by Maggie Marr
“You were plowed from the moment you walked in the door,” Dillon said. “I never should have left you here that night. I thought Webber took your keys.” Dillon looked up at me and pain haunted his eyes.
“Man, it is not your fault. Everyone thought I was passed out in the study. I know that much from Webber.”
“I’m happy you’re back, man. That we’re shooting this film together with Steve. That you’re so solid. I just … man, I love working with you, and I’m happy as hell that you’ve kicked this thing to the curb.”
“I won’t ever kick this thing,” I said. “The best I can do is work it one day at a time to keep the disease back. But I’m happy, too.”
Dillon patted my arm and turned toward the right. I turned toward the left and went to my room. A thrill chased up my spine. Amanda had asked me which room I was staying in and I knew she’d come to me soon. I knew, that after tonight, she’d forever be mine.
Chapter 30
Amanda
The doorknob was cool beneath my fingertips. A tingle started in my toes and pulsed its way up over my legs and careened through my belly. Ryan’s touch heated me. The memory of his fingers on my body had haunted me while I was in New York. Hot sultry dreams of us finally finishing what we’d promised each other.
He was meant to be mine and I was meant to be his. I’d run from him in fear. Running toward a dream I had. A dream of a life in New York that I ended up not wanting or needing. Now I was here. Ryan was solid in his life and I knew what I wanted. I wanted Los Angeles, I wanted my family close, and I wanted Ryan.
He was already in bed, but with the sound of the door he pulled back the bed covers and stood. My breath rushed from my body. The moon cast a glow through the window and his body lit up with the light. He was fully recovered. My gaze trailed down his body. Muscles rippled down his strong arms, across his belly and his ass and legs. I forced air in and out of my lungs. He was hard and swollen for me. My tongue darted over my lips. I wanted him. I wanted him to touch me and to be inside of me, but the thought of his hugeness entering me caused a twist of fear in my belly. His body still bore the scars of his accident. Up and down his arms, across his chest. He stepped toward me and held out his hand.
Our fingertips touched and heat pulsed through me. My sex clamped. He pulled me toward him and my white silk nightgown floated about my legs. His gaze locked onto mine and in his eyes I saw the present and our future. Forever was in his touch. A forever we were now both willing to embrace.
“There is no other woman in the world for me. Only you.”
His hands grasped my arms and his fingertips ran up over my skin and he tilted my chin up toward his. He pressed his lips to mine. His kiss held heat, but also restraint. My mouth parted and his tongue slipped into my mouth. My hands clasped the muscles of his arms. He deepened the kiss and a growl escaped from him. My body tingled with desire for him and my sex was tight and wet. His hand ran over the top of my gown and he cupped my breast while his lips worked my mouth. His fingertips plucked at my nipple and a thrill shot through me, and my head spun with his touch. I wanted him. He pressed against me and his cock was hard against my belly. I clasped him. The soft skin in my palm. I stroked upward with a long tight pull.
“Amanda,” he rasped out.
His hand dropped from my breast and he grasped the hem of my nightgown. With one swift tug he pulled the silk up and over my body and dropped it to the floor. Ryan took one step back and his eyes devoured me. His gaze roamed from my feet up over my legs, his glance paused on my sex that throbbed for his touch, and then worked up over my belly, my breasts heavy with want, up my neck, past my lips, until finally he looked into my eyes.
A seriousness encompassed his gaze. The same seriousness that I reflected back to him. This night meant more than just the physical lust we had for each other. This night had started forever ago. This night was to seal us to one another.
His fingertip pressed to my lips and my mouth opened and rolled around the tip of his finger. My mouth sucked and then he dropped his finger and trailed it down over my neck and between my breasts, across my belly and paused at the top of my sex. My belly tightened. He slid his finger past my folds and touched me.
“Is this what you want, Amanda?”
My breath became tight little pants. His fingertip pressed my clit, making tight little strokes over my slick nub.
“Yes,” I sighed out.
