He tried to take the edge off by taking matters into his own hands, so to speak. And that had provided some relief. For a moment. But soon after his self-manipulated release – during which all he could think about was what a pale and lifeless sensation it was in direct comparison to the orgasm he had shared with Karina – he was undone by his own thoughts, as he had a sudden memory of the feeling of her body pressed against his, the soft curve of her waist in his palm, and the soft touch of her lips against his. And just like that, he was back at square one.
DAMN!
He had to stop this movie of the two of them in his office naked and hungrily devouring one another from playing over and over in his head. If he was ever going to get any sleep, not just tonight but ever again...if he was ever going to be able to fit into a pair of jeans again for that matter...he needed to get a handle on this.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. He slapped his palm to his forehead. He was an idiot!
He had turned his phone off for their date, and he had never turned it back on. What if Karina had been trying to get a hold of him? She might have called him, texted him...she might have been trying to reach him for hours.
He leaped out of bed and scrambled to where he had dropped his jeans on the bedroom floor before collapsing into bed. He fumbled his phone out of the pocket and anxiously switched it on.
His eyebrows drew together in a puzzled furrow as he looked at the notifications screen. Thirty missed calls? Forty text messages? What the...
Before he could even complete that thought, he heard someone attempting to turn his front doorknob, and then heard the scratching of the lock.
“What the hell?!” he breathed, as he quickly pulled on the jeans that were still in his hand, grabbed a baseball bat, and as silently as possible, padded towards his front door.
His nerves were on end as he waited for the front door to open. He wondered if he should call 911, because what good was a baseball bat going to do if the intruder had a gun?
However, his ruminations were cut short as the door started to slowly inch inwards. No more time to formulate a plan, it was GO TIME! He raised the bat and assumed the 'ready position' stance.
As the door swung even further inward, the image of the intruder materialized from the darkness. Ryan exhaled, and his muscles unconsciously relaxed as he recognized the form of his grandmother, Sue Ann, as she walked into the room, muttering and fumbling with the key in the lock.
“Granny!” Ryan exclaimed, causing Sue Ann to scream and jump almost a foot in the air.
Sue Ann spun on him, and punched him in the shoulder, harder than he would have thought her capable. “You scared me!” she yelled accusingly.
“I scared you?” Ryan shot back disbelievingly, “You're the one who's sneaking into my place at three in the morning like a cat burglar!”
“Well,” she said reasonably, “I didn't expect to find you awake and alert, I expected to find you passed out face down on the living room floor, sleeping off a drunken stupor!”
Ryan was stupefied, “That's so...specific,” he finally managed, “Where on earth did you get that idea, Granny? I barely even drink.”
“Well, why else wouldn't you be answering your phone?” she responded, as if this was the most obvious answer in the world, “We've been calling and texting you for hours now. In fact, your voice mail box thingy says it's full.”
Ryan felt his stomach drop, and his legs go numb.
“What?” he breathed, “Mom and Dad? Are they OK? What's happened?”
He felt the same panic rising up in him that he felt on the day he had walked into his house, that spring afternoon when he was 14, and had seen his Mom crying and his Dad patting her back. The same panic that had closed his throat and threatened his ability to breathe when they'd turned to him and oh-so-gently told him that they had some bad news. Oh, God. This couldn't be happening again!
Sue Ann turned to him brightly, totally oblivious to the emotional tumult he was experiencing, and he was shocked that an internal storm could rage so violently and yet give off no outward indications.
“Oh, they're fine!” Sue Ann chirped, grinning from ear to ear, “And nothing's happened. Nothing, that is, unless you consider their son and my grandson becoming a YouTube sensation! Which I very much do!”
“Granny,” Ryan said, slowly shaking his head, “It's the middle of what has proven to be a very long night. You are going to have to forgive me if I'm not firing on all cylinders, but I'm not following you at all – what in the world are you talking about?”
“Your video!” she responded excitedly, clapping her hands in front of her like an excited school kid.
Ryan closed his eyes against the frustration and took a deep breath, speaking slowly, “What video?”
“Oh, honey, you haven't seen it? I think you must be the only person on the internet who hasn't!”
Ryan was still shaking his head in puzzlement and was starting to wonder if this might, in fact, be some sort of fevered dream when his phone rang in his hand, startling him a bit.
He looked down at the display to see who would be calling him at this hour and was shocked to see the the face of his ex-girlfriend, Brianna.
“What in the world?” Ryan mumbled to himself. When he looked up to tell Sue Ann that he should probably take the call, he was surprised to see her sitting at his computer typing away.
She pulled up a page on YouTube and, as the video started and Kyle Austen Reed began giving his introduction on the screen, she turned to Ryan, her face shining, and said, “See for yourself!”
Ryan stepped closer to the screen and watched the video play, entranced by watching the scene unfold before him, a moment that he had not been aware was being captured, and one that he had been too swept up in to really register at the time.
He watched himself adopt a sly expression as he called Karina to the stage, and his breath caught when she stepped into the video frame. She was beautiful. Would he ever see her and not feel this hollow, heart-racing sensation?
