Easy Reunion

by Jerald, Tracey

  I may be emotionally stripping myself more than I’ll be physically naked later by uttering one simple word, but I do it anyway. “Yes,” I say simply.

  The next thing I know, I’m airborne as Ry swings me up around my thighs and starts making his way down the hall laughing. There’s unbridled joy on his face that I want to memorize in the event I ever hit rock bottom.

  But before I can get the chance, we’re crossing over a threshold of double doors that Ry’s shutting behind him with a sharp kick.

  * * *

  For the longest time after Ry laid me down on top of his bedspread, he kisses me senseless. I get lost in the way his lips and tongue drive me to madness before a whimper escapes my throat. Finally, he tears his mouth away, but only to subject me to more pleasure as he drags his teeth down the sensitive column of my neck. Over and over, lips, tongue, teeth tantalize me until another soft moan erupts from my lips. He must have felt it as well because I can feel him smile against my neck before he again begins his seductive torture.

  In a way, this act is my final forgiveness of not just him but myself. There will be no more barriers between us after this. We are the Kelsey and Rierson of then and now. And soon, we will become the us we were meant to be.

  Rolling him to his back, I straddle him to whip my dress off over my head, leaving myself clad in nothing but a matching set of lace bra and panties. He pauses in the act of destroying my body to shoot me a heated look from where he’s lying between my thighs. Sliding his fingers back and forth beneath the hem of the lace, he orders, “Unless you want these to have the same fate as the last pair I saw on you, I suggest you lose them. Now.”

  Leaning down, I press a kiss on his lips, before teasing him, “Not until you lose some clothes too, Rierson. This isn’t a one-way strip show.”

  I’m quickly flipped over onto my back as Ry lurches from the bed where he slides his shirt off with one hand without unbuttoning it. I’m paralyzed as he reveals an upper body every woman dreams of—strong shoulders, muscular arms, and a stomach a god would weep to have lead down to tapered hips that his dress slacks cling to only with the assistance of a leather belt. Dimly, I hear the jingle of his belt loosening, but I’m in a dream state. I could live off his body alone. Out loud, I throw out a little sass. “I feel like I need music for this.” I relax further into the pillows behind me as he pauses in the act of shucking his pants.

  “You know what I’m going to do with that smart mouth of yours?” Ry threatens, amused.

  “No, what?” I slide my fingers into my hair before letting them rest on my shoulder. After fiddling around a little, the strap of my bra falls off my shoulder negligently. When he doesn’t respond, I open my mouth to ask what the problem is. Before I can get out a single word, my mouth becomes otherwise occupied as Ry’s comes crashing down on it, almost daring me to defy the urgency in his kiss. I realize, happily, that when he joined me back in bed, it was without a single stitch of clothing on to impede my hands. He braces himself above my body and is just about to lower his weight against me when I press a hand against his chest just over his heart.

  His body is magnificent. The heat pouring off it is searing me, imprinting him on me. And I want to do the same for him.

  My hands smooth up from his stomach. My reward is when his muscles quiver beneath my touch on their quest to roam across his broad chest. Their target are the nipples I already know from our previous night together are super sensitive to being rolled, licked, and sucked. Reaching up, I wet both my thumb and forefingers before reaching over and twisting them.

  He groans, his head dropping in sweet agony. “Jesus Christ,” he rasps.

  “Let me touch you,” I plead. “I’m dying to feel you.” My own body is aching for his touch, but that can wait.

  Seeming to understand without words, Ry capitulates to the hunger that must be burning in my eyes. His fingers, which were near my shoulders, slide beneath me to make quick work of the snaps at my back. My arms reluctantly lift so he can pull my bra away from my sensitive breasts. Then I gasp as the air both gives them sweet relief and taunts them.

  He stares down at them in wonder. “I never thought I’d get to hold you like this again. I want to spend all night cherishing you, Kelsey,” he says, right before he lowers his head and licks one tight bud and then the other back and forth before sucking one nipple firmly into his mouth.