He grasped my arm and pulled me toward him. His hand slipped from my sex and he lifted me and carried me to the bed. He settled me onto a pillow and his lips were greedy upon mine. His hand caressed my breast and then his lips left mine and he pulled my nipple between his lips, into his hot mouth where his tongue played with it. White-hot heat seared through me and my hips arched upward. His hand splayed out over my belly and then traced a little line over my thighs. My legs fell open to him; my sex, slick with want, needed to be touched. He pulled his mouth away from my nipple and let his fingertips graze my sex.
“You’re so wet.” His finger teased my entrance. My hips bucked upward. “And tight.” A moan came from me. A moan I’d never heard pass from my lips.
“Not yet, Princess,” he said. His lips trailed down across my belly, then up one thigh. Trails of heat stroked along my skin. He lifted my legs and put one over each of his shoulders. He grasped my bottom and clasped me tight with his hands and pulled me to him. His tongue speared into my wet sex. Intense pleasure shot through me.
His lips were on my hot sex. His tongue thrilled circles across the hot nub that throbbed with want. Circling and pulsing, he pulled me into his mouth and stroked me with his tongue. My hand clawed at his shoulder, grasping the hard and rebuilt muscles. My other hand grasped for the sheets as his mouth worked over me. My head was thrown back and pressed deep into the pillow, my mouth open wide, and wild pants of air came from my mouth as my body shuddered and twitched. The heat, the pleasure, sliced through me. I clutched Ryan’s shoulder, ready to fracture and fall away into this abyss.
Two fingers slipped inside me and the edges of the world pulled away from me. His tongue roamed my sex and he sucked and sucked with an insistence as my hips rolled up and down and up again and I caught the edge of my orgasm and shattered over the edge.
“Ryan! Oh my God, Ryan!” My voice sounded unlike me, throaty and thick with want and erotic desire. Shudders convulsed my body. He continued. His tongue stroked me as my body pulsed over and over, wave after wave of orgasm. Until I was limp, limp with the incredible pleasure he’d given me. My eyes were half-lidded. He pulled his mouth from my sex and I grasped his head on either side and pulled him up toward me. He kissed me a deep kiss filled with pleasure and warmth and love. I tasted myself on his lips. Earthy and salty and good. Deep liquid heat pooled in my belly as I came down from my orgasm. His hard cock pressed between us. I grasped my hands around him and stroked upward and back down.
“I want you,” I said.
I pressed the tip of his cock and a tiny drop of wetness pulsed out. He reached to the night table and grabbed a foil wrapper. He leaned on his side and opened the package. I placed it on his cock and unrolled it. His gaze remained locked on mine.
“I’ve never been with anyone before.”
“I know,” he said. His hand stroked my belly, tracing circles and dancing near the edge of my curls where I was still wet from my orgasm. “I’ve known for a while. It’s my first time, too.”
I tilted my head to the side.
“I’ve never had sex sober before,” Ryan said.
My tongue flicked over my lips. A warmth greater than desire heated my body.
“Do you want this?” he asked. “Are you sure you want this now?”
I nodded. “I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything.” I reached my arms up and clasped them around his neck.
His eyes widened with my words and he bent forward and his lips grasped mine. His kiss filled with want. He pressed the length of his body to mine. “I don’t deserve
you, Amanda, I know that. You will always be the most precious gift I have.”
My fingertips trailed across his abs and I clutched his sides. “Show me how precious I am to you,” I said. “Make me yours.”
His lips grabbed for mine and he rolled onto me. His body pressed between my legs and the head of his manhood pulsed at the entrance of my sex. I was wet from my orgasm, my body ready to take him. The tip of him pressed against my thigh.
“I love you, Ryan,” I said.
His lips twisted up into a smile. “I love you, too.”
He nudged at my cleft. I felt a pressure as he pushed into me slowly, softly. Air clutched in my lungs with the burst of sensation. My body stretched and tightened around him.
“Fuck, Amanda, you are so tight.” He held his body up from me and the strain coursed across his face. The muscles of his arms tightened and pulsed. He lifted one hand and his fingertips danced along my clit. My hips rolled up, wanting to take more of him.
“Baby, are you okay?” he hissed out over gritted teeth.
