To her surprise, he answered without hesitation. “My wife left me because of what I am.”
He turned around and walked up to her, pinning her to the tree with his body pressed to hers. Keena’s nerve endings at every point in her body seemed to vibrate.
“I say that to my lover and not a stranger.”
“W-What are you?” she asked him.
“Alone. Broken. Unfixable.”
She wet her throat, not looking at him. “He left me at the altar to be with another woman. I can’t . . . I won’t trust another man. You understand that?”
“No strings,” he repeated.
She nodded, and his mouth descended. While they kissed, moaning and tasting each other in desperation, they fumbled to remove their clothing. When they were naked, Keena tried to cover her breasts, but Ryan pulled her hands away, placed them at her sides, and licked her distended nipples. A shudder rocked her, and she threw her head back, arching into his touch. She ran her fingers through his hair, gripped it to tug him closer. Amazed at the feelings he evoked in her, she watched him lave one nipple and then the other.
He opened eyes that were darker than she’d ever seen them, and he stared into her eyes as he ran his wet tongue sensuously over her skin. Even when he sought her core with strong fingers that probed deep inside her, she couldn’t look away from him. A whimper rose in her throat at the control he demanded of her without words. His thumb massaged her bud while his fingers worked her, and all the time, his gaze possessed her, drove her to give in to him.
“Ryan,” she murmured, “I don’t know.”
“Feel it, Keena. Enjoy my touch.”
His voice, smooth and silky, compelled her. She was on the verge of a powerful orgasm. “Yes, I’m yours, Ryan,” she moaned. “I can’t help myself.”
Just when her climax was ready to burst forth, Ryan released her and stepped back. His breathing shallow and rough, he ran a hand through his hair and turned his back on her. Keena couldn’t believe the devastation that replaced the pure bliss in seconds. She sagged against the tree, her knees wobbling.
“Why? I thought we were going to . . . You weren’t enjoying yourself, were you?”
He glanced back at her over his shoulder. She thought she saw a flash of sharp teeth, but decided her mind was playing tricks on her with the sunlight bouncing around the shadowed wooded area. “You can’t begin to imagine how much I enjoy touching you. It’s just that I don’t want . . . uh . . .” He couldn’t seem to find the words, and like he did when she first met him, he decided not to explain.
When he moved down to the water’s edge, seeming to have a total lack of self-consciousness over being naked, she followed at a slower pace. Behind him, she watched him dip a foot into the water, and she admired how amazing a body he had. No excess flesh anywhere marred his perfection. His buttocks were tight, his thighs thick and muscled, coated with a fine layer of dark, curly hair. She followed his movements with her gaze when he raised a hand to his neck, loving how the biceps contracted. A man with a body like his, a face like his, even with his dark aura, he could have any woman he wanted. She’d be on her knees ready and willing.
But he wanted her, and she was sure of that. So why did he back off? Was he feeling guilty over his wife? From what Keena could gather, his divorce had happened years ago, and while she understood the impact that kind of hurt could have on a person for life, she didn’t believe Ryan had been celibate since then.
Then it was her, his reaction to her that threw him off balance. That had to be it because when he touched her, when he looked at her and his eyes had shifted from deep blue to almost black, she felt something come over her, and all she desired was to give herself to him. That was scary as hell but not something she would deny herself from experiencing.
She grinned as a thought came to her. Maybe what Mr. Ryan Storm, control freak, needed was a woman who would push him past the limits he put on himself, who would wrench back some of that control if necessary.
She sauntered up behind him and rested her fingertips on his back. The muscles there tensed, but Keena didn’t let that discourage her. She leaned in and pressed a kiss to his hot skin and then ran her hands down his sides, stroked his hips, and grabbed his ass. At her boldness, he sucked in a sharp breath. She chuckled. Her exploration of his body continued with a caress along his thighs, on around to the front of them, and up to his stiff shaft.
