When he stood outside her door, he found himself straightening his tie and finger combing his hair. And when she opened the door, looking positively edible in a knee-length gray cotton jersey shirt and men’s knee socks, her hair pulled back in a high ponytail and not a stitch of makeup on her porcelain perfect face, everything just seemed to fall into place.
Dani lit up a room, and in her wake, every problem he’d ever had just melted away, leaving behind a tremendous warmth and happiness he’d never known he was missing.
Reaching to take his hand and pull him inside, the simple touch shot currents of electricity through his palm that traveled straight to his heart, and as she rose up on her toes to kiss him, it clicked.
Robert Goodwin was right. He was in love.
TWELVE
THEY WERE ARGUEING OVER pizza toppings.
“Who doesn’t like pineapple on a pizza?” Dani was prepared to fight to the death over this one. “The combination of sweet and savory, you don’t get much better than that.”
“Fruit doesn’t belong on a pizza. Meats and cheeses, fine. But never fruit.”
“You’re a madman!” Turning her half-eaten slice toward him, she shoved it in his face. “Here, try it.”
He jerked his head back, revolt twisting his features. “No, thank you.”
“My mother always told me you can’t say you don’t like something if you don’t try it. Now try the damn pizza.” She shoved again, this time connecting with his lips.
Laughing, Ransom grabbed her wrist and thrust it away from him. “And my mother always told me that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force him to drink. Now eat your pizza and leave me alone, you crazy woman.”
“One word. Anchovies.”
“What’s wrong with anchovies?” Ransom asked, his brows furrowed.
“Are you kidding? What kind of…crazy person puts tiny little fish on his pizza?” She poked him in the chest. “You do.”
“They’re meat, and I just explained that meat was a perfect topping. Thus, your argument is invalid.” He got back to eating his disgusting slice of pizza, and Dani harrumphed loudly as she slumped back into the couch.
“Fine, more for me then.”
“More for you,” he agreed, an infuriating smile tugging at his lips.
Dani wanted to smack him. And kiss him. Then maybe smack him again for good measure. Anchovies, yuk! And he had the nerve to call her crazy.
“So, since you don’t want to sample my pineapple, what do you want to watch?”
Slanting her a dark look, he reached out and circled his fingers firmly around her wrists, pulling her hand and the pizza toward his mouth. Then, holding her shocked gaze, he chomped off a large bite. When he finished chewing, his expression not at all impressed, and swallowed, he took another moment to gulp down half a glass of soda before speaking. With a salacious smile, he leaned in, his lips hovering over hers. “I always want to sample your pineapple.” Then he laid a heart-stopping kiss on her.
Dani’s hand shook as she set her pizza back down on the plate resting in her lap. That was…wow. Hands down the hottest thing anyone had ever done or said to her.
“I hear there’s a new season of Turn on. Do you like period dramas?”
His suggestion caught her off-guard. “You like that show?”
“What’s not to like? It has mystery, action, history.”
“And you’re a history buff,” she pointed out.
“That I am. So, are you game?”
Handing over the remote, she said, “Let’s do it.” Instantly, she realized how that must have sounded and looked up at him, knowing she was blushing furiously. “I didn’t mean for that to come out that way.”
“I know what you meant, but I definitely like how it sounded,” he said with a teasing grin.
Holding up his arm, she took the invitation, setting her plate on the table and curling up against him. He held her close, just like she’d always dreamed a man would. It felt good, right. She couldn’t imagine anything feeling better than spending time with someone who truly valued her as a person. Someone who wasn’t afraid to share his thoughts and feelings, to be vulnerable where others would choose to hide.
As the show played and battles erupted on the television, Dani thought of how drastically her life had changed since meeting Ransom. In just a few short days, she’d stepped out of childhood and into true womanhood. In the past, she’d never had much time to worry about things like love and sex, which was probably why Mark moved on. Although he did it in the most hurtful way possible, she recognized her role in how they ended. She’d put her education and work first which, while it was something that would serve her well in life, wasn’t all life was about. She had been missing that key element, until Ransom.
Snuggled in his arms, listening to the rhythmic beat of his heart, she thought of how happy she had become. Several people at work had noticed. She might have contributed it to the fact that she’d finally lost her V-card, as if the signs were written plainly on her face, but it was more than that. She felt it. Unfettered happiness. A blooming in her chest, a tightness that felt as if her heart would explode. Her entire world was on fire for this man. He was in her thoughts throughout the day and night, starring in her dreams, and coloring her reality. For all the jittery nerves she felt just hearing his voice over the phone, the overpowering happiness seeing his face brought, there was a stillness inside of her that she’d never felt before. Like calm water on a windless day.
She felt more at home standing at Ransom’s side than she’d ever felt in her entire life.
***
THE SENSATION OF FLOATING woke her up. Lifting her tired eyelids, Dani found herself staring straight up at Ransom’s handsome face as he carried her to her room and laid her down in her bed.
“I’m going to head home,” he told her softly as he helped to pull back the blankets and tuck her in.
She hated the idea instantly. “Can’t you stay?” she asked, holding onto his hand to keep him from leaving.