  I arch off the bed, crying out. Every time his tongue lashes at me, it makes me wetter. Now, the sensation is like a constant pull against my aching clit.

  Wrapping my legs around him, I arch my lower body into him.

  Ry pushes back against me with his hard cock as he switches breasts, treating my other nipple to the same treatment even as he reaches over and pinches the one he just abandoned.

  My head rolls back and forth on his pillow. “Have to touch you,” I groan. It’s a need. My nails prick at his flesh until suddenly I’m whirling through the air, carefully being flipped over.

  Ry has a devilish cast to his face as I’m once again astride him. “This way, we both can play,” he says, the breath rasping from his chest.

  Lowering myself down to him, I grip his jaw to hold it in place for a thorough kiss when I feel his hands slide down the back of my panties. “But sweetheart, it’s time to lose these.” He slides his hands over my hips, dragging the lace over them, likely stretching them beyond repair. Like I give a shit.

  When they catch between us, I lift, giving him the room to slide them further down my thighs before I then twist from one side to the other to push them down my legs and kick them off the bed. Stretching out back on top of him, Ry strokes his hands from the backs of my thighs to my shoulders before simply holding me close in a sweet hug where he breathes me in.

  “God, I missed you when I woke up and you were gone.”

  “I almost stayed,” I admit. My hair brushes against his jaw as I duck my head. “I had a moment before I walked out the door where I almost said the hell with it and crawled back into bed. But I knew if I did, I would have told you everything. And…” I finally admit the truth to myself as well as him. “I was petrified of your reaction. After all, I was just me.”

  He rears back as much as he can before rolling us again until he’s back on top. I’m wrapped tightly in his arms. He’s holding me to him as he kisses me, devours my lips, showing me what my words mean to him.

  “And you’re all I want.”

  They obviously mean everything.

  Losing the last fragile illusion of control, Ry kneels up in front of me. Wrapping my legs around his hips, leaving my core complete exposed to his exploring hands, he starts to stroke the bare lips of my drenched pussy with a teasing, delicate touch. “Oh, God. Don’t stop,” I manage to get out as his fingers dance along my clit before they work their way inside of me slowly.

  I can barely get in enough air to breathe.

  His rough laugh tells me I’m not the only one affected. He thrusts his hips into my wandering hand as I blindly reach out and grab his cock. I stroke up and down over the hard length. My fingers graze over the head firmly each time I do. His guttural groans draw even more slickness from my body. It’s almost as much of a turn-on as what his destructive touch is doing. I continue to stroke up and down over the hard length when he groans, “You’re magnificent.” My fingers graze over the head and swipe over the bead of fluid now leaking from the tip. Catching his eye, I lift my fingers to my lip and taste him. It’s not quite the way I want to, but I can’t slip my mouth around him from this angle.

  Later. Definitely.

  The feral sound that emanates from his throat causes me to shiver, but I end up whimpering when he removes his fingers from my drenched core to unwrap my legs from the viselike grip they have around his hips. I begin to protest until he slides down the bed. He braces himself as he spends an inordinate time kissing the flowers along my stomach along the way, causing hot tears to burn behind my eyes. But all thoughts fly out of my head as he situates himse
lf between my spread thighs. He parts my folds, exposing my clit to the air, and I swear it throbs even more before he lowers his head and lays waste to me by flicking his tongue back and forth over it.

  “Ry, yes! Oh, there. More, please.” My hips arch of their own violation into his mouth as he claims me. My fingers fly into his hair to hold him against me. He kisses the sensitive nub, licks it, before opening his mouth and sucking the bud fully inside just like he did my nipple.

  I scream my pleasure out. “Ry!”

  With no mercy, I’m scoring his shoulders with my nails and gasping his name over and over. My legs fall open wider. That just spurs him on. First one finger, then two slip into my pussy. I can hear my wetness slicking his fingers as he continues to drive me up and over the edge of madness until my inner muscles clamp down tightly against his fingers, squeezing hard once.