A grunt escaped Ryan’s lips, and he laid his hand over hers as if to stop her, but she pushed him away. She stroked from base to tip, gave a gentle squeeze, and started a slow rhythm up and down his length.
“You shouldn’t,” Ryan murmured, his tone attesting to the pleasure she gave him.
Keena ignored him. She dropped to her knees and tugged at one of his thighs until he was forced to turn and face her. Without hesitation, she took the tip of his shaft into her mouth and cut her eyes up at him as she teased it with her tongue. Ryan’s eyes grew wide, the look of fear almost making her stop, but she wouldn’t. This wasn’t just about him. It was about her as well. She wanted to come. She wanted to feel that explosion he had brought her to the brink of, and more. And since they both wanted it, if she had to seduce it from him, so be it.
Still staring up at him, she took him deep into her mouth. The salty taste of him intoxicated her more than Mirabelle’s potion ever could. She wanted more. She wanted to swallow him. The sensation of him sliding in and out of her mouth, so big and thick that she pictured him between her legs, made her ache. Moaning, eyelids fluttering, she reached down between her thighs, stroked herself, and then eased her fingers inside of her, slick and wet. Watching her play with herself must have sent Ryan over the edge because his balls tightened, and after one shout, he emptied himself into her mouth.
Keena drew back so she wouldn’t choke, but she sucked him hard and swallowed his juices as fast as she could. When he finished, she let him slip from her lips and licked the underside of his shaft. Ryan reached down and lifted her into his arms.
“You’re a very naughty woman, Keena.”
She rolled her eyes. “You liked it.”
He rested his lips against her neck, holding her tight to his chest. “Make no mistake about it, I loved it, and I shall return the favor.”
He turned toward the water still holding her and stepped down into it. The chill made Keena shiver, but Ryan stroked her arms when they were settled face-to-face in the rippling depths. “I’ll warm you.”
Keena’s teeth had begun to chatter, but when Ryan found her center beneath the water’s surface and then lifted her to push his still-hard shaft into her passage, she forgot all about the cold as her body heated up.
She gripped his shoulders and cried out in pleasure. Hungry for all of him, she wrapped her legs around his waist and worked with him to pump his shaft deep inside her. Ryan, guiding her hips, lifted her up and down on his length. She couldn’t believe how long he was, how broad, to the point of stretching her around him.
They cried each other’s names out when they came together moments later. Ryan’s hold didn’t loosen for a moment. He let her slide down his chest until the water lapped at her shoulders, but there was no space between them. She stared into his eyes, this time not losing herself as she almost did back at the tree, but still so drawn to him that she couldn’t have turned away if she wanted to.
“No woman has captured me like this,” he whispered.
She smiled. “Me capture you? You’ve hooked me. What magic are you using that I have to have you against all reason?”
A shadow passed over his face, and she wondered what she could have said wrong, but he forced a smile. “I’m not using my magic,” he teased. “You broke the power of it when you sucked me like that.”
She laughed at the awe reflected in his eyes. “Good grief, you act like a woman’s never given you a blow job. It’s just sex.” She tried for the woman-about-the-world attitude, but it sounded false in her own ears.
Ryan hugged her a
nd kissed her ear but made no comment. “Come on. We’ll build a fire and dry off.”
“Shouldn’t we be getting back? The others will be waiting.” She followed him back to the horse and was surprised when he began pulling supplies from a saddlebag she hadn’t noticed before. “Hold on. You planned to get me out here alone, didn’t you?”
His answer was to pull out a couple of blankets and a thermos. Keena gave him a dirty look but went to help lay out the supplies. The chill had returned, but something told her what Ryan would do to ward it off would have her moaning through orgasm after orgasm, and she was more than okay with that.
Chapter Eight
The sun was setting. Keena sat tucked between Ryan’s legs with a blanket under them and one tossed over them. Neither of them had bothered to put clothes on for the entire day, and Keena had no idea where the hours had gone. All she knew was that she had found intense satisfaction in Ryan’s arms, and because her time was short, she wanted to make the most of this experience.
