If I Dream

by K. M. Scott

  I couldn’t help but laugh. My father’s insistence on calling Ryder that verged on the ridiculous, but he continued to do it anyway. “I don’t know why he does that. I certainly hope you’re getting some benefit from being his supposed son, not that being his child comes with a lot of perks.”

  “Who was the guy he wanted you to talk to?” Ryder asked with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

  Shrugging, I tried to remember anything about him but drew a blank. “I don’t know. I can’t even think of his name right now.”

  “A real memorable type, huh?” he said, still grinning in that way that made him look so sexy.

  “I guess. I didn’t really care, but maybe if I made some effort I could remember at least his name.”

  He stood up to his full height and stepped toward me. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?” I asked, acutely conscious of how close he stood near me.

  In a low voice that hit me deep inside, he said, “I don’t want you to make any effort to think of him while you’re down here with me.” He lifted his hand to touch my hair and said, “In fact, I want you to think of only one thing while you’re with me.”

  My breath caught in my chest and I could barely speak, but I squeaked out, “What’s that?”

  Ryder slowly slid the tip of his tongue across his bottom lip and said, “How fucking bad I want to be inside you.”

  I swallowed hard and watched his eyes as they stared down at me full of desire. I’d waited so long for this moment, but now that it had arrived, I stood frozen to the spot.

  He slid his arm around my waist and roughly pulled me to him so I felt his hard cock pressing against my belly. I closed my eyes and slid my hand over the front of his pants, and he moaned above me.

  Thrusting his hand into my hair, he tugged my head back and said, “Look at me, Serena.”

  Slowly, my eyelids fluttered open as I nervously did as he commanded and saw that intensity in his green eyes that never failed to thrill me.

  “I want you. Only you.”

  “But what about…?”

  He interrupted my question with a kiss that took my breath away. “Don’t say anything. Only you, Serena. It’s always been only you.”

  Cradling his face in my hands, I said, “I’m sorry about what I said out in the garden. I’m not disappointed. I’m not.”

  His hands slid under my dress to cup my ass. “I don’t want to wait any longer. Right here, Serena.”

  Right there where he touched me for the first time.

  Suddenly, a noise upstairs frightened me, and I shook my head. If my father caught us down there together, I didn’t want to think about what he’d do to us.

  “Not here. Someone might see us.”

  Ryder slid a finger along the inside of my panties as my head swam from how much I wanted him inside me. Leaning down, he whispered in my ear, “I don’t care who sees us. No more waiting. I regretted not fucking you the last time I had a chance in this very cellar, and I’m not going to make that mistake again.”

  Lifting me off the floor, he brought me up to waist level, and I wrapped my legs around his body as my fear was overpowered by how much I wanted him. I felt his hands moving beneath me and then his cock pressed against the front of my damp panties. Thick and long and hard, just the feel of him against my needy clit made me wish I hadn’t worn anything under my dress.

  “Pull them aside,” I said breathlessly, dying to finally feel him slide inside me.

  His fingers fumbled with the fabric for a moment before he simply tore them in half and tugged them down my left leg before thrusting into me in one hard push that filled me completely.

  In his ear, I moaned as my mind began to whirl out of control. “Oh, God…”

  “You feel so fucking good,” he said hoarsely as he began to thrust his hips, sliding his cock out of me and then ramming it back inside until there was nothing separating our bodies.

  My hands clung to his neck as we fucked, neither of us aware of anything but how sublime it felt to finally give in to the desires we’d shared since those nights two summers ago in that guest bedroom one floor up. I watched him, enthralled by how he focused completely on me as he fucked me like no one had ever before.

  “I want to feel you with my hands. Let me feel you,” I begged as I slid my palms over his chest, needing to touch his body hidden under that tux.

  He turned toward the table and gently lay me down, sliding out of me and leaving my body feeling empty. I tugged his shirt out of his pants, and he quickly unbuttoned it before untying his tie and shrugging out of his shirt and tux jacket.

