Chapter Nine
Juliet wouldn’t have thought a week of mind-blowing sex could make a woman hornier, but she was wrong. She tried to remember if her first week with Owen had been the same, but it seemed like such a long time ago now and her more recent memories of him coloured any walk down memory lane.
She was pretty damn sure they hadn’t had this much sex in the first week, and they’d spent the first three days of their relationship in bed.
What the fuck had they been doing?
She had no such luxuries with Ryder. They only had the nights, but they made the most of them. They were averaging about three hours sleep, which Juliet knew wasn’t good for her work ethic let alone the stamina of a professional athlete, but she’d been insatiable. She hadn’t been able to get enough of him. Nor him her, if the number of times he reached for her was any indication.
After all, the clock was ticking. They had to cram as much sex as possible into the time they had left.
Which was why Ryder was impatiently hinting at Bodie, who’d been shooting the breeze with them on the deck, it was time to leave. They’d returned from puppy preschool earlier to find him waiting outside the apartment block with a six-pack of beer and four pizza boxes.
Ryder, who’d been telling her in explicit smutty detail just what he was going to do to her when they got to the apartment, had suggested that Bodie call back in six weeks. Juliet had laughed and invited him up and had spent a fun couple of hours getting to know Ryder’s closest friend, observing their rapport and enjoying their easy banter.
It was hard to believe that these guys were celebrities. There were no airs and graces. They ate pizza out of the box, drank beer from the bottle, were happy with paper towels to wipe their faces, and made disgusting boy jokes about Tiny farting.
Sure, Bodie regaled her with some of their exploits—both on and off the field, particularly at a club called The Cock and Bull—but to amuse only, not to come across as some kind of star.
“Ryder tells us you’re heading for Italy soon?”
“Yes. In six weeks.”
“And you speak fluent Italian?”
“Si.”
“Ah. Dov’è l’ospedale? Mi sento molto male.”
Juliet suppressed a smile at the obvious school boy Italian asking the directions to the hospital because he felt sick. “Niente di grave spero?”
He waved his hand dismissively at her enquiry that she hoped it was nothing serious. “Il mio pollice è dolorante.”
Juliet laughed this time at the plight of Bodie’s sore thumb, impressed by his accent. Ryder, though, was clearly not. “Oh fuck off, Spidey. Since when do you speak Italian?”
Bodie grinned. “I learned it at school.”
“Of course you did. Poncy private school prick,” Ryder muttered into his beer.
The insult slid off Bodie’s impressive shoulders like Teflon. She had to hand it to these rugby guys. They knew how to do shoulders.
Bodie continued unabashed. “Mezzo chilo di pesche, per piacere.”
Juliet cracked up. “Okay.” Ryder stood, his chair scraping back, Tiny rousing from his slumber, ears pricked. “Time to leave now.”
Bodie, clearly revelling in the role of cock blocker, laughed and glanced at Juliet. “Is he always this rude?”
“Now, Spidey.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m going.”
He picked up Juliet’s hand and kissed it in a very European manner. “Ci fa il conto, per favore?”
Juliet stifled her laugh as Ryder said, “All right, Casanova, on your way.”
Bodie winked at her before departing. Ryder followed him out, as did Tiny, lumbering off after them. She quickly cleared the table, a smile on her face. Bodie had been entertaining and Ryder endearingly grouchy. Knowing the grouchiness stemmed from his impatience to have her alone was a massive turn on, a delicious ache between her legs flickering to life at the thought of him being inside her.
She switched the lights off in the kitchen and living area and deck, but the swish of waves called to her and she stepped out into the darkness, leaning her elbows onto the railing. Through the dark shadows of the Norfolk Island pines, she could just make out the white froth of the water as the waves foamed onto the beach.
She loved it out here, with the Pacific stretched out endlessly in front of her, the rhythmic noise of sea on sand tugging at her body in a very primal, elemental way. The beat echoed in the wash of blood through her breasts and thighs and the lips of her sex, heavy with arousal and anticipation.
She sensed Ryder approaching behind her before she heard him. Then his mouth was at her neck, hot and wet, his hands pushing under her Lycra shirt to cup her naked breasts. Juliet moaned and shivered, her left hand creeping up behind her, sliding around his neck and anchoring at his nape as she’d done that night in front of the mirror, the right clutching the railing.
“I thought he’d never bloody leave.”
His low growl turned her legs to jelly and she thanked god for the solid presence of his thighs at the backs of hers.
“What did Spidey say to you?”
He pulled her shirt up then, exposing her to the cool night air and anyone who had reasonably good night vision in the vicinity. “Ryder.” It was a protest but a weak one, segueing into a moan as he squeezed her breasts and rolled her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. “People will see.”