“Will you get in trouble?” she asked him and then blew on the roasted marshmallow he had supplied her with from his bag.
“No, I’m close with the owner. I’m a hard worker usually.” He shrugged.
“Well, are we going to head back soon with the sun going down?”
His gaze shifted from the fire to her. “Are you getting bored with me, Keena?”
“Of course not. Don’t be silly.” She smirked. “Although I am kind of sore. I mean seriously, you pack a lot into your pants, and a woman can only take so much until she needs to rest.”
“You flatter me.”
She twisted around to glance down at his length resting between them. “I don’t. Trust me, whatever the reason is that you’re single, that’s not it.” She could have bitten her tongue at the closed look that came over his face from her words. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
He shook his head. “No. It’s fine.” They sat in silence for a good twenty minutes before Ryan spoke again. “Her name was Anne. She was the love of my life, sweet and beautiful, delicate. Loving her brought out the protective instinct in me.”
He faltered in his speech as if he wasn’t comfortable saying so much, let alone something that personal. Yet, Keena knew what he meant. Men like Ryan would love the fragile, beautiful women who could scarcely take care of themselves, women who didn’t know the first thing about balancing their own checkbooks or what insurance carrier they used for the car—someone not like her. Of course, there was nothing wrong with letting a man handle all those things if one had a man like that. Keena had dreamed of someone to take a good bit of the burden, someone she could depend on.
She had no idea what to say in comment to Ryan, so she kept quiet. He didn’t appear to need her to say anything. She pulled his arms tighter around her, nibbled on her marshmallow, and listened.
“We were in Paris for a late honeymoon because, when we were married, I was just starting a business venture. I couldn’t get away at that time, so it took two years for me to find both the time and the money to take her. At first things were wonderful, couldn’t have been better. We seemed to be close, but looking back, I realize we had nothing in common. She hated horses, hated Colorado, for that matter. She was a city girl like you.”
That admission, that Anne was from the city, brought Keena down even further, although she didn’t know why. They were just lovers and nothing more. When she left, she would never see him again unless she came back to Colorado on vacation. That wouldn’t be before next year, or longer, when she could get away.
Ryan frowned. His eyes glazed over like he was remembering something, and it must have been bad because he pressed too hard against Keena’s stomach. She winced, and he drew back.
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay. Go on.”
“One night after we were there fore a week, we went to take in a show Anne wanted to see. When it was over, we left the dinner theater and started back to the hotel. I think we took a wrong turn and ended up lost. We wandered around without seeing anyone to ask for directions for a while. It was late and chilly, and Anne was getting tired and cranky. I was tired as well, so I wasn’t as tolerable of her complaining. We argued. I wasn’t watching where we were going at that point, and then . . .”
When Ryan stopped talking, Keena twisted around to look at him, but the coldness he had displayed when she first met him seemed to radiate out of him. He moved her forward and stood up to slip into his pants. Bare-chested and oblivious to the cool night air, he stood facing the moon, staring at it like it had answers for what had happened to him and his wife so long ago.
For some reason, although he hadn’t said anything scary, Keena felt like he’d been telling her a ghost story. She clutched the blanket tighter around her and peered out into the dark woods, for the first time wishing they had gone back to the ranch. At least there, if she got nervous, she could flick a light on. Here she was, at the most inopportune time, thinking about how that guide had said there were bears in the Rockies.
She must have made some scared-rabbit sound because Ryan all of a sudden turned back to her and scooped her up to sit on his lap as he sank to the ground. He repositioned the blanket so it covered them both, and he kissed her lips before he continued with his story. Keena basked in his hold, not questioning it, just enjoying it.