I nodded and clutched the muscles of his arms. Ryan’s face strained. He fought the urge to thrust hard and deep within me. His muscles tightened. I wanted him in me. I wanted all of him.
“Please, Ryan, please,” I said with a desperation unfamiliar to me. I clasped the muscles of his ass with my hands.
He pressed forward deeper into me. Our gazes locked. My body arched toward him. Greedy for him,. I wanted him inside me.
“Amanda, Baby, I …” His voice was deep and hard. A low growl. “Fuck, Baby.”
My hands pulled at his back, my hips rolled. “Ryan, I want you. I want you deep inside me.”
With my words, he pushed deep into me. Heat seared through me. A sharp pain coupled with pleasure. He pulsed in and stopped; his eyes sought mine.
“Amanda, are you okay?”
I nodded. He pulled back and then slowly reentered me. I tightened around him. I wanted him. I wanted to feel him stroke in and out of me. I grasped his arms with my hands and clutched my legs around him. His gaze locked with mine and through the darkness we looked at each other. Pleasure coursed through me, knowing that I had him and he had me and we were together. He was my home. I was his. Where we were together was the place that we were meant to be.
The pressure built and he thrust in deeper; my body was speared by his and my hips arched to him. I slid around him and took all of him into me. His fingertips massaged my engorged nub while he was deep in me and then he stopped. He slid out of me and my body suddenly felt hollow and ached for him. I wanted him deep inside.
“Amanda, I can’t hold back,” he gasped. He thrust into me. The thrust was harder and deeper and I clenched my legs around his back. His lips grasped mine and I wanted him to push harder and faster and deeper into me. “I want to come with you,” he gasped out.
My sex clenched around him with his words. I was close. The edge of pure pleasure was so close for me. He thrust again and my hips rolled to meet his.
“Oh God, baby,” his head arched back and a low growl grumbled from his body. My body responded to the sound and my body was clutched tight. The deep hard thrusts continued and my body tightened and tightened until I could barely breathe and Ryan was in me and around me and all that inhabited my being was Ryan. His body hardened and he stilled, his eyes widened and he trembled and our bodies went over the edge together. His name on my lips was the only sound over the roar of pleasure in my ears.
Ryan
I made love to Amanda three more times. My first time to experience this amazing connection sober. My first times with her and, I knew, the final woman I would ever be with. She was mine and I was hers. All our broken pieces fit together.
The wedding was a grand and beautiful blur. My eyes were locked on Amanda. I’d made my decisions. Before this year was over she would be standing beside me taking vows. I saw no one but her, I noticed no one but her. How could I? She was the light and the love that made my world spin, and I wouldn’t ever allow her to be away from me again.
The band rocked out at the reception. The bride and the groom twirled around the floor. My fingers locked with Amanda’s. A thrill jetted up my arm and I leaned forward and our lips pressed together. Heat, love, desire, want flashed in my chest. Her lips were soft, yet carried a knowledge of what she would do to me later and me to her.
“Young man, what exactly do you intend to do with my daughter?” My heart jolted to a stop and I pulled my lips from Amanda’s. That voice. The voice of a Legend.
“Daddy,” Amanda said and her eyes pleaded not here, not now.
“Steve,” I said and reached out my hand to shake his. “My intentions are nothing but honorable.” I grasped his hand firmly. He could deck me. He could cock his fist back and break my nose and he’d be justified. Almost a year ago I was a complete ass in this home, with his soon-to-be bride, and now I was kissing his little girl? If I were him, I might kill me.
His hand clasped my shoulder and a grin ate up his face. “Ryan, I’m glad we’re doing this film together. I get to see the man that you’re becoming. You’ve walked a tough road. You work your program. I have every faith in you.” His words were kind, but his eyes were hard. He was telling me he’d cut me some slack because he knew Amanda loved me. He could see it. I could see it. He’d give me this chance for her, but if I fucked this up? I could see it in the cut of his jaw and the line of his mouth, even with that smile. If I fucked this up, I was dead.
