Chapter 9
It’s dark as oil when I feel him shift against me. His mouth brushing my neck.
Oh lord. That feels so good.
"Mmmm," I purr, tilting my head so he can move easily along the length of my throat.
I think we’ve been asleep. But I hope this isn’t a dream.
The large, calloused palm of his hand slips below the T-shirt I found in the dresser.
"Couldn’t keep myself from waking you up," he says quietly.
I grin into the darkness as my heart does loops. "Well, I’m glad you did."
When his hand slides side-to-side against my stomach then drifts down to my hip, the air in my throat evaporates.
He flexes his hand, gripping my hip through the thin pair of shorts someone provided for unprepared guests.
"I’m dying to have you," he murmurs. "I said I wanted to wait, but this feels too right."
"I know," I whisper, as I reach back and brush my hand along his upper thigh. He’s still in jeans. Always ready to leap into action if danger comes.
"Can I talk you into taking these off, big guy?"
He goes still. A low growl rumbles in against my back. "Yeah. You can, but if they come off, we’re gonna cross a line."
"That’s why I asked."
He shifts behind me. One boot thuds on the floor, then the second. A metal belt buckle jangles. A zipper hums. Then he’s against my butt with his hard shaft covered in cotton boxer-briefs.
Warm tingles erupt all over my skin. I can’t believe I’m going to sleep with him. A stranger.
Only he’s not. He’s unraveled more of my secrets, deeper parts of me in a matter of hours than any other human has.
But his control and restraint are driving me crazy. The more he holds back the more I want.
"Are we having sex with these on?" I tease, my hand drifting back to stroke along his length, over the cotton fabric.
Whoa. Big. BIG.
When his nose finds my ear, he rasps, "I’m determined to take this slow. You deserve that."
Ooof. He’s not real. He can’t be.
But god if I can stop myself from needing him.
"I want you," I whisper into the darkness, my hips grinding back, pushing against him with abandon I’ve never felt before.
The same way he touched me earlier, he palms my pussy, giving my clit the pressure I’m dying for.
"The way you do that, it’s insanely good," I say, whimpering, rocking forward and back. Forward against his hand. Back against his long, thick cock.
"Careful," he says, husky, strained voice against my temple. "Fuck, honey, you’re asking for trouble."
"It’s you. You make me like this."
Reaching back, I hook my fingers into the band of his briefs and drag them down enough to free the crown of his erection. It springs out.
A little moan escapes me when the heated tip presses against my lower back, pulsing.
He snaps.
His body shudders hard as Ryker shoves his hand into my shorts, under my panties, roughly seeking my pussy.
"Oh. God." He exhales hard as he grinds against me from behind, his fingers seeking my clit at the same time.
Little pants for air are all I can manage.
A sensation winds tighter and tighter inside of me. I’m on the verge of coming and all he’s done is stroke my clit and labia in commanding circles.
"This little pussy is going to break my cock, squeeze the fuck out of me."
Ohhhh. I’m close.
"Ryker," I half wheeze as a contraction rolls through my core. He feels it and immediately pulls his fingers away making my vision flicker.
"You come on my cock. Only my cock tonight."
I want to hate that.
Only I don’t.
I love it.
Tremors are racing down my legs as my hips move on their own. Desperate for him to fill me up.
In some kind of magic move, he has me beneath him a second later. With a warm rumble, he pushes my legs wide and settles down on me.
He’s incredibly heavy. Safety in human form. And without warning, my body melts below him.
"Oh fuck, you’re sweet," he murmurs as his fingers slide into my hair and his mouth drops down to mine.
The heat of his tongue against mine burns me up. Fanning a flame that sits low in my belly. I draw tighter, but somehow the way he’s kissing me relaxes me more.
I’m not afraid of Ryker.
Never.
The sensation of utter calm slips under my armor and knocks the rust away.
I want to give myself to him. Surrender to his touch.
"I trust you," I whisper against his lips as I rest my arms on his broad shoulders. "Take me."
The light on the nightstand clicks on, his hand beneath the shade, bathing us in warm, low light.
The dark was intimate... this is even more powerful.
He stills above me, looking down at me with a fierce, protective expression.
"I needed to see you," he explains.
The room seems to cocoon us. An intensely private moment carved out in a house with other people just feet away in the other bedrooms.
"I won’t take from you," he says in a low, intense tone, his gaze holding mine.
"You can’t take what I give."
He strokes his thumb over the unbruised side of my face, tracing the corner of my mouth, dragging it over the swell of my lower lip.
"I didn’t expect you," he admits. "Seeing you was a lightning strike."
I kiss his thumb, gently take it inside my mouth, soaring higher at the way his throat works, his eyes flaring hotly.
The sensual feel of him in my mouth makes my legs shift around his hips.
"Struck me too," I tell him when I let his thumb slip from my mouth. My voice is husky with emotion and heat.
I don’t even sound like me.
He exhales slowly. He’s trying to get his control back. But this time the way he takes my mouth is wet, deep, rough.
He’s reading my mind.
The pulse of his cock against my inner thigh makes me wetter with every stroke of his tongue. His hips are moving like he’s matching the rhythm. A promise of what’s to come.
When he pulls back, he holds up a condom between two fingers with an eyebrow lifted. "Your choice."
"I have an IUD."
Did his pupils just dilate more?
"Still your choice."
Heat spreads around the base of my throat. No one’s ever been inside of me bare before. I want it. Nothing between us.
