Leslie went back to badgering Riley about fame, about how he was discovered, even though that was common knowledge and she already had to know. Everyone did. He’d been scouted in college at a party, and the rest had been history.
He always played the action hero or romantic interest. Just his abs were enough to get women filling the seats. Which was good, because the writing for some of the Riley Hart movies was downright embarrassing.
He noted with amusement that Kylie kept trying to squeeze over toward Ryan, and Ryan was practically ready to pull his legs out and scoot away from the table.
He put his hand over Janna’s, warm and secure, letting her know he was there. She turned to him with a smile, and heat shot right down to his toes.
The need to claim her was strong. He swore he could literally hear the roar of his bear waiting to claim her. She squeezed his hand back, and he released hers and moved his hand to her thigh. So soft.
She bit her bottom lip and made a tiny gasp that had the others looking her way.
“Sorry,” she said apologetically. “Bit my lip while looking at the menu. It all looks so good.”
The men grinned at her. Whether it was because they knew what Ryder’s hand had been up to or because they liked that she liked the food, Ryder didn’t know. But he let out a low growl and shut the menus either way. He opened the sliding door, called for a waiter, and just ordered a ton of things that should probably suit everyone. He’d order the whole menu if he had to. Just to hurry this along and keep his brothers’ eyes off his mate.
And to be able to take her back home.
For dessert.
He caught Riley raking the other two women with an appreciative gaze. Even Ryan, when he wasn’t eyeing Kylie with a wary stare, was checking out the females. The women were all pleasantly curvy and soft. Exactly what bears tended to go for. All shifters really. Not that lean couldn’t be attractive, but the softer and larger, the better for bears. Kylie was even on the small side, despite being what others might consider overweight.
Leslie took most of the attention, and that seemed to suit Kylie.
Ryder kept his eyes primarily on Janna, both to make sure she knew he had eyes only for her and because he liked keeping his eyes on Janna.
By the end of the night, maybe he’d have more than just eyes on her.
A knock sounded on the door and the waiter entered. Followed by another waiter. All in all, it took three waiters to deliver the amount of food he’d ordered, and Janna raised an eyebrow at him when it was all covering the table.
He shrugged innocently but was secretly pleased there was plenty to go around. His brothers could eat a lot, not that they would before the women had their fill. Females were more important.
He poured a glass of wine for himself and Janna and offered it around the table. Riley took it and filled Leslie’s and Kylie’s glass, and Ryan waved it away. Bad for training, he said.
The Olympics aren’t for another three years, Riley had reminded him, but Ryan had declined all the same.
Once an athlete, always an athlete.
When the dinner finished, Janna was fidgeting in her seat. The other women were standing and saying good night, hugging her from behind as she reluctantly stood, and she merely smiled slightly in return. Was she sad to see them go? No, he couldn’t call it sad exactly. Was she worried without them he’d make a move? Nervous? He’d make sure to try and assuage that. He wanted his mate, but he’d never do anything to make her uncomfortable.
He and Janna linked arms and Ryan and Riley walked with them to escort the women back out to the Jeep. Kylie had said she was teaching the next day and would need to be up early, and Leslie seemed disappointed that Riley wasn’t making a move.
Ryder was sure Riley would have, if not for Ryder’s threatening glares throughout the night. He could make whatever moves he wanted after Ryder was assured Janna would be his mate. After that, it was Leslie and Riley’s business. But he didn’t need drama screwing things up now. Janna was already gun shy from being burned by Scott. She didn’t need an angry friend helping her make the decision.
And Leslie would probably be angry because Riley had a strictly love ‘em and leave ‘em kind of style. He’d make sure to tell Janna so she could warn her friend. At least then she’d know what she was getting into.
He didn’t want to see anyone hurt.
When the women had given hugs to all and left, he found himself standing with his brothers and Janna. It was awkward. He cleared his throat.
“I guess I’m going to get Janna settled in for the night.”
“Right,” Riley joked. “Settled in.”
Ryder let out a low growl and rose to full height to face his brother. Riley put up his hands in surrender. “All right, all right. We can take a hint. We know when we aren’t wanted. Come on, Ryan, let’s go drink our woes away at the lodge bar.”
Ryan nodded but paused to put a hand on Ryder’s shoulder as he passed.
Ryder looked to him, waiting for what he wanted to say. Janna was still looking out to where the Jeep was pulling away, and when Ryan seemed assured she wasn’t listening, he leaned in to whisper in Ryder’s ear.
“She’s a good one,” he said quietly. “I like her.”
Ryder blinked. That was high praise from Ryan, a quiet, sensitive type who tended not to give opinions very often. “Thanks, bro.”
Ryan nodded and jogged after Riley, who was already prowling toward the bar, probably looking for any single ladies on the way.
He took a step forward and put an arm around Janna’s waist, pulling her against him. She turned in his arms and looked up at him. Damn, she seemed small compared to him. Small and precious.
But she was a woman. Capable, smart, and strong. If she chose him, it would only be because she wanted to.
“We don’t have to do anything tonight,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel pressured.”
