by A. S. Teague
After a few moments of contemplation, I slowly stand upright and turn my body to face her. She’s standing in the middle of the kitchen, her arms across her chest.
I stick my hands out to my sides. “Happy now?”
“No.” She vigorously shakes her head. “You’re done talking. Now, it’s my turn.”
I laugh humorlessly. “I didn’t get the chance to do much talking.”
“Oh, you said plenty. Plenty of ridiculous bullshit.” Her face is animated, her cheeks red. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were broke?” she asks bluntly.
“I’m a man, Rebecca. Men have egos. I’m a fighter. Fighters have even bigger egos,” I admit. “What man in his right mind would tell a woman he is into that he is poor? No man worth a shit. Maybe if I were a fucking loser with no balls.”
She uncrosses her arms and begins wildly waving them around. “Men and their fucking pride. It’s Goddamn ridiculous.” She takes a step toward me and reaches a hand out to me.
I shake my head at her, not ready for her to touch me yet. “I saw your face when I told you that I can’t afford to eat most days. You were disgusted.”
Her mouth gapes. “Yes. I was disgusted! At myself!”
“What?”
“Jesus, are you dumb? You’ve been taking me to all of these fancy dinners. I yelled at you when you ate pizza that day. I made fun of the fucking flower you left me! I’m horrified at the way I’ve been acting. God, all this time, you’ve been struggling to make ends meet and I’ve been acting like a spoiled brat!” She covers her face with her hands.
“Hey, don’t cry,” I tell her.
“I’m not.” She assures, looking me in the eyes. “I’m just embarrassed.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, doll. You didn’t know. I should have told you. You deserve to be spoiled. And I like being the one to do it. I just didn’t want you to think less of me. I didn’t want you to judge me based on my current circumstances. I thought that, if you knew the truth, you’d never give me a chance. And then, once we got serious, I couldn’t find the right time to tell you.”
She pushes away from my chest and swipes a hand under her eyes, smearing her makeup. Her nose is red, and her hair’s falling out of the loose ponytail it was in.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty good at taking care of myself. Yeah, it’s nice to be spoiled, but that’s not a requirement to date me. I wasn’t looking for a sugar daddy.”
“I know, but look at this place. Even you can’t deny that this place isn’t a dump.”
Throwing her arms out to her sides, she raises her voice. “I still don’t care about that! Of course I don’t want you living here. It’s not safe. But I’m not fucking judging you for it.”
“Your dad said that he went broke catering to your wants,” I remind her.
“Yeah, in high school. When I was a spoiled brat!”
“But you––”
She cuts me off, jabbing a finger in my chest. “I love you, Ryker! I. Love. You. Not your money. Not your apartment. Not your car. You!”
She stares at me, and the longer she goes without speaking, the more my stomach wrenches.
Lamely, I attempt a joke, “Well that’s good, ’cause I don’t have any money.”
She lets out a strangled cry, “Argh! Can’t you shut up for just one second!”
“Hello, pot. Meet kettle.” I smirk.
Her eyes narrow, and I make a show of zipping my lips.
“I love the guy that pursued me, refusing to take no for an answer. I love the guy who gives me just as much shit as I give him. I love the guy who loves my stupid dog. I love the guy who lets the kids pound on him for hours each week without complaining. I love the guy who swallowed his pride and walked in to the one gym that he had no business walking into. And, now that I know it, I fucking love the guy who’s been skipping meals and bills to take his girlfriend out. So, fuck all of your reasons why you didn’t tell me. Because they’re invalid. I don’t care about any of that shit. All I care about is you.”
The crappy apartment, the empty bank account, the bare cabinets—all of that served to make me feel like less of a man, like I wasn’t good enough for anyone, especially Rebecca. But her words redeem me. Maybe I so deserve to have found love. Maybe I am worthy of the affections of a woman as incredible as Rebecca Toler.
