After a quick demonstration of touches and strokes that turned him on, she took it from there and quickly drove him out of his mind.
Her body squirmed under his. She treated him to a series of pulsing squeezes that made his flesh harden even more.
Kissing her deeply, wildly, and passionately, he left an invisible mark that declared her to be his, and then he made exquisite love to Jenna Carlton.
“Knees up, baby,” he grunted as he rose on his arms and licked a nipple before straightening.
She made some soft, keening whimpers and said his name over and over.
He reached between them and watched her face while rubbing the head of his cock in her delicious wetness. She undulated and tried to capture his hardness with her pussy. Ryan smiled and growled at the same time.
Feeding the tip into her hot, dripping wet passage, he filled with emotion when she grabbed his arms, tilted her pussy, and watched him through glazed eyes as he penetrated her tightness.
The macho pig that Ryan knew lived in his soul took more than a little satisfaction from the assumption that it had been a long time since she’d had a man between her legs. That thought might have been what made him plunge balls deep with a mighty grunt. She arched and groaned as her nails dug into his arms. He gave her a minute to adjust and then went a little berserk.
Flexing his hips, he spread his thighs wider and changed his angle before unleashing a lusty pounding that made her gush with pleasure.
Her unexpected orgasm caught them both by surprise. He marveled at the rigorous spasms that ripped her apart and left his beautiful, sexy lover quivering and with his name on her lips.
Ryan gathered her close and began a slow, steady stroke that turned him inside out. This was what making love was about. The incredibly soft, wet tissue massaging his dick pulsed with her heartbeat. He pulled out and thrust home in an unhurried pace.
She kissed his chin, jaw, and neck. Her tongue on his skin drove Ryan a little crazy. When she bit him and snarled, he knew the end was near.
He liked lying on her. She felt perfect under his body. He twined his fingers with hers and raised their hands above her head, pressing them into the cushion beneath them with each stroke. Her legs wrapped securely around his waist and met him stroke for stroke.
“Hold tight, baby. Hold real tight.”
She squeezed around him like a boa constrictor and rose to meet his cock each time he sank deep.
He studied her face and realized she was past the point of control. Her desperate grunts fueled his fire. She thought one orgasm was enough? Shit. She’d come three times and was locked and loaded for a fourth. A fourth he was more than happy to give.
Sinking deep, he held her hands and rotated his hips. “Take what you need, darlin’. Move those hips for me, baby. That’s right,” he praised when she ground against him, and her muscles tightened around his cock in a vise grip.
He pulled out and slammed home half a dozen times. Her whimpers shook him, and then she screamed as she came. He rode her spasms until his cock said enough. Letting go of her hands, Ryan gathered her against him and thrust like a madman until his cock exploded. Jen cried out and spurred him on, so he gave her everything he had.
The throbbing pulse as he emptied into her wiped his brain of all thought. He might have hollered something about her being his love, but he wasn’t sure if he thought the words or said them.
They were both shaking uncontrollably as the pulsing madness subsided. He could feel her fluids on his balls and covering his abdomen. There had to be a hellacious mess on the lounger made all the sloppier by the pleasurable fact that his lover gushed like a fountain.
He didn’t want to ever leave the warmth and pleasure of her body, but they were outside, the sun had gone down, and staying joined on the lounger just wasn’t practical.
He kissed her and said things his heart needed to say. He’d never experienced so strong a connection before.
She was still shaking and refused to release him. A sense of loss and sadness filled him unexpectedly when his softening cock slid from her body.
And then reality slammed into him with a vengeance. He’d just committed the worst sin possible with someone he was falling in love with.
How the fuck had he been so stupid?
12
As night fell, the strand of lights she kept on a timer flickered on, making the fairy lights woven through a tall trellis of greenery twinkle in the growing darkness. The scent of night jasmine wafted in the warm evening air.
A sensory overload shiver rippled across her skin, moving in tandem with the unstoppable quaking of her body.
Jen sensed Ryan’s withdrawal and clung tighter. She wasn’t ready to come back from the clouds.
Savoring the feel of his large body weighing her down, she pressed her lips on whatever skin she could reach. She liked how Ryan Lloyd made her feel. Liked his hot, muscular body. And his big, sturdy hands.
Liked how his thighs had muscle on top of muscle. And she especially liked what remained buried inside her.
Having experienced a connection with him that she’d only ever read about was a game changer. Ryan’s undeniable sexual magnetism and fierce lovemaking shook her up—big time. Joy for all the possibilities filled her with peace.
Jen felt his bold stare focused on her face as he shifted and slid from her body. A reflex pout and groan of denial was all she had when deprived of his intimate possession.
For a moment, she thought tension flickered in his eyes and hardened his body, but then he wrapped his arms underneath her and rolled them until she was sprawled on top.
He held her tight and kissed the top of her head. She snuggled into his chest with a satisfied purr and listened to his heartbeat.
“I have so many questions,” she eventually murmured.
His chest rose and fell with a manly chuckle. “Same here. Starting with, finance and business? Really? Why in the world are you holding my brother’s hand when you could be running the whole damn show?”
