Let Me Be the One (The Sullivans #6)(46)

Her skin dampened beneath him as she moved closer and closer to release and it was pure instinct to lift his head from her chest, raise one hand to stroke her cheek as she writhed beneath him.

“Let go, Vicki. Let me see how beautiful you are.”

Her eyes fluttered open just as her lips parted on a gasp. She arched into him and trembled hard in release just as he took her mouth in a kiss. Again and again he pushed his hips into hers as he held her against him, until finally he felt her go lax and soft again.

Ryan felt wild, like an animal finally released from capture as, with a soft nip at her bottom lip, he pulled back to stare down at the woman he needed more than anyone he’d ever known.

Her eyes were closed and she was still breathing hard as he ran the pad of his thumb over the lips he’d just been devouring. Slowly, her eyes opened and her cheeks flushed even more. Ryan didn’t realize he was grinning down at her until she smiled back.

“You’re amazing, Vicki.”

She blinked once, twice, then turned her head a little to the side as if she was suddenly shy. “I didn’t know that was going to happen. I’m not usually so—” She shook her head a little, staring at his bicep before saying, “—sensitive.”

While he loved hearing that he’d made her feel things she didn’t usually feel, he hated the way she seemed almost afraid to look at him. Cupping her jaw gently, he turned her face back to his.

“I may never be able to sit comfortably on this couch again,” he teased her with a smile, even though the blood was pumping through his veins so hard he could barely form a sentence.

It was true, of course, that he’d be reliving those last fifteen minutes for a very long time. Every time he walked into the living room, he’d see Vicki lying beneath him, her beautiful br**sts spilled into his hands and mouth, while she arched into him and found her pleasure.

She flushed again, but this time he wouldn’t let her turn away from him.

“You’re so beautiful when you come,” he told her, forcing her to see exactly what she did to him. “Even more beautiful than I thought you’d be.”

Again, that little look of confusion furrowed the skin between her eyebrows.

“You have no idea how many nights, how many hours I thought about you,” he admitted to her in a low voice. After all, now that they were finally together for real, there was no reason to hold back his endless fantasies, was there? “I was dying to know how you touched yourself. What you liked. How you liked it. I couldn’t stop wondering about the sounds you made when you were close...and when you finally went over.”

She didn’t say anything, just continued to stare up at him like she couldn’t possibly believe what he was saying was true. Wanting her to believe, needing her to know just how much she meant to him—how much she’d always meant—he slid his hand from her hips back to her br**sts.

Another gasp sounded from her pretty lips as he cupped her soft curves and ran his thumb over the taut, still-damp peak. “I also,” he said in a voice made raw from pure need, “dreamed of seeing you naked one day.”

“Ryan...please.”

He didn’t know if she was begging him to stop divulging his secret desires—or to hurry and make good on them. Not that there was any choice, of course. He couldn’t possibly get this close to stripping her clothes from her and not make good on it.

He grinned down at her again, his friend who had just become so much more, thank God.

Benefits had never been this good, that was for sure.

“I always have liked the sound of a woman begging.”

Her eyes rolled, then, and he was glad to see that her shyness finally seemed to have gone.

“So I’ve heard,” she replied with a sassy lift of one eyebrow.

He had to lower his mouth to one breast and then the other again before asking, “What else did you hear?” When she didn’t answer right away, he licked at her again. “Come on, I’m dying to know.”

“I can’t think when you do that.”

His grin grew wider. “Good.” Shifting over her on the couch, he sat back so that he could reach the zippers that started just above her knees and ran up the outer length of each thigh. “God, this is hot,” he said as he slid the first slowly open, baring inch after inch of her gorgeous thighs.

He could feel her trembling slightly beneath his hand, but it was clearly from arousal, not fear, so he relished it, let the edges of his fingernails scrape softly across the top of her thigh so that she actually shuddered in his hands.

How could he have done anything else but lick his way up the leg he’d just uncovered? Open on one side now, the fabric of her dress was barely covering her sex and he was a beat away from lifting it and pressing his mouth to her heat. Somehow, he managed to pull back to undo the zipper on the other side. He wasn’t able to go as slow this time, could barely handle the thought that Vicki was almost naked on his couch.

With a quick yank, he grabbed the dress and slid it completely off her. When Vicki instinctively moved to cover herself, he caught her hands in his and held them over her head.

“You were completely naked under this thing.” He was breathing so hard he could barely get the words out.

He was holding her hands up high enough on the couch that she had to arch a little, and in one quick move he reversed the position of their legs so that his were inside of hers and she was open to him, everywhere, all at once.