He brought the bowls, along with a needle and thread, into the family room and sat beside her on the couch, laying it all out on the coffee table. “No. All the ornaments on my parents’ tree growing up represented a memory. Each one reminded us of a trip or a big occasion or a family member. I want to do that, too. Until then, tinsel and stringed popcorn and berries work fine.”
She’d forgotten about his family’s tree tradition. “Huh.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Just…Ryan McAdams. Captain of the football team, class president, prom king, and big, tough rancher, has a secret marshmallow center.”
“What can I say? I’m the total package.” He grinned, dimples flashing.
“Let’s add modest to the list.”
He tossed a piece of popcorn at her, which she plucked off her lap and popped into her mouth. The burst of buttery flavor on her tongue had her reaching for a handful from the bowl, only to have her hand smacked.
“Hey!”
“Get to work, woman.”
“How can I look away from all your manly awesomeness?” She used her best southern accent and batted her eyelashes at him, damsel-style.
He speared a piece of popcorn with the needle and stabbed his finger with the pointed end. “Damn.” He jerked back with a glare for the needle and stuck his bleeding finger in his mouth. Catching her amused gaze, he winked. “Not exactly my thing—I’m better with horses and cows—but someone has to do it.”
Ashley chuckled and turned back to the computer, supremely conscious of the man at her side. She tried to ignore the fission of attraction pulsing through her. Apparently, she found a work-hardened cowboy like Ryan decorating a tree, somewhat ineptly granted, sexy as hell.
Damn.
11
“Dear Santa, Save yourself the trip and skip my house this year. I’ve decided to join the naughty list instead.”
--Abigail Owen
“I think…” Ashley paused to type a few more notes. “Yup. I’m done.” She hit save with a flourish, flopped back against the couch, and let out a long sigh, her brain fuzzy from hours of continued, detailed concentration.
Ryan lowered the Texas Cattlemen magazine he was reading, having cleaned up from dinner and finished decorating long before. “You’re joking?”
When she’d gotten sick of his asking how things were going—she’d never been able to do homework with him for the same reason—she’d teased him by pretending to be done. A couple times.
This time she meant it. Leaning forward, she deposited the computer on the coffee table, next to the empty popcorn bowl. “I’m an accountant. We don’t joke about numbers.”
She winked at him, then stood and stretched. Other than a break for the scrumptious steaks he grilled, she’d been sitting on the couch for hours. Darkness had fallen ages ago, and a smattering of rain now tapped against the tin roof. Ryan kept the fire going, which crackled merrily away behind a lovely iron grate.
Ryan stood, too. “And?”
She dropped her arms. “What I found is definitive. You should give it all to your lawyer. They’ll work with the police to prosecute.”
“So you can prove it?”
“Yes. And it wasn’t easy.”
Before she finished talking, he swept her up in a bear hug, lifting her feet off the ground, and buried his face in her hair. “I didn’t want it to be true. I’ve heard about cases where they couldn’t prove it. All that money lost. I’m relieved I don’t have to go to my family and tell them we have no recourse.”
“Can’t breathe,” Ashley squeaked.
He huffed a laugh and lowered her feet to the ground, but his arms stayed entwined around her. “I’m serious. Thank you.”
Those simple words combined with how he looked at her—as though she was precious—lightened her heart. She could have floated away on a cloud. She hadn’t realized until this moment exactly how much she’d missed Ryan McAdams. The friend, not the guy he’d been the last ten years. Ashley smiled. “I’m happy to help.”
Ryan’s gaze dropped to her lips, and his smile slowly faded.
Ashley cocked her head. “What?”
He shook his head, laser-focused on her in a way that made her stomach clench. “You never smile at me anymore, is all. It’s…nice.”
There went all the oxygen. Again. How did he have this effect on her air intake? “Oh.”
She gave a mental wince at the inane response, but her verbal skills deserted her along with the air.
“I want to kiss you.” He held himself stiffly but didn’t let her go.
