They weren't touching, but every cell in both of their bodies felt the nearness of the other person with breathtaking, tingling awareness.
Ryan leaned his head down, moving achingly slowly, until their lips were mere millimeters from touching.
“Invite me in, Karina,” he breathed.
He sensed her body jolt with the erotic charge that those words sent through her, and knowing that he had caused that tremble in her sent an answering thrill down his own body.
She smirked at him with trembling lips.
“Invite you in…are we playing vampire and innocent maiden?” she teased breathlessly.
“Invite me in and find out.”
This caused a low, involuntary moan to rumble deep in her throat, and she spun around as quickly as she could on trembling legs, plunged the key into the lock, and pushed open the door. She virtually sprinted into the entryway, and he was hot on her heels.
Inside the house, she spun again to face him. Without a word, he used his foot to slam shut the door behind them, grasped her by the upper arms, and turned around with her. He pushed her up against the front door and began kissing her passionately, running his hands up under her jacket. There, his hands ran into her sweater, and he scrambled frantically to manipulate his fingers under it. When he was able to achieve this, however, what his trembling hands found there was a tank top that went down inside her jeans.
When he tried to grasp the stretchy fabric to pull it up, the top resisted, and he realized that it must be one of those leotard things that went all the way down.
He pulled back from the kiss and groaned in frustration.
“Karina!” he moaned desperately, “I need to feel you, right now. I need to feel your skin under my hands!”
Those words caused a powerful jolt of arousal to course through Karina's body and she gasped at the sheer strength of it.
“Yes, I want that, too...I need to feel you right now!” she said desperately, tearing off her jacket and sweater. They began ripping clothes off of one another in a frenzy of erotic energy, almost as if they were in a trance, like starving people trying to uncover the only thing on earth that would sate their hunger.
In mere moments, they stood together naked, their bodies pressed tightly together, hands fervently caressing each other's burning skin.
Ryan started to kiss his way roughly down Karina's neck and she grabbed handfuls of his hair, urging him downward, relishing the sensation that his hot tongue left in its wake on her neck and down her chest.
When he came to her breasts, he slid his hands up to cup them, devouring them with his greedy eyes, making her desperate for the moment that his mouth would follow suit.
She applied pressure to the back of his head and arched her back slightly, making no secret of what she wanted from him, but he would not be rushed.
“I don't feel like I've gotten the chance yet to really give these beauties the attention they deserve,” he rasped before taking first one nipple, then the other into his warm, moist mouth.
Karina whimpered, her body shaking like a leaf, as she submitted helplessly to the swirls and nips that his tongue and teeth were showering on her sensitive peaks. Just as she would be lulled into the rhythm of gentle sucking and swirling he would surprise her by increasing the pressure of the suction with such lightning speed and to such intensity that she was pushed to the very brink between pleasure and pain.
Just when she would be convinced that she couldn't take one more minute of the sweet torture, he would relax his mouth's iron grip on her tender flesh and gently suckle them until she became lulled again. Then he would switch to the other breast and the roller coaster of unpredictably and maddeningly pleasurable sensations would begin again.
She felt his hands slide down to her ass and cup it. She pressed backward against his strong grip, loving the feel of his steel-strong fingers digging into her round, soft derriere.
Suddenly, she felt her feet leave the ground as Ryan lifted her and, in a lightheaded rush, she realized that she couldn't have been more wrong about ice skating. THIS was what flying felt like!
Ryan wrapped a strong arm around her waist to help support her lithe frame. She moaned as she felt the tip of his manhood barely brushing her wet, swollen lips, desperate for him to enter her.
She felt the hand that had remained under her leave, and the arm holding her up tighten. She heard a ripping noise and opened her eyes just long enough to see him tear a condom package with his teeth, holding it with the hand that had been under her just a few seconds ago. She felt his hand move down between them and smoothly roll the condom on. She smiled to herself. This time, it had been he who had prepared ahead of time for their encounter.
But that thought was fleeting, as she again felt his hard member pressing against the soft flesh of her entrance, and all conscious thought flew from her mind.
He held her there, hovering just above ecstasy, as he whispered in her ear, “Are you ready, sweetheart?”
She threw her head back and nodded it frantically, unable to make her mind form even the word 'Yes.'
In one swift motion, Ryan backed them up a half a step so that Karina's back was firmly pressed against the front door and slowly lowered her onto his shaft, bringing himself up to meet her eager hips as he did so.
Karina cried out and wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, her arms snaking around his neck. She hung onto him for dear life as he thrust himself hard into her again and again, shaking her to the core with each powerful stroke.
As the speed of his hard pounding increased, Karina dug her fingernails into his back, scrambling to keep hold of him as the building ecstasy inside her sapped the strength from her body, even as it filled it with pleasure. The fact that both of their bodies were now covered with an ever increasingly slick coat of hot sweat, and she was beginning to doubt that, even pressed as tightly as she was up against the door, she could continue to stay suspended where she was.
She scrambled. She grabbed. She dug in. Changing positions at this point was unthinkable. Anything that stopped the rhythm of him pushing himself in and out of her was unacceptable. She needed to feel him inside her, she couldn't be without him inside her for even one instant.
