Chapter Twenty-Nine Ryder
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ryder
The bedroom door had been left unlocked, and when I tested the handle of her en suite bathroom door, it turned as well.
At that realization, I let go, set my palms on either side of the doorframe, and bowed my head.
After she’d dropped her towel and laid that comment on me, then quietly strutted away in that sexy red bathing suit, I’d remained stuck in place for a few minutes, contemplating my options. The only one I kept landing on was Go to her.
I continued staring at the door, unblinking. I wasn’t technically the team leader right now, and I had nothing to do but wait on calls, texts, and more intel. The news I had for her could wait.
So we weren’t really doing something wrong by stealing a moment or two, especially if she’d had a change of heart about wanting us to keep our hands to ourselves until after the mission.
Ah, fuck it. Who am I kidding? I was going to rationalize my way into that bathroom one way or another.
I’d cross, skip, and hop over any fucking lines to be with her, if she wanted me.
I’d been screwed the second she’d lifted those long eyelashes to look at me while standing by the pool dripping wet.
I shoved away from the door and went to work removing my boots and socks. I peeled off my shirt and tossed it next. Jeans and boxers after that; then I finally went for the handle, relieved to hear she hadn’t lost patience waiting for me and the shower was still going.
Door open now, I filled the frame as my metaphorical walls fell at the sight of her beneath the shower. Every last one of them, in fact. Because heaven was real. It was on Earth. In Costa Rica. It was Seraphina standing with her back to me as water rolled down her body.
The shower was open to the room. No partition or walls, which meant I could see her in vivid, perfect detail as she washed the shampoo from her hair.
I stood there slack-jawed watching the soap slip down her spine.
Her bronzed skin glistened, and I followed the trail of water and soap as it continued to make its path over her body, from her narrow waist to her full hips, and to an ass that couldn’t have been made only in the gym, but was God-given.
Mine. All. Fucking. Mine. That was all I could think, feel, and know to be true.
I slowly walked up behind her and set my hands on her wet skin. Parked them at her hips while drawing my chest to her back.
It was as if her entire body sighed as she relaxed against me.
She reached for my wrists, guiding my hands around her frame, resting them on her stomach.
Our fingers interlaced, and we quietly stood beneath the water like that.
I no longer needed to chase the elusive feeling of peace, and instead, it was being given to me just by being this close to her.
She angled her face, chin up, brown eyes pointed at me. “You came.”
Jealous of the beads of water on her lips and the way her tongue caught the drops, I found myself leaning in, whispering, “Of course I did,” before I kissed her.
She laid to rest every last negative thought in my head with our mouths fused.
But I needed even more of her.
We needed to be closer.
I spun her around. Crushed her against me while capturing her face between my palms. Finding serenity.
“Ryder.” I felt the tremble in her lips against mine as she spoke my name.
Breathing hard, I choked out in understanding, “I know.” She didn’t need to explain. I understood it. Got it. Felt it deep in my bones.
The connection. Forged in fire or in heaven.
I moved my hands to her back. Wandered even farther. Explored more of her. Desperate and needy to touch as much of her as possible. Roaming over every curve, every soft inch as I kissed her lips. Her cheek. The side of her neck.
She held on to my shoulders. Then my back. My waist. When she fisted my cock, I went still. Dead fucking still.
“I want to taste you.” Her words silenced my brain for a moment. Shut off the sounds of the water, too.
It didn’t function again until she started to go to her knees, and then my mind played catch-up, and I freed myself of her touch to snatch a towel.
I should have said no, but I ...
Well, I was still a man. A man hungry for this woman. An insatiable need for her ran deep through me that I knew could easily be eternal.
I folded the towel and set it on the tile as a cushion. I rested my hand on top of her head and gently guided her down.
On her knees, and with both hands, she took hold of me.
“For a minute, then it’s my turn. Got it?” My leg muscles tightened as she gripped me harder and lowered her mouth to the crown of my cock without actually touching me.
“Yes, sir.” She blinked as if surprised at what she’d said, but then she returned her attention to her mission of torturing me and licked the circumference of my head, and I forgot all about her dislike of that word, a word I was sure Ezra had ruined at some point.