Her eyes blinked up at him and her jaw tilted stubbornly. “What makes you think I feel pressured?”
“You seemed nervous that your friends were leaving. But if you were worried I’d suddenly come on to you, you shouldn’t have.”
“Ha!” she said, putting her hands on his chest, warming the skin there. “I was hoping you’d come on to me.”
His groin tightened at that and he bit his lip against a groan.
“Honestly,” she said. “The only thing worrying me is how little control I seem to have around you. My rational mind just flies out the window. I want you so badly I can barely walk.”
He tilted his head and looked down at her, and a slow smile curled the corners of his lips. “I can carry you.”
She reached her arms up toward him. “Yes, please.”
He grinned and swept her up in his arms, not caring who saw as he carried his mate bridal style out of the lodge and to the cabin they shared.
It was going to be a good night.
Chapter 12
They were already pulling at each other’s clothes as they fell in the cabin door together after Ryder set Janna down. She pulled at his suit coat, which was tight across his wide shoulders.
He looked so freaking good in that suit, but she had a feeling he’d look better without it. His dark hair was combed back and swept off his forehead, and his handsome features were tensed and focused as he reached around her with a growl and unzipped her dress.
She laughed. “Take off my coat first!”
He growled. Literally growled. “I have to taste you.”
She dropped her arms and let her coat slide to the floor and then grabbed at his coat again until he mumbled a curse and shrugged out of it for her. His tailored white dress shirt was taut across his chest and he fumbled with the buttons as his mouth claimed hers.
Her dress was barely hanging on, and when he finished unbuttoning his shirt and shrugged out of it, leaving him only in an undershirt, he swept his hands over her shoulders and down her waist, smoothing the dress off her body until it let go and poole
d on the ground in a puddle of black silk.
She growled and reached up on her toes, trying to wrap her arms around his neck, and he caught her up and lifted her so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Damn, she felt tall up here, perched above his long legs, her soft thighs enjoying the taut feel of his rippling abs. He held her up with one strong hand and pulled off his undershirt with the other, leaving her warm belly pressed to his searing hot skin. He felt literally on fire, but in a good way.
His hand cupped her ass, thumb playing with the waistband of her panties, and she sighed as his other hand moved to hold her back so he could lean forward and press a kiss to the side of her neck. She gasped as he nipped the skin there and turned around and walked her back into the door they’d just entered through. There were no open windows in the cabin. They’d shut them all before leaving so they didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing them.
It was just them alone, a man and a woman ensconced together with wilderness all around, the snowy mountains a distant witness to their lovemaking.
He loved her tenderly, with his mouth, his hands, warming her and getting her ready by treasuring each inch of her skin he could reach. Feeling, caressing, stroking, pinching, laving.
He got her bra off and raised her up so he could take her nipple in his mouth. As he tasted it and she threw her head back in ecstasy, he seemed to lose all control. He walked quickly forward to drop her on the couch, then looked it over as if it weren’t good enough and picked her back up in his arms and carried her against his chest into the bedroom.
A little thrill went through her. They’d have a full time together tonight, not a rushed interlude on the couch.
The mattress was soft and large, and he settled her on it gently but then crawled over her with a growl, his large body covering hers as he nearly purred with satisfaction.
If this was the kind of passion Ryder Hart used to acquire companies, then she could understand why he was a billionaire.
He kissed her neck as he slid her panties off her legs. He lifted his head and his sapphire eyes darkened to nearly onyx as he breathed in the air in the room.
“You smell amazing.”
She swatted him with her hand. “Ew, don’t talk about it.”
He dipped his head between her legs and inhaled again, let out a hoarse oath, and came forward to claim her mouth with a potent strength unlike any she’d ever experienced. When he was done ravaging her mouth and she was gasping for air and imagining wickeder things he could do to her, he lifted his head and smiled that cocky smile that made her knees go weak.
He wasn’t a man to smile often, but when he did, it was a knockout.
“I’ll talk about it if I want,” he said. “I love everything about you.” He drew his lips down the center of her chest, kissing the inside curves of her breasts as he gathered them gently in his large hands. It felt so good to be held by a man. If someone could invent a bra that cupped her like this, she’d buy ten of them.
A week.
Her breasts felt treasured. Every part of her felt awake and alive as his touch moved over her. He seemed determined to trace his ownership on every inch of skin, grazing her ankle and toes, kissing her inner thigh and turning her over to do the same with her back. When he sat back on his knees and lifted her hand to press a kiss to the tips of her fingers, she squirmed in anticipation. Her whole body felt more sensitive the longer he continued. The foreplay was torture.
When he sucked one of her fingers into his hot mouth, as no one had ever done before, she was shocked by the powerful pleasure that rocked through her.
The sight of that huge, strong man gazing at her with lust as she relinquished her hand and came forward over her tortured body nearly did her in, but he pressed his mouth over hers and slowed things down as he gently stroked with his tongue and wrapped his arms around her.
He moved and whispered against her ear in a way that tickled. “Can I taste you everywhere?”
“I think you have,” she gasped out, unable to keep from smiling.