  I craved his body and desperately ran my hands up over his hard abs and chest, loving the feel of his smooth tanned skin against my fingertips. Every fantasy I’d ever had about being with him came alive there, and as he pushed his hips forward and eased his cock back into me, I felt like I was burning up.

  Sliding up my body, he cradled my face and dragged his thumb over my mouth before he kissed me long and deep, his tongue teasing mine as he pushed into my pussy.

  “God, I want this to go on forever,” he moaned, pressing his forehead to mine and staring down at me with a look full of need in his eyes.

  The feel of his cock touching a spot deep inside me made it hard not to let my eyes roll back into my head, but I wanted to watch every second of our fucking to remember the very moment when he owned my body and soul like he’d owned my heart for so long.

  The muscles in his neck strained against his skin with every push of his hips. His intensity captivated me, taking me with him as we raced toward release. My heels pushed hard into his sweat drenched back, and he began making shallow stabs into me instead of the smooth thrusts he’d begun with as he moved closer to coming.

  I wanted everything he was, every last delicious inch of him on me and every last perfect drop of him inside me. Clinging to his shoulders, I whispered, “Don’t stop.”

  His eyes narrowed as he winced slightly, and I felt the first tendrils of my orgasm uncoil inside me. Raking my fingernails down his back, I cried out and he pressed his palm over my mouth to keep me from screaming. I clamped my lips around his thumb and sucked hard as my release washed over me, taking my breath away.

  With one final thrust, Ryder stilled inside me and came, every muscle in his body stiffening as he flooded my insides. We lay there panting as sweat covered our skin and the evidence of our fucking dripped down my trembling thighs.

  “You are so beautiful,” he said and sighed. “I never want to forget how you look right now.”

  I looked up into his deep green eyes and saw love in them. “I wish we didn’t have to wait so long, Ryder.”

  He shook his head and kissed me softly. “I love you, Serena. Then and now.”

  “I love you, Ryder. Promise me no matter what happens that you’ll still love me.”

  His expression grew dark. “Nothing’s going to happen, so don’t worry.”

  I knew how unlikely that was, though. Something always happened to make good things go bad. I’d lived long enough in this world to know that.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ryder

  The sun set a few minutes before I left my rooms to head to that tiny place at the back of the garden. I knew I should have waited a little longer before going to where I’d meet Serena because at least then I’d be hidden by the dark of night, but I didn’t want to wait. I hadn’t seen her alone since last night, and my body yearned to feel her again.

  We knew we had to hide our being together from everyone on the estate. Not that I thought we actually could. We might get away with it now or for a few weeks, but someone would find out and then it would just be a matter of time.

  I didn’t want to think about that, though. I just wanted to enjoy being with the one person in the world who made me happy.

  That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

  I knew the answer to that. Yes, it was, if you lived in Robert Erickson’s world.

  A rustling
in the hedges ahead of me put my body on high alert, and I squinted in the dim light of dusk to see who was there. The figure ran toward where I was headed, so I followed them, breaking into a run to catch up.

  Just as I turned the corner to that little spot surrounded by rose bushes, I felt a hand touch my sleeve. I spun around, my arm cocked back and ready, and saw Serena standing in front of me dressed in a white t-shirt that came down to the middle of her tanned thighs.

  She raised her hands in surrender and backed away from me. “It’s me, Ryder. It’s just me.”

  The fear in her voice stopped me dead. I lowered my arm and opened my fist, hating the terror in her eyes because of me.

  “Sorry. I guess I’m a little jumpy. I would never hit you. You know that, right?” I asked, taking a step toward her and pulling her to me.

  She melted into my arms and hugged me tightly to her. “I never thought you would. I know you.”

  The truth was she didn’t. She knew the man who adored her, the man who couldn’t think of anything else most of the time because he wanted to be with the woman he loved. But she didn’t know me. The Ryder she knew could never hurt someone, but that’s exactly what my entire job involved on a daily basis.