  I arch.

  Twice, before spasming rapidly.

  My body sinks back against the mattress, spent.

  Ry is licking my folds gently to soothe me as I come down from the high. Soon though, I want more.

  “Please,” I beg. He looks up from between my legs, and I swear, there’s nothing that’s affected me more than seeing the sheer joy on his face. “Take me.”

  “With pleasure.” Ry prowls up between my legs, levering himself above me. Reaching into the drawer, he pulls out protection. I bite my lip in anticipation as he quickly sheaths himself. He nudges the head of his cock against my pussy. “Look at me, Kels.”

  My eyes fly up to his as his forehead lowers to mine. He pushes inside me slow and easy. I moan in pleasure even as my core takes a moment to adjust to the width of his cock. “It feels so good to be inside you again.”

  Tears I thought had fled after I had such an intense release burn again at the back of my eyes at his words. He means it. My mouth opens in wonder. Me. Kelsey. I lift my hips and wrap my arms around his neck as pleasure floods every inch of my skin, my heart, and my soul. His hips pull back before he thrusts again, plunging deep. His forceful strokes take my breath away and give me life all in the same instant.

  My hands slide into his hair as he arches his cock into me again. “You’re so tight.” Ry leans down and nips my shoulder, my neck before he captures my lips in a searing kiss that mimics what our bodies are doing below, filling our souls with memories that will last so much longer than this night.

  My cries mingle with Ry’s groans as our bodies come closer to the edge. There’s a sweetness to the intensity that wasn’t there the first night. Wrapping my legs tighter around him, I hold him as close as I can with all the jagged pieces of what I have inside of me.

  This time when Ry’s final thrust throws me over the edge, all I can think is, is it going to be like this every time Ry touches me? Because if it is, I may die of ecstasy.

  It’s the last coherent thought I have before he rolls me into him, and I drift off against his shoulder.

  Chapter 26

  Kelsey

  “Tell me about this.” Ry traces his fingers lightly across the daisies on my lower stomach, and I tense. “It means something more than just being your grandmother’s favorite flower.”

  “It’s not an easy story,” I warn him. Because it won’t be for either of us. It’s going to bring up the heartbreak and heartache we’re trying to move past.

  His fingers stop tracing the delicate petals covering the worst of the scar over my left hip where my incision didn’t heal correctly. “Is it going to take us back?” he asks quietly.

  My head moves up and down against the pillows slowly. But before he can speak, I lay my hand on top of his. “We can’t pretend the past didn’t happen, though look at how well that turned out.”

  A gorgeous smile curves his lips before he kisses me. “Well, it certainly ended up well,” he teases.

  I can’t help but laugh because he’s right. Not once, but twice, we’ve ended up in bed over my need to forget the past never happened. Only this time, he refused to let me run away. I understand there’s no ignoring the past; there’s only fighting the right battles to secure my future. Whatever they may end up being.

  “I had the surgery about ten years ago,” I begin.

  Ry’s face pales. “I’ve heard about how serious of a procedure it is.” His hand presses hard against my lower abdominal wall. I feel the warmth around the areas where the scar tissue hasn’t deadened the area.

  In the rest, I feel nothing. I thought my heart was like that too, until tonight.

  I nod because it was. “You need to appreciate I chose to have the surgery, though it was deemed medically necessary by my insurance.”

  He swallows hard. “Are you…can you still have children?”

  Tilting my head to the side, I ask, “Would it matter to you if I couldn’t?”

  He presses a soft kiss to my forehead before telling me truthfully, “Only if it hurt you. I don’t want anything to hurt you anymore.”

  And my heart loses another shield of protection it’s been holding up against falling in love. “God, Ry.” I lift my arms around him and pull him close so the full weight of his body is on mine.

  We lie together like this for a few moments before he rolls to the side. Cupping my face, he brushes his thumb over my cheek back and forth. “If it wasn’t that, what was it?”

