Release (Iris Series)

by Lynn, Rebecca

  He continued. “When he called me, he didn’t tell me who’d made the accusations, but I told him there was no way you were involved. I reminded him of your reputation, how you taught Robbie, and he agreed that it was improbable that you were involved, but that he needed to check it out just the same. So, he questioned you without getting the FBI involved at that time.”

  “Wow. Could…he get in trouble for that?”

  “It’s all moot, now that you’ve been cleared.”

  “I could’ve stolen the painting to get back at you, to humiliate you. That possibility hadn’t entered his mind?”

  His lips were in a grim line, and he nodded. “He mentioned the possibility, but I assured him you would never do that to anyone. Even if you were furious. I know you. You’d never do something like that to anyone.”

  She looked at him in silence, then whispered, “You are such a good man, Jeremy McCallister.”

  “Not nearly as good as you,” he whispered back.

  She took a moment to get her emotions in check, then continued. “Ok. And…” she took a deep breath, “why did he think we were engaged?” She was dying to hear the answer to this one.

  Jeremy grinned sheepishly. “How do you think I was allowed to stay for the questioning?”

  “You told him you were my fiancé?”

  “Yup,” he said unapologetically. “That, along with the fact that he was my cousin helped a great deal, and the agreement that I stay quiet...which didn’t work out as well as I thought it would,” he added in a wry tone.

  She rolled her eyes. “And how are you going to explain our engagement to your family when this gets around? Because you know it will.”

  He gave her an enigmatic smile, and winked, “I’ll think of something.” Then he got serious. “I have a request of you.”

  “What’s that?” she asked warily.

  “If Armand DiCarlo gets in touch with you at all, you’ll tell me immediately. He may not have made the accusations, but he certainly didn’t do you any favors by agreeing with Jennifer on things. In my mind, he’s proven he can’t be trusted, and I don’t want him anywhere near you.” He took a moment to compose himself. “Promise me...when I heard you’d left with him... I felt jealousy, absolutely, but more than that...there’s just something about him that has always rubbed me the wrong way.”

  She looked at this wonderful man. This man who she was so completely in love with. She began to wonder how she had gotten lucky enough to find two such men to love in her life.

  He looked at her watching him, apparently thinking she was going to disagree with him, and said, “I mean it, Ryann. I want your word.”

  She smiled, “You have it.”

  He nodded, glad it was settled. He took a bite of his lo mein. “So, any other questions?”

  She sighed too, and took a bite of her spring roll. Once she swallowed, she looked up at him, and moved her food to the nightstand. “Any chance you want to tell me why we were so…disconnected…last week?”

  She looked at him nervously, wondering how this conversation was going to go. Now that she had felt secure in his affection for her, she couldn’t understand the reason for his distance.

  She waited, and watched him remove his own food from the bed, then he reached out his hand. “Come here.”

  She crawled across the bed, and laid down on top of him, straddling his legs with hers. She leaned down on his chest, and rested her chin on her hands.

  He stroked her cheek with his finger, and looked at her with tenderness again, but he also looked a little nervous. She couldn’t figure it out.

  “You know my father died when I was 15,” he started.

  She stilled, and nodded.

  “He was…a great father. As you know, he taught me how to work with wood,” he murmured, his eyes taking on a faraway look, remembering the past.

  “But I think he was probably an even greater husband….he and my mom loved each other so much. They made an incredible team. They always supported each other. There was a lot of laughter in our house. And a lot of fights,” he chuckled. “We definitely lived passionately…a bunch of crazy artist types,” he smiled.

  He was quiet for a few moments, then still looking off into space, he said, “I decided early on that I would never marry.”

  Ryann swallowed, trying to work through the pain those words caused her. She knew she needed to love him as he was. If he never wanted to marry her, she could live with that…she would take him anyway she could have him. Or was he telling her he didn’t want a long term relationship? No, all of his words and actions made her believe he wanted her.

  “I saw the pain that my mom experienced after losing my dad. I imagine you know what that feels like,” he said now looking at her, touching her face again. She leaned into his hand, and kissed his palm. “I never wanted to go through that kind of pain. I was pretty much resolved never to fall in love like that. It only makes you hurt when you lose the person. And even though my mom remarried, I thought, who wants to go through that, right?” he whispered.

  He took another moment, then said, “And then…I met you. And I found you so goddamn gorgeous, so beautiful, and I just…fucking wanted you, all to myself. You turned me into a lust crazed fool in the first two hours of knowing you.”

  She smiled sweetly at him.

  He chuckled. “My little sex kitten.”

  He became serious again. “When I learned you were a widow, in that conversation with my aunt and uncle, it was like my first thought was, ‘fuck, this woman lost her husband.’ Then my next thought was, ‘but I want her.’ And for about 30 seconds I struggled in my head with whether I was going to go after you or not. Because…I didn’t want to be your second. I wanted to be your first. God, I’m not even making any sense,” he said in frustration.

  “You are my first, Jeremy...in more ways than you know. Keep going, baby,” she said, her eyes watering.