  I couldn’t tell her who I had to be for her father, though. I couldn’t bear to see the look of disappointment in her eyes like I saw when I told her that I’d been too weak to wait for her. I never wanted to see her look at me like that again.

  “Did anyone see you?” I asked as I pulled her into our hidden spot.

  She sat down on the bench and took my hands in hers. “No. I made sure.”

  “Good, although maybe you should have worn something darker,” I teased, tugging on the bottom of her bright white shirt.

  Giggling, she stood and wrapped her arms around my waist. “Sit down on the ground,” she said as she smiled up at me.

  I lowered myself to the grass and stretched my legs out in front of me. Looking up at her, I watched her slowly lift that t-shirt up, revealing her naked body. God, she was beautiful!

  “Come here,” I said, my cock growing harder by the second as I looked at her standing there on display just for me.

  She straddled my hips and playfully tossed her t-shirt off to the side. I slid my hands over her breasts, cupping her perfect tits in my palms and lightly pinching her nipples.

  “You feel so fucking good. You’re all I could think about all day, Serena.”

  Rocking back and forth over my cock, she kissed me long and deep. “Me too. At one point today it was all I could do not to play with myself because I wanted you so bad.”

  I pulled her up and sucked a nipple into my mouth, teasing it with my teeth. Serena tightened her fist in my hair and held me fast to her while she moaned sweetly above me.

  Moments like these were what I fantasized about all day. If only there was a way we could be together like regular people and not have to sneak around to find happiness in dark corners and hidden places.

  Her nipple popped out of my mouth, and I tilted my head to look up at Serena smiling down at me. Every miserable moment away from her faded into nonexistence when I saw her looking at me like I was everything in the world to her.

  “I love it when you use your mouth like that. Is there anything you’d like me to suck on?” she asked in the sexiest yet most innocent voice as she dragged her hand over the front of my pants like a fallen angel all my own.

  “Mmmm…”

  When I didn’t make a move to take out my cock for her, she leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips. “Is something wrong? I thought you would like that.”

  I cradled her face and kissed her before I dared to speak something I’d been thinking about since finding out she had come back. “What if we left this place?”

  Serena’s dark eyes opened wide. “What do you mean? Where would we go?”

  “Anywhere we wanted to. We could go away from here and start a life, just the two of us.”

  The excitement bubbled up inside me as I watched her nod at my suggestion. “Oh, Ryder, I want to. I don’t know how much money I’ll have, but I don’t care if you don’t. Do you care?”

  “I would live like a beggar as long as you were with me. Tell me you’ll go.”

  I eagerly waited to hear her answer, desperate to know that our future might not be dictated by her father and his world. For a moment, she just stared into my eyes and my heart sank. I could never give her what she had at this place—the money, the security, the comfort.

  But I would give her everything I was to make her happy.

  Pressing her forehead to mine, she whispered, “You tell me when and I’ll go anywhere with you. When can we leave?”

  I slid my palms down her back over her silky skin and drew her to me. “Give me a couple days and we’ll go away from this place forever, Serena.”

  “Do we have to wait that long, Ryder? Can’t we go tonight?”

  As much as I wished we could, I needed that time to make sure when we did leave that her father wouldn’t be able to find us. If he did, the rest of her life would be pure misery, and I suspected the best thing about the rest of my life would be that it was short.

  To Robert Erickson, betrayal trumped all other crimes. His revenge would be swift and painful. I couldn’t let that happen to Serena.

  “We need to be smart about this. We can’t let your father find out what we’re doing. It might mean we’ll have to stay away from one another until we leave, though. We don’t want to give him anything to be suspicious about.”

  She buried her head in my shoulder and held me tight. “I can’t stay away. Don’t make me. There has to be some other way. You’re the only thing that makes living here bearable.”