His breath was hot at her neck. “We’re in the dark and no one’s around.” Which was true. Faint murmurings floated on the air from the beer garden a few doors down, but the front was deserted. His teeth bit gently on her neck. “What did he say?”
Hot little daggers of pleasure zipped from her nipples to her belly button. “Just schoolboy stuff.”
“Schoolboys are filthy little bastards. He wasn’t trying to flirt with my woman, was he?” Another growl, another bite, and the daggers burrowed deep under her skin to muscles already quivering for his possession.
His woman. Part of her knew she should object to the wording. She wasn’t his woman. They weren’t together like that. But the heaviness between her legs was blooming into something much fuller and fuck it, she liked the way it sounded on his lips while he pinned her to the railing and publically groped her.
It wasn’t very PC of her, but there was something about Ryder going full cave man that made her want to spread her legs and submit. His cock was hard in the small of her back and she pushed her ass into it. He groaned, his hands squeezing her breasts harder.
“He asked me where the hospital was because he was sick with a sore thumb. Then he wanted a kilo of peaches and then the bill.”
His low chuckle, warm on her throat, set off a chain reaction of goose bumps sweeping from her scalp to her toes. Her nipples, already impossibly stiff, turned to diamond, her clit, throbbing with anticipation, contracted to a rock-hard bead.
“Say something in Italian,” he demanded, his fingers relentlessly tweaking her nipples.
She moaned. “Like what?”
“Something dirty.”
Juliet gave a half laugh but didn’t hesitate. “Hai un cazzo grosso.” Ryder’s dick was big and it should be celebrated in all languages. She ground back into it, hoping that would be adequate translation.
“I think I got that one.” His laugh went straight to her clit, contracting it further.
“Andiamo al letto per scopare.”
His lips buzzed her throat. “I don’t know what that means, but I like it.”
“It means,” she said, rubbing her ass against his erection, “let’s go to bed and fuck.”
He grunted, his hands squeezing her breasts. “I’ve got a better idea.” His left hand slid to her hip, breaching the band of her Lyrca leggings.
“Ryder.” It was supposed to be a warning, but it was more moan as her pulse tripped.
He pushed his hand beneath the fabric, peeling it and her underwear down, exposing the top half of her left buttock. Her pulse spiked in alarm, her left hand dropped quickly from his neck grabbing for his wrist, stopping him from exposing any more of her to the cooling air.
The cement wall below the railing—not to mention the anonymity of night—hid their activities from the waist down but Juliet hadn’t done anything so public before.
He grabbed her hand and gently slid it on the railing close to the other one, caging her bared breasts between her arms, framing them, pushing them together. The metal was cold beneath her palm and her nipples responded accordingly.
“Trust me,” he whispered. “Don’t let go. Don’t turn around.”
Juliet swallowed, unbelievably turned on. A hot wave of want swept over her, strumming through her pelvis and rendering her legs as useless as two strands of dental floss.
She gripped the railing hard as both Ryder’s hands pawed at her pants, yanking them down to expose her buttocks and upper thighs to his view despite still being anchored at her waist in the front.
“Oh si.” His soft breath rushed out into the air, caressing her ear as his hands groped her ass, her breasts swaying slightly at the movement. He rubbed and squeezed and kneaded, separating her buttocks with a firm grip as his fingers trailed up and down the cleft of her ass fluttering close to the wet heat at her centre before fluttering away.
Juliet sucked in a breath, shutting her eyes at the stimulus and biting her lip to stop from crying out every time his fingers skimmed away, denying her the kind of possession she craved.
Suddenly his hands were gone. There was the sound of a zip, the rustle of fabric, the rip of a foil packet, and then his hands were on her hips again, dragging them back and up, forcing her onto her tippy toes as his cock slid through the wet folds between her legs.
Juliet tightened her hold on the railing, crying out at the feel of him, hard and thick, notching at her entrance. Her heart battered like a ram at her ribs. She was so aroused she could smell herself over the aroma of sand and sea.
Voices from below jolted her right out of her bliss, her heart rate spiking as she raised her hands to yank her shirt down. But he was quicker, abandoning her hips to press her hands to the railing.
“Shhh,” he whispered, his breath hot at her ear. His cock was hot, too, poised at her entrance. “Like this. I want to fuck you just like this. From behind. With your clothes on and your tits out and people on the street below completely oblivious. Stay really quiet.” He flexed then and pushed himself inside her but not all the way. “Oh god yes, fuuuuck.”
He groaned it straight into her ear and Juliet’s belly clenched, her throat almost bursting from biting back a moan desperate for release.