His eyes narrowed as he saw Kyle Austen Reed plant a smooch on her cheek as they passed. Hmmmm. He hadn't noticed that at the time, probably because of nerves, and he didn't like it one little bit right now.
But the annoyance he felt was swept away in its entirety as he saw Karina take her place next to him and heard the two of them banter back and forth, followed by the opening chords of “Love is the Key.”
He saw the enraptured expression on Karina's face as she looked at him and sang, and the wide, awestruck smile that spread across his as he looked into her eyes. He was taken aback by the intensity of their connection, and how visible it was, even to the casual observer. Of course, he had known how it FELT to be that connected to Karina...he was just shocked by how it LOOKED!
It occurred to him how bizarre it was that he – little ol' Ryan Perkins from Montana – was up there on the internet, starring in a YouTube video with “Karina Black – Super Star.” It was odd, but since the initial shock of discovering her identity that first day at her house, he had had difficulty thinking of her like that. He just didn't see her that way, he didn't know if he ever would.
And, to be honest, the person he saw on the screen with him in the YouTube video didn't really seem like that icon, either. She just looked like Karina. His Karina.
“Can you believe this?” Sue Ann's excited voice intruded on his thoughts as the final chords of their song died out on the computer screen, “You need to call your folks, they haven't slept a wink all night. They just keep refreshing the screen to watch the views go up, and reading the comments. They can't believe it's real! Hurry up, call them!”
“What do you mean, watching the views go up? Are people actually watching this?” Ryan asked.
Sue Ann silently pointed to the number of views displayed underneath the video, and Ryan did a double take. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but sure enough, the number read 3,575,263 views.
“Holy crap, wha
t is going on?” Ryan blurted.
“Well,” Sue Ann replied somewhat shiftily, “Best I can tell, somebody was so excited that Mr. Kyle Austen Reed was in town – and emceeing the Town Follies no less – that they thought they should save it for posterity, and once you and Karina started playing, just kept recording. Then...as best I can figure out, mind you...that person decided the world needed to see it and so she uploaded it to her YouTube channel.”
Ryan narrowed his eyes in suspicion, “She?”
Sue Ann looked up at him, the picture of innocence, “What?”
“You said 'she' – you seem pretty certain this person is female. Why is that?”
Sue Ann hung her head sheepishly.
Ryan said, “Granny, no! Did you put this up? Why would you do that?”
“Well, honey, I honestly never thought it would get this kind of attention, to tell you the truth. I just wanted to show you off to my subscribers.”
“Your subscribers?” He said, surprised. He looked at the line below the view count and saw that the video had been uploaded by 1TwiHardGrannySueAnnFan.
“You're a Twilight fan?” he asked her, amazed.
“Team Jacob, and proud of it,” she replied, puffing out her chest as if this was a badge of honor.
Ryan felt a headache building behind his eyes. This was all too much to take in. What was Karina going to think about this? He sighed deeply.
“You have to take this down, Granny,” he said gravely.
She dismissed this without even a second's consideration, “Oh, I can't do that!” she protested, “I'm too proud of you. Not to mention, look at you two. You can't deny it's something special to see. Besides, it's gone viral now, so it wouldn't make much of a difference even if I did take it down. It's out there now.”
Determined to get some kind of handle on this situation, Ryan walked into his bedroom, pulled a sweatshirt over his head, and slid his feet into sneakers. Without even bothering to stop and lace them up, he headed for the front door.
As he exited, he reiterated forcefully, “Granny, you have to take it down. You can lock up on your way out since apparently you have a key and you're not afraid to use it. I'll see you tomorrow at the cafe.”
“Okay, sweetie, tell Karina I said hello!” Ryan heard her chirp as he stepped out, and the last thing he heard as he clomped down the stairs was the opening strains of “Love is the Key” restarting as Sue Ann replayed the video, and began to sing along.
--- ~ ---
Karina had not realized how exhausted she was until she actually slid her aching and weary limbs into the sweet comfort of her waiting bed, after a six-hour-long songwriting session which had been both physically and emotionally draining.
At the point when she had actually begun to nod off several times as she was sitting up, her guitar on her lap, was when she realized that it was definitely time to surrender to her physical limits, admit defeat, pull her hair up in a loose knot, climb into her nightly sleeping uniform of boxers and a tank top, and hit the sack.
She pulled the sheet and comforter up to her chin, and sighed in pure bliss as she began to, finally, drift off to sleep after what had officially become the longest and weirdest day of her entire life.
She had just entered alpha state, that luxuriant place where one drifts carefree and weightless between sleep and wakefulness, when she was jolted upright by a loud pounding on the front door.
She jumped out of bed, livid, and ran down the stairs without even pausing to pull on a robe and slippers.
“I'm gonna kill Sam,” she growled with murderous intensity as she approached the front door, and then flung it open, screaming, “I didn't answer my phone because I was SLEEPING!”
Her rant died on her lips and her eyes widened as she took in the sight before her, which was a rumpled – yet still gorgeous – Ryan, standing on her stoop, hair disheveled and sneaker laces hanging loose and untied.
He gave her an ironic half-smile, “Good thing I didn't call, then.”
She laughed ruefully, and opened the door wider, motioning him inside.
