Chapter 41
forty-one
i don’t want to sleep
T hey stepped into a serene oasis. If Elissa had a dream bedroom, this would be it.
The cool blue walls offset the dark wood ceiling and wrought-iron chandelier.
White linens did the same for the heavy, four-poster bed.
A small seating area tucked into the corner invited her to sit and relax.
Since she was playing hooky, she slid off the borrowed jacket and did.
Ryan joined her, a wide grin on his handsome face. He dropped the saddlebags on the ground and met her gaze. Whatever he saw there made him take her hand.
“What we do here is entirely up to you. You can curl up for a nap, or raid the library and read a book, or we can explore Downtown Bisbee. We can just snuggle tonight, no pressure whatsoever.”
On the drive down, pressed against Ryan’s body in forced intimacy, she’d had time to think. To overthink.
What had she done? She’d messed up one hundred percent. She’d yelled at her sister, fought with her mother. Ditched work. Her heart raced, her stomach roiled, and all her plans for the future caught like a wildfire in the middle of June.
“Hey, where’d you go?” Ryan brought her hand to his lips and placed a gentle kiss on the back. Their gazes met.
There, in the warm, comforting depths of his eyes, she found what she was looking for.
Acceptance. Patience. Maybe even love, pure and unconditional.
Ryan didn’t care if she’d messed up. If she didn’t have a job after today.
If she yelled at the entire goddamned world.
He was here with her now because she asked. Because she needed him.
Perhaps she should tell him how she felt. No, even better. She’d show him.
Elissa kicked off her shoes and rose out of her chair, the rug soft under her bare feet.
She took two small steps to him and straddled him in his chair.
It creaked under their combined weight. Framing his face in her hands, she bent down to kiss him, pressing her lips against his.
It was a brief taste, but she wanted him to stop talking, stop being the good guy.
He moaned when she broke the kiss. Elissa leaned in and murmured in his ear.
“Are you saying sex is optional?”
“You’re killing me.” He leaned his head against the chair.
“I don’t want to nap.” She kissed his temple with a soft laugh. “I don’t want to read.” A kiss to his jaw. “I don’t want to explore the town.” A kiss on the corner of his mouth. “And I definitely do not want to ‘just snuggle.’”
His control broke. His arms became steel bands as they wrapped around her, holding her close.
His lips captured hers once more. He stood in a smooth motion and carried her to the bed, easing her onto it like she was made of something fragile.
Still standing, Ryan unbuttoned her blouse, taking his time and allowing his fingers to caress the newly bared skin.
Tremors of desire blazed through her body, and a heavy warmth settled low in her core.
He leaned over her, letting his mouth follow the path of his fingertips. Elissa arched her back, wanting more. His teeth nibbled at the sensitive skin above her belly button, and an incomprehensible noise emerged from her mouth. Ryan stood straight and worked on his own buttons.
“Did you like that?” His voice roughened with his need. One button.
Elissa nodded and canted her elbows to sit up. Two buttons.
“I have a plan. Would you like to hear it?” Three buttons.
“Yes,” she whispered. Four buttons.
Elissa bit her lip as he exposed more of his chest, lightly sprinkled with dark hair. She yearned to run her hands over his firm muscles, trace the planes of his body, kiss every damn inch of him.
The last button. He shrugged the fabric off his shoulders.
“First, I’m going to kiss you, long and slow.” He brushed a thumb against her lips before trailing it down to the valley between her breasts. “Then I will finish removing your shirt and toss your bra over there.”
She shivered again as he pointed to the corner of the room with a wolfish smile on his face.
“After I pay homage to your beautiful breasts, I will trace a path down here with my tongue.”
Ryan’s fingers danced across the skin of her belly, weaving a path from the flesh under her bra to the top of her pants.
He slipped a finger under the waistband and stroked the skin he found there.
She nearly jumped off the bed. Every nerve ending was sweetly sensitive, every touch a day’s worth of pleasure.
He licked his lips as he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants but left it at that. Ryan paused for so long, she felt compelled to ask, “Then what?”
