Chapter 28
MAGGIE
Ishould not be kissing Ryan Thayer, one part of my brain screamed when I stroked my fingers into the hair at the back of his head.
Unfortunately, the other part of my brain and the rest of my body vehemently disagreed with that tiny voice of reason trying to break through.
Why not? We’re both single and we’re obviously attracted to one another.
Surprisingly, all three of those things were true. I shouldn’t have been kissing him. It would make things even more complicated from here on out, and yet, we were both single, and from the feel of things right now, we were also very obviously attracted to one another.
My entire body was already tingling as his lips moved against mine with an urgency that eradicated any doubt that I might’ve been imagining his attraction to me. There was also the matter of the hard bulge growing against my lower belly.
Ryan clearly wanted me, and right now, I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted a man before.
I’d been quietly, secretly wanting him for weeks, but after that kiss yesterday, the desire had been consuming me.
Trying to bury it in unearthing my grandfather’s secrets had almost helped, but then he’d gotten home with that dress, and the rest? Well, it was history.
I swept my tongue into his mouth and moaned when he nipped at my lower lip before kissing me again, his arm banding tighter around my hips. He held me flush against him, kissing me with even more passion than he had yesterday.
If that kiss had blown my mind, this one was going to haunt me for the rest of my life. It was the kind of kiss that could ruin a girl for other men. Briefly, I wondered if I should warn him, but that would mean breaking the kiss and I wasn’t about to do that.
While one of his arms remained snaked around my hips, he took my face in the other, his whole upper body involved with the kiss. I felt him everywhere, pressed up against me, the warmth of his breath on my skin, and the firm touch of his fingertips on my jaw.
It was embarrassing how hard my heart was already pounding and even more embarrassing that I could already feel myself getting wet, but Ryan wasn’t shy or embarrassed about his need at all.
As he kept ravishing my mouth like he wouldn’t stop until he’d conquered me and taken my entire body as his own, his hips got involved too, rolling in these little rocking motions that had me moaning in no time at all.
“Ryan,” I whispered, but I wasn’t sure what I was asking.
All I could do was scrunch his shirt between my fingers and pull him closer. Thankfully, as I was starting to learn was always the case, he seemed to know what I needed even if I hadn’t gotten there myself yet.
“Yeah, okay. I’ve got you. Don’t worry.”
He murmured the words between kisses, then started walking us backward until he pressed me against the wall separating the living area from the kitchen. With his weight sinking into me, keeping me pinned against the wood, I practically melted, feeling like I was burning up from the inside out.
His hips started rolling again, in slower, more deliberate motions this time, and as soon as that hard heat of him ground against my core, sparks sped through me like fireworks. My fingers tightened around his hair of their own accord and my eyes slid shut.
“God, Ryan,” I moaned into his mouth. “Yes.”
A low groan vibrated through his chest and he broke the kiss, bringing his lips to my ear as he did it again. More sparks raced through me, so intense this time that I whimpered.
“You can tell me to stop anytime, Mags,” he murmured, his voice huskier and rougher than usual. “I hope you won’t, but if you want to stop, just say the word.”
“No.” I didn’t even think about the offer, pulling at his hair a little harder instead. “I want more, not less.”
“More?” I felt his lips curve into a smirk against my skin. “How much more?”
“All of it,” I admitted, breathing hard when he kept grinding against me. “Everything. What else is there?”
He let out a quiet, throaty chuckle, then slid his hand down to mine and tugged me away from the wall. I crashed back into his chest, surprised when he started moving us toward the potentially haunted bedroom.
Between fervent kisses and not really knowing the place that well, we crashed into a few solid wood tables and a lamp, but soon enough, he was laying me down on the lumpy old mattress.
Before I could even begin to fathom that a ghost or two could be watching us in here, his body curved around mine on the bed and he was kissing me again.
I rolled into him, one of my hands finding his hip while the other was pinned between us. That hardly mattered, though. One was plenty to finally get to run my fingers over his body, feeling the strength of him through his shirt.
Naturally, as soon as that thought occurred to me, I realized he shouldn’t be wearing a shirt anymore at all and I reached for the buttons, clumsily undoing them all with just that one, trembling hand. When the fabric fell open, I pressed my palm to his abs and moaned again.
Ryan shuddered slightly against me, one of his hands finally sliding up under my shirt to my ribs. I arched into him, my nipples hard and begging to be touched, but he stopped just short of my breasts, breathing hard but pulling away anyway.
“This is the smartest stupid thing I’ve ever done,” he murmured against my lips. “Are you sure the stupidity hasn’t caught up with you yet?”
“Oh, it’s caught up. I just don’t care.”
He smiled. “Well, that’s good, because neither do I.”
Once the words were out, he rolled me onto my back and reached for the hem of my t-shirt, pulling it off like he’d waved a magic wand to make it disappear. He unhooked my bra next, then groaned when his gaze dropped to my chest.
