He thrust his shaft into her mouth, over and over, and she moaned around his thickening erection. The sound had unintended results. He jerked, and he pumped himself into her willing mouth while she played him as best she could with her tongue and one free hand. He let out a long groan, and suddenly she understood just what she’d done to him, as she felt the vibrations straight through her core.
The tremors triggered her sudden release, and her entire body caught fire as she came, shaking and moaning around his thickening shaft, her release imminent. He nipped at her clit, and she shattered completely at the same moment he came in her mouth, hot spurts seeping down her throat as she struggled to swallow and keep up with him—and with herself.
* * *
Holy shit. Ian had just had his mind—and body—blown by a sexy woman who knew her own mind and refused to roll over and let him have his way. She demanded her due. And he’d loved it. Just as he’d loved sleeping with her in his arms and waking up with her lips wrapped around his cock. He was falling for her in a way he’d never let himself before, and it scared the living daylights out of him. He didn’t like giving anyone power over him in any way. Most especially when it came to his emotions.
Do not overthink this, he warned himself. It was one night with a gorgeous woman.
He pulled himself up to the head of the bed and found her facedown sprawled across the bed. He brushed her hair from her face.
“I think I died and went to heaven,” she muttered without opening her eyes.
He burst out laughing, enjoying her immensely. “Happy to have taken you there.”
He took her in, gorgeous curls spilling over her back, her hips wide and generous, her ass perfectly round, and grinned at the sight.
“Come on, sweetness. Time to shower.”
“Can’t move.”
He headed for his bathroom and pulled out two towels then turned on the shower so it would get hot before returning to the bed.
“Shower,” he said, more forcefully this time.
When she didn’t move, he debated only briefly then reached out and swatted her ass with his palm.
“Hey!” She raised her head and glared at him, but there wasn’t anger in her blue eyes, only heat and sudden awareness and arousal.
He filed the knowledge away for another time.
“Come on.” He scooped her into his arms and headed for the steam-filled bathroom.
Needless to say, the shower took longer than it would have if they’d just washed up and was one of the more memorable mornings he’d spent in a good, long while.
* * *
Riley normally avoided the walk of shame. It was easy when her boyfriends were few and far between, and one-night stands didn’t happen in her life. Now she had to put on last night’s clothes and ask Ian to take her to the stadium to get her car. All she wanted to do was escape the rest of the morning without undue embarrassment.
In the light of day, everything they’d done came back to her in vivid detail, and she didn’t know how she’d face him. Where was the bravery she’d woken up with? Gone, now that his arms were no longer wrapped securely around her and she didn’t know where they stood.
She stepped out of the bathroom to an empty bedroom. Ian had excused himself to take a business call, and apparently he still hadn’t returned. She’d check her own cell, but she’d left it, along with her purse, in Ian’s car.
Ignoring her rumbling stomach, she picked up her panties from the floor and turned them inside out, pulling them on. She folded her arms across her bare chest and groaned. Her shirt and bra were on the floor somewhere in the front hall, and no way would she parade through his big apartment naked. She’d have to find a dry towel to wrap around herself, she thought.
She glanced at the bed, surprised to find he’d left a folded tee-shirt for her to wear, and she gratefully pulled the oversized garment on. It fell below her knees. She folded her skirt, tucking it beneath her arm.
She walked through the hallway, passing two closed doors, extra bedrooms, she assumed, and entered the main great-room area. She walked toward the sound of Ian’s muffled voice and found him by the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean.
He stood with one hand high on the window. Navy track pants rode low on his waist, and no shirt covered his incredible body, giving her a good look at his muscular back and arms.
She bit back a sigh at the sight.
Or maybe she didn’t suppress it so well, because he turned around, and his steely gaze locked on hers. “Just take care of it,” he bit out to whoever was on the other end and disconnected the call.
When he faced her, his expression softened. “Hungry?” he asked.
She swallowed hard. “You don’t have to feed me. But I do need you to take me back to my car. It’s at the stadium, remember?”
Ian remembered. He also recognized a retreat when he saw one. Normally that was his job. He didn’t like that she was so eager to escape.
Not when reality would give her reasons soon enough. Before that happened, he needed to lure her back from wherever she’d gone to emotionally protect herself.
“That’s not an answer,” he said. “I asked if you were hungry.”
Her stomach answered for her, and a rosy flush stained her cheeks.
He laughed. “I thought so.”
He wrapped an arm around her waist and led her to the kitchen, all the while, aware of her curves beneath his shirt and the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra. He knew because he’d placed her clothes in a bag for her to take home later.
“Come. Breakfast is waiting.”
She eyed him warily, as if she suddenly didn’t know what to make of him.
He felt the same way. Most women he slept with clung to him, hoping he’d find something about them that would make him interested longer. He often suspected it was his money that had them so enthralled, because he certainly didn’t treat them to his charming personality the morning after, or feed them breakfast.
With subtle pressure on her back, he led her to the kitchen, where breakfast had been delivered while she finished in the bathroom. “Sit.”
