Chapter Two
He had been spot-on with his weight assessment. The last several years’ top finishers had all been over forty and at least ten pounds over the average weight for their body type, height, and age. Shay had performed remarkably, adjusting when needed, making her own suggestions in the plan, implementing each new one after they went over each possible scenario.
They were perfect together, a well-honed team, giving and taking, speaking, listening. He loved the way her eyes lit up when she finished a long set of abs. As fatigued as she was, her body slumping to the mats with a hard groan, her eyes flashed with youth and vigor and joy. She loved this. Being pushed to her max, barely able to walk sometimes after a hard workout. Exhausted. Those days, he drove her home, heated her dinner, refilled her extra-large cups of water, Gatorade, and several other hydration drinks, gave her a full-body massage, tucked a blanket up to her chin because she had fallen asleep, and then tiptoed out the door, locking it behind him.
He had said no, at first, to her offer of a house key but finally acquiesced. It made sense. He needed easy access and a way to keep her safe after he left. If they had been dating, he could have given her all the attention she needed while she snuggled up in those sweet Batman pajamas, cocooned in a plush blanket on her bed, and then he would have slept on her couch. No, that wasn’t correct. If they were dating, he’d be in her bed.
But Shay wasn’t interested. She made that clear several times, even taking it so far as to accept a few dinner offers from Max. Max was closer to her age, much better suited for a strong-willed intelligent beauty like Shaylee Markle. Besides, he wouldn’t cock block his best friend. Max had shown his interest in her in their very first meeting, and sparks had flown. He rolled his eyes skyward. Maybe sparks wasn’t the correct term. More like Max thumped on his chest, prepared to drag her off by her hair, and she showed her Xena: Warrior Princess side, knocking him to his figurative ass. More than sparks. An explosion. And Ryan wasn’t getting in the middle of that. Besides, she hadn’t shown any signs of interest—not like toward Max—in his direction. She obviously wasn’t interested. So, Ryan continued the performance of a lifetime. Train the woman of your dreams, fix her up each night, protect her from getting hurt, leave, and don’t let her know your huge secret. You’re in love with the woman and would literally die for her.
Shay slowed to a walk and gingerly stepped off the treadmill. “How’d I look?” She strode toward him. “I know you were watching.”
“Pretty good.” He put his cell down and picked up a towel from the corner of his desk. “You still might want to turn down the speed after the tenth mile and consider alternating walking and jogging. You don’t want your quads to get too sore before you even hit the halfway mark.”
“I’ll consider it. Thanks.” She accepted the towel he handed her and wiped the sweat off her red face. “Okay, what’s next?”
He methodically sprayed and wiped down her treadmill, while she sat down and stretched and crunched on her ice chunks.
“I still think I should wipe down my own equipment, but you go ahead, since you were chilling on your backside for the past hour and a half.” It sounded like a grumble, but she gave him a quick wink before settling into her stretching. It was another one of their small arguments, which he had won. Although she’d pursed her lips and given him that crinkle-eyed look that meant she didn’t quite agree, she had accepted his explanation. It would get her into stretching quicker, and he wasn’t doing anything at the time. And there was no one else there to see her “shirking her duties”—her words.
He wondered if Shay would let Max win arguments about weight gain and wiping off equipment. Before he could let his mind wander too far into the Ryan-isn’t-good-enough-for-Shay territory, he remembered all the times she’d dished it back to him. Hell, the woman didn’t blindly follow orders. She processed ideas, analyzed them quickly, and then chose her own course of action. Shay respected his experience. This wasn’t about chemistry, or sparks, or lack thereof. Besides, if he really thought about it, you wouldn’t tease someone if you were completely ambivalent to them, right? He watched her lean legs bend and straighten, the muscles lengthening and shortening with each slow, measured movement. “I’ve been doing some thinking.”
“Uh oh.”
