Ryan_A Contemporary Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  I walked straight ahead and looked out the large windows. The view was spectacular. Large trees were set back off the property line and there was a pond in the distance. I shook my head in disbelief that we would be living amongst all this beauty.

  “So, you said you have a few acres. Where’s your property line?”

  “Um, well, it’s past the trees.”

  “Oh, like just inside the trees? I’d like to take a walk, but I don’t want to wander onto someone else’s property.”

  He scratched the back of his head and squinted off into the distance. “Um, I’m sure you’ll be fine. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

  “Well, I’d prefer to know. Just tell me approximately how far it is.”

  He sighed and pointed off to the left. “The property line goes off about a half mile that way and and half mile the other way.”

  “And how far back does it go?” This didn’t sound like the few acres he was talking about.

  “About a mile.”

  “That’s not a few acres.”

  “No.”

  “That’s…” I tried to calculate in my head how many acres that was, but I was having trouble doing the math.”

  “Roughly six hundred and forty acres.”

  My jaw dropped open. This man was insane. He made it sound like he lived in some modest house on a modest piece of land when he was really living like a king.

  “How do you..I don’t understand. How can you afford all this?”

  “Well, my grandparents left me a pretty good inheritance. When I started the company with Logan and we started growing, I decided that I wanted to build something for myself. This land was available. So Logan designed the house according to what I had in mind and I found this land. It was just perfect. I imagined having a family out here some day. I didn’t realize it would be quite so soon, but that was the idea behind it.”

  I was shocked. I really didn’t know what to say about any of it. I shook my head to clear the amazement from my face. “Well, how about you show us where to put our bags and we’ll get settled in.”

  “Sure. Follow me.” He led me back toward the staircase and turned to the right where the double doors were. “James, upstairs are two bedrooms. You can choose whichever one you want.”

  James looked to me as if to ask if he could go. I nodded and he ran up the stairs to find his new room. “Cool!” I laughed and followed Ryan through the double doors to my new bedroom. It was amazing. A king size bed sat against the wall across from the doors, with a row of windows above. The right wall had double doors that led out to the porch, and there was a fireplace in the corner. The room was huge. It could have had my living room furniture in there and still been cozy.

  To the left was a door that led into the bathroom. I walked in and practically wept with joy. There was a walk-in shower that didn’t have a door, but receded back into the wall. The lower half had a stone wall, while the upper half was glass. The vanity looked like an entryway table and on top were two big bowls with faucets attached. Off to the right was a giant garden tub that I could imagine soaking in every night. How did I end up with this man? This couldn’t be real.

  “Right now I only have one dresser, but the closet is very large. How about we see how much space you need after you’ve filled the closet and then we can find dressers for the bedroom?”

  “That sounds fine.”

  “Mom! Mom! You’ve got to come see this.” James was jumping in the doorway of the bedroom, so I followed him upstairs to see his room. There was a cute loft that overlooked the backyard and a bedroom to the left of that. James was dragging me to the bedroom on the other side. There was a little living room set up outside his room where he could read. James loved to read, so this was perfect for him. His room was easily the size of our two bedrooms combined in our apartment. He showed me all the key features of the room and the view. Then he just stopped talking and started throwing his clothes in the dresser like he was afraid I would change my mind about staying.

  I walked back downstairs to find Ryan in the kitchen staring out the window. “So, how are you holding up with all this?”

  “Huh?” He turned to me with a questioning look. “Sorry. I was lost in thought.”

  “Is this all too much for you? I know you said you built this for a family, but I’m guessing that you thought it would be your family and not a fake family.”

  “As far as I’m concerned, you are my family. We’re married now and James is my son. Well, stepson. I’m not going to pretend that this isn’t a little weird, because it is, but we’ll make it work. We just need some time to adjust.”

  He said it all very matter of fact and I had no doubt that he wanted to mean it, but something in his voice told me that he was just telling himself that in the hopes that if he said it enough, he would believe it. He was right though. We were married now and I would try to make the most of it and make sure he didn’t regret his decision to help us.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  I was ready to go to bed by nine o’clock. The bath was calling my name, but I was so tired and I didn’t want to just go jump in the tub my first night here. James was already upstairs and had gone to bed a half hour ago. He seemed to be slightly more relaxed around Ryan the rest of the night, so I took that as a good sign.

  “I’m going to head to bed now. Do you have a certain side you sleep on?”

  “No, whatever side you want is fine. I’m just going to lock up and then I’ll be in,” Ryan said.

  He seemed a little distant, but I couldn’t blame him. This was a lot to take in.

  “I just want you to know, if you change your mind about this, I won’t be upset with you. I know I told you that you couldn’t back out, but I want you to know that I understand how difficult this must be.”

  He didn’t say anything, but nodded, so I went to the bedroom and got ready for bed. When I came out of the bathroom, Ryan was undressing in the bedroom. He had on his white t-shirt and his jeans were unzipped and sitting low on his hips. His eyes roamed my body and I started rethinking wearing just a t-shirt to bed.