She chose a chair and settled into a seat, studying the spread of food laid out before them.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked,” he said. “I figured since one of the benefits of living here involves full room service, you might as well take your pick.”
“Thank you.” She picked up a bagel and spread cream cheese over it, ignoring the fruit.
He grinned. “A carb girl.”
“I worked up an appetite.” The blush returned. “I can eat it on the way to the stadium if you have things to do.”
He slid his chair closer to her, gratified when her color heightened even more and her breath caught in her throat. He didn’t want to be alone in feeling like he couldn’t get enough of her.
Still, she was suddenly skittish, and he wanted to know why. “In a rush to get away?” he asked her.
“No, it’s just…I don’t know…I don’t do this.” She glanced away and took a large bite of her bagel.
“Define this.”
She chewed and swallowed. “I don’t usually have sex with a guy outside of a relationship.”
Now they were getting somewhere. “And?” He needed her to continue with no suggestions from him. He wanted her unvarnished take on what this thing between them was. Because he was still working it out himself.
Without meeting his gaze, she took another bagel bite, chewed, swallowed, and followed it with a long sip of orange juice.
He waited.
“Alex said you go from woman to woman,” she finally admitted.
He clenched his jaw, wanting to kill his half brother for offering any kind of take on his life. The other man didn’t know him. At all.
“That’s been my MO,” he admitted to her.
She placed her unfinished bagel on the plate. “Well, I appreciate your honesty. Can we go now?”
He shook his head and couldn’t stop
the grin from spreading across his face. “Riley, Riley, Riley. I said that’s been my MO. Has there been anything about my behavior, from last night to this morning, that led you to believe I’m finished with you?”
To punctuate his point, he swiped his finger over the corner of her lip, where a drop of cream cheese remained, and licked it off his finger while she watched. Her eyes dilated with undisguised need, and his cock grew harder in his sweats.
“So we’re not finished?” She gripped her napkin in her lap, twisting it unmercifully.
“Not by a long shot.”
She finally met his gaze. Big blue eyes stared at him through thick lashes, as she clearly worked out what she wanted to say next.
“I have some rules.”
He raised an eyebrow, not wanting to be amused, yet he was, despite himself. “Go on.”
She drew a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “If you don’t want to call this a relationship, that’s fine, but if you’re seeing me, you aren’t seeing other women at the same time.”
He hadn’t said he didn’t consider them in a relationship. Hell, Ian wouldn’t know what a relationship entailed, but he had a feeling that admission wouldn’t win him any points.
He rested his hand on her thigh where his shirt had inched up, revealing bare skin. “We both know that since we started going out together, I haven’t had time for anyone else. But you’ll be happy to know I haven’t wanted anyone either. So no other women.” He stroked her soft flesh, inching higher with a broad sweep of his thumb.
“Good.” Her voice came out on a husky rasp.
“Now for a condition of my own.” He lifted her chin with his hand. “No other men for you.”
“Done.” A cheeky grin lifted her lips, and he knew he had her back.
No more distance.
He leaned in and brushed his lips over hers, tasting a mix of Riley and citrus from her juice.
She moaned and kissed him briefly before pulling away. “One more thing.”
“What would that be?” he asked, enjoying her way too much.
“I have to tell Alex, and I have to do it my way. He won’t be happy, and I need him to understand. I need him in my corner. That’s nonnegotiable.”
Ian closed his eyes and groaned, not because he objected to how she handled his half brother and her friend, but for far more serious reasons. “I think that may be a problem,” he told her.
She stiffened and pulled back. “Ian, I said nonnegotiable, and I meant it. Alex isn’t just my friend, he’s my family.” Her entire body trembled. “For a long time, he was the only person I had in my life who protected me.” She flinched at her own words. Obviously she hadn’t meant to reveal that much.
But she’d said it, and now he wondered. Protected her? From whom? There was a story there, Ian knew, and if they had time, he’d ask her about it.
“The point is, if you can’t give me that then—”
“I’d give you time to talk to him if I could, but it’s too late. That call I got this morning? It was about this.”
He grabbed his iPhone from the counter, opened the email that had come in earlier, a link to a well-known sports blog that had posted a photo of the two of them taken last night as they exited the restaurant.
Her cheeks were flushed. Her hand in his. There was no doubt they were together. Or intended to be.
She took the phone and stared at the photo filling the screen. “Oh God.” She jumped up from her seat.
“My phone. I need my phone from your car.” She started for the door then turned back to him. “Why didn’t you tell me about the picture before?”
“It’s only been ten minutes since I found out. I was trying to find out how far it spread.”
“And?” she asked.
“It’s gone viral, in the Miami sports blogs anyway.”
She winced. “What are they saying? What’s the caption?”
“Is it important?” he asked, not wanting to get into that.
She eyed him warily. “The fact that you asked that tells me it is,” she said in a cool voice.
He met her gaze. “Miami Thunder President, Ian Dare, and his latest fling. What are the odds this one makes it beyond the weekend?”