She slid her elbows in closer to his neck, propping the backs of her arms on his shoulders and curling her forearms up to allow her to grab greedy handfuls of his hair in her rough fingers.
He cried out when she grasped his hair, but whether that was because of the pain he was experiencing on his head or the pleasure he was experiencing down below, she did not know – and honestly she could not make herself care at that moment. All she knew was that she needed to do whatever was necessary to ensure that he did not stop the relentless pounding.
She felt herself building to a climax. This was new for her. She'd never been able to come without some kind of manual or oral stimulation before. She marveled. Ryan had provided her with so many sexual firsts in just their few times together. She couldn't imagine what he would be able to show her if the relationship went on for months, or (fingers crossed) years. She definitely wanted to try to find out, though.
Even in her sex-addled state, she understood how amazing it was that she was experiencing sex that was so boundary-shattering amazing that even in the midst of the current sexual encounter, she was already craving the next one, and the next one, and the next one after that.
It was like Ryan was a drug, and she was his insatiable addict.
As her orgasm began to radiate outward from her very core, she threw her head back and screamed. Her head hit the front door that she was still pushed up against. Her vision darkened at the edges and stars danced across her view, but she didn't think that was entirely due to the hard knock to the head she had just dealt herself – she thought that at least a good measure of this starry vision may be due to the incredibly powerful orgasm that was filling her body with electrifying, consciousness-stealing pleasure.
As the waves of pleasure subsided and the r
hythm of Ryan's strokes gradually slowed to stillness, she kept her arms and legs wrapped around him, holding him there inside her, not ready to let him go yet.
They stood there together, still intimately connected, silently, just breathing together as Ryan stroked her hair.
Karina knew something at that moment, even if she didn't have the awareness to put it into words. She knew that there was no holding back any little part of her heart from Ryan. There was no “wait and see how it goes.” There was no “if it works out, great, if not, too bad.”
She knew that she needed him. She knew that she, independent Karina Blackstone, who made it a POINT to never need anyone or anything, now needed this man.
It scared the shit out of her. At the same time, it thrilled her to the bone. She would never be able, she was afraid, to reconcile the paradoxes that Ryan engendered in her.
She felt safer in his presence than she had ever felt, and yet she also felt more vulnerable to him than to anyone in her life.
When she was around him, she felt the urge to open up and show him every hidden secret inside of herself. Yet, she was also plagued by the urge to draw herself in like a turtle and hide.
She sighed, finally, as she untangled her limbs and set her feet on the floor. With her usual leonine grace, she slinked across the entryway and started slowly up the stairs, reaching her arms above her to stretch as she climbed. Ryan watched, speechless, as her beautiful naked body retreated up the staircase away from him.
“I need a shower,” she said casually, offhand, over her shoulder.
Ryan, who by now knew the drill, began to collect his clothes from where they were strewn haphazardly around the room.
“Guess I'll be going then,” he said, endeavoring to keep his voice light, to at least cling to the part of his plan in which he had vowed not to pressure her unduly.
She slowly turned on the step she was on, and surveyed him as he gathered his things.
“Unless...” she began slowly, drawing out the last syllable, her languid voice as rich and sweet as molasses.
He straightened and looked at her, his breath catching as he was treated again to the sight of her naked body on the stairs, this time from the front.
She smiled, enjoying his reaction.
“Unless, of course, you'd like to join me,” she said, a smile playing on her lips.
A wide grin spread across his face, and he said, “Now there is an offer that I just can't refuse.
With that, he dropped the bundle of clothing he had gathered up in his arms and, heedlessly leaving the garments where they fell, bounded up the stairs after her.
Chapter 22
Ryan sat in his office, staring at the computer screen, a wide grin on his face. He was trying to concentrate on straightening out the cafe's accounting system. “Trying” being the operative word there. At this point, he'd been at it for almost four hours and hadn't made any progress at all, so trying and FAILING was more like it.
Still. He couldn't make himself care. Try as he might to keep his thoughts on the QuickBooks screen he had open in front of him, he kept tabbing over to the browser window where he had pulled up pictures of Karina. He couldn't help it. She was dominating his thoughts.
All morning, he had been smiling, singing to himself, playing drums on the edge of his desk with two pencils. He felt like a teenager who was in love with the Homecoming queen...and the Homecoming queen actually returned his affections.
Yes, true, she hadn't wanted him to spend the night last night. She had kicked him out after their shower, which had been steamy in more ways than one. So it's not like there wasn't still progress to be made.
And, true, he had to keep reminding himself that they weren't in what could traditionally be termed a “relationship” - after all, there had been no discussions of the future, no promises of exclusivity, no vows of any kind of commitment.
It was shocking to Ryan that he cared as little as he did about any of that at this moment. Yes, sure, it did bother him. If he had his way, they'd be settling down today. He was certain, now, of what he wanted out of life, and he knew for sure that it was Karina Blackstone.
