Let Me Be The One Part 19

He pulled back to take in her nakedness. "I don't think I'll ever get over how good you look naked on my couch." A moment later, his arms were lifting her and he was saying, "I can't wait to see how you look in my shower."

He kissed her all the way up the stairs and down the hall past the guest bedroom to his own bedroom. Her heart pounded as much from the arousal he so effortlessly built in her as it did from knowing she was going to be in the shower with him soon.

Quick and dirty s.e.x on his couch would have been so much easier to write off as another crazy impulse.

Then again, when he didn't even bother to do more than kick off his shoes and then slide hers off too before walking into the huge, gla.s.s-enclosed shower with her still in his arms and turning the water on over them, she knew he was doing exactly that-following his impulses.

Thank G.o.d.

He moved them so that he could watch the warm water pulse and flow over her chest, and then lowered his head to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s. As his mouth covered one taut tip, she held onto his neck even as the sweet pleasure coursed through every cell in her body.

His skin was getting wet and so were her hands, but before she could slip, he put her back down on her feet and pressed her up against the one tiled wall. He pressed her legs wide open with his, and took her hands in his to hold them up against the tiles on either side of her head.

She felt owned.

Possessed.

Utterly, completely claimed by the heat in his eyes as his gaze ran down her body, then back up to her face.

"Every fantasy, Vicki. " His words were raw. And so low she could barely hear them over the spray from the multiple showerheads. "You're every single fantasy I've ever had."

Her breath came fast as she let herself look at him, too. His chest was tanned and beautifully muscled. His wet b.u.t.ton-down s.h.i.+rt clung to his shoulder and arm muscles in a shockingly s.e.xy way. Not to mention the way his jeans cupped his enormous erection and his taut thigh muscles.

"You are, too," she whispered, barely getting the words out before he captured her mouth in a kiss so searing the water could have been cold and she would still have been warm.

"You have no idea how many dirty things I want to do with you right now."

The warmth coiled down low in her belly let go at his heated words. She was already risking so much with Ryan tonight.

Why not one more thing?

"Good thing we're already in a shower, then."

His eyes lit at the realization that she'd just given him permission to do whatever he wanted with her, and then his mouth covered hers again for a brief, intense kiss before he dropped to his knees in front of her.

He let go of her hands to cup her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and she threaded her hands into his wet hair to hold him there against her as he laved and sucked and nipped at her sensitive flesh.

"G.o.d, I love your b.r.e.a.s.t.s," he murmured against her chest as he moved to taste the other one.

They'd always been big, ever since p.u.b.erty, and more than once she'd wished she didn't have to deal with them. But right in that moment, she'd never been so happy for her abundant flesh, if only because it meant more kisses from Ryan across every inch of them.

"You have no idea how many nights I dreamed of doing this when we were in high school."

She could barely catch her breath enough to ask, "How many?"

"All of them."

His thumbs and forefingers moved to replace his mouth as he kissed his way down her stomach. Vicki's legs trembled as he moved lower and lower to where she was so wet, so ready for him, that the barest touch was going to send her over.

But instead of pressing his mouth to her, he pulled back and just stared at the wet curls between her legs. His hands moved from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to grip her inner thighs and open her more to him.

He'd gone down on her the night before, but being in the shower like this as he stared at her really did feel dirty...in the best possible sense of the word.

She could still hardly believe that it was Ryan between her naked legs, the best looking man in the world kneeling in front of her, ready to wors.h.i.+p her with his mouth and hands.

"Gorgeous." He pressed a soft kiss to her curls. "Absolutely gorgeous." He slid two fingers into her and groaned the words, "So wet. And hot."

As Vicki's inner muscles automatically clenched around him, he dragged his fingers from her, then pushed them back in.

"You're going to come for me, aren't you?"

Oh yes, that was exactly what she was going to do.

She bucked into his hand and then his mouth as his tongue found her. Her cries of pleasure bounced around the shower walls as he pushed her harder, higher, until she was a trembling, post-climactic mess.