  “I wanted to show you that you could find happiness again…and you could find it with me. I wanted you to find it with me. I think I wanted to prove to myself that…I could find happiness too. That there is life after the pain of losing someone. And if I could prove that to you, if I could give you that happiness, maybe I could convince myself that I could have that too.” He whispered, “That I could have what I never thought I’d ever want.”

  He blinked away the emotion from his eyes. “And I want it, Ryann. You make me want it. You make me want things I never thought I’d want.”

  With her choking back tears, she crawled the rest of the way up his body and clung to him, burying her face into his neck. He held her so tightly, she thought her ribs would break.

  He whispered in her hair, the emotion shaking his voice, “I’ve never been in love, Ryann. But last week...” Pause. “Last week, I realized that whatever this is I’m feeling for you…it’s new to me. I’ve never felt it before…and it freaked me out a little. And it was never my intention to pull away from you, but….I was so pissed when you told me what Armand implied, about you being just a fuck buddy. God, I was so pissed because I thought, how many women have I been like that with…and I didn’t want you to think I thought of you that way. I never in a million years could think of you that way. You’re in a class all your own.”

  He paused to compose himself. “After that conversation, I felt like I needed to convince you that I didn’t just want you that way…that I want you….in every way.” He pulled her face from his neck, and looked at her. “I want you in every way possible, baby. Your mind, your heart, your soul, your body, your creativity, your feistiness that puts me in my place, your sexy kitten ways…I want you in every way.”

  She grabbed his face and kissed him like she’d never kissed him before, all while the tears pricked at her eyes.

  He came up for air, and said, “I need you to tell me how you feel. How do you want me? Because if you just want sex, then ok. I could live with that, but….”

  “You’re such a friggin’ idiot, Jeremy,” s
he cried. “God,” she paused. “I love you…you idiot...in two weeks, which completely defies all logic...I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you.” Pause. “I love you, Jeremy McCallister,” she whispered fiercely, tears streaming down her face.

  His face glowed, as he flipped her onto her back and began kissing her to within an inch of her life.

  She started giggling, and he stopped kissing her momentarily, then looked her in the eye. “Say it again.”

  She laughed, and with a smile splitting her face said, “What? That you’re a friggin’ idiot?”

  He growled and pulled her hands up over her head, securing them with one of his hands. His heated gaze fastened on her lips, while his other hand engulfed her breast, plumping it, and plucking at her nipple.

  She went from laughing to gasping within a second.

  “Say it again, Ryann. I want to hear you say it,” he murmured, still plucking at her nipple.

  “I love you, Jeremy,” she purred.

  He exhaled harshly. “Again.”

  Now she smiled. “I love you, Jeremy,” she breathed.

  He replaced his fingers with his mouth and sucked on her nipple. She bowed up off the bed meeting his lips, and let out a long satisfied sigh.

  He stopped and rested his own lips onto her mouth, then said with passion in his voice, “I am so fucking in love with you, Ryann. You have completely destroyed me for any other woman...and I couldn’t be happier.”

  She beamed, and he nuzzled her mouth, nibbling at her. “I have to go downstairs for something. Don’t. Move. A muscle.”

  Then he bounded up off the bed, grabbed the half full Chinese food containers, and strode out of the room.

  Her heart was nearly pounding out of her chest given the admission he had just made. She giggled with glee and couldn’t stop smiling. She could just make out the ding of the microwave down in the kitchen, and wondered what the hell he was heating up. Now her heart pounded with anticipation.

  He walked back in carrying a brown paper bag, then kicked the door closed behind him.

  She noted the gleam in his eye, and that lazy half smile on his lips, the promise of some incredibly stupendous sex written all over it.

  Her breath hitched, and she became nervous with excitement.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, her eagerness obvious.

  He chuckled. “Just combining the two things I love,” he said.

  Chocolate.

  “Put your hands above your head, Ryann, and keep them there. If you move them, then I’ll tie you to my bed…which I may do anyway,” he murmured as an afterthought.

  Her anxiety ratcheted up, but her arousal outweighed any other feelings she had. She thought she might enjoy being tied to the bed, if he was the one doing the tying. Being at his mercy did all kinds of strange things to her insides, and another wave of arousal hit her causing the rate of her heart to kick up even more.

  She did as he asked, and watched for his next command.

  “Now spread your legs for me, baby. As wide as you can go. I want to see that pretty pussy that belongs to me.”

  She swallowed. “I haven’t taken a shower yet…”

  “Baby, we’re about to get down and dirty, and then I’m finally going to give you that good old fashioned fucking in the shower that I promised you so long ago. You’ll be clean soon enough. Now, open your legs. I’ve missed seeing you.”

  He finished his speech, then put the mystery bag on the nightstand, and opened her legs even wider, pushing her knees back. He took a moment to look at her, then shook his head slowly, as if he couldn’t believe something.

  He looked at her with tenderness and love, mixed with a good amount of lust, and said, “You are so fucking hot, baby. I’ve been thinking about doing this ever since we looked at that first painting together.”

  He reached into the bag, and pulled out a jar of chocolate fudge…from the same Chocolatier that he got the truffles. This apparently was the rest of the gift he hadn’t given her that night.

