Chapter 10
Once inside the door, he set her down on her feet, walked over to the windows to close the curtains, removed his jacket, sat in the comfortable chair, and untied his bow tie before loosening his collar. The man not only owned a tuxedo, he tied a real bow tie. God he was gorgeous—casually occupying the chair, with his bow tie hanging down, his shirt unbuttoned and now he was removing a pair of antique cufflinks so he could roll up his shirt sleeves.
“Turn around,” he said, twirling his finger to indicate what he wanted. “Let me see you.” His voice was a smooth-as-butter baritone that made her feel weak at the knees. Lori couldn’t remember a time she’d been as attracted to a man as she was to Ryker.
She glanced at the antique mirror, hanging over the dresser, hoping the dress was actually doing what the clerk in the store had told her it would do—disguise any flaws, show off her attributes and cling to her in all the right places. She had to admit it didn’t look too bad. Maybe it wasn’t great, but all in all, not bad at all. She gave a little shrug she hoped he didn’t see.
He chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’re nervous.”
“Nervous? Who said I was nervous?” she tried to joke. The fact was, she felt as if she was playing way out of her league.
He shook his head. “Unfucking-believable.” He looked her up and down, smiling that ever-so-sexy smile and, she suspected, not really listening to a word she said.
“Do you like what you see?” Lori said, trying to summon a bravery she didn’t feel. Well, they always said, fake it until you make it. Perhaps bravado would serve in this instance, just for tonight. She glanced at the growing bulge behind his trousers.
“Very much. And based on the look on your beautiful face, I’d say you like what you see, too.” He pointed his index and middle fingers at her face. “Eyes up here.”
Lori blushed, realizing she’d been looking at his lap, where the very noticeable bump had pretty much stopped her in her tracks. But worse than that, he’d caught her doing it.
“Come here,” he said, crooking his finger. “We need to have the safe sex talk.”
She groaned, but realized he was right. She was an adult. This time she was going to be open and up front about things. “Well, I haven’t been with anyone since my last physical and I did have them run tests for any STD’s. One of the reasons I broke up with my last boyfriend was I found out he was cheating on me. You should also know I’ve been on birth control for years.”
“Good to know; ditto about being free of any STD’s and I don’t sleep around. It’s been a while for me too. Now, I thought I told you to come here.”
What the hell is wrong with my legs? Why do they feel like they’re made out of concrete all of a sudden? Maybe it was the hint of bare chest he’d revealed. Maybe it was the rolled-up sleeves showing his muscular forearms. Maybe it was his gorgeous face.
“Is there a particular reason you aren’t moving? Do you want me to come get you and sweep you off your feet again?”
“No. I think I’ve done enough damage to your back.” He growled and she held up her hand. “Sorry. It was meant as a joke.”
“Take the dress off,” he ordered. His tone might have been soft, but there was no denying the command in his voice. “Now.”
Summoning her courage, she began to fumble with the back of the dress. He was in front of her in the blink of an eye, gently turning her around and making short work of the dress’s fastenings. He kissed her shoulder as he peeled down the bodice and then let it pool on the floor. Ryker reached up her torso, cupping her breasts and pulling her back against his body, nuzzling her neck.
Lori relaxed against him, enjoying the strength with which he held her. With one hand, he stroked the front of her body, his touch leaving goosebumps in its wake. With the other, he reached up and pulled the pins from her hair until it tumbled down. Once it was free, he turned her head so that she could see the two of them in the mirror. Arousal surged through her body, leaving her wet and throbbing.
“Do you have any idea how fucking sexy you are?”
“Um, no?” She wasn’t sure if it was a question or an answer.
He turned her around so that she was facing him, but still held her close.
Looking her directly in the eye, he said simply, “You’re beautiful.”
Lori could feel the blush creeping up her cheeks. She wanted to believe him, but it was hard. She’d heard a lot of lies over the years, but she really wanted to trust that he was telling her the truth. She giggled, thinking believing wasn’t the only thing that was hard, as was evidenced by the solid length she could now feel pressed between them. She closed her eyes and tried to pretend that what he was saying was true. What if I am as beautiful as he says I am? What if he really does like the way I look and feel?