Ashley bit her lip as her clamoring body begged her to let him. But, this was Ryan McAdams. Sure, they’d cleared the air a bit, and he’d shown her the side she’d forgotten—the likeable, patient, fun-loving man who enjoyed laughing with her. However, as wrong as she’d been about Eric, she didn’t trust her instincts any more.
Good grief, girl, it’s a kiss. You’re not marrying the guy. The voice in her head didn’t need to give her more reason than that. Besides, she found she couldn’t walk away.
“I want you to kiss me,” she whispered.
With a tortured groan, he lowered his lips to hers in a kiss that passed “go” and went straight to “jail.”
Heat swept through her at his touch, as she responded to the demands of his lips against hers. She opened to him, reveling in the sensations he built inside her as he pulled her lower lip between his teeth, then soothed the nip with his tongue, which he swept against hers. She shuddered, letting loose a small whimper of need.
Groaning, Ryan gathered her closer, his arms wrapped around her and fitted her perfectly against him like a puzzle piece. He smoothed his hands down her back over the indent of her waist. He cupped her ass, bringing her even closer, and making her intimately aware of the hard, thick length of him straining against his zipper. All the while, he never stopped kissing her, demanding a response, which she was all too eager to give.
Heat spilled through Ashley, stoking her hunger for him and burning away her shock at what they were doing. She wanted his hands, his lips, all over her body. She craved his touch, his taste. Sensation took over from rational thought and, heaven help her, she wanted him. All of him. Now.
She smoothed her hands up the hard planes of his chest, over his broad shoulders, and tangled her fingers in the silky thickness of his dark hair. Her body scorched, and she wanted to wrap herself around him, but she settled for tugging him even closer.
As he trailed his lips to her neck, then to her ear, his warm breath feathered her hair and sent shivers of awareness through her. She needed more. She needed his skin against hers, to feel his heat against her with nothing between them.
She brought her hands to the top of his shirt and hastily undid the buttons. She snuck her hands inside, needing to explore every inch of his muscled chest, hard and warm against her fingertips.
With a shuddering breath, Ryan closed his hands over her wrists and stepped back. Ashley stared at him in dazed confusion.
“Don’t stop,” she begged.
He shut his eyes, his jaw clenched tightly. “If we don’t put the brakes on now, I won’t be able to stop until I have you in my bed, under my body.”
The image of the two of them together flashed starkly clear in her mind, and Ashley sucked in a gasp. A small part of her marveled at the intense desire wrapped around Ryan McAdams. Not in a bad way, more like a shock. “You don’t want me in your bed?”
He opened his eyes, trailing his intense gaze over her flushed face and down her body. Ashley felt that gaze like a physical brush against her skin. Her nipples tightened, tingling for his touch, and her body throbbed.
“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything more,” he admitted, his voice harsh with need.
“Then why—?”
“You’re still getting over the man you spent nine years loving. And, we’ve only just become friends again. I don’t want to be a rebound for you.” Even saying the words, he couldn’t keep his gaze from tr
ailing her body.
Emboldened by his gaze and his words, she stepped closer, pressing her body against his and relishing the shudder that wracked him. “You’re not a rebound. I want you, Ryan McAdams.”
She hoped like hell he didn’t ask her why, because she wasn’t ready to answer that question. Not even to herself. Though the honest side of her suspected she’d always been attracted to him. Until they were fifteen, he was one of the most important people in her life. His rejection and criticism over the years wouldn’t have hurt her as much as it did otherwise.
Granted, she still wasn’t sure where her feelings stood with Eric. After their talk in the jewelry store, though, she was fairly certain romantic love was no longer part of the equation. More telling, at this moment, was the fact that anything she ever felt for her long-time boyfriend paled in comparison to what she felt for the man in her arms. Eric never engendered this level of desire in her. Ever. She didn’t want to examine the reasons too closely. Not yet.