“Very funny, Sherman.” He smiled when she stuck her tongue out at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday to do your sauna trip? You can stretch just as well in this room.” He had raised the temps to an almost unbearable eighty degrees since no one else would be using the facility until it opened at five thirty a.m.
“I thought about it. I have less than three weeks yet to immerse-train. I want to get used to the dry heat and let my body acclimatize to it for a little bit. And I don’t want to do that at the same time I start my early morning runs. One big change at a time so I don’t get overloaded.”
It made sense. She had agreed to do some outside running in a few more weeks. He would follow her in his car, along one of the lesser-used long stretches of road right outside the city. Three hours of running to prepare for the dark and get used to being alone, the sounds around her, the hard pavement. She needed to get used to it, and this way he could keep her safe.
“So, what’s your idea?” She stretched her legs out in front of her and went into a beautiful pike, her sweat-glistened body stretching and firming as she changed positions. She had put on a few pounds, filling out her curves even more. But her lean legs and sculpted shoulders perfected the look. She was gorgeous.
“I want to give you an IV before you go in.”
“I hate needles.” She frowned. “And isn’t there a rule against something like that?”
“I triple checked, and even contacted the race organizer. There is no rule against an IV to stay hydrated. In fact, some of last years’ best finishers used a pick-me-up hydration combination during a rest stop. We’re just hydrating. Liquids, vitamins, minerals, nothing else. But it’s up to you. Can you stand a little jab?”
Her eyes darkened with heat, blue eyes flashing at him with something besides the usual “Isn’t he adorable” look she usually graced him with. “I’ll take a little jab, but I’m saying no to tiny pricks.”
“I assure you…” He gazed up the swells of her breasts to her flushed cheeks. “I would never give you a tiny prick.”
“All right, then, where do you want to poke me?”
He tripped over the edge of a reformer machine but caught his balance. Was she flirting with him? “Shay?” He swallowed hard and knelt next to her, trying to gauge her interest. “Are you playing with me?”
“I’m not playing with you, I’m trying to flirt with you.” She grimaced and wrapped her arms around her tummy. “Guess I’m not very good at it.”
“Oh, you’re good at it, and I’m interested in continuing this conversation.” His cock straining against his workout pants could attest to the fact. “But what happened to... Before? What about Max?”
“Max and I agreed to be friends. We aren’t connecting as well as we had both hoped.” She looked up at him almost shyly. “He wants someone a bit sweeter, more accepting of direction. I want someone who can accept me as I am”
Was she talking about him?
“Someone who will give suggestions but will back off and let me make up my own mind. Someone who likes my stupid jokes. Someone who won’t try to bonk me over the head and carry me to his big Jeep like a caveman, to get me into bed.”
“I like your stupid jokes.” Lame. Not his most shining moment.
Her eyes shone with humor as her mouth opened wide with a bark of laughter. It wasn’t full of pity or embarrassment, but one of those hearty laughs that said he’d tickled her. “I don’t know why age has to be an issue. Do you?”
He shook his head.
“At the risk of being too forward and eating my size eights, would you like to go out to dinner with me tonight? A real date?” she asked.
“Like what we’ve been doing already, complete with massages and sleep?”
“Complete with naked massages for both of us, and neither of us sleeps until we have had enough orgasms to make us pass out.”
He choked. “Well, that wasn’t cryptic in any way.”
“I want to try out a relationship with you, Ryan. Sex, sleeping, long talks, the works. If you are interested. If not, please say so now, so I can go hide in the sauna.”
“Silly woman, of course I’m still interested in you. Never more than now. I didn’t want to push you, or make you uncomfortable. Besides, it sounded like you and Max would hit it off.”
“We weren’t meant to be. But I have a few friends who might be right up his alley. So are you going to poke me now or later?” She wiggled her hips at him mischievously.
“Both.” He winked and helped her to her feet. “We’ll get your IV going, and then you can settle into your stretching in the sauna. I’ll set a timer for forty-five minutes, and will check on you every ten. Okay, what am I forgetting?”
