How to Avoid a Billionaire(9)

Ryder sat up, dragged her off of him, and flipped her onto her back. He thrust a leg up and plunged deep into her heat. She reached for him, but he caught her at the wrists and pinned her down, pumping hard and fast. The mattress sank under his heavy form as he pressed her into it, ravaging her body nonstop. He had a way of making her feel helpless and sexy at the same time. His size, so much more than she was used to, blew her mind.

“Don’t stop,” she whispered.

“Never.”

Melanie strained at his hold on her wrists. He clicked with his tongue and licked the pulse at the base of her neck. She arched into him, raising her chin. He nipped her skin with his teeth and pulled her arms higher. When he held both wrists in one hand and she couldn’t free herself, she hid the thrill it gave her. He leaned up, but he didn’t look in her face. His focus was for her breasts, and she shivered beneath the scrutiny, a feeling that intensified when he plucked a nipple.

“So big and dark,” he mused. “Like berries. I wonder how sweet they are.”

She shivered again. “Why don’t you find out?”

“You tease me.” His voice lowered to a deep rumble, barely recognizable to how he had spoken earlier. “Do you think you can get away with that?”

Her words were swept away from the instant his tongue swiped her tight peak, and then he pounded her into the bed, so cruel and wonderful. Another orgasm took her unaware. He used her body, took from it, and gave so much more. When he came and stilled on top of her she could have wept. In fact, she wasn’t sure she hadn’t. He released her wrists and rolled off her. Melanie lay unmoving with her eyes closed. The warmth and indentation in the mattress disappeared from beside her. She had no energy to see what he did or where he’d gone, and after a few moments, she slept.





Chapter Three

“Did you nail her?” Christian asked as he strode into the conference room.

Ryder glared at him.

His cousin laughed. “What? No one’s here yet. I want the details.”

Ryder scratched his signature to another form and handed the stack to his secretary. He found it interesting that Christian viewed Jodie as nobody, but Ryder wasn’t worried about her spreading gossip around the office. Jodie had been with him for years, and she knew how to keep her lips sealed. That’s why he trusted her with some of the most sensitive information. Not everything of course, but a lot. More than one reporter had tried to bribe her for details on him, and Jodie hadn’t given in. He paid her well for her discretion.

When Jodie left the room, pulling the door shut behind her, he faced his cousin. “She’s as good as mine.”

“Bro, you have a devious streak. You don’t forgive easily.”

Ryder brushed the description of his character aside. “This has nothing to do with forgiveness. It’s everything to do with people thinking they can come against me and not get burned.”

Christian feigned a shudder. “More like frozen, man. You’re icy. I guess it can’t be helped though. You got it honest.”

Even as Ryder discussed the previous night’s events with a show of being detached, he hadn’t been able to get Melanie out of his mind. He would let her cool her heels and wait for him to call. Three days should do it.

“You’re insinuating my dad was at fault in the way he raised me.” Ryder placed his briefcase on the table and opened it. His notes for the meeting were on top, and he removed them then snapped the case closed. “There’s no one who knew business better—except me.”

Christian shook his head. “Uncle Redd would be proud.”

“You make it sound like I’m not out to impress my father.”

“And his business partner and every tycoon he worked with.”

Ryder eyed Christian, his annoyance level rising. Christian chuckled, holding up his hands in defense.

“Kidding. You have to admit their influence shaped the way you view the world.”

Ryder refused to agree out loud, but his cousin spoke the truth. Ryder’s mother had delivered him to his father at the age of three and left him there. He’d never seen her again. Nor did he ever seek her out after he’d grown up. Back then, he had cried nonstop for his mother until his father sat him down and told him from then on he would be all Ryder needed. In retrospect, Ryder guessed he might have been better off with Christian’s mother or some other female relative. As Christian had said, he’d lived in a bachelor’s household, and he had learned up close and personal how to handle business and women from men who loved and respected one but not the other.

“What I want to know is did you bed her?”