Holding my balls with one hand, she stroked me from root to tip before dropping her mouth over me. The woman took as much of me as she could. Hell, she even choked and gagged.
And I died.
Right then.
My soul left my body, and I was gone. Because fuck my life—this woman could kill me with her lips wrapped around my cock.
I threaded my fingers through her hair, unable to stop myself from assisting her in the slow death she was delivering.
I wasn’t some sixty-second fuck, but God help me, I was about to be a thirty-second one, because this woman—
“Stop,” I hissed and gently pulled at her hair.
“I don’t get off before you do. Not happening.
Not ever,” I gritted out. “Now, be good and stop.” I didn’t want to toss a clichéd good girl at her, but fuck if I didn’t love calling her my bad one.
I probably had issues, but oh-fucking-well.
Such was life. No one was perfect. “So naughty, I swear.”
She licked my entire length. Swirled her tongue around my head before doing what I’d asked. She sat back on her heels beneath the water, looking up at me. I took a moment to stare at her, mesmerized, then bent forward, hooking her arms to help her back to her feet.
I needed her mouth on mine again. I needed to kiss her. Touch her. Feel every part of her again. Hold her breasts in my hands. Rake my fingers along her skin and her ass cheeks.
Most of all, I just needed the fire in her that reignited mine in a way only she seemed to be able to do.
“Seraphina.” Now I was the one saying her name like it was three gruff sounds strung together. “I’ll die if I don’t taste you .”
She smiled and nodded, so I stepped back, catching sight of a wooden bench off to the side. I brought it over and had her sit on it beneath the stream of water to stay warm.
“Spread open your legs for me.”
With her foot, she shifted the soaked towel over, offering me the same padding for my knees. But I didn’t give a damn about any part of my body except for my mouth and where it belonged: between her legs.
I waited for her to part her knees and show herself to me before dropping before her. “Hold on to something; you’re going to need it,” I warned before I inched my face closer to paradise.
I scooted her ass to the edge of the bench and guided her legs over my shoulders. She rested one forearm on the bench for balance and sent her other hand into my hair.
“Ready for me?” I raised my brows, waiting.
“I have been since last Saturday.”
That was all I needed to hear.
I leaned forward, forgetting all about Ezra and the mission, all about hockey and war, as I sank my mouth over her and dragged my tongue along her sex.
She immediately clenched her thighs around my head as her arousal hit my tongue. I licked and sucked. Went slowly at first like a gentle tease, nudging her closer and closer in the direction I wanted her to go.
Here. Now. With her. Nothing else mattered.
“You taste so good,” I hissed while adding my fingers inside her.
Her response was to rock against my face. To moan. To cry for God.
“Don’t . . . don’t . . . stop,” she panted. “Yes, yes . . . yesssss.”
Fuck. I’d wanted it to take longer, spend all night here.
Her body went lax, and I kissed her swollen sex before lowering her legs so she’d be in a more comfortable position to ride the wave of tranquility that followed her orgasm.
But my girl didn’t seem to care about anything but getting me off now. She urged me to my feet while standing as well, then shifted the bench out of her way. “I have to ...”
I wasn’t about to gentleman my way out of this and say no.
She kneeled on the wet towel and gently took me in her mouth. She deep-throated me, taking as much of me as she could into that slick, warm heaven, and I swore I saw God that time. The entire universe and all the galaxies beyond that.
I was going to last about as long as she did.
I lost my thoughts and my sanity as I came hard, hanging my head forward.
She sucked me bone-dry, swallowing every last drop after I’d exploded into her mouth.
After I helped her stand, I seized her face again, unable to stop myself. I had to kiss this woman. I had to let her know how I felt even if it was without words.
I stepped back a minute later and tore my hands through my wet hair. “What was that?”
“It was ... well, it just made sense.”
“Made sense like math does?” I asked, moving us out from under the water while reaching for her chin, needing to look her in the eyes and gauge where her head was at.
“I’d say math has nothing on what happened between us, don’t you think?”
That’s what I want to hear.
“I honestly don’t know what’s happening between us, but ...”
“Lightning,” I began, feeling groggy and dazed, “striking the same place twice.”