“Is this what you need?” he says, thrusting into me. The sound of our naked flesh slapping together echoes in my ears as he grabs a fistful of my hair, jerking my head back. “Is this what you need?” he repeats, his voice a growl as he scrapes his teeth along my neck.
“Yes.” I don’t bother holding back my moan, my back arching as I melt against him. I love the sting at my scalp from his strong grip. With each tug, he lights a fire in me, burning brighter. I’m going to come again. “Don’t stop,” I pant. “Ryan, please—fuck me. Never stop.”
Never stop trying to get closer to me.
Never stop breaking down my walls.
Never stop saying I’m yours.
Please, God, just never stop.
He cries out, hammering into me from behind. Then he suddenly lets go of my hair, and it leaves me feeling weightless. I’m reeling, my hands searching for a better grip. The hand that was in my hair snakes around my neck, and again, my orgasm flickers hotter and stronger. I’m right fucking there. I just need a little more…
“Do it,” I beg, rocking my hips against him. I drop a hand down to my clit, working the sensitive bud as his fingers tighten at my throat. “Do it,” I say again. “Ryan, squeeze. Choke me, baby. I want you to—”
“Oh, fuck,” he groans behind me, both hands going to my neck as he gently squeezes.
Our hips slam together, and I work my clit, centering all my feeling on his hands at my throat, restricting my air supply. “More,” I rasp. “Please—God—”
His hands tighten as he cries out in agony and ecstasy, trying to hold back his orgasm.
“Hold on,” I gasp. “Not yet—”
His body folds over mine, losing all sense of rhythm as he teeters on that edge, waiting to fall. “Please, Tess. God, baby, please—I’m dying—”
“Now,” I cry.
He drops his hands away from my throat and they grip the counter to either side of my hands. He pounds into me once, twice more, and then he’s crying out, coming inside me. I’m already there, my whole body wracked with trembling as my pussy holds him like a vise. It’s tearing through me, leaving me breathless and weak, standing here on shaky legs.
As soon as the high crests, I begin the fall, tumbling down off orgasm mountain into serenity sea. I don’t even realize I’m crying until Ryan is bent over me, soothing me with his hands and his kisses. “I will never hurt you,” he says between kisses, his fingers ghosting over the place he was just squeezing tight. “Tess, I want you. I only want you.” He says it over and over again. “There is no one else. Only you. God, just let me want you.”
I lie there, my chest pressed against the counter, my sweaty cheek resting on the cool granite. His warm, naked body surrounds me as he whispers sweet nothings, his hands touching every part of me he can reach. So gentle. So tender.
He wants me. He worships me. I think he might love me.
I give him the truth I denied him earlier, the truth our moment of joining has revealed. It’s plain as day for anyone to see, but it deserves to be said all the same. Linking his fingers with mine, I bring his hand to my lips, kissing his knuckles. “I want you too. Ryan, I want you.”
53
“So, how did you two meet exactly?”
I glance sharply across the table at Rachel. She’s wedged into the booth between Ilmari and Jake. I’m in the corner on our side, Ryan next to me, and Caleb on the end. It’s Friday and we’re all enjoying a decadent sushi lunch before the guys have to report downtown for some media event arranged by Poppy.
Ryan asked the question. In his defense, Rachel left the door wide open by cracking a joke about the time we were kicked out of a spin class for hacking the Bluetooth speaker and changing the teacher’s god-awful techno music.
Rachel snatches up her Diet Coke. “Umm…in Cincinnati.”
“Duh, we all know that, Seattle,” Jake teases, taking the last salmon nigiri off the sushi boat with his chopsticks. “He asked how you met. Not where.”
“She knows exactly what he asked,” Caleb says from the table’s end, grabbing the last soft-shell crab roll. “She’s deflecting,” he adds, dipping it in soy sauce.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I say.
Ryan glances between us. “What am I missing? Is it a state secret or something?”
“It’s not a secret,” I reply, taking a sip of my iced tea. “It’s just a little embarrassing.”