“This.” She grabbed his head and pulled him toward her, tilting her face up to meet his lips. She tasted heavenly, like chocolate and peppermint, her tongue and lips taking complete control as she showed him what she wanted.
He returned her kiss and gripped her shoulders, taking charge of the moment. He devoured her mouth, his tongue exploring every inch of her as she moaned and softened beneath him. He had dreamt of this for thirty-two long days and nights, and she was exactly as he had imagined she would be. Strong, yet supple. Firm, yet malleable. Soft and warm…perfect.
When they finally pulled apart, her eyes were glazed and bright.
“Too much?” He hoped he hadn’t been too rough.
“It was perfect. Okay, I’m ready for my sauna trip. Let’s go.” She clasped his hand, led him to the women’s locker room, and stripped down to her jogging bra and shorts, before sitting down on a towel on the bench. “Okay, professor. Give me a good poke.”
~.~
Shay changed her outfit again and frowned at the ever-increasing heap of rumpled, discarded clothes on the foot of the bed. She’d have to clear it off before Ryan got there, or they’d have nowhere to… She was going to do this, wasn’t she? Take this sexy younger man to her bed? She flushed, thinking about finally seeing him naked. He would be gorgeous. The way he filled out his T-shirt and jeans, the occasional glimpses she had of his interest, the man was definitely the full package. She wanted him so badly, it made her wet-pantied and overheated every time she was with him. She’d ignored it for the sake of propriety for the first few weeks, even accepting the dinner dates with Max.
But it hadn’t helped. The more she tried to ignore her cravings for the man, the harder they hit her, especially at night. Every dream centered around the kind, dependable trainer, his chocolate eyes glazing with hunger for her; he would make her scream his name over and over. The dreams had drifted over into her daytime musings—mostly during the long runs. Whenever Ryan asked her if she was okay, she would play off almost tripping while walking on the treadmill. “A momentary lapse in concentration.” And he never had a clue. She envisioned those firm lips playing with her nipples, her wet clit. God, her pussy clenched again as she envisioned going to her knees right after a long run, stepping off the treadmill to kneel at his feet. Taking his hard, long cock out of his pants and sucking him in so deep she would choke.
She tried on a shimmery, loose-fitting black dress. Ryan always told her to slow down on the treadmill. But, in her daydreams, he told her to speed it up. And boy, she had.
Tonight, she would take all her daydreams—and night dreams, fantasies with her battery operated best friend between her legs, her fingers fondling her nipples while she played out her almost-torturous desires—and make them a reality.
Unless Ryan changed his mind? She froze, her heart hammering. What if he took one look at her naked form and was repulsed? It was one thing to see a woman in a jogging bra and shorts, or panties, or to massage her back.
But Ryan had never seen her C-section scar from Courtney. He hadn’t yet seen the muffin-like expansion right above her pubic bone, nor her ass, which had grown a few extra inches this past year. What used to be long and firm and lean was now riddled with tiny dark veins, and cottage cheese. Yeah, she’d held up better than some of the other women her age, but she was still a forty-three-year-old mother of two. Her body was not what it used to be.
She couldn’t compete with a thirty-year-old—someone Ryan’s own age. A woman Ryan would be attracted to. Maybe she should call off the whole thing. Better to play at being aloof than to see the rejection in his eyes. Better not to even try than to be turned down.
Her hand trailed up her widened hip, over her plump tummy and firm breasts, over the dark splotches from days in the sun, over her seasoned face, around her crow’s feet. Who was she kidding? She should call him now. She picked up her cell phone, as the doorbell rang.
~.~
She was gorgeous. Wearing a black dress that shimmered and wrapped around her, accentuating her luscious breasts. It fell loosely around her trim waist and rounded hips. The material clung to her top half and swished over her bottom half, and all he could think about—after closing his mouth and trying not to salivate—was twirling her around in his arms and watching the dress flare and mold against her. “I’m early, I know. I either knocked on the door thirty minutes ahead of time or sat out front like a stalker trying to peep through your bedroom curtains.” Yeah, the king of the lame jokes coined a new one. He cleared his throat. “I chose the non-stalker route.”