Steve Legend didn’t have to worry. Amanda was my world. I would go to twelve NA/AA meetings a day if it meant I could keep her. I would remain being this guy, the good guy who treated those around him right.
“Thank you, sir,” I said.
Amanda leaned forward and her father grasped her into a hug. He didn’t tell her often how he felt about her, but I saw it. I saw it when she didn’t. His eyes misted over. When Amanda pulled back from the hug, though, the emotion on Steve’s face was gone.
“I love you, Daddy,” Amanda said.
“Me, too.”
The corners of Amanda’s lips formed a smile. We walked toward the edges of the reception and down to the beach. The night was cold. It was January in Los Angeles and we were right beside the ocean. I slipped my jacket off and rested it on Amanda’s shoulders. I turned to her.
“I want you to be mine forever,” I said. My fingers grasped at her hair that bounced on the breeze.
“I am,” she said. “You’ve made me yours for now and for always.”
Chapter 31
Sterling
“Dude, what is up with all these guys letting themselves get pussy-whipped?” Webber shook his head and his eyebrows crinkled. A look of disdain covered his face and he took a long drink of cabernet.
My gaze swept the room. This was opening night for The Amanda Legend Gallery, and the renovated space in Venice was packed with people.
“Look over there. Dillon MacAvoy, famous ladies' man, is married, guy, he’s friggin’ married. As in completely-off-the-market, one pussy forever. Poor guy.”
Dillon bent toward Lane and she whispered in his ear. He leaned toward her and gave her a gentle kiss. The look on Dillon’s face made it clear he didn’t think being married to Lane was a burden to bear.
“Then there’s Ryan and your sister. No offense to her, I mean she’s a fucking hot piece of—”
My eyebrows tightened and I turned my head. “Webber, it’s my sister.”
“Oh, right, man, sorry.” He tapped me on the arm and rolled his eyes upward as if to say what-the-hell-was-I-thinking. “She’s hot and I get that they’re in love, but married? Ryan and Amanda are going to get married? What is the world coming to? Even Choo!” Webber swung his arm out and pointed toward Choo MacAvoy, Dillon’s little brother, and Choo’s boyfriend Jackson. “He’s even paired off.” Webber shook his head and took another gulp from his wineglass.
“I guess all that’s left is you, your dad, and me. The three amigos on the hunt for women throughout
the world.” Webber raised his glass to toast to us singles.
I glanced toward Dad. He stood in the center of the room with a blonde on one arm and a redhead on the other. He was single right now, but I wasn’t certain that he’d remain single forever. Marrying and divorcing seemed to be his latest hobby.
“Speaking of on the hunt,” Webber said, “I spy a lovely little brunette I’ve yet to meet. She looks like she needs help finding me.” Webber punched me in the arm. “Later.”
I tilted my glass of wine to my lips. Webber might never get married, and I was right there with him on that decision. I accepted that true love existed. I’d been witness to it between my parents, before Mom died, and with Dillon and Lane and Ryan and Amanda. I’d even experienced true love, once—but I’d been so young that to call it a romance was a bit of a stretch. A crush was probably more like it. Regardless, I wasn’t going down that road. Ever. Giving away your heart hurt. Why suffer the soul-crushing defeat of lost love when I could enjoy the hedonistic pleasure of a new girl every night? This was L.A. and I was a Legend. Let the ladies line up.
Amanda swept toward me and Ryan trailed in her wake. Webber was right, my sister was a knockout.
“So, what do you think?” she asked. She knotted her fingers together and raised her eyebrows.
My eyes swept over the giant space with high ceilings and great lighting to accentuate the art. The dark wood floors were varnished to perfection. Magnificent art adorned the walls. A hip and eclectic crowd filled with collectors and people with money to spend were here at the opening of Amanda’s new gallery.
“I think you’re a hit,” I said. I kissed my sister on the cheek. “You saw all the paparazzi outside?”
“That’s because of Daddy and Dillon and this guy”—Amanda hitched her thumb toward Ryan who stood beside her—“not my gallery.”
“Press is press, little sister. And with your eye”—I glanced at a giant piece that took up an entire wall—“I think you are in for much success.”