by Nicole Snow
He also shows me the places where he started his company, built it from the ground up with long hours, a little luck, and lots of networking with the right people. It's incredible to see what he's accomplished since his time in the garage. I wish daddy were here to see everything.
We've both forgiven daddy, now that the hard truth is out. He lied to me, left my heart in pieces, but there's no telling what I would've become if I'd known what happened sooner.
We've lost too much time looking back. Moving forward, that's what counts. There's a spring in my step every time I think about going home, clearing his name, and starting over.
The last day, we're coming back from Bainbridge Island, watching several kids chasing each other playfully on the deck of our ferry. I'm exhausted, but I can't remember the last time I was ever this happy.
Ryan clasps my hand as I lean into him. “Well, Kara-bou, what do you think?”
I give him a smile broader than the distant mountains. “It's a lot to take in, but I like it. Only thing that's missing out here is a lighthouse.”
“Armitage would be a great end to the day, no doubt. Lucky for you, I've got something better planned.”
Better? He won't tell me, won't even drop a hint, no matter how many times I beg between disembarking from the ship and getting into the car with our driver. He takes us across town, now dark and lit with a thousand tinsel lights. I still don't have a clue where we're going until the Space Needle looms large above us.
I'm excited. It's nothing compared to following him quickly through the park and taking the elevator up. In less than a minute, we're at the top of the world, staring down into the dark lights, and very alone.
“Who'd you shakedown to arrange this?” I ask, when we're standing out on the observation deck, me sinking into his embrace.
“I made a lot of donations in the right places last year. Consider this one of the perks. It's just you, me, the city, and a whole lot of night, babe. Nowhere else I'd rather be.”
We're quiet for a little bit, staring down at the beautiful scenery. I pull my coat tighter, leaning into him, steeling my body against the cold. It's such a spectacular view I forget the numbness fighting its way into my skin.
“God, this is beautiful. I don't want it to end.”
“It won't,” he growls, running his hand up my side, stopping with his fingers on my face. “I've danced plenty of times with the pretty lights and tall buildings down there. Built a name for myself that seems like it's got no limit. Wined and dined with rich men and women alike, politicians, lawyers, and geniuses who all wanted to shake my hand and welcome me to their world.”
His chest vibrates gently against my ear. I love the deep, rich sound of his voice. It's a soothing echo I could listen to forever.
He turns my face up, bathing me in his ocean blue eyes, now reflecting the Seattle night's glories above and below us. “I didn't do any of this for anybody or anything down there, majestic as it is. Right now, I'm looking at the only thing I've ever cherished. This view's so beautiful I'm going to take your lips to remind me I haven't died and gone to heaven.”
Neither of us hesitates. He kisses me hard, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth, grazing it with his teeth.
It's salty, possessive, and so fucking hot. It's the kiss I've needed my whole life, the kind of kiss that ruins me, because I'll never accept another that's weaker than this.
I turn in his arms, wrap my hands around his neck, and urge his tongue into mine. Six hundred feet in the air, the wind at my back, and I'm still sweating in his rock hard arms. Having him up here in his suit, both of us looking down on the world like royalty, brings me an extra thrill when I imagine the freaky, intricate ink underneath beneath his clothes.
That's the ink I want to be tangled up in forever, especially tonight, when he brings me back to his condo and fucks me senseless.
I think I'm addicted. It only takes a few more furious kisses before I'm moaning into his mouth, spreading my legs and grinding against his knee, aching a little more every second he isn't buried inside me.
It would be perfect, if only it weren't for the hammer hanging over our heads. I think about the mess back home, and my kiss wilts the next time he comes back for more, his hands gliding down my back to cup my ass.
“What's wrong, Kara-bou?” He looks at me, lust and concern churning on his gorgeous face.
“Tell me you've thought about what I suggested last night,” I say, gently pulling away from him. “You know, about bringing in Matt?”