She giggled and kissed his chest. Raising her head, she put a fist beneath her chin and smiled into his watchful gaze.
“Just because that’s what my degree says doesn’t mean I was any good at it! Matter of fact, I kind of suck all around, and then there’s the whole part about not liking the business world very much. But I have to support myself, so I just figured the best way to put what I learned to some sort of use was to be a right hand to the first harried CEO I could pull in. Just so happens that John took the bait.”
His blue eyes glittered when he laughed. She smiled bigger.
“Well, I’m glad my socially awkward, type A personality older brother had the good sense to see what you had to offer.”
Jen couldn’t agree more.
“Hey, are we doing twenty questions?”
He chuckled again. “That brain of yours doesn’t stay quiet for long, does it?”
“No, it does not,” she jokingly sneered. “And don’t you forget it, buster. Here’s my first question. Why are you here, Ryan? My place is more than a little out of the way to believe you were just passing by.”
“You mean what brought me to your doorstep and led to us making love on your terrace?”
Ryan’s husky sounding voice and the slightly teasing lilt made her senses spin. In all honesty, she didn’t give a crap how it started. What consumed her now was where they went from here.
“It was that idiot, John, of course,” he said as he filled in the blanks. “That guy could screw up a screw convention.”
An involuntary giggle-snort indicated her agreement.
“Hey, don’t laugh. I’m serious, darlin’. You practically spoon-fed Samantha to him and left him a road map and instructions.”
“Oh, god,” she groaned when it dawned on her that something was up. “What did he do?”
“It’s a little complicated,” he answered. “And in a roundabout way, it involves us.”
“Us?” She rose on her elbows and
studied his face. “Explain us. I only ask,” she told him, “because, until the past hour, there was no us.”
“I’m going to make you take that back at some point, but for right now, you get a pass.”
Smirking at him, Jen sat up and tried to gather her freak show mess of tangled hair into a manageable clump. Ryan and his watchful eyes studied every move. He also gave her breasts a naughty and very bold fondle.
Hair managed, she scrubbed her hands up and down her face and cleared her sex-muddled thoughts.
“Okay. I’m listening.”
His response?
“You have beautiful breasts.”
Rolling her nipples right then was so unfair! She covered his hands with hers and had to bite her lip when her action didn’t deter him.
“Ryan. What did John do?”
“What?” he asked with a confused scowl. “Oh, right. Hang on a sec, though. I have to do something.”
With a hand on her back, he pressed between her shoulder blades and urged her forward until his lips captured a nipple and sucked hard.
“Oh.” Her shocked moan punctuated the dangerous pulses firing off in her body that made her lose her thread of thought awfully damn fast.
Jen panted and tangled her hand in his long hair, encouraging his oral feast with soft pressure on his head. He responded by opening further and taking the end of her breast fully into his mouth. The sight was surprisingly erotic and crazy arousing.
She heard a faint pop when he released her flesh after a ferocious suckling and set her engorged nipple free.
He held her breast in his hand and softly licked the tip. Ryan’s husky groan when he kissed her nipple and sat back wiped her brain of thought.
“As for my brother,” he grumbled. “I think it’s safe to say he was looking forward to the dinner reservation you made for him and Samantha. And then our mother happened. She blew into town, and before he knew what she was up to, he found himself in a command performance dilemma. Two words. Dinner Friday.”
“Hmph,” Jen grunted. “Sounds like her. So what’s the problem?”
“Well, there’s a catch, you see. Mom thinks we’re both seeing people, and she’s not having it. John bitched and told her to clean up the Montgomery mess and to leave me alone. Smelling blood in the water, she pounced, and he caved. Constance Nelson Lloyd has demanded her sons appear with their women. No excuses will be entertained, so none will be given.”
“This is going to make sense soon, right?”
He winced. “Sorry. I know how it sounds. My family. What can I say?”
“So what did John do exactly that prompted him to send you on a fool’s errand? He did explain that screwing with my vacation time voids our contract, yes?”
Ryan frowned. “No, he most certainly did not, the asshole! Is that what you meant by having to quit? You know that’s not gonna happen, right?”
Jen dropped her face into her hands, shook it, and groaned. “Oh, dear lord. Dealing with you Lloyd men is going to make me crazy.” She looked up and pinned him to the spot with an arched brow and a dead-serious expression. “One topic at a time, Ryan. You still haven’t explained what John has done and why you came here.”
He smirked and then tried to replace the expression with something he probably imagined was an innocent look. Boy, was he wrong!
“You’re going to ignore the comment about both of us bringing our women for a motherly inspection tour, aren’t you?”
She gave him a smug grin and asked, “How did men end up in control?”
“Point taken.” He sniggered with a deep chuckle. “You win, lady. Here it is in a linear fashion. Step by step. John panicked when faced with competing expectations for Friday’s date with Samantha. You weren’t there to hold his hand, so he choked and did a stupid. And before you ask, I have no idea what the fuck he was thinking or how he imagined his bonehead solution would help things.”
She grimaced and mock shivered. “It’s bad, isn’t it?” Gasping, she quickly asked, “Oh, my god. He didn’t propose or anything like that, did he?”