She laughed mechanically, as if forcing herself to be polite, and opened the door wider for him to enter. Nervous tension radiated from every pore in her body, from the way her eyes darted everywhere but at him to her fidgeting fingers across the crease of her dress. What did she have to be nervous about? This drop-dead gorgeous woman had a killer wit and could get a monk to converse and enjoy it! Her age made her even more beautiful to him, and her experience and confidence made him want to run back out the front door and wait another thirty minutes—at least until his palms stopped sweating like a freaking seventeen-year-old’s. God, the things this woman did to him.
“How was your day?” She attempted safe but polite conversation.
His day? Should he tell her he went home and jacked off three times before coming because he couldn’t get her out of his mind—and he didn’t want to come two minutes into having sex with her. Maybe he shouldn’t say that. He needed to keep it safe, too. Awkward, but safe. “My day was fantastic. A beautiful woman agreed to go out with me tonight, and all I could think of was I couldn’t find a pair of matching socks.” He hiked up his pant legs to show her the navy-blue left foot and his cartoon character-clad right foot.
“Snoopy?” She giggled, and her eyes crinkled with humor. If Shay could see herself, she would probably make another of her “I’m too old” comments, but Ryan knew she had never looked younger or more beautiful. Laugh lines accentuated her perfection. He wiggled his Snoopy foot so he could see her face light up again—at him. With him.
After that, things got less tense. They went out for sushi and chuckled over dumb puns with sushi ingredients. “How’s it rolling?”
“No more Mr. Rice guy.”
“You make miso happy.”
“Never let you, gyoza.”
They enjoyed each other’s company, even the relaxed, quiet moments while he drove her back to her place.
Her nervous tension came back full force as soon as she got to her front door.
“Listen, you don’t have to invite me in if this isn’t the right timing,” he said, giving her an out. “I’ve got to get up early anyway.”
She stood with her back to him, as if analyzing the perfect way to fit her key into the lock.
Yeah, he should be a gentleman and call it a night. She wasn’t ready. “Thanks for going to dinner with me. I’ll never look at ginger root or sticky rice the same way.” He leaned toward her when she turned, ready to give her a chaste kiss on her cheek.
She yanked him toward her, shoving the front door open, kissing him like she was starving and he was the decadent chocolate cake they had shared earlier. “Take your pants off and sit on the couch,” she said, breathless.
His head still reeled from that amazing kiss. “Are you sure—”
She slammed the front door, shoving him backward until he fell onto the couch.
“Pants down. Now,” she growled, and his heart almost beat out of his chest. His cock surged to life.
He had barely gotten his pants down to his knees when she knelt before him and took him into her mouth. “Oh Christ.” Her warm, wet mouth sucked him, and her tongue did the most amazing thing along the ridge of his head. His eyes almost rolled back as he groaned. The sounds of sucking and slurping filled the room.
It didn’t take long before he knew he couldn’t take much more. “I’m close,” he grunted through pursed lips, clenching his fists as tightly as he could.
“Time to take a breather.” She took her perfect lips off him and gazed up at him with a seductive grin, her eyes flashing with desire.
He couldn’t stop his anguished moan. God. He had been so close. But the way she looked at him right now… This sexy woman, on her knees giving him the best blow job of his life, had needs. And she wasn’t asking politely. She was demanding he satisfy them. And damn, it turned him on.
She inched up her dress and gave him a full view of her shaved pussy. Her nether lips were wet and her clit engorged and plump, all for him. “Touch me.” She leaned back onto the coffee table and opened her legs wide.
He had never been more turned on in his life. He ran his finger along her wet folds and tickled over her clit.
“Oh my God, right there. Do it again.”
He vibrated his finger against her engorged button, enjoying watching her tense and relax as her face turned the most brilliant shade of red. “May I taste you?”
