12. Ryan
Chapter twelve
Ryan
W hen the guys told me they had kissed Amelia the night of the party, I assumed that meant my time with her was done and one of them would be stepping in. Instead, Logan insisted that I take her on at least one more date before we switched things up. People had seen her with all three of us at the party, and now they needed to see that Amelia wasn’t playing us off each other or fucking with our heads. They needed to believe the things we said about her.
With our football schedule picking up, it took a bit of juggling to plan today, but now, finally, Amelia and I were at the Rocky Mountain National Forest on a beautiful September morning, ready to do a little hiking and have a nice picnic.
We’d been walking up the trail for a few minutes, just enjoying the peace and quiet, when Amelia said, “Can I ask you something? It might sound like a complaint, but I promise it’s not. It’s just something I’m wondering.”
“Go ahead.” I squeezed her hand. “You can ask me anything.”
“If the point of these dates is for us to be seen together, why aren’t we doing something a little more public? I guess we could run into some people we know, but it’s not really likely.” She hurried to add, “And I’m really not complaining. I think this is great and everything. I was just wondering.”
I smiled, hoping to put her at ease. “We’re also supposed to be teaching you about dating.”
“So this is a lesson date?”
If I wanted to be completely honest with her, I’d have to say no, because I really hadn’t been thinking about anything other than taking her on a date that she’d enjoy. But that wasn’t something I really wanted to get into before I had a chance to figure out what it meant and what I planned to do about it. Which meant I settled for a half-truth and some improv.
“We’re going to have a lesson on asking questions and apologizing,” I said. “I told you before that you don’t need lessons in conversation, and you don’t…when it comes to having a back-and-forth discussion about things. When it comes to asking something important, you could use some pointers.”
She frowned. “I’m not following you.”
“You wanted to ask me a question that was more than just a ‘getting to know you’ kinda thing, right?”
“Right.”
“So you started by asking if you could ask me a question, and then reassured me about the question you hadn’t even asked yet.”
She thought for a moment before answering. “I guess I did.”
“You don’t ever need to apologize for wanting to know something,” I said. “If a guy can’t handle you asking a question, especially one where safety could be an issue, you shouldn’t go out with him.”
“Safety?” She looked confused again.
“You basically asked why I brought you somewhere we won’t be seen by a lot of people. If a guy can’t or won’t explain that, run.”
“Oh. I guess I didn’t think of it that way because I know I’m safe with you, but that’s a good point.”
Something warm spread through me and it wasn’t because she turned me on. Well, she did, but that wasn’t the reason now. This was more.
“Hey, it looks like there’s some picnic tables over there.” Amelia pointed. “Those trees are practically hiding them.”
We chatted a bit about food as we set up the lunch I’d packed this morning. Nothing fancy, but I knew the sort of stuff she liked to eat and, fortunately, it made for good picnic food.
“Are you sure this is going to be enough for you?” she asked as she looked at the selection of crackers, cheese, and fruit spread out on the tablecloth Logan had miraculously found somewhere. “You could’ve brought more and I would’ve helped carry it.”
“Remember the lesson about not apologizing for asking questions?” I asked as I sat down next to her. “Let’s add—don’t apologize unless you actually did something wrong.”
“I just feel bad that you packed a bunch of stuff that I like, but it’s not very filling and I’ve seen the way you guys eat—”
I silenced her by shoving a strawberry into her mouth, laughing at the shock on her face. Part of me had wanted to kiss her to get her to be quiet, but she needed to eat. We hadn’t hiked very long or far, but I doubted she’d eaten breakfast this morning. Even though it seemed like things were getting better for her, she was still stressed.
“I ate a big breakfast,” I said. “It’s usually not a good idea for me to eat heavy stuff before practice, so eating this now and then something small again before practice is better.”
“I heard you guys won your first game,” she said. “I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that it was an away game. I would’ve come if it’d been home.”
“Really?” I didn’t try to hide my surprise. “Did you come to games before?”
She shrugged and took a bite of cheese. “Sometimes. I liked checking in to see how you guys were doing.”
I bumped my arm against hers. “You just wanted to check us out in our tight pants.”
She laughed. “Busted.”
We continued laughing and joking like that while we ate. It was strange, how easy things were with her. In some ways, it felt like we were kids again.
Then her leg brushed against mine and a jolt of pure lust hit me hard enough to remind me that we were definitely not kids anymore. Judging by the way she sucked in a breath, she felt it too.
I’d already kissed her, but it was the sort of thing we could write off as part of our pretending. Ethan’s kiss had been part of a game, but more intentional than mine. Logan was the only one of us who’d had the balls to flat-out say that he wanted to kiss her.
She started breathing faster as her eyes met mine, and the moment her tongue darted out to wet her lips, I was done. Curling my fingers around the back of her neck, I pulled her to me. If she told me to stop, I would, but my gut said that she wanted this as much as I did.
Kissing her felt like the Fourth of July and my birthday and Christmas all rolled into one. Her tongue lightly touched my lips, and I tilted my head, deepening the kiss. Her hands were on my chest as I explored her mouth, nails biting into my skin even through my T-shirt.