“If this is a bad time...” he waffled.
“Nah, don't be silly,” she said, still a little grumpy but her mood improving second by second, “I thought you were Sam.”
She walked into the living room with Ryan following her, and flopped down on the overstuffed, comfortable couch that faced the wall of windows looking out over the valley of Hope Falls.
Ryan halted as she did this, mere steps from the couch himself. He was stopped in his tracks by her casual, effortless cuteness. She wasn't trying to look good, she wasn't put together, nothing about the way she moved or looked was calculated or planned right now. She was wearing men's boxers and her disheveled hair was falling out of a ponytail on the top of her head, which had itself fallen askew, for God's sake!
And yet, in spite of all of that or possibly because of it, she looked more adorable right now than he had ever seen her look – or any woman look, for that matter.
Karina yawned and stretched with cat-like grace, her arms reaching above her head, the motion pulling her tank top up to reveal the bare, smooth skin of her belly, starting low on her hips, just above her panty line.
Ryan swallowed, with difficulty. His mind was filling with thoughts again, and all he could see was an image of himself crossing to her, leaning down and kissing the flawless exposed skin of her belly as he pushed the fabric of her tank top up over her perfect breasts and continued the trail of kisses upward, stopping only when he reached her pert nipples, which would of course be hard for him by that point.
He saw himself taking his time with each hard nub, teasing it with the stiff end of his tongue before sucking it into the velvety warmth of his mouth, toying with it, suckling, swirling...
“So, what's up?”
Ryan was abruptly snapped back into the present by the sound of Karina's sleepy voice as she rubbed her eyes, completely and innocently unaware of his lascivious thoughts of mere seconds before.
Unable to speak, he stood still, wracking his brain to remember why he had driven over here like a bat out of hell in the middle of the night. How the hell was he supposed to think when she was sitting there, looking like a Christmas present just waiting to be unwrapped?
Karina glanced over to see why he wasn't answering and did a double take when she saw his intense expression. She opened her mouth to inquire, but the words died on her lips as her eyes drifted downward and spied his noticeable hard on.
Her mouth twisted into a mischievous smile and her eyes twinkled as she said, “Oh, OK, I see. That's what's up.”
Displaying again her effortless feline grace, she slinked to the edge of the couch in front of where he was standing, carefully positioning her knees on either side of his legs, her face precisely at eye level with his bulging package.
She moved her hands slowly and sensually up over his thighs over his jeans, feeling the muscles in his legs tense beneath her touch. She smiled to herself. She liked that, she liked that she had that effect on him.
Her hands continued their steady movement up his body, slowly traveling on either side of his erection, arriving finally at the top of his jeans. She let her fingers slide inexorably inward until they met at his top button.
She methodically freed each button on his fly until it was completely undone, and his large manhood popped out of his pants right in front of her face.
She bit her lower lip and looked up at him, “Commando,” she whispered, a small smile playing at her lips, “I like it.”
She looked back down at his engorged member and licked her lips. Seeing her do this gave him such a jolt of arousal that his erection visibly twitched, and Karina laughed happily.
“Ooo, somebody's happy to see me!” she squealed in delight.
“Karina,” Ryan said in a strangled, warning tone, “What am I going to do with you?”
“I've got a few ideas about what I'm going to do with you,” Karina responded as she wrapped h
er delicate hands around his thick steel-hard shaft and lightly squeezed as she pulled both hands up towards her, all the way from the base to the tip of his throbbing manhood.
Ryan threw his head back as a loud groan escaped involuntarily from his throat.
Karina felt a surge of power thrill through her. It was a heady, empowering feeling to have such a primal effect on him. Riding the high of that sensation of power, she leaned forward, opened her mouth, and gently but forcefully took him inside her and began to swirl her tongue around him as she applied ever-increasing suction.
After she felt that he was at the brink of being able to handle that an instant longer, she drew her mouth back, never breaking the suction with her lips, and toyed with just the head of his penis with her tongue, flicking it and caressing it, before finally sliding her mouth down to the base again.
She began a steady rhythm of pumping her mouth up and down on his shaft, base to tip, again and again, over and over, in and out, in and out, in and out – until Ryan felt sure that he would lose control from the sheer pleasure of it.
Karina slid her hands around under his jeans, gripping his backside, and controlling the rhythm of the strokes, prolonging Ryan's pleasure but also his agony. The longer that Karina's silky yet insistent mouth moved steadily up and down, the more desperate he felt to explode. He didn't know how much longer he could hold out.
Finally, he realized that he was on the brink of having no control whatsoever, and he cried, “I'm gonna come...oh, yes, Karina, I'm gonna come...”
He wanted to warn her in case she wanted to remove her mouth in time, to bring him over the edge with her hands instead, but she showed absolutely no interest in doing that. If anything, her mouth only became tighter around his shaft, her movements more frantic and intense.
He threw his head back, closed his eyes, and surrendered himself to the pleasurable release of orgasm. He felt his muscles spasming, he heard himself groaning, and he felt Karina's deceptively strong hands holding him in place so that he stayed firmly in her mouth as he unloaded.
Sweet Harmonies Page 17