“Wonderful,” she muttered.
He refused to lose her over something he couldn’t control. “It only matters what goes on between us, and we’ve already had this conversation. You don’t need to worry.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she said, her expression panic-stricken. “I need to call Alex.”
Of course she did. Somehow he managed to stop the words from coming out of his mouth. “Use my phone,” he said.
When she hesitated, he said, “It’s faster than waiting for my car to be brought around.”
She swallowed hard. “Thanks.” She dialed and waited for the other man to answer.
Ian knew he ought to give her privacy, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk out. He didn’t like being in the dark, and when it came to Riley and Alex, he wasn’t just the one being blacked out, he was entirely on the outside looking in. The thought turned his stomach.
“Hi, it’s me,” she said.
“Dammit, Riley—I’ve been calling you all night. Then I wake up this morning to that photo of you and Ian?”
Ian stood close enough to Riley that Alex’s voice carried from the other end, and he clenched his hands at his sides.
“I was waiting until you came home from your trip to tell you in person.” She glanced at Ian and turned away. “He offered me a job with the Thunder.”
“And he’s fucking you at the same time?” Alex yelled.
“It’s not like that!” she shot right back.
Except it was exactly like that, Ian thought, and they both knew it.
“You’re home from LA, right?” she asked.
Whatever his answer, he’d lowered his voice, and Ian could no longer hear.
“Okay then. I’ll see you this afternoon. In the meantime, calm down.” Silence followed, then, “Love you too. Bye.”
Resisting the urge to punch something, Ian waited for her to turn back toward him. When she did, she appeared much more subdued than he’d have liked.
“He hates me that much?” Ian asked her.
She shook her head. “No matter what he said, it’s not all about you. It’s about me and Alex. And me keeping this from him for the last week.”
“You said he’s your family.”
She looked up at him, eyes wide and glassy. “He is. Alex and my stepmom. They’re all I have.”
Ian wanted to be included in that short list. It didn’t matter how little he really knew her, what he did know had only convinced him she was special. The right person for him in an otherwise empty personal life. Other than family, who he’d do anything for, he hadn’t had anyone he’d felt so strongly for—ever. Losing her before they ever got started wasn’t an option.
“What about your parents?”
She swallowed hard. “My mom died when I was sixteen. And my father…I don’t have a relationship with him, and I don’t discuss him. Ever.”
Ian accepted that declaration. For now.
“Can you take me to get my car?” she asked.
“Sure.” The morning had imploded in a way he’d never expected, and he saw no way of salvaging things.
Until she made her peace with Alex, no amount of coaxing by Ian would make things better. Which made Ian’s overture to his half siblings tomorrow night that much more important.
SEVEN
Riley stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower, eager to wash away the stress of the day. But all the hot water in the world couldn’t erase the knowledge that Alex wasn’t pleased about her relationship with Ian. To say he hated it would be an understatement. He wouldn’t stand in her way, but he couldn’t say he was happy. He didn’t trust his half brother, and she understood why.
From the time they were kids and Alex had found out he had an older brothe
r, he’d been eager to get to know him. Someone to have his back, instead of him having to have theirs, as he did with his siblings. Ian had played football in high school, like Alex. Ian had gotten a scholarship to the University of Florida, like Alex. But no matter how many similarities the teenagers and then the men shared, Ian froze Alex and his family out.
It made sense, of course. Alex’s sister Sienna and her childhood leukemia had exposed their father’s affair with Alex’s mother. Sienna had needed a bone marrow donor, and Robert Dare had revealed the truth in the hopes one of his other children would be a match. Avery had been, which had led to Avery, Olivia, and Sienna bonding during hospital time.
The sad thing was, Savannah had always known about Robert Dare’s wife and kids. She’d accepted it because his marriage to Emma St. Claire had been one of convenience, while he’d loved Savannah. And though Alex had been an oops baby, their relationship had taken hold, and he’d built a family with them. Spent time with them. More time than he had with his real family.
So Sienna’s illness had been the catalyst for destroying Ian’s family. Of course he wanted nothing to do with the kids his father had with another woman. Even Alex rationally understood that, but as they grew to be adults, instead of getting beyond their father’s mistakes, their competition only grew, with Alex being drafted by the Tampa Breakers, while Ian had already begun his climb within the Thunder organization. Just another rivalry to separate the men.
And now, just when Ian had reached out, Riley stood between the two men. Which meant she had to do whatever she could to make it possible for Alex to accept Ian’s overture.
To start with, she wouldn’t go to the Sunday dinner, giving them time together alone. And she would keep her distance from Ian until the two men got used to each other. Until then, she had no other choice but to pray they could learn to get along.
* * *
Although Riley had planned on eating at home on Sunday night, when her stepmother called and invited her for dinner, Riley had agreed to go. Anything to keep her mind off what was going on at Ian’s between him and his half siblings. She worried the two men would come to blows as much as she worried they’d ignore each other and nothing would get worked out. Going out with Melissa meant she had something else to concentrate on.
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