Bedding The Best Friend (Bedding the Bachelors, Book 4) (25 page)

Ryan cut her off by covering her mouth with his. Annie kissed him back, and for the first time, she poured all her love into the kiss. When they finally came up for air, she had tears in her eyes again.

“I shouldn’t have interrupted you…”

Annie laughed through her tears and said, “These are happy tears. I was so afraid that if you hooked up with Monica…well, I was afraid that I’d lose you. I don’t want to imagine life without you. Even if you want to be with someone else…”

Ryan cut her off again with another kiss.

Annie wasn’t sure if she’d ever get used to kissing him. Most men wanted to set their own rhythm, and it was almost always fast and involved way too much tongue. Ryan moved with her, and the result was blissful, sweet, and incredibly amazing. He pressed in close, delighting her with the hard press of his body as they kissed. Surrounding her with his scent.

Ryan ran his tongue along her bottom lip then pulled back and looked at her with those piercing gray-green eyes that she loved so much.

“You taste as sweet as you look and feel,” he told her. “You are so beautiful. Last night was incredible. But last night I wasn’t sure if you wanted more than fun. More than sex. I want to make love to you. I want to do it right.”

“I’m not sure I can stand anything better than last night or this morning. Security might come busting in.”

“Let ‘em come,” he said with a grin as he led her over to the bed.

Annie laughed, but that laughter faded when he cupped her face in his hands.

“There will never come a time in my life when I don’t want you to be a part of it. You can’t get rid of me…ever. I walked Monica to her hotel but didn’t even go inside with her.”

“Didn’t want to be tempted?”

“Could barely function after you left me.”

“I’m so sorry, baby—”

He rested his forehead on hers. “Shh. It’s okay. You’re here. You’re mine. We’re each other’s.”

They kissed for a long time before Ryan pulled back again. Then he suddenly grinned and shook his head, “Calf-roping, huh?”

Annie giggled. “Yep. It’s good to experience new things.”

“Yeah, well, let’s see how many new things I can come up with for you to experience tonight.”

He kissed her again as he laid her back on the bed. Annie prepared to lose herself in him. No, she didn’t just prepare for it—she’d beg for it if she had to.

Ryan lay down next to her and caressed the soft skin of her neck underneath her hair. She couldn’t help smiling, and she felt the corners of his mouth curve upward as well. Sliding his hands down her sides, he let out a soft, contented noise, almost like the satisfied purr of a cat. It caused her pulse to speed up even more. Knowing that Ryan wanted her was like an aphrodisiac.

“No more holding back,” he whispered against her mouth. Annie moaned, wanting to revel in those words, but there was no time. Ryan took all conscious thought away with a flick of his tongue that sent jolts of electricity surging through her body. A white-hot fire of desire grew in her belly, along with a warm wetness between her thighs.

Something was different tonight than it had been that morning or the night before. Annie felt the depth of his feelings, the reality of their future together, in every touch. The sparks between them were almost palpable.

Ryan rolled over on his back and pulled Annie on top. She was suddenly straddling him, feeling his desire pressing hard against her. Ryan was the one to resume the kiss. As badly as Annie wanted him, she was still afraid she’d do something to mess this all up. All she wanted to do was focus and feel everything…commit to every moment of this journey they were beginning together.

Ryan ran his hands down the length of her back, and as he did, he lifted his hips, pressing his growing arousal into her. “I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you tonight, Annie,” he said.

“I’m all yours, baby,” she said. She hoped it didn’t sound as trite to his ears as it did to hers. There was so much meaning behind it…so much feeling.

So much
truth
.

Ryan flipped her to her back. He kissed a hot, lingering trail across her breasts and, scooting himself down the bed, down her belly.

He unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down, discarding them as quickly as he had her blouse. He left her panties on, and she felt his hot breath against the wet crotch. His warm hands delicately spread her legs apart, and he nipped lightly at her inner thighs.

Annie fought the urge to hurry him. She was aching with need, burning with desire. But Ryan was determined to be patient, and she knew he was going to draw her pleasure out. His tongue curled against the lace of her panties, and she barely resisted the urge to tangle her fingers in his hair and hold his mouth there. Her clit was throbbing, engorged, aching for his touch.

A blissful agony of time went by before he finally hooked his long fingers into the waistband of her panties and tugged them down her legs. He kissed and nipped around her thighs and belly, teasing her with the occasional fleeting touch between her legs before moving his tongue along the other curves and angles of her sensitive flesh.

The goose bumps on her arms and legs were multiplying—one on top of the next—and she couldn’t stop her legs from shaking. She wanted to melt into the covers. As if he could read her mind, he buried his face between her legs, giving her the heat of his tongue against her slick, bare skin.