“Be really, really—” He pushed the rest of the way in. “Still.” He panted heavily. “They’ll never know.”
Juliet thought her lungs were going to explode from the breath she was holding. She breathed it out on a long, slow whimper.
“That’s it,” he murmured, seated high inside her. “Let it go.”
She tensed as two men ran across the road, laughing madly, obviously a little lit from the pub, stopping beneath the spill of a streetlight opposite the building. From only four stories up she could make out their features with relative ease.
Ryder slowly pulled out all the way, his cock notched just inside her entrance. “Even if they did look up, they couldn’t see us, Juliet.” Another seductive whisper as he pushed into her again, so, so slowly. “You might be able to see them, but they can’t see you. Or hear you. They can’t touch you. Only I can.”
His hands slid from the rails to her breasts and Juliet whimpered again, her eyes shutting as he rolled her nipples between his fingers.
Strictly speaking, Juliet knew that if the guys looked up, they would be able to see her and Ryder. Sure, they’d be a silhouette, a dark outline, his shadow wrapped around hers as he screwed her long and slow from behind, his actions hidden by the night. But they’d know people were there. And maybe they’d wonder what those people were doing.
She’d never thought of herself as an exhibitionist, but the thought was strangely titillating.
“They think they’re having such a good time,” he continued, whispering in her ear as he pulled out again.
The two men didn’t seem to be in any hurry to move on, that was for sure, standing on the wide path fronting the beach, having a loud, seemingly amusing conversation.
“They’re wrong.” His hands squeezed her breasts as he slid home again, inch by slippery inch. “Nothing is as good as being inside you.”
Juliet moaned. It did feel pretty goddamn good to be her right now, being consumed by him. His body filling hers, his voice filling her head, forced into stillness and silence when all she wanted to do was arch and bellow.
He withdrew slow and lazy, his lips pressed to her ear, low and seductive. “Speak Italian to me.”
She didn’t have to ask what he wanted her to say this time. He was groping her naked breasts as he fucked her from behind, while two strangers—two men—stood not that far away completely oblivious.
The words spilled from her mouth. Not words she learned at university, but the dirty words that inevitably get discovered along the way from risqué literature and questionable art house cinema.
“Scopami lentamente,” she whispered. Fuck me slowly. He pushed in slow and deep, and she lost her breath.
“Keep going,” he urged as he slid out.
She stifled a moan, her voice a barely audible vibrato. “Dio, dio. Come quello, come quello.”
God. God. Like that. Like that.
It became a blur then. Of filthy whispered Italian and slow, furtive fucking, Ryder filling and emptying, stretching and withdrawing, whispering, “Yes, yes yes,” between her hushed murmurings, his fingers teasing her nipples, the long, slow glide of his cock pressing high, pulling down hard on the hood of her clit, massaging it into a frenzy of stimulation, concentrating everything down to a singular focus of pleasure as her body pulsed around him, throbbing to the beat of her heart, the beat of the waves.
The men walked away still laughing and a dam broke loose inside her, her climax rising up and out like Aphrodite from the surf. She moaned, not loud but louder than before, unable to beat back the swell of her release.
“Shhh,” he whispered, his forehead pressed into the back of her head as he pushed in to the hilt and held tight like he had during their first time.
“I can’t,” she choked out, her Italian forgotten as her whole body shook and dissolved around him, her orgasm rocking her to the core. “I’m coming.”
“Fuuuck,” he whispered, his thighs shaking behind hers, his biceps trembling. “Me too.”
He adjusted the tilt of his hips, levering in and out of her with shallow thrusts, sliding insanely good back and forth across her G spot as he emptied inside her. It wasn’t until his hand clamped over her mouth that she realised she was getting louder.
Then all she could do was breathe—inhale and exhale—through her nostrils as she rode out the storm with him.
Twenty minutes later, Juliet had showered and was in the bedroom, hunting through her handbag for her travel toothbrush. She’d tossed it in there a few days ago when it had become clear she’d be spending a lot of time in Ryder’s gorgeous apartment. The fact that it popped inside itself, forming a compact unit, made it very convenient and portable.
She glanced up to find Ryder lounging in the doorway looking at her. He’d just come in from taking Tiny out for his last toilet stop. The dog was sitting obediently at Ryder’s side, but his ass was hovering, waiting for the command to be allowed into the bedroom.
Ryder’s gaze travelled up her body, in no hurry to get to any destination. Her skin prickled in its wake, her nipples beading beneath the towel she had wrapped around her body.
“You speaking Italian is sexy as fuck.”