Ryan gripped her shoulders as if to push her back, but his dark gaze caught and held hers. He gave his head a shake, as if arguing with himself. Before he could say no, Ashley framed face in her hands. “Ryan. Make love to me.” She’d been reduced to begging.
She squeaked in surprise as he swept her up in his arms and strode through the house. “Heaven help me. I can’t say no.”
Delight, triumph, and anticipation burst through her. Never one to wait to open her presents, she took the opportunity to explore his neck, laying nibbling kisses against the taut skin there, inhaling his clean scent, loving the tangy taste of him.
“Woman, you keep that up and we might not make it to the bed.”
As much as the mental image of his taking her up against the wall, hot and sweaty and fast, turned her on, Ashley wanted this moment to last and last. “Damn.” She pulled back to the sound of his chuckle.
Ryan walked through a doorway into a dimly lit room. She barely had time to notice the heavy, masculine oak furniture and navy comforter and décor before his fevered gazed dropped to her. “Are you sure?”
This fell under the headings of insane and unexpected, but, oddly, she’d never been more sure of anything in her life. “Yes.”
With care bordering on reverence, he lowered her feet to the ground and took her lips in the sweetest kiss she’d ever known. He sipped at her before brushing her bottom lip with the tip of his tongue. The fire that had raged between them, which had turned to smoldering embers for a second, now stoked higher with each touch, each caress.
Slowly, he undressed her, taking his time and paying homage to every newly exposed inch of skin with his hands and lips and tongue until she stood naked before him. Seized with a sudden bout of shyness, she glanced away, only to have him tip her chin up to meet his gaze.
“You’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
His hot gaze told her he meant every word, and her shyness melted in the face of his desire. She grinned. “I would say the same, but one of us is wearing too many clothes.”
His eyes crinkled and his delighted laugh rumbled out of him, melting something in her heart she hadn’t known was frozen. In a frenzy of movement at direct odds to the way he’d taken his time with her seconds before, Ryan jerked off his clothing, discarding it chaotically to mix with hers on the floor.
Ashley hungrily absorbed every exposed inch of him—the ridges of his stomach, the power of his legs and chest, the smattering of hair that led down to his bulging erection. She jerked her gaze to his. “You’re too big.”
She wasn’t faking the panic in her voice. Ryan laughed as he yanked her into his arms, and her brain overheated at the sensation of skin against skin, hard against soft.
“We’ll fit. I promise.”
Why his words settled her, she had no idea. He swept them both onto the bed, bringing his body down on top of hers. Instead of taking her lips in another series of explosive kisses, he lowered his head and pulled an eager nipple into his hot mouth. Ashley gasped and arched up into him as he sucked, hard, every pull shooting straight to her core.
At the same time, he trailed his fingers down her abdomen, over her hip, down her thigh, and back up the inside of her thigh straight to her clit, which throbbed in anticipation. Ashley couldn’t have stopped her moan of reaction as he touched her there, brushing against the bundle of nerves in the most tantalizing way. She became lost in a haze of desire as he played her body like a fine instrument, building the ache inside her, stoking the fire.
She undulated her hips, chasing his touch, and he pressed harder, sucked harder at the tip of her breast, not letting up on either, building the pressure inside her. Higher. Higher. Until she came. Hard. Stars burst behind her closed eyes. Ashley whimpered as her orgasm crested over her in waves of tingling sensation. Ryan never stopped touching her until he wrung every ounce of pleasure from her body.
Panting and languorous in the aftermath, she returned his smile when Ryan lifted his head. He levered off her body, and she reached for him. “Wait.”
“I’ll be right back.”
As she watched, he hurried to his bedside table and pulled out a condom, which he quickly rolled on his straining cock before returning to her, settling between her thighs. He claimed her lips with a kiss both possessive and satisfied in an utterly male way, and she smiled against the kiss, suppressing the strangest urge to giggle. Happiness wanted to burst from her.