  “I got this for you to use before I left for Chicago, but...I was an idiot and didn’t handle things very well...but I’m about to make up for it.”

  She looked at the jar, and swallowed. “My dream…” she whispered.

  “It’s my dream, too, baby.”

  “No,” she cleared her throat and blushed. “I dreamed you would do this…”

  He stilled, and his eyes glittered. “Tell me… Every detail... Because I’m about to make your dream come true.”

  She cleared her throat again, clearly embarrassed. “What about the sheets?”

  “I’ll get new ones,” his mouth kicked up into a promising smile. “Start talking. What did I do to you?”

  She hesitated, then said, “You poured it on me.”

  “Where?”

  “The inside of my arms…on the inside of my elbows.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Interesting.”

  He opened the jar, and dipped a spoon in the warmed liquid, then dribbled some where she had mentioned. He put the jar down, then crawled over, kneeling between her legs. He was relishing this. She could tell by the expression on his face.

  He put his hands down on either side of her rib cage, then leaned forward and slowly sucked the chocolate off of one arm. She was beginning to feel like that melted chocolate…warm and fluid, a slow heat bubbling inside of her.

  He moved over to the other arm and did the same, tingles running through her body and the slight tickle his mouth made.

  He licked his lips, then whispered, “Where else?”

  “My…nipples,” she whispered.

  He smiled, and grabbed the jar again, and dribbled chocolate all over her nipples and areolas. The warm thick liquid stimulated her, and it felt wonderful. He put the jar back, and began slowly lapping at one nipple, while smearing and rubbing the chocolate into the other.

  She bowed up off the bed. “Jeremy…”

  “Mmm,” he hummed. He released her nipple then put the fingers covered with chocolate in her mouth. “Suck…” he said.

  She did. It was damn good chocolate, and it was even better on his fingers. But there was another place she wanted to suck the chocolate off of. She would get her turn…she would demand it.

  While she cleaned his fingers with her tongue, he cleaned her other nipple with his, then kneeled back and grabbed the jar once more.

  “Let’s see…are there any other places that need a good tongue licking?” He waited for her response, looking like a kid in a candy store…or a chocolate one, in this case.

  “My belly button,” she said, her voice sounding breathy.

  He did as she asked, sipping the chocolate from the tiny cup of her belly button.

  “There’s one more place I’m waiting for you to mention, Ryann. I want to hear you say the word.”

  Her body was completely over heated, and her face was even more so. Saying that particular word always embarrassed her…and he knew it.

  He watched her inner struggle, and smiled wickedly. He began dribbling around the place she couldn’t name, letting the warm deliciousness hit the crease at the top of her thigh. It began dripping down, right near her opening.

  She was gasping lightly, her breath coming out in short breaths. He dribbled it on the other crease of her leg, then watched her. “Say it, Ryann.”

  He waited, then, “Where should I dribble this warm…delicious…chocolate. Say it.”

  She was lightheaded from her accelerated breathing, and croaked in a whisper, “My pussy.”

  He smiled. “I love hearing you say that word.”

  He took meticulous care, and dribbled the warm liquid on her clit. She moaned loudly, and then he took the heated spoon and smeared it all over her, from her clit to her very wet opening, mixing the flavors, like he was stirring batter in a bowl.

  Then he put the jar down one last time and settled in for his feast. And feast he did.

  His hot tongue licked from the bottom to the top, then took a
side trip to the creases at her hip joints and sucked there. He found his way back to her center, and suckled her, bringing her to the brink, then backing off, humming, causing vibrations which brought her closer to the edge again. But he would never finish her off. He just kept teasing her.

  “What else did I do in your dream?” his lips murmured against her nether lips. She was frantically moving her head from side to side, but she couldn’t form the words, she was so close to her release. He backed away and repeated his question.

  She moaned in frustration. “Nothing,” she gasped. “I woke up… please, Jeremy…”

  He leaned over her, and put his lips to her ear. “What do you need?”

  “You know what I need!” she nearly screamed.

  He chuckled, still whispering in her ear. “Is it time for your shower fucking?” he said slowly, savoring every syllable.

  Two could play at this game. She gained control of her breathing, then said, “Almost.”

  He looked at her, curious.

  “I just remembered another place I dreamed the chocolate went…”

  He smiled, “Where, baby?”

  “On your back, Jeremy,” she commanded with a teasing tone.

  “Mmm, that’s kinky. Chocolate on my back…”

  “No, I want you on your back. Now, please.”

  A glimmer of realization reached his eyes, as he slowly obliged her and laid down on his back. He looked as if he was going to burst from the seams soon, his cock so hard it looked painful.

  The color was high on his cheekbones, and his green eyes were nearly black with craving and desire.

  She got up and grabbed the jar, then brought it over and straddled his knees. With absolute delight, she dipped the spoon in the jar, and coated his long hard cock with chocolate drips, rubbing the inner curve of the spoon over the tip.

  The hiss that escaped Jeremy’s lips was the sound of victory. She put the jar down, then smiled her sexiest sex kitten smile, held her hair back with one hand, and leaned down lapping at his base, watching him with her eyes the whole time.