“Not everywhere,” he replied in a husky voice, drawing one finger over the soft thatch at the top of her thighs.
“Oh,” she gasped. “That. Um, sure.”
It was something she’d never let Scott do, something she’d been too embarrassed to ask for, though he’d demanded blowjobs. She got the sense he was slightly grossed out by the idea. But Ryder seemed positively hungry, and she longed to be appreciated that way. To feel that no part of her was dirty as woman. To be loved even where she was most insecure.
His hands kneaded her belly gently as he moved down the bed. “Relax,” he said, smoothing a hand over her soft middle before using his other to part her legs in one smooth motion.
He was so strong. She knew he could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, but he’d asked. He’d been gentle and concerned about her feelings.
Ryder Hart was definitely too good to be true. And she was no fool. But even if this ended up breaking her heart, it was worth it. A memory to keep for forever.
She’d never forget him.
As he lowered his mouth and kissed her center gently, she felt her muscles tense up further, desperate for release. She reached down and dug her hands in his hair. She was already so close from everything else he’d done. Everything he did had an impact on her.
“Harder,” she gasped.
He sucked down right over her center and then swirled his tongue in a slow circle around and over it, and she screamed and arched back in the most intense orgasm she’d ever had.
But he didn’t let go, licking and sucking and kissing as she writhed against him and was sent into another rhythmic orgasm, her body contracting all over as waves of pleasure and relief roared from head to toe. Even the fingers where he’d kissed her. Every inch of her body, like he’d been setting it up that way just by paying that kind of attention to her.
She let go of his hair and twisted her fingers in the sheets, but he was relentless, moving against her with his strong tongue until the build started again, and then rushed her over the edge of another orgasm and into a rush of oblivion followed by seconds of sheer, screaming pleasure.
She screamed his name, not caring who heard, and she could swear she felt him grin against her pussy.
When he finally raised his head to gaze down at her as she lay there, exhausted from coming but not even close to satisfied, the pleasure he’d gained from pleasing her was evident on his face. When he made to lower his head again, she sat up slightly with a growl and shook her head. She grabbed his face in both hands, kissed him hard, and then growled into his ear.
“Take me now.”
A deep rumble in his throat was his assent, and he pressed her back with one hand and pulled off pants and boxer briefs in one smooth movement. His manhood sprang free, and he reached for a condom, ripped the packet open, and slid it on.
Then his hands were on either side of her head, his eyes gazing into hers, glowing with sapphire intensity, and then he was inside her, stretching her, pushing her body to the edge of its limits of pleasure. Making the sensitive place inside her light up like it was on fire, the best kind of fire that heats but doesn’t burn. She let her body adjust and took a couple deep breaths and then wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her legs at the heels. She wasn’t letting him out.
He closed his eyes as he started to move. She felt her body moving with him, staying joined and then pulling a little apart, so that delicious friction that resulted from each ridge of him stimulated every space inside her.
She’d never felt so filled, so complete, and at some point during the heights of the ecstasy between them, she looked up into his eyes and realized she no longer knew where he ended and she began.
It was a cosmic feeling, the best in the world, and also a little frightening. She wrapped her hands around him as her orgasm came, and he held her tight with one hand and thrust a few more times until he found his own completion. He uttered a low oath and then her name and then s
omething she couldn’t quite make out.
She dug her nails in as her orgasm resonated against his where they were joined and held him as they rode the waves together.
When it abated, she dropped back against the pillows and he fell over her. She ran a finger through a lock that had come free, and he sighed hoarsely.
“Would it be crazy to say I love you?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, knowing she could feel similarly if she let herself, but wouldn’t.
“I don’t care, I’ll say it anyway. I love you, Janna. Spend your life with me.”
She froze, pleasure still waving over her, his body still pleasantly ensconced in hers, and his warm strength covering her like he wanted to protect her from everything in the world.
“I’ll make sure you’re always happy,” he said. “I’ll never let anything happen to you.”
She stroked his hair, loving the dark softness of it. He had so much. So much of everything to offer really. So why couldn’t her heart get on board and trust him?
Stupid Scott.
“You don’t have to say that,” she said. “I know that’s not what this is.”
He flinched and lifted himself, narrowing his eyes at her as his jaw tightened. “What?”
She waved a hand weakly. “I just mean I’m already going to stay with you this week. You don’t need to make this out like it’s more than it is. I prefer honesty, and it’s not like I wouldn’t stay with you anyway.”
His expression darkened and he pulled gently out and caught himself with a towel. Then he rolled to the side of the bed to clean up.
She couldn’t help but feel tenderness as she stared at the sight of his large, wide back, the hunch of his shoulders as he worked.
“What kind of man do you think I am, Janna?” he asked, giving her a dark expression as he crossed to the closet and flung open the doors. He pulled out a pair of soft-looking pajama pants in navy blue and pulled them on with hasty motions. “You think I’d use you like that?”
She shrugged, hating this had to happen while she was still enjoying her afterglow. “We’re both adults. We’re having fun together, right? I mean, I know men feel like they have to say I love you every time, but let’s be honest. You barely know me.”
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