“Your brother's got no love for me, and I don't blame him,” he says, taking me by the hand. We walk to the other side of the observation deck, where we can see the ocean below, its blackness only broken by stabs of light from the ships streaming across it every few minutes.
“Look, I know it's not his fight. He's got his own problems, and you don't want to bring him into it when he hates your freaking guts.” I sigh, wondering what combination of words I can use to reason with him. “But it's the best chance I think we've got to clear you, Ryan. Do it with him and mom first, and then the whole town will listen. I don't care what kind of influence the Drayton's have. Even Sheriff Dixon won't arrest a decorated Marine for showing him the truth.”
“That's what I like about you, babe,” he says, after several tense seconds. “You're always cutting straight to the root. If your family hasn't squealed on me yet, then there's something holding them back.”
“Damn right,” I snap, tightening my fingers in his grip. “I'll invite them to Grounded. We can all sit down in a safe place and talk. Bring the copies you have of the page you saved from Nelson's folder. Matt's a good man, Ryan. He'll stop being a hothead lined up against you as soon as he sees the evidence.”
Sighing, he nods. “I'll tape it to my chest before he knocks my teeth out. Don't get me wrong, babe. I'm confident I can take on any man, but I've got no desire to talk to your crazy Marine brother using fists again. Congratulations – you've talked me into the impossible.”
“I'll call him as soon as we're on the tarmac back home tomorrow, then.” I'm holding him to it. I won't let up for a single second because I can't stand the thought of losing him again, especially if Matt or mom try to turn him in before hearing us out.
“Yeah, and I'll put my statement out to corporate, soon as it hits the sheriff's office. Everyone in Seattle, Split Harbor, and Marquette is going to want to know why the hell Tanner is suddenly Ryan.”
“Won't it feel good to be who you are?” I run my nails against the nape of his neck, loving how his muscles bristle under my fingertips.
“Not half as good as this.”
The instant his lips touch mine, I know he's right.
This is explosive. Outrageous. Divine.
When we're alive and electric and touching like this, I don't care what he calls himself. I've known this man by his heart, deeper and truer than any name.
Each flick of his tongue against mine comes like fire, honest and enticing, leaving every nerve in my body begging for more. When I move in to get it, trying to press my mouth against his firm jaw line, he lifts me away, beaming his gaze into mine.
“You've made me happier than I've got any business being,” he says, pressing his forehead down on mine. Icy excitement runs up my spine, and it's got nothing to do with the cool night breeze lashing us from the east. “I'm still going to ask you two things.”
“Yeah?” I whisper, trembling in his arms. Whatever it is, it's going to be enormous.
Despite my expectations, I'm not prepared for the shock when he reaches into his pocket, plucks something out, and sinks to his knees. His takes one hand in both of his. It's a serious grip, almost painful in its intensity.
“Kara, we're going home tomorrow,” he says, lifting one leg so he's crouching. “We're clearing up the shit I did, setting the record straight, and then I never want to think about it again. I don't want to dream about the five years we lost, or wonder how much worse it could've been if I'd come ba
ck too soon, too late, or not at all. I want to live every day with you by my side, babe. I need you living, breathing, and loving by mine. All those years ago, I gave you a cheap ring, one it took me two months to save. This one's got a price tag a whole lot higher, but it's the heartbreak and sweat that's the real reason it's expensive. I meant to hold out for this, love, just a little while longer. But hell, deep down...I'd be a fool to wait another day.”
The tiny purple box in his hand springs open. My jaw nearly hits the floor. I'm frozen in place, staring at a ring studded with so many rocks it's probably worth more than a small nation.
“Ryan...”
“Marry me, Kara. Marry me again. Truth is, I'm impatient. Can't stand holding your hand around town, or feeling it running down my back when it's bare. Empty. I need to feel this ring where it belongs. Need you loving it, loving me, wearing the finest mark I can put on you forever.”