“We were attacked. The guy jumped on Anne and knocked her to the ground. I fought him off the best I could, but then he turned on me.” He hesitated. “I was injured. When Anne later found out the seriousness of that injury, she no longer wanted to be with me. She left and soon after filed for divorce. That was five years ago.” He ended on a monotone, his eyes focused on the fire in front of them.
Keena thought about how she had seen every bit of Ryan’s delicious body all day long, and she had not seen any evidence of an injury. He had the basic scars like most people, like one would get as a child, a cut or a scrape, but nothing that would make his wife leave. She shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe she would be so shallow. Your body is perfect. If there was anything, she should have waited, and even if it never quite healed, she should have loved you enough to stay.”
Ryan’s lips compressed. She thought she might have offended him talking about his ex-wife like that, especially if he still loved her, but he said, “My herbs do wonders.”
She laughed. “Yeah, even your herbs wouldn’t be that powerful.” She touched his cheek and kissed him. “Anyway, you’re better off. Isn’t that what everyone says when you’ve had your heart handed to you, like that’s going to clean up the destruction someone else dealt?”
“Hmm. You know about that?” He watched her with expectance in his gaze. “You don’t have to share.”
She chuckled. “But you did, so why can’t I?” She turned away and faced the fire, but leaned back into his embrace. Somehow, it felt right to have him there, to be the one to share her hurt with. She could only hope that rightness wasn’t because she was falling for him. That would be a huge mistake. While he told his story, Keena became convinced that one experience, where his wife abandoned him because she felt he was less than a man, had destroyed Ryan. No amount of sex by the lake would fix that kind of destruction, she was sure.
“Okay, fine.” She tried for nonchalance and failed. A tightness started in her chest just from her knowing that she would open her shame to him. And why should she feel ashamed? Steven was the jerk who had cheated on her, and that whore China. Keena closed her eyes remembering how innocent she had been, how she preened in the mirror that day, thinking he wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off her because she looked so good.
“Stupid.”
“Hmm?” Ryan asked.
She sighed. “I was stupid. I fell for a weak, cheating bastard.” She curled her fingers in the blanket at her sides, but Ryan loosened them and intertwined his with hers.
“Squeeze as hard as you need to. I can take it,” he told her.
She stared into h
is eyes. Tears spilled from hers, and Ryan moved to rest his cheek alongside hers, whispering words of comfort. A shudder passed through her. How had she thought him heartless? He was so much more than that, but he hid it from everyone. Funnily enough, he had shown her glimpses from the very start. Maybe she had magic she didn’t know about. That thought made her smile through the tears.
“I got all the way to my wedding day, but he left me there, didn’t show up,” she blurted out in a flat tone. “He was with my half sister, China. She was the most beautiful woman you ever wanted to lay eyes on, and for me to think he, or any man, would resist someone like her when she tossed herself at him was stupid.”
“So you’re blaming yourself for this?”
“Of course not!” She tried to pull her hands from his and move away, but he held on. Ryan found her mouth with his and kissed her until she felt drunk on his lips. He tilted her head up and made her look into his eyes. He said nothing, but in the flickering light, she became lost. Somehow the suffocation in her chest released, and the doubt about herself, the fears eased enough for her to relax.
Ryan pulled her head to his shoulder. “Weakness in another person is not your fault. It’s theirs.”
She waited for him to put Steven down like she had done with Anne, but he didn’t even mention him, as if what Steven felt or did didn’t matter, but how well Keena was now, how she dealt with what happened to her, did. He was so unlike anyone she’d ever met. From that first day, Ryan had felt her pain and seemed to want to heal it. Maybe that was why he had pursued her, more so than the sexual attraction. She shook her head. No, she couldn’t make him into something more than he was. He was just a man, like every other one.
“I know it’s not my fault. It’s theirs. My rational mind tells me that’s true.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I used to have a dream of getting married and having a bunch of kids. That dream is over. I don’t think that, even if I did find someone special, that I’d ever believe in those fairy tales again. Guess I grew up.” She uttered a shaky chuckle.
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