Chapter Twenty
Ever since he stopped drinking, Ryan had craved sugar. Ice cream, chocolate, a packet or three in his coffee—he couldn’t get enough.
Only now, when he tasted Claire’s lips, did he know what he was really hungry for. It wasn’t just the sweetness on her tongue. It was her.
He kissed her greedily, pulling her body to him so they were aligned together, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, his erection straining hard against his jeans so he knew that she could feel it.
He wanted her to feel it. He wanted her to know what she did to him.
She slid her hands up his arms, over his biceps and his chest, and he pushed her back, pinning her against the arm of the couch.
“We have to be quiet,” she whispered as he pressed his hips into her.
“I told you—it’s you and those whimpers I’m worried about.” He drove into her for emphasis, and she let out a soft moan.
“See? I might have to cover your mouth.” He put his palm over her lips.
But that only gave her a chance to bite him playfully, making slow, firm circles with her tongue that let him know exactly what that mouth of hers could do.
Now he was the one who had to smother his groan against the crook of her neck. He brought a hand up under her shirt, pulling down the cup of her bra to tweak her pointed nipple, her gasp driving him all the more out of his mind.
“I can’t remember if I closed Maya’s door,” she panted, and he could practically hear her brain competing with her body as she writhed against him.
“I can go check.”
“What if she wakes up and sees you?”
“Then you check. I’ll wait for you.” It might kill him to keep his cock pressing up against his fly another second, but at least he’d go out happy.
“Maybe it’s better if we go to my bedroom.”
He kissed along her jaw. “I like the sound of your bed.”
“Or should we stay out here?”
“Too much thinking, baby.”
“The condoms are upstairs.”
“Then let me lay you back in your bed. Or turn you over, so you can scream into your pillow.”
“Oh, God,” she whimpered.
“That’s okay—just Ryan will do.”
She pushed him playfully. “Arrogant little prick.”
“It’s not little right now, baby,” he said and brought her hand to feel the bulge that all her thinking and worry was doing nothing to lessen.
They’d been teasing, but he wasn’t anymore. He held her eyes, looking into her intently as he grasped her wrist and brought her hand to his cock. “This is what you do to me.”
She stroked him over his jeans with exquisite slowness. “I need you,” she murmured.
“I’m here.”
And I don’t want to go anywhere.
He slid off of her, reaching for her hand to help her up. She picked up her unfinished glass of wine on the coffee table and knocked back the last sip. She’d kept asking to make sure it didn’t bother him if she had a drink, but he loved it—that she trusted him, that she was so completely herself around him. Not even halfway through a single glass and her eyes had gone soft.
Or maybe that wasn’t the wine. Maybe that was just the way she looked when she looked at him. Because as she dragged him by the belt loop around the living room, there was nothing so naked, so filled with desire, as her pale-blue eyes when she flicked off the last light and led him upstairs.
Maya was fast asleep in her room, dark hair splayed out across the pillow, a threadbare stuffed dinosaur suffocating in the crook of her arm.
In the second before she closed the door, he could see Claire hesitate. She was going to ask him to leave. Tell him she’d changed her mind, it was late, this wasn’t a good idea. What did they think they were doing, anyway? He didn’t live here, he sure as hell wasn’t cut out to be a parent, and he should stop pretending he was the kind of person who could have anything this good in his life.
But he couldn’t bear the thought of turning away—not after they’d come so far. What if he could really have this? All of it—Claire, a family, a home. He felt so close to her. He had to be in her bed. Now.
He pulled Claire back to him, away from the door, and kissed her again. Sweet and slow. Deep and dirty. He could feel her melting into him, her constant vigilance receding. Her body, dissolving from the kiss, was his.
They stumbled down the hall, and Claire guided him to the bedroom. Silently they slipped inside and closed the door.
There was a time for foreplay, but this wasn’t it. The whole day, the whole night, had been one long tease, waiting for this moment when they could finally release.
He walked her back toward the bed, pushed her down, and yanked off her jeans. Her shirt followed, and then his shirt, jeans, boxers—he couldn’t wait another second longer to feel her skin against his.
She unhooked her bra and pulled it from her shoulders. His hands went to her breasts, and his mouth covered the hard points of her nipples. He grazed her with his teeth and flicked his tongue, hard then soft then hard again.