He took both her hands in his, threading their fingers together, and raising her arms above her head. He stared into her eyes, and she couldn’t pull her gaze away from the intensity of his. He reached down between them, brushing his fingers across her slick entrance, and she sucked in sharply as pleasure washed through her at his touch. Could she orgasm again? She never had that quickly.
He aligned his cock, pressing the tip into her. Pressure at her entrance gave way to stretching as he slowly pushed into her body until he filled every inch of her in the most exquisite way. Fully inside her, Ryan let go a breath she hadn’t realized he’d been holding, the puff feathering against her neck.
Gaze still locked to her, almost as though he worried that if he looked away, she’d disappear, Ryan moved his hips, slowly at first, letting the pleasure build again, before setting a steady rhythm.
She was all set to enjoy the ride, having always liked sex but never having an orgasm from penetration, when a familiar, agonizing pressure started to build inside her again, burning at the base of her spine.
“Oh!” she gasped.
He canted his hips to hit a spot inside her, spinning her even more out of control. “Oh!” she moaned now, shocked at what he could make her body do and feel.
Ryan grinned and captured her lips, his pace increasing as they both neared the precipice.
She couldn’t have stopped the moans and gasps coming from her throat as he pumped into her, even if she’d wanted to. “Harder,” she urged.
“Yes,” he hissed. He increased the pace, almost slamming into her, letting go of the control he’d shown up to this point, and she silently reveled in the fact that she could make him lose it like this.
“Come for me, baby,” he whispered into her ear. To her utter shock, she did, her body clamping down on his as wave after wave of blissful sensation wracked through her.
At the same time, Ryan gave a loud shout, thrusting into her with long hard strokes as his body came and came. Eventually he slowed, then stopped. He leaned on one arm and smoothed the sweat-soaked hair from her face, a tenderness in his gaze she’d never seen before, making her stomach clench in stark reaction.
“I’ll be damned,” he muttered.
She grinned, replete and satiated. “I hope not, because I’d have to join you there.”
Ryan chuckled and pulled out of her. She shivered as cold air brushed over her body as he got up to dispose of the condom.
Shyness overtook her again. She’d only ever been with Eric, and their first time had been a year into dating—a long time a
go. What was she supposed to do now? Did Ryan want her to stay? Would they make love again, or were they finished?
“I can see you thinking, Hughes.”
She tipped her head and eyed him. “And what am I thinking?”
He flopped down on the bed beside her, pulled her up against him with an arm around her stomach, spoon fashion, and murmured in her ear. “How have you lasted this long out of my bed? Am I right?”
Ashley did her best not to stiffen in his arms, because he was close to the truth. She’d been wondering how she could’ve missed the attraction between them. But she’d been focused on Eric so long. Plus, where could they go from here? After the wedding and the holiday, she’d go home to Dallas, and they’d only bump into each other every now and then, when she came home to visit. Maybe a phone call or two about the fraud if the lawyers had any questions. Even a strong friendship seemed out of her grasp. A thought which settled like a rock in the pit of her stomach
To cover her churning mind, she stifled a yawn with her hand. “Still arrogant, even in bed.”
He chuckled. “Especially in bed.”
She rolled over to face him, pleased he kept her in the circle of his arms. “I can’t stay the night.” Small towns and wagging tongues had already landed them in trouble, and that was when they hadn’t done anything.
He brushed the back of his hand against her cheek. “I know.”
Oh. She’d sort of expected an argument.
“But I hope you’ll stay a little longer.”
He did? God, her emotions were like a frickin’ roller coaster. Up and down and all around. “Yeah?”
He drew a pattern over her belly with the tip of his finger, leaving a trail of buzzing nerves in his wake. “I want to try an experiment.”
She frowned, not following. “What do you mean?”
“I want to see if sex with you is that amazing every time.”
An unaccustomed blush started at her cheeks and flooded every inch of her skin, the heat leaving a trail. Ashley bit her lip to hold back a giddy grin. “Sounds like an experiment worth repeating a few times.”
Home for the Holidays: A Contemporary Romance Anthology Page 58