Then he lowered his head. His lips lightly, tenderly brushed hers as he whispered, “I know.”
*
“Will Mia be back tonight?”
Emilee’s question exactly. Her only excuse for eavesdropping on her grandparents nested together on the family room sofa.
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t if I were her.”
The blunt words weren’t nearly as shocking as her grandmother’s throaty laugh. It reminded Emilee of the older girls in school. The ones who dated…a lot. Emilee knew perfectly well what they did on those dates. Apparently the same thing her mother was doing with Ryker. The guy wasn’t bad looking…for someone old. And he’d been pretty cool when he took her picture, but still….
She closed her eyes and shuddered. Her mother. Her broken, damaged mother who wouldn’t even let Emilee see her naked.
No. Mom wouldn’t do the evil deed with a stranger. She just wouldn’t.
“She’ll be back,” Emilee said, revealing herself.
Her grandparents didn’t look surprised or put out that she’d been listening. Grandma even patted the sofa and motioned for Emilee to join them.
“Why do you say that? Your mom’s an adult, and now that she’s healed—healing,” she corrected, a concerned look wrinkling her forehead, “…it’s only natural to want to start dating again.”
Emilee forced herself not to roll her eyes. “This isn’t exactly a date, Grandma.”
Her grandparents exchanged a look. Emilee could tell they were trying not to smile.
Grandpa reached across Grandma to pat Emilee’s arm. “Good point, sweets. But your mother has always lived life on her own terms.”
Emilee knew that wasn’t true. “Except when she got pregnant with me. Then, she’d just graduated and was offered a great job when Hunter came along. We both screwed up her plans and, now, she’s stuck with us full-time. Or will be when you leave.”
Grandma’s eyes filled with tears. She immediately pulled Emilee into a hug. “Screwed up? Oh, for heaven’s sake, my doll. You and your brother are the best things that ever happened to your mother. We all would time things differently if we ran the world, but we don’t—and that’s a good thing.”
Grandpa chimed in. “That’s right. Your grandma wasn’t ready for twins when they came, either. And, boy, were they a lot of work. Three babies in diapers.”
“And that was before disposable diapers became popular,” Grandma added.
“But we loved every crazy minute of being their parents. And your mother would tell you the same thing, if you asked.”
Emilee didn’t know if she believed them, but she was tired and the storm made her uneasy. As silly as it sounded, she wanted her mommy and daddy to check on her and tell her everything was going to be okay. But she was too old to ask…
Grandma started to get up. “Come on, Grandpa. Storm’s a blowin’. We need to tuck in our grandbabies before they outgrow us.”
Emilee wanted to protest, but she didn’t.
Chapter 10
‡
Lust trumps fear, Mia decided a few minutes into their make-out session.
She and Ryker were still on top of the covers, fully dressed. She’d unbuttoned his shirt, which felt oddly empowering. His chest was a work of art.
“I still say you have a cross on your chest.”
She ran her hand across his firmly sculpted pectorals, her palm brushing against his tiny brown nipples as her fingers played with the wiry curls, which truly did form a cross.
He rolled her to her back and started kissing her neck and the underside of her chin. “It’s divine intervention. Are you ready to visit heaven?”
Her laugh sounded rusty…or maybe the turbulent emotions bouncing around inside her made every bit of this moment more poignant. Her first time. Or, so it felt.
“You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
He licked the dip at the base of her neck where her clavicle bones met her sternum. The sensation set off an electric charge through her body. Even her fake boobs tingled. She didn’t think that was possible, but she felt every bit as turned on as she had when her boobs were real.
His hand traveled up her rib cage, hugging the underside of her curves. He didn’t cup her breast, but to Mia’s surprise, she wanted him to.
“They won’t break,” she said, placing his hand atop her right breast. “Well, they might…if I were in a wreck or something, but they’re safe to fondle if you want.”
His low chuckle warmed her from the inside out, like melted chocolate coursing through her veins. Suddenly, she was starved. Ravenous. She needed the kind of sustenance that came from hot sex. She sat up and pulled off her black stretchy top. “The bra stays,” she said, giving the royal purple sports bra a tug. “But everything else is free game.”