Fuck, I wanted those nails on bare skin, wanted her to mark me up so everyone would know how good I could make her feel.
The hand I’d had on her waist moved up until my thumb brushed against the side of her breast. She moaned, which may have been the sexiest sound I’d ever heard in my life, and then shifted to give me better access. No way in hell was I going to turn down that invitation.
It was my turn to groan when I covered her breast with my hand. I was right. They were absolutely the perfect size. Even through her bra and her shirt, I felt her nipple hardening against my palm. My dick strained against my zipper, but I ignored it. Just being allowed to feel her like this would be good enough.
The moment she dropped one of her hands to my lap, just resting on the bulge there, I muttered a curse and prayed I wouldn’t embarrass myself by coming in my pants like some teenager who’d just felt his first boob.
Then she pulled back, stepping away from the table, and I braced myself for the “this was a mistake” conversation. Instead, her eyes darted down to my crotch for a moment before coming back to my face.
“Please tell me you have a condom.”
I stared at her. “What?”
“A condom.” She shimmied out of her shorts and gave me another reason to be speechless. “Unless you don’t need one. I mean, I’m clean and I’m on the pill. Jason and I always used—”
“Stop.” The order burst out of me, startling us both. “I don’t want to hear that asshole’s name. Not when I’m gonna make you scream mine.”
Her eyes went wide. “Oh.”
I let all the lust and want and need coursing through me show on my face as I ran my eyes down and back up her body, pausing at her simple pale blue panties each time. She’d already tied the long-sleeved shirt she’d been wearing around her waist a little earlier, which meant, if we did this right, no one who happened to look this way would see anything.
Well, they’d be able to figure out we were fucking, because I meant what I said about making her scream my name, but they wouldn’t see anything important.
“If you want to stop, say the word,” I said. “Otherwise, get your ass over here and ride my cock.”
Her eyes went even darker, like the sky at midnight, nearly black. Then I opened my shorts to pull out my aching cock, and she made a strangled sort of sound.
“No underwear?”
I smirked at her. “You should try it sometime.”
She lifted her chin a bit as she came over to me. “Maybe I will.”
Putting her hands on my shoulders for balance, she climbed onto my lap, a knee on either side of my thighs. My hands automatically went to her hips, her bare skin searing mine. Without taking her eyes from mine, she reached down, adjusting, and then wrapped her fingers around me. Part of me wanted to watch my cock disappear inside her, but I couldn’t look away from her gaze.
The tip brushed against soft skin as she got me into position and then lowered herself until the first inch was inside.
“Fuck, Lia,” I ground out, electricity racing across every nerve in my body. “You feel so good.”
“Not so bad yourself,” she said breathlessly. She leaned forward, resting her forehead against mine, and eased herself down again, making it halfway before she paused, panting as a shudder ran through her. “Too fucking big.”
Maybe it made me an ass, but I definitely liked hearing that.
“More foreplay next time,” I promised before I realized what it meant.
She nodded. “That’ll be good too.”
She took a slow, deep breath, and then, as she let it out, she took the rest of me into her. As she settled on my lap, I wrapped my arms around her, holding her still while I tried to keep from coming right then. She pressed her face against the side of my neck, her body shaking.
Her pussy was the best thing I’d ever felt, but I knew things felt more intense because she wasn’t just some random hookup. This was Amelia. My Lia. And being with her like this not only felt amazing, it felt natural.
But we didn’t have the time to drag it out, no matter how much I would’ve liked to. As soon as she started to rock back and forth, I grabbed onto her ass and took charge. She clung to my shoulders as I drove up into her, going so deep and so hard that I worried I’d hurt her, but her whimper turned into a plea.
“More. Please, Ryan. More.”
“Move with me, Lia,” I said. “Just like dancing.”
She nodded without turning her face away from my throat. I lifted her a bit and then thrust into her, grinding her down on me for a moment before repeating it. She matched my rhythm quickly and added a roll of her hips, a clenching of her pussy around my cock. Her breath was hot on my skin as we moved together, our pace getting more and more frantic as we raced toward release. Pressure built inside me until I could barely hold back the explosion.
“Close,” Amelia gasped.
“Thank fuck.” I grabbed the back of her neck and held her in place as I slammed into her. “Come for me, Lia. Let me feel you come on my cock. Want that hot cunt of yours to squeeze me until I pop.”
If I shocked her with the dirty talk, she didn’t show it. If anything, it seemed to turn her on more because she started to writhe on me, desperate, greedy sounds falling from her mouth even as she began to lick and bite at my neck.
“Now, Lia! Dammit! Come!”
She let out a cry that sounded a lot like my name and that was all I needed. I lost myself in a wave of pleasure and sensation that hit all of my senses at once. The scent of apples and cinnamon from her shampoo. The sight of her slender body shuddering in my arms. The taste of her kiss lingering on my tongue. The sounds she made. And the feel of her. Fuck. The feel of her.
I was so completely screwed.