Let Me Be the One (The Sullivans #6)(45)

He couldn’t resist dropping his mouth to hers then and taking her lips in a kiss that told her he thought she was absolutely perfect, too. She gripped his arms as he deepened the kiss, her hips arching up into his. Her legs were pinned between his, and he took advantage of the position by pressing himself hard into her. This time she was the one groaning as pleasure took them both over.

Ryan hadn’t lain on a couch fully clothed, grinding against a girl, since high school. It occurred to him through the fog of lust in his brain that it was fitting they should be here like this, almost as if they were revisiting all those lost opportunities when they were teenagers.

If he had ever gotten her like this in high school, he would have lost his freaking mind, he’d wanted her so bad. All the years between then and now had only amped up that want and he had to fight not to just rip her clothes off and take her.

Hell, who was he kidding? That was exactly what he needed to do. A second later, he was shrugging off his shirt and reaching for one of the zippers on the front of her dress.

“I’ve wanted to do this all night long.”

He finally unzipped her a couple of inches, baring perfect soft skin. He would have kept going all the way if surprise hadn’t lit her eyes.

“You did?”

He’d thought she knew exactly what she was doing with the dress, that she’d intentionally created the ultimate fantasy for every single guy at the party of undoing each zipper one by one, from her br**sts, her hips, and up each thigh.

“We all did.”

Her eyes widened and she licked her lips as if concerned. “We?”

He adored Vicki, and trusted her in a way he didn’t trust any other woman but the ones he was related to, but he had a hard time believing she was surprised by the way she’d looked tonight.

He lowered his mouth to the spot on her neck just below her ear and after giving it a sharp nip, then licking over the skin, he said, “You had to know what all those zippers would do to a bunch of horny ballplayers.”

“No,” she swore even as shivers wracked her sweet, soft frame at the next touch of his teeth, then tongue on the other side of her neck. “My friend Anne is so talented that I had to wear her dress. And I didn’t have anything else to wear.”

Ryan lifted his head to gaze down at the surprisingly innocent beauty below him. She’d lived for over a decade with artists who, he guessed, partied harder than even the biggest sports stars, that probably slept in kinky groupings even a guy like him had no interest in at all.

How had she kept herself apart from all of it?

“Remind me to thank her next time I see her for the pleasure of unwrapping you like this.” He pulled the zipper down again, all the way this time, so that her br**sts spilled free.

Ryan froze as he looked down at her.

“Jesus, Vicki.” He swallowed hard, tried to grab hold of what was left of his frayed control. “You aren’t wearing a bra. And your br**sts are—”

There weren’t any words for them. Nothing that would even come close to doing them justice.

Against her creamy skin, her ni**les were a dark, rosy flush. The tips hardened even further as he stared down at her in wonder.

Vicki was every fantasy he’d ever had come to life beneath him, her body made for sex in its purest, sweetest form, with curves to fit his hands, his mouth, his—

“Ryan?”

He could hear the panic just starting to bubble up in her voice at the crazy way he was acting, but he didn’t have the lucidity anymore to deal with it. All he could do was reach for her with a trembling hand and cup the softest flesh he’d ever touched.

He throbbed so hard in his pants his arousal was almost pain, rather than pleasure, but trying to keep the reins on his desire for Vicki didn’t matter anymore. Nothing mattered but touching her the way she’d touched him, discovering her with his hands on her skin, her sweet moans of need reverberating all the way through him.

When one hand wasn’t nearly enough, he covered her with both, splaying his hands over her skin just as she had over him. He could feel the beating of her heart, so fast, so strong, through his palms, his fingertips.

Words he hadn’t planned on saying, full of emotions he knew he wasn’t supposed to feel for just a friend, hung on the edge of his tongue and the only way he could stop himself from saving them was to lower his lips to one beautiful peak and take her into his mouth. Vicki’s hands threaded into his hair as she arched closer to him. He began by gently swirling his tongue over her, but then he had to taste her better with his teeth, his lips. She gasped as he nipped at her sensitive skin, then sucked harder, trying desperately to get his fill of her sweetness.

Suddenly, her hips went wild beneath him and he was about to move one hand down to her hips to hold her steady before she unwittingly pushed him over the edge, when she whispered, “Ryan,” in a raw voice, his name falling from her lips again and again.

My God, he suddenly realized, she was about to shatter beneath him, from nothing more than his mouth at her breast.

He cupped her hips hard against him and ground against her the way he’d been wanting to all night. He didn’t have time to worry about being gentle, or holding back for fear of shocking her. He never wanted her to forget her first climax in his arms...and didn’t intend for a minute to let her escape from the fact that he was the one taking her over the edge of pleasure.