A low, throaty chuckle greeted those words. “And then I will taste you and make you come.”
She whimpered, and his smile widened. He sat down at the end of the bed, untied his boots, and kicked them toward the wall, his socks following quickly.
Ryan stretched himself next to her, propping his head on a hand with some help from the many pillows piled on the bed.
His gaze roamed down her body and the heat grew within her.
“Do you want to know what comes last?” His finger twined into her hair, giving a curl a tug.
Elissa couldn’t find her voice, so she nodded.
“Words, please.”
“What comes last?” Her voice was breathy, and her words trembled in the air between them.
He leaned close, his warmth tantalizing and teasing her. If she only would reach out, she could touch him, run her hands over him, but the anticipation had her almost paralyzed with need.
“I will bury myself in your body. It’s been far too long.”
She finally allowed herself to touch him, and his muscles twitched beneath her fingers. Elissa smiled as everything clicked into place. She could have this, have him, and still be Elissa. Only more.
“Yes,” she said.
“Yes? Yes to what?”
“To all of it. But I have one request.”
“Anything.”
“I don’t want to think.”
“If I’m doing it right, that will not be a problem.”
He covered her mouth with his and made her forget everything he told her.
Each action was a new sensation, a new response.
Ryan slipped her shirt off and undid her bra, tossing it right where he said he would.
He cupped her breasts in his hands and brushed her nipples with his thumbs.
His muscles coiled under her touch as she trailed her hands along his back.
He tweaked her nipples, and the pleasure nearly crossed the line into pain. Elissa gripped his biceps hard.
He sucked gently until her grip lessened. Continuing his journey, he trailed kisses down her belly and licked a lazy line between light nips at the sensitive skin under her belly button. When he reached the edge of her panties, he looked up the length of her body, meeting her gaze.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“No questions, no thinking,” she managed to croak.
“Sorry, won’t happen again.”
He tugged on her pants and she lifted her ass. Ryan removed her underwear and pants in a fluid motion, dropping them off the side of the bed. He trailed a line down with his tongue, but she stopped him with a word.
“No.”
Ryan stopped immediately, and his eyes met hers, a question in them.
“I want you naked, too.” She grinned as wolfishly as he had earlier.
He worked his boxers and pants down over his hips, freeing his erection. She couldn’t help staring as he pulled off his clothes and dropped them on the floor.
“Satisfied?”
“Not yet.”
He kneeled in front of her and continued where he’d left off.
Her nerves were on fire once again, every stroke of his tongue bringing her closer and closer to climax.
When his tongue found her clit, she bucked against his mouth, and when he slid a finger inside her, she shattered.
A kaleidoscope of colors greeted her behind her closed eyes as her muscles convulsed around his finger.
Moments later, his tongue stilled, and she was finally able to form words.
“Your turn,” she mumbled.
He smiled at her and rose off the floor to find the saddlebags. He pulled out a condom and smoothed it over his hard cock. Ryan climbed into the bed and between Elissa’s legs. She spread them wider, and he positioned the tip of himself at her entrance.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and lifted her hips, urging him on.
He buried himself inside her, filling her.
With a groan, he slid his cock almost all the way out before quickly burying it deep inside again.
He grabbed her leg and lifted it to his shoulder.
The angle changed everything. Every stroke hit the right spot, spiraling her back up until she once again stood on the precipice of her climax.
Ryan dropped his hand between them and rubbed her clit as his rhythm stuttered. The tempo increased and his control broke. With a last stroke, they flew off the cliff together. Their moans merged into a single note and time seemed to stand still for a breathless moment.
He gently lowered her leg, then collapsed on his elbows with a satisfied grin.
“How was that? Any thinking going on in there?”
“Zero. You fucked it out of me.”
“I do believe you owe the swear jar, Ms. Wright.”
“Fuck the swear jar.”
“Now that I can get behind.”
He captured her lips with his, a fierce possessiveness to the kiss, before he rolled off her. His breathing was heavy, as was hers. She snuggled up to him, laying her head on his chest, listening as his heart slowed, and the air moved in and out of his lungs.