He crooked his index finger beneath her chin and lifted her eyes to meet his. “You with me?”
Opening her eyes, she nodded.
“You don’t believe me yet, but you will. Let’s get you comfortable.”
He grasped her by the waist and lightly tossed her onto the bed, removing her kitten heels and placing them and the dress on the chair in which he’d been sitting. He kicked off his own shoes and peeled off his shirt, revealing the most perfectly sculpted chest she’d ever seen and a set of chiseled abs that looked like they had to have been airbrushed.
He stretched out on the bed beside her, staring down at her.
“Penny for your thoughts,” he said.
Thoughts? He expects me to think when I’m having trouble with the concept of breathing?
“I’m not sure you want to know,” she said lightly, trying to pass it off as a joke.
Placing a hand on her bare thigh, he squeezed it just hard enough to make her flinch.
“Get out of your head. Stay here with me. When you’re all but naked lying next to me, I want you focused on us. Nothing else exists. Nobody was murdered, Middleton is a competent detective dedicated to his community—no wait, that might be a bridge too far.”
Lori giggled. He had a way of disarming her that she was finding increasingly difficult to resist.
“That’s better. Nothing is going to happen that you don’t want to happen.”
“Really? That’s kind of disappointing. I’m all but naked and you still have your pants on. I was kind of hoping to get to see whether it”s boxers or briefs,” she said, hoping her insecurity about her own body in the face of masculine perfection hadn’t just ruined her chances at what would probably have been the best sex of her life.
“I want you to roll on your side, facing away from me.” Reluctantly she did so. Ryker spooned against her, his arm draping across her waist and coming up to massage and play with her full breasts. “I need you to listen to me. I need you to hear me. Really hear me.”
She was glad she was turned away so he couldn’t see her bottom lip starting to tremble.
“You are gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. That’s not just a line. That’s the honest to God truth. You are sexy as hell. Can’t you see it? Don’t you see the way people look at you?”
“You mean the way they stare at me? You know, the curvy teacher who thinks she’s a writer?”
“You are a writer, and a damn good one. Stare. Look. It’s the same thing and it doesn’t matter. You stop traffic. When you walk through a crowd, they part and then watch you as you walk past. Guys stare at that gorgeous ass and wish they could run their hands down it.”
“They do not.”
“They do, too. I’m a guy. Trust me, I know. And tonight at the party, every single time one of them thought about it, I wanted to punch them in the nose.” His voice was barely above a whisper. “Those full lips of yours distract me every time I see you. I have to force myself to pay attention because all I can think is how good they’ll look and feel around my cock.”
Lori wasn’t absolutely certain, but she was pretty damn sure he could talk her to an orgasm. Feeling a bit braver, she took her hand, placed it on his and guided it down to her mound, provoking that sexy chuckle.
He rubbed it gently. “Your skin is so soft, and you’re all bare. Naughty girl. I thought it was romance writers who were all about the sexy. Most mystery writers I’ve seen make me think of a woman in a slouchy sweater with lots of cats.”
“Hey, I have lots of slouchy sweaters I write in.”
“As long as that’s the only thing you have on, I’ll like them just fine.”
He rolled her onto her back as he slipped his hand between her legs. Lori couldn’t hold back the sigh that escaped from her lips.
“That’s better,” he crooned as his finger slipped under the elastic of her lace panties.
Kissing her briefly, he rolled over, covering her body with his for the briefest moment before making a place between her legs, kissing and nibbling his way down her torso from the hollow of her throat toward the juncture of her thighs. He stopped for a moment to pay homage to her stiffened nipples, laving them with his tongue, before sucking a pebbled peak into his mouth and then giving it the tiniest nip with the edge of his teeth.
Her hips undulated against him of their own accord. “Hmm, you like that. Good to know,” he said as he continued to explore her curves, working his way down to her swollen nub which he treated with the same attention and affection he’d shown her nipples. “These are in the way.” The words had no more than left his mouth when he removed her panties. “Better.”
Lori’s breathing grew heavier and more erratic as he kissed the inside of her thighs before moving back up to swirl his tongue around her clit and pressing a single finger up into her wet heat. She grasped the bedclothes and groaned, trying to hold back the orgasm that threatened to overwhelm her. It had been a long time since she’d had sex with a partner and Ryker McKay was no run-of-the-mill partner. He seemed to know his way around a woman’s body.