  His eyes narrowed in on my chest and a scowl appeared on his face. I looked down and then back up at him. “What? Is something wrong?”

  “Army. I’m guessing that’s Michael’s shirt?”

  I looked down at the wording and flushed. “Yes. He left it when he..” I didn’t finish my thought. “I just wear it as a night shirt.”

  He walked over to me and stepped right into my space. I felt his fingers brush the hem of my shirt and start dragging it up. I almost pushed his hands away, but his eyes held me captive. I lifted my arms as he pulled the shirt up over my head and threw it in the corner. Then he reached behind him and pulled his shirt over his head by the neck. He slipped the shirt over my head and slid it in place. His eyes didn’t leave mine the entire time.

  “As long as you’re my wife, you’ll never wear that fucker’s clothes again.”

  I nodded slightly and parted my lips slightly. My nipples were pebbling under my shirt and my heart was racing. Part of me wanted to lean forward and kiss him, but the other part of me was worried about blurring the lines of our new relationship. His eyes dropped to my lips and he leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on my lips.

  “Goodnight, Cassandra.”

  He walked into the bathroom and I heard the shower start. I didn’t waste another minute climbing into bed and burying myself in the covers. Ryan had always made me want more and now that I had him, I was worried that I would only get my heart broken.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Ryan

  I WOKE EARLY the next morning to the feel of soft skin under my hands. I peeked an eye open to see that Cassandra’s ass was snuggled firmly against my cock, which was standing to attention. My arm was wrapped around her waist and my hand was cupping her breast. I could feel her pert nipple against my palm and it was doing nothing to ease the pain of my swelling erection.

  She started to move and my cock slid snuggly
between her ass cheeks. She must have been aroused because I could feel her pussy juices leaking down to meet my cock. My hips started thrusting further, seeking her heat. I needed to feel myself inside her. Deep down, I knew that if she was awake, she would flip out, but I just couldn’t control myself. I wanted her.

  “Oh.” The breathy moan slipped through her lips and I started to pull back. This was not the way to initiate sex with my wife. That was the weirdest thought I’d had yet.

  “What the hell?”

  Cassandra jumped up from the bed and pulled her shirt down from where it had ridden up. It was then that I connected the dots and realized she hadn’t worn underwear to bed.

  “Why were your hands on me? And your..” She waved her hand at my cock that was now showing from where she flung the covers off. I quickly covered myself and tried my best not to think about what it felt like to have her in my arms.

  “Look, I’m sorry. I was sleeping and I woke up that way.”

  “This is why we shouldn’t be sharing a room. I don’t..ugh!” She stormed off into the bathroom and closed the door with a bang. I fell back against the pillows and looked at my alarm clock. It was early still and I didn’t need to be up yet, so I let myself drift back off to sleep after getting my hard on under control.

  “Ryan. Ryan.” In my mind, Cassandra was calling out my name as she rode me hard. Her breasts were jiggling up and down as she shook my body with each bounce. In reality, someone was pushing my shoulder and when I pried my eyes open, James staring at me.

  “Huh?”

  “I’m hungry. What can I eat for breakfast?”

  I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and sat up. “I’ll make you some breakfast.” I flicked the covers off and stood up.

  “Eww. Why do you have so much hair down there?” I looked down and remembered that I was naked. I pulled the covers across the bed and quickly covered myself.

  “Um. I have hair because you get it as you get older.”

  “Everyone?”

  “Yeah, everyone. Some day you’ll have hair down there, too, little dude.”

  “Why was it, you know, sticking up?”

  I blinked several times and tried to think about how to answer that. “Um. It’s called morning wood.”

  “What’s that? I didn’t see any wood.”

  I scratched my head and tried to think like a ten year old. “Okay, so you know when two adults get older they have sex, right?”

  He gave me an odd look and then asked the dreaded question. “What’s sex?” Seriously, the kid was ten and Cassandra had never talked to him about sex?

  “Hold on. How about you go in the kitchen and I’ll get some pants on.”

  He shrugged and left the room. I quickly got in some sweats and made my way to the kitchen, hoping he had forgotten all about our conversation. I pulled out the stuff to make eggs and started to make breakfast.

  “Are you going to finish telling me what morning wood is?”

  I set the breakfast stuff aside and leaned against the counter. “Alright. So, a guy has a penis, right?” He nodded. “Well, a girl has a vagina.”

  “What’s a vagina?”

  “It’s a..hole..down there.” I waved toward my groin.

  “Oh, you mean a hoo-hoo.”

  Shit. She hadn’t even told him the proper terminology. I nodded and continued my explanation.

  “And that’s where a man sticks his penis. That’s what sex is.”

  “So, you just stick your penis in a girl and leave it there? For how long?”

  “No, you don’t just leave it there. You move it in and out and you do other..stuff.”

  “Like what?”

  “Um..well, you can use your fingers down there or your mouth.” Was that too much information?

  “To do what?”

  “To give her pleasure.”

  He thought about it for a minute.

  “Do you do that to my mom?”

  “Uh..no.”

