Chapter 19
What a fucking day.
As Ginny changed into her flannel pyjamas and brushed her teeth, she struggled to think of one thing that had gone right.
The kiss… No, that had been wrong, although she was taking some convincing to truly believe that.
But it didn’t matter if that make-out in the car was the hottest kiss of her life.
Rhys had unequivocally rejected her afterwards when she’d been offering nothing more than a casual fling!
This wedding was the biggest challenge her pride had ever faced and taking herself to bed with a podcast was the only remedy. With any luck, she’d be blissfully asleep in minutes, a solid break from wedding ups and downs and chilly autobahns and hot kisses.
Oh, Lord, that kiss. In an instant, she was wide awake and reliving every second of it. Maybe she’d been doing dating wrong all these years. Maybe what she needed was someone she didn’t like to awaken this glow inside her.
But if he’d felt even a fraction of this heat, he wouldn’t have turned her down. ‘And he said it was one-sided,’ she muttered to herself, startled when there was a knock at the door. Grumbling about the unpredictable hours of her job, she dragged herself out of bed.
‘What the hell is it now?’ she cried as she flung it open – then froze, her eyelids shooting all the way up.
Goosebumps rushed up her arms and flames burst on her cheeks.
‘Uh… hi.’ Damn her own self for reliving that kiss a few minutes ago, not knowing she’d have to actually face him while she was still hot and bothered.
Rhys leaned one hand on the doorframe, his body tense. His shoulders looked impossibly broad in his tight T-shirt. When she glanced at his weathered fingers, all she could think about was the way he’d touched her while showing her the film camera today at the church.
‘You don’t need to check on me,’ she blurted out.
‘I know you all think I’m the wedding monomaniac and I’m not upset about the stupid jokes.
Really, we said enough today.’ And if he didn’t get out of her space in about ten seconds, she was going to drag him into her room and have her way with him.
It was unfair how good he looked, his hair a tangled sweep over eyes full of dismay.
‘That’s not why I’m here.’
Her hair stood on end as her thoughts went in an unhelpful direction. ‘O… kay?’
Then he said her second-favourite statement – after I love you, which she was starting to despair of ever hearing: ‘You’re right.’
‘About…?’
‘We both want… this.’
His chest lifted with an agitated breath. She didn’t have to ask him what he meant by ‘this’. It was tangible, strung tight between them, surely visible in some other spectrum of light.
‘I’m fairly certain both of us will regret this later, but… can I come in?’
It wasn’t smooth or eloquent – or even particularly complimentary – but a thrill zinged through Ginny’s bloodstream. It was the strain in his voice, the thick wanting, obvious in his expression.
She curled a hand around his nape and dragged him inside, closing the door with a firm snick. The last thing she saw before her eyes dropped closed was his rueful, disbelieving smile and then his lips were on hers again.
Holy hell, the kiss in the car had not prepared her for the pressure of his whole body against hers. She clutched at him as his arm around her back pinned her tightly and his other hand held her head still so he could kiss her thoroughly.
As though no time had passed since this afternoon, the kiss went to a hundred in about ten seconds, open-mouthed, eager. When she pulled back to suck in a laboured breath, the air emerged again on a messy moan as his lips dropped to her throat.
She tugged at the buttons on her pyjama top with uncoordinated hands as her muscles went liquid.
She managed to rip it off and he fell on her gratifyingly quickly, hoisting her up against the door so his mouth could reach her breasts.
She wrapped her arms and legs around him and in the back of her mind was a little click, as quiet as a camera shutter opening, like flicking a switch so she could finally see a whole new spectrum of colour.
Her head fell back against the door as sensation rushed up her chest to the roots of her hair.
Those colours were probably shades of grey – if the deep, X-rated groan emerging from Rhys’s throat was anything to go by.
But they were beautiful. He was beautiful, with his eyelashes against his cheeks, his features taut as he sucked the tip of her breast between his lips.
He stumbled to the bed, dumping her on her back and coming down after her, his fingers teasing her skin as his mouth travelled up her neck and back to her lips.
‘Shirt off,’ she demanded between kisses, enjoying the pink in his cheeks, as though he didn’t know his body made her wild.
When her palms finally met his skin, the sharpness of the thrill caught her by surprise.
‘I wanted to touch you like this that day at the lake,’ she confessed between kisses, running her hands down his straining arms as he held his weight off her.
‘I thought I’d scandalised you,’ he murmured in reply.
‘I was… very nicely scandalised,’ she whispered, finishing on a gasp as his body settled between her legs. ‘Please tell me you have a condom. I really want to do this with you right now.’
He nodded, some light creeping into his eyes as he began to believe she really wanted this as much as she insisted. Probably, she wanted it even more than he realised, but that was a worry for another day.
‘There’s a vending machine downstairs,’ he explained with half a smile, producing a couple of packets from his pocket and setting them on the bed as he lifted himself off her to get rid of their last items of clothing. ‘Although Toni nearly caught me tapping my card.’
‘Well, I appreciate your espionage skills,’ she murmured, grasping his hand and shuffling up the bed, dragging him after her.
‘Appreciate my skills once I’ve delivered that orgasm you requested.’
He caught her flailing hand and pressed it to his shoulder, where she continued stroking down his back. The feel of his skin against hers was a kind of miracle. Even more magical was the way her own body blossomed, all pleasure and ease, loose softness soaking in the firm, needy touch.
‘Ginny, tell me if—’ A groan interrupted his question, his face contorted.
‘It’s okay,’ she answered, her lungs tight at the sight of him shaking with need – for her. She wrapped an arm around him and the other hand found his cheek as she took him inside. Perhaps it had been too long, because she felt ready to explode, unable to contain everything she was feeling.
She couldn’t hold in a sob as the need rose up and they found the answering friction in deep, instinctive movement, feeling him everywhere, the rhythm effortless – irresistible.
‘Ginny?’ It sounded like a cry for help, as though he couldn’t bear it either. She pressed a clumsy kiss to his cheek, her fingers in his hair, and held on tight as the dam burst and everything between them unravelled.