Her answer came in the form of her grabbing a fistful of his hair and yanking him down to her wet pussy. Yeah, Max the military hero had razzed him a number of times about his hair being a bit too long—longer than Max’s crew cut anyway, with a few loose curls on the ends— but after this, he’d keep it. Shay’s grip was strong as she guided him down to her sweet spot and he licked her swollen nether lips. Her honey danced on his tongue, and she moaned and gripped him tighter as he stroked and licked and teased her clit. His scalp was on fire where she frantically squeezed, her body tensing underneath him. He was never cutting his hair.
~.~
Holy crap, the man could do things with his tongue! She alternated between holding onto his hair and the edge of the coffee table to get a better angle to his hot mouth. He pulsed another rapid breath onto her clit right before his tongue dove into her pussy, and she almost broke the table with her wild undulations. “Hold on.”
He stopped and looked up at her through a heavy-lidded gaze.
“Bedroom. The mattress is much better for my back, and your knees have got to be getting rubbed raw.”
He helped her to her feet, and she yanked him along the too-long hallway and into her dark room.
“Take off your pants and lie on your back.” She wrenched off her dress while he shucked his lower clothes and did as she requested, hands at his sides, relaxed, as if awaiting her next direction.
Roger had never taken direction in the bedroom. And he’d never given her a real orgasm either. It had always been about him.
Well, tonight was about both of them. She and Ryan would both be getting what they wanted tonight. And, thanks to his more-than-accommodating nature, she planned on rewarding him handsomely.
“I’d like to continue where we left off.” Part question, part statement.
He nodded vigorously and licked his swollen lips.
Placing both legs around him, she knelt and rubbed her wet pussy all over his bare chest and took his cock into her mouth. It seemed to grow even larger as she sucked and laved while he groaned and tugged her hips back to meet his mouth.
His warm mouth and firm tongue drove her crazy again, as they gave each other the best they could offer. She could tell when he was about to come. His whole body tensed beneath her, and he let out a long hiss and pulled her away from his thick cock.
“Wait,” he said, his breath hot and heavy against her clit. “You first.”
Then, without asking, he dove back into her pussy while tickling her throbbing clit. She humped his face, screaming in sheer bliss as she came. Holy cow! Her BOB had never given her an orgasm like that. She was pretty sure she had drenched his face, and was about to pull away when he yanked her back down onto his mouth again.
“Once more.” His breath was ragged and deep and husky, vibrating against her poor swollen clit, and she wasn’t sure she could come again so soon. But she did when he took her whole pussy into his mouth and sucked. Hard.
She shrieked and thrashed, and her body exploded as pleasure coursed through every inch of her. When she finally came back down to earth, she sagged on top of him, her face right next to his penis. “Th-that was incredible. Thank you.” She licked the tip of his penis and watched it jerk back to life. Sitting on his warm, bare stomach, she engulfed his head, licking and sucking.
“Let me know before you get to your end again. I want to draw this out for you.”
He groaned and gripped her ass, squeezing her cheeks as she licked his throbbing cock.
“Trust me, baby. It will be so much better this way,” she cooed, and popped her mouth back on and off his raging-hard cock. She licked a drop of pre-cum, and swallowed it. So salty and tangy. Delicious. She loved feeling like this. Empowered, strong, beautiful. This man wanted her. His body said it all.
God, Shay, I’m close.” He groaned and fisted the covers as he tilted his pelvis up and down on the bed.
She pulled off him and reached for her nightstand to take out the pack of condoms. She had to get past her BOB and a couple of other toys first. Hallelujah! “Here.” She handed him the condom and watched him tear open the package and don it. “May I ride you, Ryan? Hard? Fast?”
His eyes glazed with lust and need as he nodded his head. “It’s your show, woman. Tell me where you want me.”
“Right there. Don’t move an inch. And don’t you dare come until I tell you to.”