  “I know, but we have to be smart or we’ll get caught. Give me two days. We’ll leave on Sunday night when he goes out. It’ll just be us in the house then since Janelle and Charles are gone. We’ll be safe that way.”

  Lifting her head, she nodded, but her mouth turned down into a pout. “I don’t want to wait or be away from you even for two days, but if you say so.”

  “I promise it will be worth it. Once we’re away from here, we can go anywhere we want. The mountains, the shore. It doesn’t matter because we’ll be free.”

  She smiled and kissed me. “We’ll find a little house and every night we’ll fall asleep in each other’s arms, right?”

  I didn’t know what we’d find to live in, but it didn’t matter because every night we’d be together, and that’s all that counted.

  “It’ll be just you and me,” I said, cradling her face. “And you’ll fall asleep with your head on my shoulder like you used to in my room when I first came here.”

  “I loved when I’d wake up and I’d look up and see you sleeping there with me. You know that?” she asked as she traced the outline of my lips with her fingertips. “I never wanted to leave.”

  Sadness crept into her voice, and I knew she meant more than each night when she snuck out of my room and up the stairs to hers. “That doesn’t matter now. All that matters is we’re together and in a few days we’ll be away from this place.”

  “I love you, Ryder, and when we’re far away from here, I’m going to make you the happiest person on earth. I promise.”

  Sliding my hands down her naked body, they came to rest on her waist. She rolled her hips over my cock, and I dug my fingertips into her skin to keep her right where she was at. “I can’t wait for the day when I can be with you whenever I damn well want.”

  “Well, for now, let me give you a sneak preview of the way I plan to wake you up every single day,” she said with a devilish smile.

  Serena slid down my legs and unzipped my pants to release my cock. Already rock hard, it was ready for whatever she wanted to do. Expecting her to straddle my hips and ride me, I watched in delight when she lowered her head and sucked me into her mouth, teasing the top of my cock with her tongue and nearly sending me into orbit.

  She took the base in h
er hand and stroked with each time she slid her perfect mouth down my shaft. I held her hair back so I could watch, loving the sight of her slowly sucking me off. I could have spent hours looking at her like that, but I wanted more, so I gently lifted her head and pulled her up on my lap.

  “Why’d you stop me? Didn’t you like that?” she asked with a hint of disappointment.

  Stuffing my hand into her hair, I pulled her mouth to mine and kissed her hard. “I want to see you ride me.”

  She rolled her hips, gliding her wet pussy over my cock until it slid in and filled her. “Mmmm…like this?”

  I loved the feel of her snug cunt around my cock, and watching her writhe in ecstasy as she fucked me always thrilled me. I held her hips in place and lifted her off me before pushing her back down hard onto me, stretching her to take every inch.

  Her hands pressed down on my shoulders as she rode me, and she bit her lip each time I hit that spot deep inside her. A tiny moan escaped from her just before she whimpered, “Right there. Oh, God…don’t stop…”

  I felt her cunt squeeze my cock and then she closed her eyes and came hard on me. She stilled her body, and her thighs trembled against my hips as each wave of release raced over her. More beautiful than I’d ever seen her, she finally collapsed on top of me as I began to come.

  Holding her body to mine, I filled her until there was nothing left in me. Exhausted but content, I listened to her breathe and couldn’t imagine being happier than I was at that very moment.

  “Promise me it will only be a couple days, Ryder,” she whispered in my ear. “I don’t want to wait for us to be together.”

  I tilted her head back and kissed her on the lips. “Two days and then we’ll leave here and never look back.”

  She gave me a smile that filled my heart with joy that in just forty-eight hours we’d be finally together. Even more, we’d be free.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Serena

  Just days after my sister and her husband left on their honeymoon, I had a sense my father was feeling lonely without her. He’d granted her wish for her and Charles to live away from the estate, and since then, he’d wanted to spend more time with me than ever before. To my father, the past ceased to exist once he decided he wanted it to, no matter how the other person felt.