When she finishes her rant, I grab her by the shoulders and, with my heart hammering, crush my mouth to hers. Using my mouth, I tell her everything I want her to know about how the words she just said affected me. I plunge my tongue into her mouth. I lift one hand to her head and fist her ponytail tightly, anchoring her head in place as I continue to pour all the words I’ve never been able to find into our kiss.
She loops her arms around my neck and pulls her body tight against mine. Rolling her hips, she grinds her core against my cock, causing it to strain against the fly of my jeans.
I begin walking her backward toward my room, bumping into furniture as we go. After letting her waist go with one hand, I turn the knob on my bedroom door and it swings open.
Embarrassment washes over me when I think about the sparsely furnished room, but it vanishes when she moans loudly into my mouth. When I kick the door, it slams shut, causing the particle-board dresser to shake.
Almost frantically, I pull the hem of her shirt up and reluctantly tear my lips away from hers long enough to lift the shirt over her head.
“Ryker, wait,” she pants. “What about Gram?”
“She’ll be okay,” I assure her before unclasping her bra.
“But she’ll hear us,” she argues, pulling her arms free of her bra straps.
“She’s old. She can’t hear shit anymore.”
It’s not true. I know she’s heard everything that’s happened. But I don’t give a shit. My mind is on one thing, and that’s getting Rebecca naked and under me as fast as humanly possible. I’ll apologize to Gram later.
When her legs hit the edge of my bed, she sinks down, pulling me on top of her. I kiss her neck while unbuttoning her shorts and yanking them down to her knees. While making my way down her body, I stop to pull one nipple in to my mouth and use my thumb and my forefinger to roll the other.
She moans loudly and arches her back.
After a moment, I let the suction of her breast go with a pop and switch to her other breast. I run my free hand up the inside of her thigh, rubbing my thumb over the panties covering her core. After pulling the thin fabric aside, I run a finger through her slick folds and she cries out.
With one final swipe of my tongue, I release her nipple and look up at her. “Shhhhh…”
She moans again, only slightly quieter this time.
After sinking to my knees, I position my body between her thighs and lean my head forward, running my nose along her pussy. Pressing light kisses over her panties, I rub up and down her legs. Then I command, “Tell me what you want, doll.”
“Your mouth,” she pants.
That is what I want, so with one quick swipe, I strip her of her underwear.
“Mm, this tongue?” I run my tongue alone the juncture where her thigh meets her core, and she gasps.
“Yes!”
Moving to the other side, I repeat the action. She rewards me with another moan.
I continue to nibble and lick her everywhere but the one place she wants it most.
Finally, she moans loudly. “Now, Ryker. I need your tongue now.”
Flattening my tongue, I place it at her opening and, with one long, slow stroke up, make my way to her clit.
She rolls her hips and commands, “Again.”
Tortuously slowly, I do as I was told. The sounds of her pleasure cause my cock to become painfully hard.
When her legs begin to shake, she pushes my head away from her and breathes, “I need you inside me.”
I stand, and she sits up, quickly unbuttoning my jeans and shoving them down to my knees. My cock bobs up and down, and Rebecca fists the base of it in one ha
nd while taking the head into her mouth.
When I feel it hit the back of her throat, my knees nearly buckle and I groan, “Fuck, that’s good.”
She continues to suck and lick her way up and down my shaft for another moment and then abruptly stops, releasing me from her grasp.
“Condom. Now,” she commands.
I pull one out of my bedside table. Then I quickly tear the foil packet and roll it on. Rebecca turns over and climbs onto the bed on all fours. My shaft grows impossibly harder at the sight of her perfectly round ass in the air, waiting for me to take her from behind.
She looks over her shoulder and seductively orders. “Fuck me. Now.”
Wasting no time, I grab her hips and punch deep inside of her. We cry out in unison, and I begin a relentless rhythm, my hips slamming against her over and over.
She thrusts her ass higher in the air, changing the angle, and it doesn’t take longer before I feel the climax rising in my balls.
“Fuck, I’m close,” I tell her through gritted teeth.
Propped on one forearm, she reaches her other hand between her legs and moans, “Harder.”