He stared at her chest a moment. To the casual observer, her boobs probably looked real. They weren’t. They were saline-filled plastic bags. Not plastic, her conscience corrected. That made them sound like something you picked up at the grocery story. But in Mia’s mind her breasts proved just how badly she’d caved to ego and peer pressure.
“Everything?” Ryker repeated in a deliciously Machiavellian tone. “Then let me start with this arm.”
He held her arm at an angle to her body and kissed the soft inside flesh. “Your muscles turn me on. Have since the day we met and you looked ready to kick box me straight out of this state.”
His humor eased her self-consciousness. He read her well, which she found a little unnerving, but, at the same time, she wanted to see where this connection took them. She had a goal in mind and she was ready to go there. Sooner, rather than later.
“Who am I to come between a man and his fetish?” she said, turning her arm to accommodate the kisses as his lips reached her wrist. “But, I’m more of an action-adventure kind of girl versus sweet but boring chick flick. Could we cut to the chase?”
He looked hurt. “That was my kind, sensitive, let’s-take-this-slow-because-it’s-her-first-time technique. You’re saying it’s boring?”
She gave him a push and tackled him. “I’m saying, I’m horny. It might be my first time in a long while, but believe me, I do know what goes where and how.”
“Then the only thing missing is the when.”
“Exactly.”
“How does now sound?” He reached for her jeans and quickly unbuttoned and unzipped. “Flip around,” he ordered, nodding toward the foot of the bed.
Once she was re-situated, he grabbed the still-wet hems of her jeans and tugged. Mia lifted her hips to help the process. “Shazamm,” he cried, tossing her pants to the floor.
She expected him to do the same, but he surprised her. He stepped onto the mattress and with a grace born of yoga, no doubt, stripped off his shirt, cargo pants, socks and thigh-length undershorts. Then, he held out his hand.
She only hesitated a moment. The mother in her cried, “No monkeys jumping on the bed,” but the woman in her wanted her mostly naked body against his completely naked body any way she could get it.
They bounced awkwardly a moment then found they balanced as a single entity. He had a good five or six inches on her—height-wise. His other five or six inches pressed hard against her belly.
Her woman parts blossomed with heat and need. She practiced a few belly dancer moves that made him murmur with a groan, “Woman, you turn me into a beast. Screw finesse.”
He jumped from the bed and turned to reach for her. She wobbled two steps but he stopped her at the edge of the mattress. “Right there. Turn about is fair play, my darling.”
His darling? The old-fashioned word made her smile. He’d said it earlier, too. She was nobody’s darling. Never had been. She was about to say so until his hands parted the curls at the apex of her thighs and his tongue took the words away.
He toyed with her, dipping and tasting the same way he kissed. Each lick brought her closer to the edge. “Oh, my God. I’d forgotten how good that feels. How in…cred…i…ble.” The last syllable disappeared in the crescendo of her climax. Pulse after pulse of glorious vibration. Too soon. Totally unexpected. She’d never climaxed like that with…before.
Her knees gave out. She would have fallen if not for Ryker, who swept her into his arms and carried her to the head of the bed. He leaned over to deposit her gently on the pillow.
“That was lovely,” she said, still a bit breathless.
“Yes. You are.”
“That’s a terribly cheesy line.”
“I’ve got a million of ’em.”
A sweet tenderness she hadn’t expected blossomed in her chest. She liked him more than she thought. A lot more. Love-like, even. Not love. She didn’t do love anymore. But love-like.
Is that even a word? she wondered.
She didn’t know, but it worked for now.
*
Ryker stepped back and looked at her lying boneless, her beautiful spirit glowing. She never saw this aspect of herself, he was sure.
He knew better than to ask permission to photograph her. That would come later when she trusted him, but he wanted to memorize this image forever, so he held an imaginary camera to his eye and said, “Click.”
She opened her eyes.