Ryan grasped her hands in his again and before she could get her synapses to fire, he had her turned around and s.h.i.+fted so that her hands were flat on a tiled lip that held his soap and shampoo.

He held his hands over hers and braced her hips with his. "Are you steady enough to stay like that on your own while I get my clothes off?"

Oh G.o.d.

"Yes." Barely.

He ran his hands all the way up her arms and then down her back to the flare of her hips before he stopped. "Your a.s.s is a G.o.dd.a.m.ned miracle."

She wished she had the kind of experience with men and s.e.x to answer him in a flirtatious way, but her earlier quip about being in the shower seemed to be the full extent of her flirty answers. Especially when he palmed her cheeks and squeezed them.

A gasp of pleasure fell from her lips as he sparked her desire anew with shocking ease, the fingers of one hand slipping into her again as he undid his pants with the other.

And then his hand was gone and he was pressing up and into her on a groan, his hands coming around to cup and squeeze her b.r.e.a.s.t.s as she gripped the tiled lip.

"Hold on tight."

His gritted-out command barely pierced the fog of l.u.s.t and pleasure in her head before he was pounding into her hard, fast, and so deep, his hands moving from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s to her hips to grip her so possessively, so perfectly, that she had no choice but to feel him everywhere...and love every single second of being taken over.

Somewhere way down deep it felt like she'd been made with these curves just so Ryan could hold onto them when he was taking her, sending her to the edge again with his fierce lovemaking.

"Again, Vicki. I need to feel you come around me."

His deliciously dirty words were the final push she needed to catapult up, up, up and then as her forehead dropped onto the tile between her hands, she was pus.h.i.+ng back into him at least as hard as he was into her to give him exactly what he'd just demanded.

With every clench of her inner muscles around him, he grew harder, thicker, until he suddenly pulled out, one hand moving between her legs to squeeze out the final tremors of her climax even as he worked himself in his other hand.

Utterly lost in their dirty-s.e.x shower world, Vicki didn't think before turning and moving to her knees in front of him to take him into her hands and mouth.

She barely heard his groan through the pounding of blood in her ears. For the first time in her life she understood the thrill of tasting a man like this, the arousal that pumped onto her tongue with every stroke of her hand around him, the sweet rapture of knowing she was giving him as much pleasure as he'd just given her. Twice, already.

She wanted to see his face when he came, but when she looked up through her lashes at him, she was surprised to see him staring back down at her in wonder.

And then, he was down on his knees with her on the shower floor and his mouth was on hers, the taste of both of them merging until she couldn't tell one from the other. She was just about to climb over him when he abruptly pulled back and cursed.

"I need a condom."

He gripped both of her hands and pulled her dripping wet from the shower, and across the bathroom floor to his bed. He was so strong-and so worked up-that he all but threw her down on the covers to wait for him as he yanked open his bedside drawer, found a condom, and ripped it open.

She couldn't wait for him to get it on and their hands tangled on his hard heat as they slid the latex down. And then his hands were on her b.r.e.a.s.t.s again and his mouth was on hers as he was pus.h.i.+ng her back onto the bed and shoving her legs open to push inside of her.

The sweet force of his desire for her-and hers for him-had her losing her breath again and she had to arch away from his mouth to throw her head back and gasp for it as she circled his hips with her legs and gripped his neck and shoulders. And, oh, was she glad for her strong sculptor's hands as they rode each other, Ryan finally cresting the edge he'd been coming to again and again, while Vicki erupted one more beautiful time beneath her best friend.

Chapter Twenty-one.

The lights were still on in Ryan's bedroom, the sky dark outside his window, when Vicki woke in his arms a while later. As soon as she s.h.i.+fted, he spoke.

"I wore you out."

He effortlessly maneuvered her so that she was lying flat on her back and he was levered on his right arm looking down at her. He looked so pleased with himself, she couldn't resist smiling at him.

"You did. Three times, actually."

He grinned back at her and for a moment it was as if nothing had changed and they were just two friends who enjoyed each other's company.

Only, that wasn't even the slightest bit true.

