Let Me Be the One (The Sullivans #6)(49)

They’d end up laughing about it all in the morning, she thought with an exhausted yawn. Because if she lost him as a friend—

“Sleepy?”

The first hint that she was off base with all her assumptions of fading passion was the easiness of his voice. So dangerously easy, in fact, that the one word sent a shiver through her.

“You wore me out,” she teased, trying to keep things light between them.

Didn’t he understand that they needed to finish things up in such a way that they could write it off as water under the bridge in the morning?

Besides, she wasn’t the least bit tipsy anymore, so she couldn’t possibly blame anything she did—or felt—from this moment forward on the alcohol.

Which meant that everything from here on out would be all her...and she simply couldn’t afford to feel too much with Ryan while they were naked and kissing, above and beyond simple physical pleasure.

He took a step toward her. “I’ll have to work harder on making sure you stay awake, won’t I?”

For all that she wanted to act like what they were doing—and what they had already done—was no big deal, she couldn’t manage to lie still and wait for him to come to her. Feeling suddenly vulnerable, she scooted back on the bed.

Ryan’s hand on her ankle stopped her from moving any further away from him.

She swallowed hard as she looked down at where he was holding her, his hand so tan against her pale skin.

He had her other ankle in his other hand a moment later and before she could remember how to breathe, he was dragging her toward him, the soft bed cover rubbing against her naked back and bottom.

He didn’t stop pulling until he had her at the edge of the mattress and had positioned them so that he was standing with his legs between hers. He pulled her legs around him, made her ankles cross behind the small of his back. The bed frame was high enough that his groin was barely higher than hers without his needing to bend his legs.

She didn’t know what to reach for, how to respond, felt lost and completely out of her element. They’d crossed a lot of lines tonight, but none of them had been that big, had they? Yes, she came like a rocket from his barest touch, but she was sure he was used to that kind of reaction from women.

But she’d never live down begging...most likely because he’d never let her forget that she had.

Only, the way he was looking down at her, like he owned her body and soul and was beyond pleased with that fact, had her wondering if he knew exactly what she was feeling without her having to say a word.

“This is how I want you, Vicki. Open to me. Ready for me. Always.”

His eyes were dark with pleasure as he ran them over her naked body, then back up to her eyes, where she was trying so hard to keep from giving herself away.

Instinctively, she recognized his words as a command. Reminding herself that if she didn’t want to follow them, she could simply unwind her legs from his body and get off the bed, as he began the slow slide of his hands from her ankles up her calves and then to her thighs, she left her legs right where he put them.

And then he was leaning down over her, his sinfully talented mouth a press of heat on the upper swell of her br**sts.

She had to touch him, had to put her hands on his chest, then over to the broad muscles of his back. She wanted to memorize every inch of him by touch alone, but her concentration was immediately shot when his erection pressed thick and hard against her belly. He gave her one kiss after another over her collarbone, and then her pulse point, before he found that spot just below her earlobe that made her shiver every time.

“Feeling more awake now?”

He didn’t give her time to answer before he was covering her mouth with his. She gave herself fully over to his kiss, loving the way he devoured her, and letting herself devour him right back. She tightened her ankles around his hips at the same time that he ground himself against her lower belly.

His hands were in her hair as they continued to ravage each other’s mouths, and then he was shifting so that his hips were lower and—oh God!—she could feel the thick, hot length of him slide over her.

She gasped at the extreme pleasure of it and he swallowed her gasp with his own groan as he slid up, then back through the slickness of her arousal.

“I want so badly to love you, Vicki.”

His words were a rumble against her lips and she was so lost in desire she could hardly make sense of them. But then, he lifted his head to look into her eyes. She’d never seen them so dark, so intense. There was no trace of the laughing, easy man the rest of the world knew.

It was, she suddenly realized, just the way he’d looked when he’d come to rescue her from James. Like she was the only thing that mattered in the entire world, and he would do whatever he needed to do to protect her and keep her safe from harm.

“Tell me you want that, too.”

His voice was raw with desire, but in that moment she could have sworn there was more than just lust behind his request.

“Yes, I want you,” she said as she felt the muscles of his back and shoulders flexing beneath her fingers as he worked to hold himself steady over her. “You already know how much I want you.”

She needed him closer, needed more than just this tease. But even though she’d just told him what she thought he wanted to hear, he hadn’t moved, hadn’t taken her the way she so badly needed to be taken.