  Taking in a deep breath, I summon the courage of all the saints I’ve ever prayed for mercy on. “When I had the weight loss surgery…” My voice quivers. I don’t know why I’m afraid of his response. Maybe because I’m finally beginning to realize Ry cared about me before when I wasn’t as fit. He cared about what was under his hands that he’s currently cupping.

  My heart.

  Tears well and begin to overflow and trail down the sides of my face. “I was so close to…” My voice trails away.

  “Close to?”

  “Giving up,” I admit on a sigh. “I hated my body and the distorted image I had about myself more than I loved anything about my life. I was—no, I am obsessive about what I eat, working out, and making sure I don’t put on weight. I’m not dysmorphic, but I have huge levels of anxiety over my appearance—more importantly, how others perceive me.” Biting my lip, I wait for him to turn away in disgust.

  Instead, I’m thrown off by what happens next.

  Ry shoves the sheets off our cooling bodies and starts to slide away. “Ry?” I ask uncertainly.

  “Shh,” he whispers. Brushing a kiss over my lips, he says, “Let me tell you what I see when I touch you.”

  Trembling, I lie next to him while his fingers glide through my hair. “It’s like silk. It glides over your body as you move.” I can almost feel each strand as he sifts his fingers through. “When I play with it in the light, it catches fire—much like the woman inside.” His fingers glide over my brows and gently shut my eyes. “And here? Smoke and serenity. Your eyes are like an antique mirror, priceless in any setting.” His thumb dips down over my lips. I take a small nip; I can’t help myself. His answering grin tells me how much he likes it—me. “Daring, playful, and yet occasionally modest. The things that come out of this mouth are a constant temptation. But there are two places I’m fixated on.”

  I expect his hands to slide to my breasts or maybe between my legs, to feel the dampness gathering there over the intensity of feeling he’s generating in me.

  I’m partially right.

  His hand slides between my breasts to land over my heart. The other braces above my head so he can leverage himself partially over me to lay his lips on my forehead. “It’s what’s in this incredible mind that captured my attention from the moment we first met years ago.” Sliding down, he trails soft kisses down the centerline of my body until he replaces his warm hand with soft lips over a heart that’s going wild. “And it’s what’s in here that’s making me understand why my own didn’t work right before.”

  My whispered moan of his name is broken as he lays his head on my chest and breathes in the mingled sweat of our previous lovemaking. I�
��m already a mess of tears when he speaks again a few moments later. “So, to answer the question you didn’t quite ask, no. I don’t judge you for doing whatever you felt you needed to survive. I’m just grateful as fuck you came out of it healthy and with no long-term medical issues.” To add a nonverbal exclamation to his statement, Ry drops his head to the cluster of gerbera daisies covering the worst of my scar and kisses them soundly before sliding back up to take my shaking body in his arms.

  “You’re going to make it very hard not to fall in love with you,” I tell him long moments later.

  “God, I hope so” is his only response before he reaches over to turn out the lights. He pulls me close, and I lay my head on his chest.

  Closing my eyes, in his arms, I finally feel like maybe I might have just found my home since I left Savannah all those years ago.

  Chapter 27

  Rierson

  The silky smoothness of her skin under my fingers is like a drug I can’t get enough of. Kelsey is asleep after we made love again, her sweet heart-shaped ass nestled back against the cradle of my hips. And time and time again, my fingers run up and down the outside of her leg. Under my hands is the physical manifestation of the core of strength inside this incredible woman.

  She stirs lightly in her sleep. I slide my hand from her thigh to her hip and squeeze gently, my fingers resting over the daisies she tattooed over the physical scars she endured to attempt to remove the mental ones. My heart beats an erratic rhythm when she reaches back and pulls my hand forward to cup it against the most precious of places.

  Her heart.

  Dropping my head, I inhale the scent that’s uniquely Kelsey mixed with the earthy scent of our lovemaking. I can hardly believe the way our bodies responded to one another; there was no holding back. Not an inch of her soft skin wasn’t touched or tasted throughout the night.