I'm too numb to speak. I just fall down with him, so much like the first time he ever asked, crashing into his arms. We're laughing, rolling on the floor of the Space Needle's observation deck, wind rushing through our hair.
He takes me in his arms, rolling me over, pressing his mouth down on mine while his hand pushes the ring into my palm. My fingers close around it, trying to bend around his. In just a few seconds, the gold warms on my skin, and I know this is right.
Call the timing insane. But it couldn't be clearer.
He alternates between my mouth and kissing away the hot, chaotic tears rolling down my cheeks. Ryan's weight presses down, down, his hand brushing up beneath my dress. He groans when his fingers find the spot, feeling how wet I am.
“I need to be in you, wife,” he rumbles.
Wife?
God, yes.
“Right here. Right now. That's the second thing I had to tell you tonight.” His voice drops an octave, so low it reverberates in my bones. Adding new warmth, an electric energy sweeps through me as surely as it does when his bulge presses on my swollen center through our clothes.
I don't resist when his hands start pulling down my dress. It's gone a few seconds later, and my panties zip down my legs, disappearing in the mess next to us.
His fingers brush my clit, and I'm panting.
Lust hits so fast and hard I barely recognize the sound of his belt coming undone, the shuffle of his trousers coming down to expose his pierced, perfect cock.
Cool air drifts around us. I sit up and grab his length, bending down so I can take him in my mouth.
“Yeah, baby. Sweet fuck.” He inhales roughly, making me smile when I push my tongue beneath his pulsing tip. “There. Right there.”
The soft, warm underside of his cock becomes my target. Pressing my tongue into him, my fist pumps its rhythm, loving the heat in his heavy balls every time the pucker.
He grunts again, drawing another tense breath when he notices my fist. His hand reaches out, wraps around mine, and I suck him harder. He sees the new ring.
“You're wearing it now?” Lust and amusement make his eyes glow. “Fuck, babe, I think you've just shown me the prettiest sight in the world.”
I'm smiling inwardly while I'm sucking him. My tongue rolls deep, lips tightening each time I take his length up and down, desperate to make him explode down my throat.
Of course, he's right. I can't imagine anything that gets me hotter than knowing how much he's enjoying my hand on his cock, the brand new gold and diamonds looped around my finger.
His cock brushes my tongue again and again, growing hotter and harder all the time. Growling, his fingers mesh through my hair, shielding them from the wind, adding new heat when he pulls it taut.
“Love you, Kara-bou. So fucking much.”
So fucking much. The sweet phrase echoes in my head, heartwarming as it is naughty thanks to the tension in his voice. Not to mention how he bucks up a second later, filling my mouth with as much as I can take, groaning like he's coming undone.
Swelling, overloaded, and lost somewhere between love and lust, he's coming.
His hot, thick essence erupts a second later.
The man I love thrashes, grunts, and spills his seed in my mouth faster than I can swallow it. I take everything I can. The next sixty seconds are more than just a blowjob ending.
I'm worshipping my future husband, the man I was always meant to marry, who's lifted me up over and over again. There's forgiveness and hope, disguised in sweltering heat.
His come is running out the corner of my lips when his fist in my hair softens, turning to loving strokes instead. I'm going to be a mess by the time we get out of here.
My stomach growls, reminding me there's more than desire begging to be satisfied. I guess we're ordering in tonight after this.
I don't care. Nothing else matters except how he holds my face, brushes away the trickle I couldn't swallow with his thumb, and then comes in for a kiss.
His other hand finds mine, takes it, and squeezes the ring he's been dying to put there. We kiss for what seems like forever, until he breaks off, staring at me with fresh hunger in his eyes.
“Stand up, and bend the fuck over,” he says, guiding me as he brings me to the railing, lifting my hips. “There's more than half a million people down there, going about their lives. Any one of them might look up, spot us moving in the dim light, and wonder. I want them all to know we're in love, babe. They're going to see how you twitch, flail, and scream when my balls hit your clit.”
“Oh, God. Ryan...”