  “Why not? How do you choose a girl to do that to?”

  “Well, you have to like the girl you do that to.”

  “Do you not like my mom?”

  Geez, this kid was never going to stop the questions and I had a feeling that I wasn’t supposed to be divulging this much information to him, but the kid had to know at some point.

  “I do, but we just haven’t done that yet.”

  “So, why was yours so big? You said that was morning wood. What is that?”

  “Mine is big because I’m older. When you’re older, yours will be bigger too. As for morning wood, when you get..happy to see a woman, your penis gets bigger and sticks up. Then you can put it in the girl’s vagina.”

  “So, it doesn’t work if it’s not sticking up?”

  “No.”

  “Huh. So how do I get mine to stick up?”

  I scratched my head. Why did all his questions have to be so tough? “You can’t make it. When your body is ready, it’ll just happen.”

  “So, when mine sticks up, I find a girl I like and stick it in her?”

  “What are you two talking about?” Cassandra screeched.

  “Uh..”

  “Ryan was telling me about sex and morning wood.”

  That little fucker just threw me under the bus. “Cassandra, it’s not what it sounds like.”

  “James, go finish getting ready for school while I make your breakfast.”

  James looked at me and shrugged, then left the room.

  “Why were you telling my son about sex and morning wood?”

  “He saw me naked this morning and one thing led to another. I swear, I didn’t want to talk to him about this-”

  “Then why did you? You aren’t his father. You have no right to talk to him about that stuff!”

  I was pissed by her comments. I shook my head and walked toward her, stepping into her space. “I’m not his father? So, I’m good enough to use to keep your son, but not good enough to be labeled his father?”

  “Up until this morning, you couldn’t even remember his name!”

  “I understand that you may not want me talking to him about some stuff, but the kid asked and he should have already been told about this stuff. Why haven’t you told him about sex yet?”

  “Because he’s too young to know.”

  “He’s ten! He’s gonna be going through puberty any day now and he doesn’t understand why guys get hard. Do you want him to freak out when his body starts changing?”

  “Look, you could have come to me and told me that he had questions. I would have talked to him.”

  “He wouldn’t have had questions if he hadn’t seen me naked. He doesn’t have any kind of father figure. I know you want to think that you’re all he needs, but a boy needs a man to talk to. The sex talk would be uncomfortable coming from you. He can ask me things that I fully understand. You can explain the mechanics, but how are you going to explain puberty to him? He doesn’t have the same parts as you.”

  “He’s my son. I get to decide when he’s ready to talk about this stuff. I get to decide who explains sex to him. I don’t need a man whore telling my son about sex.”

  I took a step back, feeling my body tightening in response to her accusation. I clenched my jaw to keep from saying something that would only make this situation worse. Deciding I’d had enough, I walked off toward my bedroom and got dressed for work.

  If there was one thing I didn’t need, it was being called names when I was doing everything I could to help her. I was probably the last of my friends that could ever be considered a man whore. I’d had several serious relationships over the years and though I’d had a few one night stands, I generally didn’t sleep with women I wasn’t dating. In fact, I had only been with one woman since I’d broken up with my girlfriend and the reason I hadn’t gone back for seconds or looked for someone new was because I was hung up on Cassandra.

  I finished dressing and went to find Cassandra. She was still in the kitchen, making breakfast for James, who was
sitting on a bar stool.

  “Here’s your house key and the garage door opener. You can park in there when you get home today.”

  “I don’t have my car. We left it at my apartment, remember?”

  Shit. Now I was going to have to drive into town with her.

  “Hurry up. I have a meeting this morning that I can’t be late for.”

  Cassandra ran off to the bedroom and I sat down at the counter waiting for her.

  “Are you and Mom fighting?”

  “Yeah, bud. Don’t worry about it, though. We’ll work it out.”

  “Are you going to drop me off at school today?”

  “Do you want me to?”

  He rubbed a spot on the counter and wouldn’t look at me. “It’s not like you’re my dad, but..”

  “But what?”

  “Some of my friends saw you drop me off yesterday. They thought your truck was pretty cool.”

  “Oh yeah? So, I’m like the cool guy now?”

  He shrugged. “I guess.”

  “You’ll have to ask your mom. I’m not sure she’s too happy with me right now.”

  “Cuz you were telling me about sex?”

  “Yep.”

  “But, you’ll still answer my questions, right?”

  I ran a hand over my jaw trying to decide what to say. On the one hand, I wanted this kid to talk to me if he needed to. It was weird for him to talk to his mom, but on the other hand, she really didn’t want me anywhere near her kid right now.

  “I need to talk to your mom first. I think maybe it’s best if you ask her questions from now on.”

  “But she’s a girl. You even said that she has a vagina. How would she even know what to say?”

  The kid had a point.

  Cassandra came running out before I could answer his question and we headed for the truck. The ride was uncomfortable and even more so when James asked if I could drop him off at school today. Cassandra glared at me, but I just shrugged. When I dropped her off at her car, she came around to my side and made a motion for me to roll down the window.