His surprise morphed into humor as he winked at her and placed his hands behind his head. “I’ll do my best.”
She swung herself around, straddled his hips, and lined his cock up. God, she needed him right now. She inched herself down little by little onto his hardness. The man was built like a god. His muscles gleamed in the light of the lamp, and his face showed eagerness, lust, disappointment she was going so slowly… Shay wanted to impale herself on him, but the heady power she felt right now—watching him groan, practically begging for more—aroused her more than ever. Deep satisfaction engulfed her scorching body when she seated herself fully onto him.
He closed his eyes as she rode his cock with short, fast motions followed by long, smooth ones.
“Look at me,” she commanded. “I want to see myself through your gaze.”
What she saw when his eyes flashed open almost sent her into another orgasm. This younger man, with the body of a Greek god, wasn’t just looking at her. He devoured her with his gaze. She saw sexual acceptance, but also an almost reverence. Those bright, shining wide brown eyes worshipped her naked form as if she were the most beautiful sight in the world, as she took what she wanted from him. That look, along with her final tight plunge sent her world into overdrive again.
“God, Shay. I can’t hold it any longer.”
“Hold it,” she grunted as she flew apart around his cock, withdrawing almost all the way as he moaned again and his hands fisted the comforter, sweat pouring down his forehead.
She sank back down onto him and twirled around his penis, taking his balls into her palm and gently squeezing and fondling. “Now you may come.” She gave him another, tighter squeeze and shimmied around his cock, and he exploded with a loud shout, almost deafening her.
Seeing him lose control like this shattered her again, and she contracted her vaginal walls right along with his hard thrusts before falling to the bed next to him. “Was it worth waiting for?” she asked, still slowing her labored breaths.
When he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, his eyes shone. “That was amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever come like that before.”
They lay there spooning each other, the room quiet except for their breath and the sheets rustling. “A little experience goes a long way. When you get to be my age…” She trailed off, the awkwardness settling into her stomach, souring it.
“It’s okay, Shay.” He kissed her and gave her a warm hug. “We can take it slower if you want.”
She nodded, thankful he was always so gracious about everything. “Listen, I hope I don’t sound like an ass, but I need some time to decompress and process. Are you okay with me giving you another hug, and then walking you to the door and saying I’ll see you tomorrow?” She did feel like a jerk, but Ryan had been honest with her from the get-go and said she should do the same. She needed some space to think for a bit, and as intimate as tonight had been, sleeping over would be a bit too intimate. She wasn’t ready.
He rose to get dressed. “I understand, Shay. Take your time and process as much as you need.” He kissed her again, and her lips tingled from the touch.
She was such an asshole. She didn’t deserve someone as kind as Ryan. She wrapped her robe around her still-sweaty and wonderfully sticky body and walked him to the door. “Are you sure you’re okay? I’m not confusing you or sending you weird signals—”
“Woman.” He placed his pointer finger in front of her open mouth. She could smell her essence on his finger as he stroked her cheek and gazed at her warmly. “I appreciate your honesty. There are no weird signals.”
“We’re feeling each other out to see if we can fit, right?” She leaned against his open palm, thankful for his easygoing nature.
“Exactly. Just keep talking to me, and we’ll be fine.” He leaned close and paused, his lips an inch from hers, eyebrows raised in question.
Nodding, she pressed her lips against his, tasting her own saltiness mixed with his. “Thanks. Good night.”
“Get some rest. You have a double workout tomorrow, and your trainer doesn’t accept slacking.” He winked before letting himself out the front door.
She couldn’t help the laugh bubbling out of her. He wasn’t a stern, dominating, aggressive-stanced man, like Max. And he wasn’t the jerk her husband had become. But Ryan was going to give her a run for it. And she wasn’t just talking about the upcoming race.
She slept that night remembering all the wonderful things Ryan had done to her body, and the things she had done and would still love to do, to his. Instead of worrying about what they didn’t have in common, she let it go for the night. It was her best sleep in a long time.