Chapter Thirty-Five
thirty-five
Ridley
When Ridley’s Uber pulled up, Lanie was sitting on the stoop of a storefront church next to her building. It had begun to snow and tiny white crystals dusted her hair, glittering under the streetlights. Sitting there alone, the snowflakes gave her an ethereal appearance, like a snow angel. She was both so beautiful and so sad that his chest constricted painfully at the sight. And when she looked up as his door opened, his anger swelled at her bereft expression. Her large eyes were red-rimmed and her nose and cheeks were rosy and slightly swollen.
“Lanie?” He stepped a foot out of the car but she came up to him instead.
When I left things were fine . He couldn’t understand how a half hour later she could be crying on the other end of the phone.
Throughout their meal together, Ridley had marveled at how much Lanie resembled her mother. There were even moments as they ate where, in looking between them, it was positively uncanny. But as evidenced by her extraordinary resemblance to her cousin Gemma also, the Turner genes were clearly strong. Still, Lanie was not, as it seemed she feared, her mother’s doppelg?nger. In fact, in temperament, Lanie seemed to be her mother’s diametric opposite.
Lanie was open, where her mother seemed guarded. She was adventurous and extroverted, while her mother, though engaging in her own way, was very shy. But what he would never have guessed was that Ryan was as cruel as Lanie was sweet. Because it could only have been cruelty that drove Lanie out of her house on Christmas Eve to sit in the snow.
“Sorry. You didn’t have to come back,” Lanie said as Ridley scooted over in the car so she could slide in beside him. Fresh tears slipped down her cheeks.
“I didn’t know who to call on Christmas Eve.” Lanie shook her head again as her shoulders began to shake with sobs.
Ridley’s heart cracked at the sound. Her face was cold when Ridley took it between his palms and lifted it to him. “What happened?” He wiped away the abundance of tears with his thumbs, then pulled her into his arms.
Lanie shook her head, unwilling to say, instead tucking herself under his chin. She wrapped her arms around his waist as if trying to leech warmth from him.
He wouldn’t press her. It didn’t matter anyway; he was happy she’d called him at all.
“Do you want to hang out for a while?” he asked, gently. “Find a place to sit and grab a drink until you and your mom cool down?”
“On Christmas Eve?” She lifted her head, looking up at him. “No, I just want to go back to your hotel with you.”
Despite Iceland, Ridley was still stunned by Lanie’s directness. To him, it was remarkable that after weeks of denying anything was happening at all, they could finally be so open about it. That Lanie could wear her desire so blatantly on her face now. That he could so freely admit how much he wanted her too.
He squeezed her to himself, inhaling the jasmine-and-rose scent that lingered around her like an aura.
“You sure? I have to leave pretty early tomorrow morning.” He mentioned this decorously like a gentleman, as if offering her a pass, instead of giving himself one. His heart thundered, terrified she’d say yes but also desperately afraid she might say no. His performance anxiety from yesterday hadn’t faded, and in fact, may have ratcheted up a little.
“I know.” Lanie pulled back. “Would you like me to go home?” Confusion began to cloud her face. Ridley knew she would get the wrong idea unless he did something. The same way he’d suspected she had that morning.
It pleased him to think he was coming to understand Lanie, the nuances of the little faces she sometimes made and the things she didn’t say. He knew that he would have to be brave now to show her how much he did, in fact, want her to stay the night with him.
In lieu of an answer, he tipped her chin up to meet his mouth and kissed her. Tenderly at first, but then with more insistence. Once her lips parted and his tongue met hers, he wanted to make this connection last. He wanted to taste every part of her soft, maraschino-flavored mouth forever. Lanie slid her hands up to cup the nape of his neck, holding him close, and the traffic and noise and the city itself fell away.
Ridley kissed her all the way into Manhattan. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the thought came to him that his obvious yearning should probably make him embarrassed or at the very least circumspect, but it didn’t. He wanted to devour her. To put his mouth on every part of her she would allow. He slid his hand under her coat and sweater, trying to find any small piece of her flesh he could. She moaned into his mouth when his hands rubbed small concentric circles at the small of her back. She bit his bottom lip playfully when he looked distractedly through the windows, searching for street signs or any indication of where they were.
“Don’t worry, the driver’ll tell us when we’ve arrived,” Lanie assured between kisses.
The amusement in her voice now pleased him almost as much as having her in his arms did.
Ridley laughed too until Lanie dragged his mouth back to hers.
When Ridley came out of the bathroom, Lanie was reclined at the foot of his bed in only a bra and panties.
“I don’t have anything to wear to bed. I don’t even have my bonnet,” she said, her voice low and soft, to his stunned face.
It wasn’t seductive—it was just stated as a fact. Had he mistaken what she wanted to do there with him? Had she only needed a refuge for the night from her mother? No, the look on her face, as her eyes traveled from Ridley’s feet to his face, was wanton and alluring.