Juliet’s abdominal muscles quivered at his statement, his words smooth as melted chocolate. How could she want him again so soon? Sure, the man looked good enough to eat in his cargoes and T-shirt, but it had been less than half an hour since the last time. She could still feel him inside her.
His hot gaze was like a brand on her skin.
“Trying to Jedi mind trick the towel into falling off me won’t work. You’re a rugby player, not Luke Skywalker.”
He grinned. “I have a lightsaber in my pants that says different.”
Oh he did. And he wielded that weapon of mass distraction well.
He let go of Tiny’s lead and made a kind of permissive noise. The dog shimmied into the bedroom, greeting her excitedly.
She laughed as Tiny nosed at the towel affectionately, loosening the tie between her breasts a little. She grabbed it before the whole thing unravelled. “Trying to get the dog to do it won’t work, either.”
Juliet rolled her eyes as Ryder faked surprise. She turned her attention to Tiny, smooshing his jowls together. “Don’t let the bad man corrupt you.” The she grabbed her toothbrush and said, “On your bed.”
Tiny obeyed immediately, lumbering over to his bed, which had been placed at the end of Ryder’s mattress.
“Shame on you,” she tisked as she sashayed past Ryder. He made a grab for her, but she laughed and scooted out of reach.
He followed her into the bathroom, lounging in the doorway again, watching her brush her teeth. His gaze lingered on her neck, where strands of hair had escaped the loose up-do, before moving south, roving all over her body.
By the time she’d finished her teeth and retracted her toothbrush, her legs were like jelly. Who needed a Jedi when the man eye-fucked like Han Solo?
“You should bring some of your stuff over here. I can make some room in my cupboard.”
She turned to face him, her pulse fluttering, the toothbrush clasped in her hand, strangely hesitant at his suggestion. “Why?”
He pushed off the doorframe and prowled toward her, whipping his shirt off and tossing it on the ground. “Because you spend half of your time here. It’ll save you going home for a change of clothes before work in the morning.”
She almost sighed out loud at the beauty of his chest but forcibly concentrated her brain on what he was saying, not what he wasn’t wearing. “I don’t have a problem with that.” She was awake early enough with his training schedule anyway.
“At least leave some toiletries here.” He nodded at the slim case of the travel toothbrush. “Save you having to carry a bloody toothbrush around with you. I’ve got plenty of my stuff at yours.”
That was true. Even after a week, it seemed like half of his clothes and a bunch of other crap, from dog toys to sports mags to tubes of deep heat to beach towels, now resided at her place. Worse than that, it seemed to increase exponentially with each day. Like all his boy shit was breeding.
Clothes appeared and never left. She was starting to wonder if he was leaving her place naked in the morning.
“Yes, but…”
How could she explain it? Her toothbrush was her line in the sand. Otherwise it was a slippery slope, wasn’t it? It starts with a toothbrush, then a drawer is cleared, then hanging space is made. Next all her crap would be here and plans for Italy put on the back burner.
Again.
She didn’t have an issue with his stuff at hers. That was just Ryder’s personality and men were, in her experience, generally sloppy creatures. But her stuff at his—that was a much bigger, symbolic gesture.
One she wasn’t prepared to make.
“This is supposed to be just sex. No getting attached. No commitments.”
He reached out and relieved her of the slimline case she was holding in front of her like a shield. “A toothbrush is a commitment?”
Their gazes locked. His was amused, but she was deadly serious. She felt unaccountably tense all of a sudden. This was a deal breaker for her. “Yes.”
For a moment, she thought he was going to press her on it, but then he held up his hands in surrender and said, “Okay,” placing the toothbrush on the vanity next to her hip and stepping back.
His hands slipped to his waistband where he undid his fly and stripped out of his cargoes and Calvin’s in one easy movement, kicking them to the side. His erection jutted out stiff and proud.
Bloody hell. Toothbrush? What toothbrush?
It was hard not to stare and Juliet’s breath hitched as her gaze snagged on the magnificence of it. Thick and long and veined to perfection. She wondered if there would come a time when her mouth wouldn’t go dry at the sight of it. Not in the time they had, surely?
Probably not even in a lifetime.
She dragged her eyes up and quirked an eyebrow. “That thing is always on, isn’t it?”
He just smiled and shrugged nonchalantly. Then, before she could blink, he reached out and tugged on her towel and it was lying in a puddle at her feet.
She gaped at him. “How’d you do that?”
“What can I say?” His gaze roved over her, eye-fucking her some more. “The Force is strong with this one.” He grinned, taking her hand and tugging her closer, placing it on his shaft. “Have a shower with me. I’ll let you wash my lightsaber.”