Everything he's suggesting makes me wetter than before, even if my mind is screaming every insecurity I've ever had about sex and good manners.
They're silenced the second he pushes into me from behind. His cock sinks in, drives deep, and anchors with my ass against his warm, hard body.
His heavy breath falls against my ear before he speaks. “First time we're fucking in front of an entire city. Take a good, long look out there when I'm owning every inch of your sweet pussy, love.”
I obey, his willing slave as his hands grip my ass, and his cock starts slamming into me.
Several thrusts in, I forget all about the people down below. It's an incredible sight, the vast cityscape blurring before my eyes, melding with the rush, the heat, the ecstasy.
His teeth graze my neck, sink down to my shoulder, and take hold. It causes me to straighten, an angle which takes him deeper. Each thrust slaps my body again and again, pushing me a little closer to bliss.
Ryan's hand takes my breast, finds my nipple underneath my blouse, and squeezes it hard. I'm going over his cock again and again, taking him, losing my mind when that bead planted in his tip rubs the right places.
I won't last long.
I can't.
Fireworks explode in my brain when I go over. He fucks me harder when he feels my pussy clenching, and then he's grunting in tune to my moans, swelling and spilling his come.
We go off together, two shadows moving in the night. Our love, our sex, stands against the blackness, the cold, and every inhibition.
There could be dozens of eyes on us now, maybe someone with a telescope who can see everything, and it doesn't fucking matter.
Nothing else does in this moment except having him fused to me, emptying his fire, pinching the finger with his ring a little harder each time his hips crash against mine.
I come down from the insane high shaking. He turns me around, drags my hands around him, and makes me open my eyes with another kiss.
“We're picking this up at my place,” he says, running the stubble on his cheek against my skin. “Then we're crashing until morning. Come light, we're heading home, handling everything we need to, and finding a place to settle down. Soon as my name's cleared, I want our wedding date in all the local papers.”
No words can adequately tell him how bad I want everything he's promised.
So, I just press my mouth on his instead, huddling against him for warmth, hating that I have to get dressed before he rips my clothes off all over again.
Ano
ther magic night passes. We end our time in Seattle with sex, sleep, and coffee, watching the sunrise peek through thick clouds threatening rain.
It's been a marvelous time, but I'm ready to go home. Ready to get back to my business, fix everything that's kept us apart, and start planning a future with the man I love.
We're both tired from last night. Huddling underneath a blanket, we doze on the jet ride, sleeping through most of the three and a half hour trip to Michigan. When I open my eyes, he's got his face propped up with one hand, looking at me through the golden haze coming through the windows.
“Perfect timing, beautiful. We're about to touch down.”
Sitting up, I rub my eyes, falling back into him a moment later. Tucking my face into his shoulder, his arm goes around me, and I wish I could stay here forever.
It's him I breathe, inhaling his calming, masculine scent.
He holds me tighter. It's hard to believe we're together again.
I can't believe he held on after all these years. His heart stayed true, even when I gave up, tried like hell to move on with my life because I believed the worst about him.
Next time I open my eyes, the plane is almost on the runway. I'm clenching his hand, staring intently into the eyes I love, the ones that strip me bare to my heart over and over.
“I'm sorry I ever doubted you,” I whisper. “The first night you came to me, when I was at home with Holden, I almost turned you in.”
“I don't want apologies, Kara-bou,” he says, taking my hand warmly in his. “I want to rebuild. Soon as we're on the ground, we're getting to work building the life we always deserved. The one we had robbed away by circumstance, plus one evil bastard.”
He's right. There's no sense looking back, holding onto the pain in my heart, whether I'm hurting over something that happened a couple weeks ago, or four years, during my darkest days.
I'm too close to him when the plane hits the ground. We knock heads gently and I pull away, giggling. His hand goes down my thigh, rubbing with a stroke that's teasing and loving. Every time he touches me, there's more complexity than anything with Reg.