Let Me Be the One (The Sullivans #6)(67)

“I’m going to love you, sweetheart.” He couldn’t have hidden the emotion in his voice from her even if he wanted to.

He didn’t want to hide his feelings for her ever again.

“Ryan.” His name was a whisper on her lips, one that reverberated way down into his soul.

“Cup your br**sts for me. Do it the way I would if I were there.”

He loved the little moan that escaped her right before she said, “I wish you were here. Tell me what to do, Ryan. Tell me how you want me.”

Oh hell, he almost lost it right then and there. “Lick your thumbs then brush them over yourself like they’re my tongue.” He could imagine the taste of her so well it was almost as if he was in California with her sensitive flesh taut and so damn sweet against his tongue. “God, you taste good.”

“I love your mouth on me. The scratch of your stubble against me, the way you start to suck and bite at my skin when you lose control.”

“I’m losing control now.” He couldn’t see her smile, but he knew her well enough to be absolutely certain that her gorgeous lips were curving up at the edges. “I need to touch more of you.”

“Where, Ryan? Tell me where.”

“Leave your left hand on your perfect br**sts and start moving the right one down over your stomach and keep going. I’ll tell you when to stop.”

A few moments later, her swift intake of breath told him that her hand had reached the sweet, slick flesh between her legs.

“You’ve stopped already, haven’t you?”

“I—” She panted. “I need—”

“I know what you need, sweetheart.” Because he needed it, too. Not just tonight. Not just for a few months.

Forever.

“First I want you to tell me how you taste.” He’d planned to make her beg, but he was the one saying, “Please.”

He swore he could hear the slow slick of her tongue over her damp fingers. “A little salty.” She paused. “And a little sweet.”

“You’re so beautiful. So perfect.” His breath was coming as fast as it did when he ran sprints. “Walk over to the couch and lie down on it. Pretend I’m there with you. Over you. Sliding into you.”

“Oh God, Ryan. Yes.”

“Are you touching yourself?”

“Yes, and I’m so close.”

“I am, too.” He’d never been so turned on in all his life, but instead of telling her that, the words that came were, “I love you. So damn much.”

She gave a low cry of pleasure before her breath whooshed into his ear. “I love you, too.”

With the crystal clear picture in his head of her gorgeous naked curves bucking up into her hands, he gave up his own control and let his release follow hers.

* * *

Vicki couldn’t believe she’d just had phone sex with Ryan.

And it had been amazing.

She wanted to clasp the knowledge to her chest and hold it there, along with all their other firsts. Wanting him as close as she could get him, she shifted on the couch to pick up the cell phone from the counter.

“You’re not putting your clothes back on, are you?”

Even though he wasn’t there to see her, she still flushed at her nakedness...and the shockingly sweet fact that he’d asked her to strip down less than a minute after picking up her call.

She put the phone to her ear and said, “I promised you a full day, didn’t I?”

His laughing response was layered with unquenched desire. She knew exactly how he felt. Her orgasm had been fantastic. But it wasn’t nearly enough to quench her need for him.

“I hope you made good on your other promise to me.”

She wrapped the blanket from his couch around her and sat down. The message he’d left for her had been full of love. And worry. She didn’t want to add to it. But she also wanted—and needed—to be completely honest with him from here on out. She was tired of the lies.

And she refused ever to tell another one to the man she loved.

“I had a great day at the studio, even though everyone had already read the interview by the time I got there.”

Ryan cursed. “I take it James came by?”

“Everyone but him, actually. I know we’re all supposed to be competing for the fellowship, but everyone was really great about it, especially when they learned that Anthony has been added to the board.” She’d been more than a little surprised by the support from her fellow artists, and not just the ones she thought of as friends.

“No one wants to be sold out like that.”

Vicki wasn’t surprised that Ryan had cut right to the heart of it. Whoever said jocks were dumb or clueless had never met her ballplayer.

“And they know you, how hard you work, how passionate you are about everything you do.”

“Thank you for always believing in me. And for loving me.”

And yet, even as she felt his support all the way down in her core, she had to pull the blanket tighter around her shoulders to try to combat the chill that was trying to take her over as she worked out how to tell him about Italy.

“Something else happened today, didn’t it?” he asked.

When would she stop being surprised that he knew her better than anyone? And that he could read her silences better than anyone had ever understood her actual words?