Glancing to the pillow beside hers, he seemed to wrestle with an answer. “As much as I’d like to, I think I should go. Don’t want to wear out my welcome.” He smiled as if to soften his words, and Dani realized that he actually believed them.
“You’re always welcome here,” she assured him. “I want you here, and”–she looked away, embarrassed by her admission—“I like how it felt waking up beside you.” If she had it her way, she’d wake up beside him every day.
His expression softened and he touched his fingers to the apple of her cheek. “Best morning of my life, but this is moving fast. If I stay now, what’s to say I don’t stay tomorrow and the next night and the next? You saved yourself for all these years. Are you ready to make that kind of commitment?”
Was she? It was like asking a couple if they were ready for children. It was impossible to know. On paper, everything appeared simple enough, but life was anything but simple. On the one hand, Dani felt far older than her twenty-four years with a master’s under her belt and a promise of making partner in a few short years if she kept the pace she was at now. In many ways, she was an experienced adult, but in many ways, she was still trying to figure out her place in the world.
But there was one thing she couldn’t ignore or deny, and that was her heart. Having a piece of Ransom was, to her, better than having no part of him at all. Given the chance, she planned to hold onto him as long as possible.
Fisting the front of his shirt, she tugged him down to kiss him, not above using her God-given feminine wiles to aid in her cause.
“I think a more apt question is are you ready for that kind of commitment? Because I’m ready for anything you’re willing to give me.”
Passion erupted behind those dark eyes at her softly spoken words. Climbing onto the bed, Ransom straddled her. “I’m ready for more than you think, but consider yourself warned. I’m a difficult man, Daniella. Are you sure you know what you’re getting yourself into?”
“Not at all, but I’m excited to find out what makes a man like you tick.”
His left eyebrow quirked up. “I’ll give you a hint.” Sitting up, he tore his shirt over his head, revealing smooth, tanned skin and the toned physique that Dani couldn’t get enough of. She reached out, compelled to trace every bump and groove of his abs, but he stilled her hand. Giving her an admonishing shake of his head, he tsked. “Fair’s fair. Take off your clothes, Dani. Show me what’s mine.”
She did as he told her, accepting his help as she sat up and removed her nightshirt. Ransom’s heated appraisal rocked her to the core, and when he bent to take her nipple into his mouth, she quaked.
There was no comparison for how he made her feel. The impression he left on her was boundless and untellable.
Under his supportive hand, she laid back and he followed her down, lavishing every inch of her needy, kiss-starved flesh in wet kisses.
When he’d had his fill, Ransom moved on, licking his way down her stomach to her hip bones where he gave each a playful nip. She squealed, delighting him. The rotten brute.
Hooking his fingers in her underwear, he dragged them down her thighs painfully slow. Once he’d freed her feet, he tossed them aside, then hunkered down between her open thighs, his broad shoulders nestled beneath her bent knees.
Dani had never had the pleasure of such an intimate touch, but she’d heard plenty of stories from her girlfriends who swore, if done right, it was more pleasurable than the act of sex itself.
With nothing to compare it to, Dani couldn’t speak on it, but she could imagine no greater feeling than the presence of a skilled lover’s hot embrace when he was buried deep inside her body.
But, just as she’d been assailed by innumerable doubts and insecurities before having sex for the first time, Dani felt the distraction of uncertainty once again. Seeing Ransom’s face between her thighs was an erotic treat, yet not knowing what to expect was jarring.
Sensing her distress, he looked up, placing his hand low on her belly. “Have you ever had a man taste you before?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head.
“That’s almost as unbelievable to me as you being untried.” She didn’t know how to answer, so she didn’t. “I’m going to have fun showing you all the ways your body can come, Dani. First, you had my cock. Tonight, you’ll have my tongue.”
She shuddered, the visual almost too much to bear.
With his free hand, she felt a single digit trace through her wetness. The rush of sensation jolted her, and Dani’s hips thrust from the bed. Ransom’s hand on her belly caught her before she could catch him in the chin with her pelvis, pressing her back into the mattress and holding her there.
“Easy, baby.”
“I’m sorry,” she rushed out, humiliated at her overzealous reaction.
“Don’t be sorry. I like how you respond to me. Now,” he said as he touched her again, sliding the tip of his finger through her folds, “just try to relax.”
He added another finger, splitting her lips apart and massaging either side of her clit. Dani Dani concentrated hard, focusing on the sensations he wrought on her body while trying desperately not to buck him off with her body’s wild instincts.
He fingered her opening next, spreading her cream around before dipping down to taste her. When the flavor hit the tip of his tongue, he issued a low, primal growl that was startling and sexy and had Dani fisting the sheets, praying for more.
He delivered. Spreading her open with the flat of his tongue, Ransom dove in, licking and sucking her, lapping at her opening like a kitten who’d found a bowl of cream. Dani’s insides leaped and rolled, flipping this way and that as she struggled to constrain herself.
Then Ransom did something truly sinful. Lodging two fingers inside her, he pumped them in and out in long, unhurried strokes at the same time he latched onto her clit and flicked it back and forth with his devilish tongue.
There was no saving her after that.