I slam into her twice more before I feel her muscles begin pulse around me. With her body shuddering, I let go, my orgasm barreling through me.
Panting, I collapse, doing my best to keep my weight off her with shaky arms, my body still weightless from my release,
I groan. “Jesus, we should fight more often.”
She giggles, wiggling her ass against me.
God. What did I do to earn this woman?
Chapter Nineteen
Rebecca
I hadn’t planned on telling him that I’d fallen in love with him. But, when he wouldn’t stop spewing horseshit, I couldn’t stop myself. I’d decided to wait until he said the words first—or at least until I’d had so much to drink that it just came out. I thought I’d be nervous telling him, but I wasn’t. Even now, after we’ve had the most incredible make-up sex of my life, I am not worried about how he feels. He may not have told me that he loves me with words, but he definitely showed me that the feeling is mutual.
When he rolls off my back, I turn on my side, facing him. “I am a pretty good fuck.”
He chuckles and nods. “You’re a fan-fucking-tastic fuck,” he murmurs, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “And let’s not forget modest.”
I prop myself up on an elbow and run my hand along his bicep, giggling when he flexes it. “Don’t ever lie to me again,” I whisper, my gaze meeting his. “Don’t keep secrets from me. If there are things you’re not ready to discuss with me, that’s fine. But don’t lie and make up excuses to keep something like this from me.”
His head moves almost imperceptibly, but he says, “You’re right, doll.”
Scooting over to his side, I wrap an arm around his waist and nuzzle my head against his chest. Soothing me, his heart beats strong and steady under my ear. We lie in silence for a while, our breathing evening out.
There’s a knock on his door, and I instantly scramble for something to cover up with. He grabs my hands, stilling them.
Then he calls out, “Yeah?”
From the other side, Gram asks, “Did you tell her that you love her too, Barney? I think I missed that part.”
Roaring with laughter, he shouts back, “Mind your own business, old woman!”
“Barnabus Hawke! You better mind your manners!”
He chokes out a, “Sorry, Gram,” through a chuckle.
As we hear her feet shuffle away, I dissolve into a fit of laughter. “Shit, she totally heard us doing it!”
“Yeah. She’ll be all right though. She read Fifty Shades of Grey last year.”
I gasped. “She did not.”
“Oh, yes, she did. She even sent me to the bookstore to pick it up for her. Then told me about all about it. We were tame compared to that shit.”
“God. I can only imagine your face as Gram told you about the red room of pain,” I say, leaning forward to snag my clothes from the floor.
He groans. “No, you can’t. It was the most awkward ten seconds of my life.”
Pulling my shirt over my head, I say, “Hey. Let’s order pizza! I’m in the mood for Georgio’s.”
“Ahhh…” He hesitates.
I wave my hand at him. “My treat.”
Groaning, he shoves off the bed and grabs his jeans off the floor. “You’re not going to start trying to pay for everything, are you?”
Dropping my voice teasingly, I ask, “Why? You need a sugar mama?” I press against him and, with exaggerated movement, wiggle my hips. “I may know a person.”
He smacks my ass, and I jump.
“This room isn’t red, and I’m not into pain.” I toss him a wink over my shoulder and then seductively walk to his door.
I’m halfway through the doorway when he calls out.
“Rebecca.”
“Yeah, babe?” I call over my shoulder.
“I love you, too.”
I freeze, and my heart skips a beat.
Did I hear him correctly?
He continues. “I think I fell in love with you when I walked into the gym for the first time and you wasted no time telling me where to go.”
Oh my God. It was hell. He fell in love when I told him to go to hell!
I step back and slowly shut the door. Not trusting that I’m actually hearing these words and my mind’s not playing tricks on me, I don’t turn around. My pulse quickens, and blood roars in my ears. I use the doorknob to steady myself as he continues.
“And, if you don’t believe in love at first sight, then it was probably when you told me about helping Max at the summer program and I saw how much those boys mean to you.”
Tears begin to well in my eyes, my vision swimming.