"I want without any barrier," I say, shocking myself as I slide the wrapper from his fingers and toss it aside, leaning up slowly until my lips brush his. "Please."
A rough sound in his chest tells me how affected he is.
With an impatient yank, he shoves his briefs down, raising up on one hand as he strips my panties down my legs.
Yes! I shimmy out of the T-shirt below him, dying to feel him skin-to-skin. For a moment we’re all movement. Then he freezes.
Resting his weight on one elbow, his other hand gripping his shaft, stroking once. I take in a deep appreciative look.
He’s big and carved from shoulder to thighs with thick muscles. And the head of his cock is stretched tight, glistening with precome.
My throat goes dry at the thought of tasting him.
But, how is he going to fit?
I don’t know. I’m not sure we will match up. But the thing I do know is I trust him.
He settles against me, nudging against my opening, taking his time. "So tender. I don’t want to hurt you."
Slipping his fingers through my slick heat, wetting his erection with my juices.
He darts his gaze from the place his cock is beginning to push inside of me to my eyes.
Neither of us speaks, but he chokes on a groan as my mouth drops open from the intense pressure.
I shift my legs, he lowers his hips more.
"That’s it. Open for me."
The husky, deep timbre of his voice washes over me, goose-bumping my skin.
"You don’t have to hold back."
"I will hold back," he says thickly, tasting my neck as he pushes another inch into me. "Can’t let this monster inside of me loose. That’s not what this is about."
He’s protecting me.
Tears sting my throat, moisten my lashes. My nipples clench tight in time with the contractions in my pussy.
"Oh fuck, baby. Tight as a fist on me."
Pleasure attacks me, my thighs tremble, his name clawing out of my throat, more growl than word. "Rrrryker."
"Mmmm," he groans, pulling back. Pushing his big shaft into me again, slipping deeper. The intense ecstasy of being stretched around him drives my head back into his palm where he fists my hair.
But he doesn’t thrust again. Instead he holds still.
"Let me in," he murmurs, next to my ear. Those blunt, rough fingers creating another level of heaven every time he strokes my clit.
I’m so close.
My core softens, opens and he slips deeper.
His face becomes a wall of concentration. Jaw muscles flickering as he pulls back, thrusting slowly inside of me again. His body trembles from his restraint.
"That’s it," he says, husky, thick words against my forehead. Something breaks loose in him. The shift from restraint to need is a line drawn. His thrusts deepen, his breathing turns ragged, and the sound he makes against my throat is raw. Desperate and hungry.
"Jade," he grits out, his forehead dropping to mine. "Fuck. I’m—"
"Take me," I tell him, my neck arching back.
And god, does he.
His hand grips my hip, angling me as he drives deeper, and the pressure builds until I’m nothing but pleasure. Every nerve in my body is firing at once.
I come apart with a scream. The release is violent.
He follows me over with a guttural sound. Hips slamming forward one final time as he empties himself inside me.
The heat of his come is shocking. Intimate in a way I wasn’t prepared for.
We don’t move. Don’t separate. His weight is crushing and perfect and I never want him to lift off of me.
"You okay?"
"I don’t think I have bones anymore."
A rough exhale that’s almost a laugh follows. "Same."
He pulls me up against him, fitting me tight to his chest. His mouth finds mine. Slower, but no less deep.
"Don’t move yet," I whisper, grabbing him when he starts to shift his weight.
He eases back down on me and I settle under him. His heartbeat thuds against mine, slowing gradually.
This feels so good it’s scary. His warmth and weight pressing me into the mattress isn’t suffocating. Instead this feels like the only place I’ve ever wanted to be.
I can’t move for fear of splintering the moment.
We stay like that in the low light, trading touches and kisses. A fragile cocoon. Neither of us wants to puncture it.
"What now?" I finally ask, brushing my fingers over a scar on his temple.
"We get to the bottom of your trouble."
I go quiet. Quieter. "I don’t know if I’ll ever be free of my father, honestly. It’s not like I can truly disappear."
"You could. There are ways to start over."
"Like in the movies?" I scoff, toying with curve of his bicep. "Does that really work?"
"It can. This is a great big world. It takes planning and execution."
"And money," I nuzzle against his neck, letting out a frustrated breath.
"There’s plenty of that around."
I pull back to search his face. "What does that mean?"
He frames my face with his hands, thumbs drifting over my skin, careful of the bruises. "It means I have resources."
"You’re very cryptic, Ryker."
"Not really."
"So you’re telling me you have enough money to make me disappear."
"Yes, I am."
For some reason this saddens me instead of reassuring me.
"But," I say quietly, "I’m not going to be your responsibility. You don’t even know me."
He shifts his hips and his cock makes itself known. Still deep in me.
"Am I still inside you right now?"
"Yes." Heat climbs up my cheeks again.
"I don’t fuck casually."
More staring from my end. "Like I said, you’re cryptic."
"No, I’m not," he counters. "What we just did means something to me, sweetheart. I’m not into casual sex."
"Neither am I," I admit in a whisper. The words come out before I can stop them. "I’ve only been with one other person."
Something changes in his face. A stillness that isn’t calm. This is the kind of quiet in my world that comes before something detonates.
I swallow. My fingers curl against his chest. He knows. I don’t even have to say it. I told him Trevor was my ex. Ryker’s expression says everything. He connected those dots at the speed of light.