Dani’s heart was at a full-on gallop and her breathing was out of control. She could scarcely catch her breath, her muscles growing taut and her eyes crossing as he pushed her toward something she didn’t understand.
The all-consuming sensations short-circuited her brain, sending her flying and spiraling at once. She lost all sense of time and space as he plundered her inner-depths and savaged her soul in the most welcoming way.
Then, in one heart-stopping moment, the world exploded into a dazzling array of colors, sending her body into a spasm of electrical impulses that had her limbs twitching and her body convulsing. For that moment in time, Dani ceased to exist. All that was left of her was a mass of sensations, her consciousness having traveled to some unreachable place.
Sometime later, Dani felt the brush of Ransom’s beard stubble tickling her inner thighs. With a struggle, she managed to look down and found him lazily kissing her, caring for her sated body with that reverence she’d witnessed when he’d first taken her.
Her heart stuttered in her chest, unable to process the implications of such a profoundly affectionate act while still coming to terms with the sheer havoc he’d just wreaked upon her.
“So as far as firsts go,” Ransom said in that throaty rasp she’d come to adore, “did I live up to your expectations?”
“I didn’t have any expectations,” she said with an uncomfortable laugh. “But I definitely enjoyed it.”
“Enjoyed is an understatement if your full-body seizure was any indication.”
“I did not have a seizure,” she protested.
As if to remind her, Ransom filled her with his fingers again, causing her inner muscles to clamp down and a moan to wrench from her parted lips.
“Don’t do that,” she said weakly.
“What, this?” he curled his fingers, and another wave of ecstasy rolled through her.
“Stop!” she complained, pulling her knees back and trying to roll away. He rose up, pinning her with his body. She threw her arm over her eyes to shield herself from his prying gaze. “God, this is so embarrassing.”
“Orgasms are something to be celebrated, not embarrassed by. Do you know how many women have never experienced what you just did?”
Of course not. How could she? But she did remember Brit once complaining about men who couldn’t deliver in bed. She called them selfish pigs and said that’s why she preferred to take care of business herself. At least that was one area of sex that Dani had extensive knowledge in, but with the way Ransom strummed her body with such knowledge and precision of a seasoned violinist, she might never need the help of old B.O.B. again.
But there was still one thing she hadn’t tried.
Dodging his question, Dani decided that, in the interest of learning, she had another question that needed to be addressed. “You know what else I’ve never done?”
“Besides multi-orgasming?”
Suddenly feeling giddy, Dani hooked her ankle around his calf and pushed against his shoulder. Taking the hint, Ransom rolled onto his back easily, taking her with him. With their positions reversed, Dani sat astride his hips, her fingers dancing across his chest and abs. She dazzled him with her version of one of his devilish grins. “A blowjob.”
Ransom nearly choked on his own saliva. “You’ve never—but how—no, wait, I don’t care. Jesus, you really are the perfect woman.”
She laughed, empowered by his spirited candor. “I wouldn’t go that far. I’ve never really been interested in doing that for anyone, but…” And here was where she had to dig deep. “But I enjoyed what you did to me, so I’d like to return the favor if you’ll let me.”
“Baby, I would fucking love to teach you how to go down on me,” he fairly shouted. Grabbing her upper arms, he yanked her down on top of him and planted a hungry kiss on her lips. Eyes dancing with anticipation, he said, “Why don’t you show me what you do know, and we’ll go from there.”
“You mean you want me to just start? No instructions?”
“This sort of thing doesn’t exactly come with a manual,” he teased. “Half the battle has already been won. I’m hard as a rock.” He lifted his chin, and she looked over her shoulder seeing that he was, indeed, ready to rock.
Oh boy. Well, once he figured out that what she knew of giving a blowjob could fit in a thimble, he just might rethink his strategy.
THIRTEEN
HOLY CHRIST, HE’D NEVER would have guessed that such a simple thing—a blowjob—could be so thoroughly decimated. And so fast too.
“Honey, no. Just…stop. Take a breath.” With as gentle hands as possible, Ransom took Dani’s face between his palms and removed her from his shrinking shaft.
Wide, worry-filled eyes stared up at him. “Did I do it wrong? I did it wrong, didn’t I? See, I told you I was no good at this.”
“No, that’s not it.” That was totally it. “I just…” He scraped his brain for something feasible that wouldn’t result in hurt feelings. “I’m not feeling well all of a sudden.” He swallowed thickly, making a show of it.
Touching his face, her concerned deepened. “You are a little flushed. Do you want me to get you a glass of water?”
“Could you?”
“Of course. I’ll be right back.” She bounced off the bed and hurried from the room.
Ransom waited a heartbeat to make sure she was gone, then popped upright, grabbing his cock and inspecting it for damage. Had she caught him with her tooth? Whatever she’d done, it didn’t feel right at all. Similar to a toothache. Everything looked good, though, if not a little red from her ambitious drive to serve him.
He had to love the woman though. She certainly put her all into it, even if she clearly had no clue what the hell she was doing. He should have listened to her when she told him as much. But, in his defense, he thought the whole thing was pretty foolproof. Just some sucking and tugging, right? Apparently, not.
Forbidden Valentine: A Forbidden Novel Page 10