He slid up her body, his hands gliding up her curves until they found her breasts. He rolled her nipples between his fingers, tugging gently at them before giving them a sharper pinch. There was the briefest sensation of discomfort that quickly melted into one of pure arousal and need. He lowered his head to one while using his hand on the other. The man could multitask with the best of them.
“You like that?”
What, was he an idiot? Of course I liked it.But instead of saying what she was thinking, she said, “Yes,” with a sense of urgency.
He gently bit her nipple before soothing it with his tongue. His hand left her breasts and landed back between her legs. This time, he gently slid two fingers up inside her, scissoring them as he continued to suckle at her breast.
“So wet,” he mumbled.
Lori moved her hips in rhythm to his fingers moving in and out of her. Her moan was merely an accompaniment to the symphony he was playing on her body. It was all she could do not to cry out in protest when he rolled off the bed, standing to unbuckle the belt at his waist. Staring into her eyes, he unfastened the fly to his tuxedo trousers, slowly stripping them and his briefs down to reveal his muscular thighs and the most amazing cock she’d ever seen. It was long, hard, and looked like it almost reached his navel, pointing almost straight up between those sexy hip notches that some really cut men had.
Laying back down beside her, he asked in a raspy voice. “Do you want me, Lori? Do you want me to cover you with my body and thrust my cock up inside your soft, wet pussy?”
Dirty talk had never done much for her before, but it seemed the man knew her better than she knew herself and knew all the right things to say.
There was only one answer. “Yes, please.”
“That’s my girl.”
Covering her again, he made a place for himself, settling between her thighs as if they had done this a million times or more. His cock was lined up perfectly and he moved up into her with power and precision, catching her off guard. He was large enough that his fullness almost overwhelmed her and made her come. She clutched at his powerful biceps.
The pleasure was so intense, it was hard to breathe, hard to move, and impossible to think.
Sliding his hands beneath her so that they cupped part of her ass, while spanning her hips, he began to push in and then pull out, again and again, he drove deeper and deeper before withdrawing until only the engorged head of his cock was still inside her.
“God, yes,” she moaned, wrapping her legs around him as he began to stroke in and out, harder and harder until he was pounding into her. Every cell in her body responded to him as if she would never get enough. She clung to him, her nails flexing into the flesh of his back.
He whispered in her ear. “You’re so fucking sexy.”
Slowing down, he kissed her deeply before resuming the pace he had set. One, two, three, he pumped harder and harder. It was difficult to keep her eyes open and she released her grip on his back, moving her hands up to his hair and threading her fingers through it. He continued to move still faster, thrusting so hard and deep, her body felt like it was going to levitate off the bed. She reached up over her head, grasping the headboard.
The headboard began hitting the wall and she was glad it was not a shared wall with another room. There would be no way for anyone to mistake the rhythmic bouncing back and forth. Once. Twice. Nothing had ever felt like this. She wondered if she would survive and realized she didn’t care. It felt so good, she wanted to scream, but bit it back.
“Scream for me, baby.”
She could feel the orgasm building to a crescendo inside her. “Ryker,” she cried as he hammered her pussy so hard that it was hard to breathe as her climax crashed down around her.
“Good girl,” he said, his breathing heavy as he gave a final deep thrust, grinding against her as his body stiffened and he gave a guttural groan.
Ryker collapsed on top of her, giving her the weight of his body before rolling to his back, slipping from inside her, and pulling her close.
Lying still and literally basking in the afterglow of what had been the most amazing sexual encounter of her life, Lori mused without thinking, “I wonder if there’s any significance to the fact that Cobain was strangled with a vintage typewriter ribbon?”
Ryker went absolutely still, and she wondered if she’d horribly insulted him. But that was how her brain worked. They’d had great sex, and now they were back to solving the murder. When he didn’t say anything at all, she started to worry.
Then he started to guffaw. “Baby, we’re really going to have to work on your post-coital pillow talk. But in answer to your question, I would think yes. It’s not like someone would just be carrying it around.”
Apparently, Ryker could switch gears just as quickly.