He had to remind himself consciously not to rush her. After all, she was not like him – she was a free spirit. She had never had a commitment like the one that Ryan had in mind, had never put down roots like the ones that felt so natural to Ryan. This was all new to her, and he had to give her time.
In that respect, however, he did feel that they were on an even playing field. As shaky as the ground must feel beneath her feet when she thought about making a long-term commitment to him, that was how unsteady he felt in her freewheeling, casual-relationship world.
In his world, a person gave their heart before they gave their body. In hers, it was the other way around. They were both making compromises here.
He was startled when two men he'd never met before sauntered into his office as if they owned the place.
He quickly minimized the pictures of Karina on his screen, embarrassed somehow to be “caught” looking at her, even though he hadn't done anything wrong, and was after all in his own office.
Still, these two just gave off an aura of being in charge, and it was difficult not to respond to it, at least subconsciously.
Ryan stood halfway out of his chair and gestured toward the two visitor seats which faced it, but that was unnecessary, as the two strangers were already settling themselves into them.
Ryan was puzzled to say the least at the sudden appearance of these two. He knew that they weren't from Hope Falls. First of all, he had never met them. When you ran the only cafe in a town the size of Hope Falls, you ended up meeting – or at least seeing – pretty much everyone but a couple of hermits. Secondly, their clothing and appearance screamed big city sophistication. Hope Falls was a lot of things, but it was certainly neither a big city, nor sophisticated.
The smaller of the two men was older, possibly even approaching elderly, but it was clear that he had all of his wits about him. He exuded an aura of wheeling and dealing, of working the angles, of always looking for an edge in any situation. He was short and stooped, and had small tufts of white hair puffing out from the sides of his otherwise bald head. The oversize glasses he wore completed that picture.
The other man was the first's physical opposite in every way imaginable. He was tall, fit, tan, and impeccably groomed. His dark hair was perfectly styled, not a single strand out of place. Even details as small as his eyebrows and fingernails were perfectly shaped and manicured, he was the definition of metro-sexual.
Ryan raised an eyebrow at them curiously. “Can I help you gentlemen?” he asked.
The older man smiled ingratiatingly and extended his hand across the desk to Ryan, “Bernie Kaplan here.”
Ryan shook his hand as recognition of the name hit him, “Oh, I’ve heard that name before. You're Karina's manager, right?”
“Right you are,” said the other man, flashing a grin filled with perfectly straight and white teeth. Then, extending his own hand, he said, “Davis Johanssen. Spintown Records.”
Ryan shook Davis' hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Johanssen. I'm surprised to see you here. I realize I owe you a telephone call.”
Davis laughed heartily, although Ryan didn't think he'd said anything funny.
“Enough with the 'Mr. Johanssen.' Mr. Johanssen is my father, am I right? Please. Davis.”
“Alright, then Davis,” Ryan responded, “So what can I do for you gentlemen?”
“Right to the point, I like that in a person,” Davis said, leaning forward and switching into ‘powerful-businessman' mode.
He continued, “Here's the deal. Spintown is willing to cut a new artist development deal with you. We liked what we saw on the video. We think that you and Karina have an explosive chemistry.”
“Explosive,” Bernie echoed.
“We'd want to use her to position you. Have her work on your project, send you out on the road with her...”
&
nbsp; “It's a synergy thing,” Bernie put in.
“Exactly,” Davis finished.
They were silent for a moment, and Ryan realized that this must be the point that he was expected to make some sort of response, but he wasn't sure what they wanted to know from him.
“Wow,” he began, “So, what does Karina think of this?”
“Oh, Karina will love it,” Davis said self-assuredly.
“Love it,” Bernie concurred.
“So, you haven't talked to her then?” Ryan asked.
“She'll love it,” Davis reiterated as if it wasn't an issue, “So, what do you say, kid? Are you in?”
Ryan said, “In what?”
Davis laughed again, heartily, and again Ryan didn't know what he'd said that was so damn funny.
“In business! Do we have a deal?”
Ryan shook his head, “I don't know. I mean...I'd definitely have to talk to Karina first.”
Bernie waved this off, “Nah, nah, that's not how these things work. You tell us what you want, we'll take it to Karina, and she'll tell us how she feels. We'll bring that back to you.”
Ryan furrowed his brow, “That seems...unnecessarily complicated.”
Davis threw his head back and laughed yet again, “I love this kid!” he exclaimed, “Bernie, do you not love this kid?”
“Love,” Bernie confirmed.
“So, do we have a deal or not?” Davis asked again.
“I'm not even sure what you're asking me to agree to...” Ryan said, confused.
Bernie smiled, “He's shrewd, this one!”
“Very shrewd,” Davis agreed.
“Look, kid,” Bernie said, leaning forward, adopting a 'let me level with you' attitude, “Here's the deal. You're obviously extremely savvy. So, this is what I'm gonna do for you. I'm going to agree to be your manager.”
“You're Karina's manager,” Ryan protested.
“Is she my only client?” Bernie shot back, “No, she is not. She may be the prettiest, but she is not the only. You, my young friend, could join the roster. Just say the word, and Bernie will be looking out for your interests.”
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