Because everything had changed.

Everything.

As the smile fell from her lips, Ryan's expression grew serious, too.

"Don't tell me it was weird again, Vicki. Not when we both know it was anything but."

She hated that she'd hurt him with what she'd so stupidly blurted that morning. "No, it wasn't weird. It was great. Last night was great, too. But-"

He stopped her with a kiss. One that was just as sweet as it was sinful.

"I'm going to let you finish saying what you have to say so that you can get every single one of those buts out of your system." He stared down at her, his eyes dark with intense emotion. "And then you're going to listen to what I have to say. So go ahead. Get it all out."

In the wake of his kiss-and the press of his hard muscles over her-she had to work really, really hard to ignore the fact that she and Ryan were completely naked in his bed. The problem was, she knew he was right, that if she didn't give voice to all of her worries now, the next time they ended up in bed together, things would only be more confusing between them.

"I know you would never hurt me, Ryan. Not on purpose, anyway. And I would never want to hurt you, either. But-" She paused, hating what came next. "-I just don't see how this can end any way but badly when I'm made for the long term and you're not."

A tic jumped in his jaw as he stared down at her. "How can you say I'm not made for the long term?"

"How long has your longest relations.h.i.+p been?"

"A few months." His gaze softened as he added, "But none of them were you, Vicki."

His sweet words warmed her, of course they did, but she still had to ask, "And how many women have you been with?"

Something flashed in his eyes and it looked a heck of a lot like remorse. "I've already told you that none of them mattered to me. You're the only one who ever has."

The twisting of her stomach at the thought of all those women had her nodding. "You're right, I don't want-or need-to know the number." Besides, if she extrapolated from their one year together in high school, she could make a pretty good guess.

"I don't see what my past has to do with our future."

"Here's what: You've been with lots of women whom you freely admit didn't matter. I've never done that." Vicki lifted her chin and met his gaze squarely. "In my entire life, I've been with two men."

She could read the shock on his face, loud and clear. "Hold on a second. You were a virgin when you met your husband?"

She didn't want to be embarra.s.sed about her choices. Not when they'd felt like the right ones at the time.

"I wasn't a total prude during college. I'd fooled around with a handful of guys, but I couldn't justify sleeping with them when I knew I wouldn't be with them past the next semester."

Besides, none of them had made her insides turn to goo, or made her heart flutter in her chest, the way she'd hoped they would.

Precisely the way Ryan did.

"I can't believe your b.a.s.t.a.r.d ex-husband got to be your first."

She could see how jealous he was about it. It shouldn't have made her feel good, but it did.

She gave him a wry smile. "He loved it, of course. I think it made him feel like the conquering hero. You know, going where no man had gone before and all that. And, stupidly, I thought we were going to be together forever. Maybe if I had stayed twenty-two, it would have worked out, but I had to grow up at some point. Everything changed once I wasn't that impressionable, star-struck girl anymore." And still she'd hung on, hoping that they could work things out, hoping that she didn't have to end up a failure at love, too.

"I'm not like that, Vicki. I'm not like him."

"I know." She had to smile at Ryan as she brushed her hand lightly over his stubbly chin. "That's one of the reasons I let myself sleep with you. Not just because my hormones were taking over, but because I trust you."

"Then keep trusting me when I say that I've wanted to be with you since we were fifteen. Even before you saved me from that car, I wanted you, Vicki. All those stories I've told these past few days about trying to get you to notice me and losing you to another man were true."

"I love hearing you say all that, so much you wouldn't believe, but even though I've only been with two men, I've seen enough to understand that wanting rarely becomes more than that."

"What about the fact that since you've been back, everything's been better?"

"I guess that's something," she admitted in a cautious voice.

"It's a h.e.l.l of a lot more than something. Vicki, I want you to give me a chance. I want to be your boyfriend. I want you to be my girlfriend. I want you to stop a.s.suming that I'll be wanting out in a few weeks. I want our relations.h.i.+p to be real."

"It all sounds so good," she said slowly.

"It will be good. I promise."