before forcing himself to relax. “No. I haven’t seen or spoken to them since I left, and I don’t plan to.”

  I try to gauge his expression, wanting to know what he’s feeling, but he shows no emotion. I tread on carefully. “Maybe you should. Maybe they’ve changed and they miss you.”

  A bitter laugh erupts from his throat. “No. Believe me, they don’t give a shit about me, they never did.”

  My heart swells sadly to hear that. I never had parents who loved me either but at least I had Rosa and Summer. Ryder never had anyone. “I’m sorry,” I whisper sadly.

  He shrugs. “Don’t be. It is what it is and I really don’t give a shit. It’s not like they were good parents. I never relied on them a day in my life. I’ve been on my own for as long as I can remember, and I like it that way.”

  I’m sure it’s more complicated than that. No matter how terrible they were to him it must hurt to have nobody. Staring down at him, I reach up and trace his lips with my finger. “You will always have me, Ryder,” I tell him truthfully. “You can trust me.”

  He grasps my wrist gently and places a familiar kiss on the inside of my palm, his gaze intense as he stares back at me. “There is no one in the world I trust more than you, Emily.” My heart explodes with happiness to know that, because I know he doesn’t trust easily.

  I squeal in surprise when he swiftly flips me over onto my back and comes over top of me. His shirt rises past my hips and I moan when I feel his erection settle over my wet heat. Leaning down, he presses a soft kiss to my lips before entering me in one smooth thrust. I gasp then whimper at the ecstasy of being filled by him.

  He stills deep inside of me and gazes down at me with an intensity that captures my breath. “You can trust me too, E
m. I’m going to figure out what the fuck is going on here and I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you. I’ll take care of you and protect you. Just like I was always meant to.”

  Before I have a chance to think about that he begins moving inside of me with perfection. This time he makes love to me with slow, tender precision. There is nothing rushed or frantic about it, but no less intense than the last.

  As I stare into his warm, green eyes I pray that whatever my future holds he is a part of. Because the thought of losing him again brings on a pain so deep I’m not sure I would survive it.

  Chapter 19

  Emily

  A few mornings later I’m bustling around my room, getting dressed. My body feeling a glorious tenderness, and muscles aching that haven’t been used in a long time, especially as well used as they have been. I smile thinking about all the dirty things Ryder has done to me the past two nights. I swear the man is a machine, and I love it. I know I will never tire of his touch, or the pleasure he brings not only to my body but also to my soul.

  I slip on a pair of dark jean shorts and a white tank top, knowing we will most likely be staying in again. We haven’t left the house in days, much to my dismay, but I understand why Ryder is being cautious. Tomorrow we will go see Rosa, which I’m looking forward to. I’m praying everything goes well for her tonight at my father’s.

  Spotting Ryder’s plaid button-down hanging off my dresser, that he wore the previous night, I grab it and throw it on over my tank top, loving being surrounded by his yummy scent. It reaches the tops of my thighs, and I roll up the massively long sleeves to my forearms like he always does.

  Leaving my room, I start down the hall in search of the man himself and find him on the couch, leaning over his laptop that’s on the coffee table in front of him. Summer sits on the floor next to his feet with her chin resting on his knee. I’m starting to think I should worry that she’s trading me in for him, but, to be honest, the sight of them warms my heart. I lean against the wall and watch Ryder deep in concentration, typing furiously, my eyes drinking in all of his sexy perfection.