“Uh, you can borrow my Durag, but it’s silk, not satin. And I can find one of my T-shirts, if you’d like?” he offered anyway. As if sex hadn’t been a part of their unspoken agenda since he’d tried to eat her face in the Uber.
“Good, maybe for later.” She twisted her arm behind her back, undoing the fastenings of her bra. The sides hung loose, only kept in place by the straps over her shoulders, which she began to slip off.
Ridley stood there, transfixed. He didn’t understand where his nerves were coming from. They’d had sex yesterday. Albeit, more in front of each other than actually with each other and it was in an entirely different country. Still, it counted. It was still just him and her and her magnificently naked body, with breasts he couldn’t wait to sample again, an ass he wanted to sink his teeth into and the prettiest little—
“Ridley, come here.”
Lanie was completely nude now and all the swirling thoughts Ridley had flew directly out of his mind.
In clothes that always complemented her, Lanie was like an extremely buxom hourglass, a ten out of ten. But out of them, Lanie was a marvel of divine proportion and beauty, a Venus. She was statuesque, lushly pear-shaped with full, heavy breasts, thick arms and thighs, and a pleasingly rounded belly.
Ridley shed his T-shirt and boxers hurriedly as he approached. Just her scent was a potent sex potion that addled his brain, making him rock-hard. He wasted no time lowering her back onto the bed then covering her body with his. He kissed her fervently, spending long minutes adoring every part of her like he’d dreamed about doing. His teeth skimmed her ample breasts as he filled his mouth briefly, creating enough suction to make her squirm beneath him, breath hitching.
Lanie watched, eyes hooded, as he ran his hands and tongue over the stretch marks on her biceps and sides, tasting the faint saltiness of her skin. She laughed, tickled, when his lips lightly caressed the pudge of her stomach. And she shivered under him as his mouth lingered along the curves of her hips, mapping the terrain of her body for his future exploration while she stroked the back of his head and neck.
“You make me so happy,” he confessed, pausing on his way to her core. “And I want to show every inch of you how much.”
Lanie giggled like he was joking...maybe not realizing he was serious. She was phenomenally sexy and it continually astounded him that she didn’t seem to know it. It had distressed him how many times in the last few weeks he’d thought of having her in this way. Fantasized about this as she remained oblivious to her effect on him. But here she was now, with him. He came back from his fantasies to the vision of sensual desire before him.
“Ridley?” Lanie touched a finger to his jaw to get his attention. “Did I lose you?” She chuckled nervously and he did too.
He shook his head, backing away, his anticipation building. “No, sorry, I just want to look at you for a minute.”
It was true. His eyes roamed her body greedily, laid before him like a feast. He almost didn’t know where to begin. Ridley moved from her belly button to her pelvis to her knees, showering extra attention on her hips and inner thighs, covering her with light kisses. He fell to his knees at the end of the bed and reached for her, sliding his hands underneath her bottom. Ridley pulled her toward his waiting, wanting mouth with a jerk and Lanie yelped at the sudden motion, then laughed.
“Sorry,” he said, abashed by his blatant lust.
“Now who’s saying sorry too much?” Lanie reached forward to stroke his cheek.
She gasped, falling back against the bed, when Ridley lifted her thighs, spreading them and hooking one over his shoulder. Lovingly, he kissed her nether lips before using his fingertips to spread her open under his tongue, lapping at her folds.
“Oh fuck,” she exclaimed into the silence as Ridley took his time, savoring her.
He tasted her all over, relishing her piquant flavor. His tongue penetrated her, eliciting small spasms that he captured with his mouth before zeroing in on the neat bundle of nerves that had her weeping his name over and over as he sucked on it. He knew then he could lose entire days doing that alone. Hearing her trembling sighs and feeling her tiny quakes against his mouth. Lanie wrapped her hands around his head, gripping and holding him where she wanted him.
“There, oh God, just there,” she instructed.
Luckily, Ridley had always taken direction well, worshipping her with gently insistent flicks of his tongue until her thighs shook. He worked her body, pushing her toward his sole objective, wanting to feel her come against his face. He lost himself to this goal. Inhaling her maddening scent and feeling his hunger grow. At last, a tremor ripped through Lanie, her back arching and mouth opening in a soundless gasp. Then she flooded his mouth and he lapped up his spoils as his own core tightened, seeking release.
“Enough,” she pleaded as he continued, finally spent, pushing his forehead away with her palm. “It’s too much. Please!”
He lifted his mouth from her reluctantly and smiled. It might have been years since he’d had any practice but he was gratified to know that his skills hadn’t abandoned him.
“Stop gloating,” she said, panting for breath. “Now, c’mere.” She pulled him up her body with little coaxing until he covered her again, then licked the taste of herself off his lips, kissing him deeply.