“Shit, Maggie.”
A second later, he sucked one of my nipples into his mouth, moaning like it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. I arched into him, my fingers sliding into his hair before I pushed the shirt off his shoulders.
As he switched from one of my breasts to the other, he cupped both in his hands and breathed me in, the blue of his eyes almost completely swallowed by his pupils when he glanced up at me. “Are we still at yes?”
“We’re going to stay at yes,” I whispered, reaching for the waistband of his pants when he started kissing a line down my stomach.
I only just managed to flick open the button before he was out of reach and rolling my stretchy jeans off without even undoing the fly. Gasping when he rolled my panties off with them, I wondered what had happened to my inhibitions. They sure didn’t seem to be anywhere to be found right now.
Instead of trying to close my legs or hide from him, I kicked the garments off myself and curled my fingers into the sheets once he’d brought himself eye level with a part of me almost no other person had ever seen.
Only one other man had ever even attempted this with me before, and he’d been my high-school boyfriend.
Ryan had barely even touched me when I realized this was going to be a completely different experience than that had been.
He licked a line through my folds and circled my clit with his tongue before sucking it into his mouth.
My hips nearly flew off the bed, but he caught them in a firm grip and held me down.
Hard.
I wouldn’t have expected to like that kind of thing, but oh.
My. God. My legs spread further without conscious command from my brain, moans spilling out of me as I writhed under his talented tongue.
Aching with need at this point, I didn’t even try to hold back when I felt my orgasm building, catapulted into the record-breaking climax category by the wet heat of his mouth.
My toes curled, my entire body tensing when I felt it coming, the wave so close to cresting that I couldn’t breathe. Ryan didn’t break stride for a moment, not giving me even a second to prepare before he sent me crashing into a whole new freaking universe of pleasure.
I was only vaguely aware of my own voice screaming his name, my hips bucking, and my vision whiting out until I squeezed my eyes shut.
In the aftermath, he cleaned me up with his mouth, then crawled back up the bed and collapsed beside me, breathing hard and so turned on himself that when I forced my eyes open, there was a damp spot on his pants.
Another moan slipped out of me, prompting him to open his eyes too. He looked up at me, his lips swollen and eyes half-dazed as he held my gaze. “What was that?”
Instead of answering, I pushed myself up to sit next to him, still trembling when I pulled the zipper of his fly open, finally completing the task I’d started earlier. Ryan groaned when I pushed his pants down, lifting the elastic of his boxer-briefs over his erection.
“Maggie, you don’t have to—”
I wrapped my fingers around his shaft, effectively shutting him up when I started stroking. “I don’t have a ton of experience with this, so you’re going to have to help me if I’m not doing it right.”
His neck arched, his throat working as his hips started rocking into my grip. “Well, you’re sure as hell not doing it wrong. Fuck, Mags.”
I smiled, every part of my body still trembling, but I wasn’t about to let that stop me.
Instead, I kept moving my fist up and down, running the pad of my thumb over his tip across the wetness gathered there.
Ryan cursed again, rolling his lips into his mouth when I reached for his chest and gave his nipples some of the attention he’d given mine.
He twitched in my fist and I sped up, absolutely fascinated watching him lose control. A flush spread on his chest and his brow furrowed, his hips thrusting into my hand until his lips parted and I felt him swell.
“Maggie, I—” he gritted out, but then I bent over and cut him off with another kiss, feeling him come just seconds later.
I smiled against his mouth, waiting until he’d stopped thrusting before I let go of him and collapsed against his side. For several long minutes, we both just lay there, but reality had a truly sucky habit of showing up when I least wanted it to, and this was one of those times.
Curled around Ryan on the bed with my cheek against his chest and his arm still wrapped around me, the last thing I wanted to be thinking about was something as awful and trivial as reality, but it crashed in nonetheless.
“This is going to be a problem,” he murmured like he’d heard my thoughts. “We shouldn’t have done that.”
“Nope, but also, it’s still a yes from me.”
He let out a low chuckle. “Yeah. Same.”
After hesitating for a beat, he tightened his grip on my hips like he was preparing to hold me there if he had to. Then he kissed the top of my head and sighed. “Are we really still planning a wedding your parents will be so affronted by that they won’t even show up?”
“It’s been so fun that I might actually go through with it,” I murmured, already half asleep as I let my eyes slide shut.
His chest vibrated under my cheek on another quiet laugh. “That’s not a great reason to get married.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“You should marry him, you know,” he murmured a moment later. “He’s a nice guy who puts up with your shenanigans like a loyal dog.”
“Like you?” I asked sleepily, the post-orgasmic haze evidently screwing with my ability to think straight. “That is what you’re saying, right? You’re saying I should marry somebody like you.”