Her hips bucked up against him. Fuck. He knew what she wanted. And he knew just how to give it to her.
“I need you inside me,” she panted, arching her head back as he sucked harder.
He shifted on top of her so he could slide the head of his cock over her belly, painting her soft skin. She squirmed, pressing her hips up, trying to get closer. He loved seeing her like this, wanting him. He loved making her squirm.
“You want me to fuck you?” he whispered, bringing his cock along her inner thighs and then pulling away right before it grazed her swollen clit.
“There are condoms in the nightstand.”
“Don’t worry, I brought my own.” He pulled one from his jeans on the floor and ripped it open. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been planning this. He’d been needing her all day.
She spread her legs and beckoned him closer. But she’d told him what she wanted, and he intended to give it to her. He turned her roughly so she was lying on her stomach. Then he slid a knee between hers and nudged her legs apart. She was face down, open for him. His stomach covered her back, pressing into her, as his lips went to her ear.
“Like this?” he asked, just to hear her say yes.
She whimpered as quietly as she could. But when he pushed his cock inside her, she reached for a pillow and gripped it so tightly, he knew she was doing everything in her power not to cry out.
Good.
He never said he was going to make it easy for her to control herself tonight.
He slid deeper, in and out, until there was nothing in his world but the soft silk of her body, the heat of her enveloping him.
“Harder,” she panted and bucked her ass back to meet his thrusts. And then please, right there, more, as she tried to stay quiet but couldn’t keep it all in.
His hands covered her hips, bracing himself as he pumped harder into her, his breath coming fast as sensation took over.
“Anything you want,” he said.
“Just don’t stop.”
As if he could even dream of pulling out now. He dropped his head so he was close to her ear. “Here’s what’s going to happen, baby. I’m going to fuck you, and then I’m going to lick you until you come all over on my face. And then when you’re ready, I’m going to fuck you just as hard again.”
He felt her tightening around him, so fucking good, and he couldn’t hold on. He heard her gasps of pleasure, the slap of skin hitting skin, and found himself gripping her so hard he wondered if his hands were going to leave marks.
He fucking hoped they would. Marks that said she was taken. Marks that said she was his.
And there was no way she wanted him to be gentler—not with the way she was working her hips, making sure he hit that sweet spot again and again.
“I’m going to come,” he groaned, unable to stop, and she began whimpering, begging him to do it, to finish inside her, to give it to her as hard as she needed.
But he wasn’t going to do this on his own. He grabbed a pillow and pulled her hips up, then pressed her down so she was lying on it across her midsection. Propping her up gave him even better leverage. And it gave her something to grind her clit against so that it was only seconds before he felt her release, those hot waves pulsing through her, pulsing along the length of his shaft, full and hot inside her.
She bit her forearm as the orgasm tore through her, and it was that image of her arched back, her tousled hair, her eyes pinched shut with a silent cry that made him erupt, spilling inside her as she throbbed, drawing out every last wave.
It felt like a long time before he collapsed on top of her, pulling out slowly, not wanting to lose the warmth of her body, the feel of her chest rising and falling so rapidly beneath him.
Finally he got up to throw out the condom and then came back to her, taking her into his arms.
“Good?” he asked.
She made a low, throaty, utterly satisfied sound.
“Because I meant what I said.” He traced a finger down her spine, then rested his hand on the curve of her ass. “That was just round one.”
She turned her head so she was facing him. Her eyes were glassy, blissed out, her smile sloppy and sweet. “You’re going to exhaust me.”
“Then you can sleep, and I’ll wake you up.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. Then slowly he circled the tip of his tongue over the tip of her finger. “Like this,” he said. “Here.” He brought her hand between her thighs, pressing both of their fingers to her clit.
“Does that mean you want to spend the night with me?” she said.
He didn’t have to think about the answer to that. “It does.”
He saw her glance toward the closed door.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Me?” She looked back at him in surprise.
“Yes, you. Not what you’re worried about. Just—right now. What do you want?”
She didn’t answer. But when he made space for her in his arms, she hesitated only a second before nestling against him.
“You in my bed,” she finally said, relaxing against him as he stroked her hair.
“Then it’s a good thing I’m here.”
And I’m not leaving in the morning.