Ridley braced himself on his forearms, trying to calm down. After what they’d shared, any more of herself she offered would be a bonus, he reminded himself. His reward for a job well done. But just looking at Lanie’s luscious body was nearly too much for him. He craved every part of her now like a last meal.
She dragged her hands lazily up and down his back as they kissed, in no rush at all. He stared deeply into her gorgeous eyes. This close, he could see the little swirls of green and light brown that flecked the halo of her irises.
Fuck , he was falling for her. Had fallen . It’s already too late , he admitted to himself.
Lanie brought her legs up to wrap around his hips, pulling him closer. Ridley reached above her head onto the nightstand, feeling for the condom that he’d retrieved from his shaving kit. And instantly, he was in his head again, afraid like he’d been the day before that he’d embarrass himself.
After a three-plus-year sexual hiatus, Ridley knew he would have been disappointing, not only to Lanie but to himself. So, yesterday he’d lied. There’d been a string of condoms, furnished by Dash, sitting in his shaving kit the whole time. And they’d been in there for nearly a year now, ever since Dash ordained that Ridley’s mourning period had officially come to an end. Ridley had vehemently disagreed, though he never actually removed them.
Now Ridley eagerly tore open the condom packet with his teeth, before covering Lanie’s mouth with his as he rolled it onto himself. They continued kissing, tongues passionately intertwined, making out until his erection became an insistent rod throbbing between their bodies. Ridley took another deep breath, trying to slow down, acquit himself honorably, not come as soon as he touched her.
But then, Lanie nudged him, losing her cool.
Entry was urgent, rougher than Ridley intended as his patience frayed entirely. And like opposing pieces of the same puzzle, he exhaled while she inhaled at the moment their bodies joined. His fingers dug into the soft skin of her thighs as he stretched them wide and thrust in and out of her.
“Open for me,” he begged, back bowed and hips crashing into hers, frenzied, seeking her channel and pulling almost entirely out before slamming all the way back in. His mouth hungrily explored the depths of hers as she shuddered beneath him with his every hard plunge into her. Ridley had wanted to be gentle, planned to exercise care, but his need overcame his senses. Still, Lanie met him thrust for thrust as he groaned her name between gritted teeth.
Her walls clenched all around him, making him see stars and sending pulses like icicles skittering down his spine. Soon, he felt his release coming, bearing down on him, and he slowed again, trying to find a new rhythm that gave him more time to last but still suited them both. Ridley took subtle direction from her, moving in her, listening to her whimpers, feeling as her legs began to shake around him when he went deeper and deeper, finding the place that made Lanie’s toes curl and hitting it again and again until she came.
Ridley continued at that unhurried pace, trying to prolong the incredible feeling of being inside her. But eventually Lanie disengaged to switch positions. She rose over him and stayed there. Lying above him, giving him sweet little kisses as he pressed against her entrance impatiently. It was an excruciating tease as his need to come still dogged him. Lavishing his mouth with the attention of her tongue, Lanie finally eased herself back onto him, adjusting her body until his thick shaft filled her up. She hissed at the snug fit. His eyes rolled up into his head at the delirious, tortured feeling of her sliding down.
He grabbed handfuls of the ass that of late had begun haunting his dreams and kneaded it, encouraging her to ride. Lanie was a quick study and a captivating sight mounted on him, demanding and then taking her own pleasure from his body. Sweat covered both of them in a slick sheen that made her glow in the dim light and he watched avidly as it dripped down the crevice between her bouncing breasts.
Enflamed, Ridley bolted upright and hungrily wrapped his lips and tongue around her areola, licking and sucking until she moaned.
“Oh God, yes.” Lanie rested her cheek against his head.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders, clutching him to her bosom, her hips continuing to move. He ran possessive hands along the sloping curve of her back before slipping them beneath her to cup her bottom, pulling her into his meeting thrusts.
With her undulating furiously on top of him, Ridley couldn’t fight off his climax any longer. It hurtled toward him with the power of a locomotive bearing down. The feeling seized his lower back and groin, tightening until his whole body stiffened under hers. His orgasm shook him and Lanie grasped his shoulders, holding him to her as he trembled. He nestled there, in between her full breasts, as the sensation rocketed through him, leaving him feeling sapped of strength and lost to an aching sort of bliss.
He flopped back onto the bed afterward, panting and thoroughly exhausted. Lanie settled down on top of him, still straddling his hips, her chin resting on her hands across his chest, breathing heavily too.
“I think...you were trying...to impress me, Dr. Aronsen.”
Ridley chuckled, his heart racing for more than one reason. He brushed the loose brown curls back from her moist hairline, so he could see into her still-flushed face. It was just as bewitching as he’d imagined. “I was.”
Why deny it?
“Well,” she said with a long luxuriant exhale. “Mission accomplished.”