“You have something against insta-love?” he joked.
Color and heat shot into her face, and she glanced away. She was naked, sitting outside on a lounger with her boss’s brother. A man she’d just made reckless love to. Insta-love? Yeah, she was already chest-deep in the possibilities.
Ryan stroked the side of her face and leaned in for a sweet kiss. “I’m glad we’re on the same page, love. Now, John. Here’s what he did. Do you know what Space Camp is?”
“Um, yeah. Matter of fact, I do. My brother and his high school science club nerd friends spent a week there on a field trip. Almost two decades later and he still natters on about it as though he helped invent space travel.”
“Yes, well, my brother arranged for Chelsea, who isn’t old enough, by the way, to join a team of nine to eleven-year-olds for a special session.”
“Get out,” she rasped as John’s monumental stupidity came into clearer view.
“Like I said,” Ryan continued with a half shrug, “I have no clue what he hoped to achieve or how Space Camp would fix his Friday dilemma. Doesn’t matter. Not really. Because Samantha was not amused and lit into him rather publicly. I think sexist, pompous, and asshat were operative words in the shouted discussion.”
She sighed heavily. “I believe holy fuckballs is the only thing I can say.”
“He tried to reach you, but apparently, you go off radar for the duration of your vacation. He freaked. Time is running out. Samantha is freezing him out. He did mention coming to your place wasn’t a good idea, but he was by no means forceful about it. I think he knew you’d never quit his sorry ass.”
“So you came here on your own to ask for my help with John? How do we go from there to sneaking into my apartment with a horticulture delivery?”
“Timing,” he answered with a truthful expression of innocence. “Came prepared to knock and beg but I arrived just as the delivery guys got you on the intercom. I could see right away they had no idea how to get a huge tree up to the third floor, so I intervened. The rest is kismet.”
“Kismet?” She snickered. “Seriously?”
“Fate, destiny, fortune, karma ... take your pick.”
Well, she thought. At least I knew how he got in the door. But would he tell her what caused him to kiss her in the greenhouse with such hunger?
She never got the chance to ask.
“Everything made sense once I saw all this,” he told her with a head motion. “The attraction confused me for the longest time. That’s some act you put on, Jenna.”
She squirmed. He still had no definitive idea, but the minute they went into her apartment, he’d see how right he was.
“And then I opened the greenhouse door, and it was as if a piece of my past slammed into me. My father cultivated orchids,” he told her with emotion quivering in his voice. “He fancied himself a botanist. Plants and the natural world were twin passions. When I smelled the flowers, it all came rushing back, and it felt like he was there with me ... and at that moment inside a moment, I heard his spirit. Encouraging me to trust my feelings.”
He looked at her long and hard.
“So I kissed you, and everything fell into place.”
A smile slowly transformed her face. “Fell into place for you. For me ... you blew my carefully constructed life to hell.”
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
She heard something in his voice that made Jen pause.
“I’m not.”
“Promise me you’ll hold that thought, okay?”
“Why? What am I missing? Are you secretly married or something?”
“No.” He swiftly snorted. “But I do have a dog. And a house.”
“I like dogs.” She laughed.
Ryan took her hands and kissed both. She knew a serious moment when it came around the corner and unintentionally held her breath.
“Jenna. Um, we have to get married. Right away.”
He cleared his throat and kept a hold on her hands. “Will you marry me, Jenna Carlton?”
She shook her head twice. What was he talking about? Thinking he was just fooling around, she tried to make a joke of it.
“What happened to a dinner date with your mom? Cart before the horse, much?”
He hung his head and groaned. “Goddamn, I don’t know how to say this without coming off like a dick.”
His serious frown cut through her teasing offense and made her swallow anxiously.
“Uh, Jen. We, uh, we just had unprotected sex. And unless you are on the pill or something like that, we have a situation.”
The pill? Well, shit. She’d stopped taking it ages ago. No need to pump her body full of hormones and stuff when she wasn’t sexually active and had no intentions of changing that fact.
She glanced at Ryan’s grim expression.
Since she never planned on scratching an itch for the hell of it and because she couldn’t have what she wanted, she … what?
The truth exploded like a grenade in her mind. She’d abstained because she couldn’t have what she wanted? Jenna blushed and bit her lip because what she wanted all along had been him.
Oh, for god’s sake. Could this get any more complicated?
“No,” she mumbled. “Not on the pill. I don’t date, and well, never mind.”
He gently touched her face. “Am I the never mind?”
Should she answer? The leap of faith was huge, but Jenna knew she had to make the effort.
“Yes.”
“How long?” He asked so quietly she wasn’t sure he actually asked.
“Do you remember how we met?”
Ryan laughed. “Fuck, yeah. You thought I was the valet at my mother’s annual party. And you didn’t even have a car.” He chuckled.
“I was new to Lloyd Global and still figuring out how to manage John’s foibles when I was invited to your mom’s semi-formal shindig. What was I supposed to think?” she wailed. “Two hundred people dressed up at a party where champagne was passed around and some guy needing a shave who was wearing the loudest Hawaiian shirt I’d ever seen gave me a ton of shit for no reason.”
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