“If that’s still too soon for you, then it was definitely when you opened your door on a Friday night in July wearing reindeer pajamas. “
A burst of laughter escapes when I think about how ridiculous I must have looked.
He moves behind me and loops his arms around my waist, his lips at my ear. His warm breath tickles my skin. “I’ve been falling in love with you since the moment I laid my eyes on you. Every day, you do something else that makes me fall even harder. And, today, if there was any doubt in my mind about the way I feel about you, which there wasn’t, well, you shut that shit down.” He places a gentle kiss on my neck and finishes with, “I’m so Goddamn in love with you that it’s making me do crazy shit.”
He continues kissing along my shoulder, and I lean back into the strong arms holding me up. My knees are weak, and I fear that, if he moves, I’ll dissolve into a puddle of mush.
“I’m sorry I was a dick earlier.” Kiss. “I’m sorry for the shit I said.” Kiss. “I’m sorry I made you cry.” Kiss. “I’m sorry I’m not nearly what you deserve. But, I’ll be that guy one day soon. I fucking swear it.”
I press my free hand to my mouth, failing my attempt to keep the sob in.
He kisses me one last time, and I release the doorknob and spin into his arms. Jumping, I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his shoulder.
Kissing him hard, I exclaim, “Screw the fucking pizza! Hope Gram’s got earplugs.”
We spend the rest of the night cuddled in Ryker’s horribly uncomfortable twin bed. Waking up the next morning with a kink in my neck, I vow never to do that again. Ryker may have been embarrassed by his apartment, but the ratty furniture and questionable location isn’t nearly as bad as this mattress that feels like a bed of gravel. But I am with him. It is hard to complain.
I kiss him while he sleeps, careful not to wake him, and quietly slip out of his bedroom. I tiptoe down the hall, surprised to see Gram sitting at the kitchen table.
“Morning, Gram,” I whisper.
She looks up from the book she’s reading, and I have to fight back a grin when I notice that it’s a Harlequin romance.
A sly grin forms on her face. “Good morning
, Rebecca. Have a nice evening?”
My cheeks heat, and I cut my gaze to the floor, mumbling, “Uh, erm. Yes.”
She pats the kitchen chair beside her and says, “Oh, please, honey. Don’t be embarrassed. Come have a seat.”
I shuffle over and pull out the chair, gingerly sitting down. “Gram, I’m sorry. We shouldn’t have stayed locked away. I know it’s probably disrespectful that I spent the night.”
She waves me off. “My Barney’s a grown man. He can have whomever he wants over to spend the night. And besides, I’m no prude, dear. You forget, when Barney was fighting, I went to all of his events and got to know a lot of the other fighters. Some of those young men had a revolving door of ladies lined up.” She points to the book she set down when I came in the room. “Besides, I love a good romance. Have you seen that movie Fifty Shades of Grey? I read the book.” She pauses to fan herself. “Let me tell you, dear. That Christian was a fine specimen of a man.”
I have to bite my cheek to keep from laughing out loud. “Oh, I’ve seen the movie, Gram. It was H-O-T!”
She smiles broadly and reaches out to grasp my hand. Her skin is so soft; I make a mental note to ask her what lotion she uses.
She drops her voice and says, “I’m so glad he’s found you, dear. The last couple of years have been tough on him. Then you came along and changed it all.” Her eyes are shimmering.
I pray that she doesn’t start crying. I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep dry eyes if she starts.
She gazes at me, a faraway look in her eye. “I always imagined my boy settling down with a lady. I would daydream about the first time he told me about her. The first time I would meet her. His wedding day.” A small smile plays on her face, and I can’t help but smile along with her. “And, honey, my dreams were nothing better than a nightmare compared to the real thing. His face when he said your name for the first time, darling—I’ll take that image with me up to heaven. Happiest I’ve ever seen him.” Her fingers squeeze mine tight.
I give up on trying to fight the tears back. My tears spill over, but I don’t dare release her hands to wipe my face. After a few seconds, she gives me one final squeeze and lets my hands go.