Juliet’s pulse skipped a beat as she glanced between their bodies to see her hand wrapped around his girth. “It is very, very filthy.”
Her hands slid to his balls and he sucked in a breath. They felt heavy as she rolled them between her fingers. Considering how many times they’d been emptied in the last week, she’d have thought they’d be light as air.
She let him lead her into the shower, the tension from the toothbrush conversation rapidly dissipating as warm water enveloped them. Her hair was getting wet and the tiles at her back were cold, but they barely registered as his wet lips descended on hers, his hot tongue sweeping inside her mouth.
When he pulled away long, drugging moments later, she was breathless, her eyelids heavy, her legs weak enough to be grateful for the wall at her back. She loved his mouth and the masterful way he used it to create a hundred different kinds of havoc in her body.
She wanted him again. Needed him.
“We’re playing in Brisbane on Friday. Come with me.”
His hands stroked over her beasts and down her belly, the muscles beneath contracting at his touch. Juliet prised her eyelids open with difficulty. His gaze, dark and intense, held hers.
It was tempting, but it was just the toothbrush in another guise. This was a sex thing, not a go-away-for-the-weekend thing. She rolled her head back and forth against the tiles, her body too heavy with lust to move any more than necessary.
“No.”
“It’s two days in a fancy hotel, and I’ll pay for your flight.” His lips slid to her neck as his fingers traced wet circles around her belly button. “You don’t even have to come to the game. I won’t be around much, and you can just stay in and be a lady of leisure.”
“Oh yeah?” Her ass cheeks tensed as his fingers brushed a little lower. “And what will I do all by myself in a hotel for two days?”
His lips grazed the angle of her jaw. “Go shopping, go to the spa, order room service.” His tongue traced a line from her ear to the hollow at the base of her throat. “You could catch up with some of the WAGs.” Juliet angled her neck as his warm breath whispered over her skin. “Or you could lie in bed thinking of me and masturbating the whole time.”
Juliet laughed, but she was determined to keep their relationship contained. “I can do that here. In your very fancy apartment. Besides, someone needs to look after poor Tiny.”
He groaned. “Bloody dog.” But he didn’t seem that cross as his tongue lapped along a collarbone before he pulled away, his eyes almost as heavy as hers, his erection nudging her in the stomach just above where his hand was slowly making its way to its target.
“There’s a women in rugby function next week. A black tie event. Come with me?”
His finger circled through the hair at the apex of her thighs and her legs started to tremble. “Ryder.” It was meant to sound like a warning, but his finger whispered closer to her clit and it came out as more of a pant. “You know you don’t need to take me on dates, right?” Her eyes fluttered open to find him watching her again, his gaze glued to her mouth. “I’m a sure thing.”
He grinned appreciatively. “I want to. And I can’t turn up without a date. I have a reputation to uphold.”
She smiled. “Take Val.” He’d told her the coach’s daughter often accompanied him to official functions on a purely platonic basis, so she resolutely ignored the sudden hot punch to her chest at the thought of the sexy redhead with Ryder.
“I want to take you.”
A fierce light glowed in his eyes as he swooped down, his mouth claiming hers, her head rocking back as he kissed her hot and hard, his finger sliding over her clit, ploughing through the swollen lips of her sex before sinking deep inside her, his mouth smothering her gasp.
“Say yes, Juliet.” He was breathing hard, his lips brushing hers as he spoke.
“Ryder—”
A second finger joined the torture and she moaned. He broke off the kiss and sunk to his knees. Her own knees almost gave away at the sight of him, his hair wet, water raining over his shoulders and chest as he sat back on his haunches, his stiff cock jutting up his belly.
“Say yes.”
He looked up at her through dark spiky lashes, his mouth, splashed with water, so damn close to the apex of her thighs. She wanted that mouth on her so bad she could barely stay upright for wanting it.
She gasped as he slid his fingers from her body, but barely had time to collect herself as he used both hands to ease her apart, exposing her clit.
“Say yes.”
He leaned forward then, his tongue sliding out, the hard tip touching the screamingly sensitive bundle of nerves. It hit like an electric shock, her hips jerking as if she’d been tasered, her hand ploughing into his wet hair for purchase.
He glanced at her, his lips so very close to her own which were plump and heavy with arousal. “Say it, Juliet.”
He was naked at her feet, his face turned up like some kind of freaking supplicant, all but begging her, yet still he dominated. “Yes.” She glared at him, twisting her fingers in his hair, hoping like hell it hurt. “Yes, damn it.” She’d give him anything right now. “But don’t you dare stop until I’m done.”
He wasn’t the only one who could give orders.