She came quickly, breathing his name, and crying out in moans and grunts. She lost herself completely in the shockwaves of pleasure rolling through her. But he kept pleasuring her, forcing her higher. She was torn between wanting to push him away and wanting to draw him in closer. It was almost too much…until it was perfect. She gasped and arched her back as another giant wave of climax crashed into her.

He slowed his kisses at last, moving his mouth until it settled on her thigh. He covered it in light presses of his lips, and she felt him grin against her leg before he finally looked up at her. She loved that confident, self-satisfied smirk.

“You’re amazing,” she said, her voice breathless.

He shifted his body and moved on top of her. “I’m only getting started.”

When he kissed her again, Annie delighted in tasting herself on his sweet lips. They worked together to add his clothes to the pile of hers on the floor. Once he was naked, Annie took the time to appreciate him. Her gaze caressed every inch of his ripped, muscular body. He was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen, and he was hers.

Annie wrapped a leg across his back and drew him down closer. He settled just above her with his elbows on either side of her and his long legs in between her own.

His hard length brushed against the hot, wet flesh between her legs. Annie took a deep breath, desperately trying to calm her own urges, concentrating on his lips as they brushed against hers once more. She was so focused that she didn’t realize when he shifted to thrust inside her.

They both cried out in pleasure, and neither of them moved for a few seconds, just reveling in how good it felt. Annie felt the fire in her belly become a full-blown explosion. He drew himself almost all the way out before pressing forward once again. Did it again. Before long, he began to push harder and faster. They had both wanted to take it slow…make it last…but their bodies demanded satisfaction.

He grasped her hips and pulled her toward him as he thrust, both of them working in tandem. He felt so good inside of her, and it was clear he’d memorized what moves and angles drew her loudest moans. She loved the way it felt when his flesh slapped against hers, the way the pleasure rose and billowed out around them. She loved the way his body trembled and his muscles tensed, and she loved the way the pitch and tremble of his moans changed as his thrusts became quicker and more erratic.

His body tensed, his erection swelled, and Annie felt his release, hot and wet and welcome. They both gasped for breath. They lay still for a few seconds until their breathing settled, and then he shifted, pulling out of her and sliding off to one side, his arm and leg still curled around her.

Annie lay there quietly, trying to quell the voices in her head that said any minute now reality was going to rear its ugly head and ruin it all.

Ryan reached up and touched her face. “We have a problem.”

She braced herself for it. The “this isn’t going to work out” speech. “A problem?” she managed to ask.

He grinned. “Yup. You didn’t come with me.”

Intense relief flooded her. “Well, I certainly came before. That was—”

He stopped her with a prolonged drugging kiss before pulling back. “I want to make you come again. I want to make you come for fucking forever. Because that’s how long it feels like I’ve loved you. How long I
want
to love you.”

Then he pressed his mouth against her once more…

Afterward, as Annie lay listening to Ryan’s even breathing, she struggled to recall how many times she’d come as a result of his mouth, hands, and cock. At one point, she’d climaxed from the sound of his voice alone, whispering naughty and delicious things in her ear. Eventually, she gave up, snuggling into him. Her last thought before sleep took her was she didn’t need to fantasize anymore. Their forever had just begun.

Epilogue

Six months later

Christmas (for real)

Annie checked on the turkey in the oven then glanced at the clock. Ryan would be here any minute, and she couldn’t contain her excitement. It had been two weeks since she’d last seen him, but it had felt like an eternity.

When they’d returned from Vegas, he’d accepted the smoke-jumper job, and a month later he’d moved to Northern California. He was happier than she’d ever seen him, but of course she liked to think that was because they were finally together and not just because of his new job.

After all, she was just as happy, and she was now unemployed. She was also ten pounds heavier than she’d been in Vegas. She’d flushed the rest of her diet pills after realizing she’d taken the weight-loss thing a little too far. Now she still ate sensibly and exercised often, but she also allowed herself to indulge in her favorite foods again. She loved how she looked even better now. The angles of her face no longer seemed so severe.

“Honey, I’m home,” she heard Ryan call out as he let himself into the apartment.

Annie ran to greet him. He opened his arms as soon as he saw her, and she jumped into them, wrapping her legs around his waist. He squeezed her until she could hardly breathe, and then he kissed her, taking away what little breath she had left.

“I missed you,” he said when they broke the kiss.

“Mmm,” she said with a smile, still reeling from the kiss. “I missed you, too.”

Ryan set her on her feet and looked around the apartment. Annie had hung up all her old pictures again, even the ones where she thought she looked fat. With Ryan’s help, she had grown to love herself and embrace the small things she’d always viewed as flaws.

Annie’s favorite photo at the moment was one of her and Ryan in front of the Bellagio fountains. It had been taken the night she and Ryan had begun making the concrete plans that would take them from friends to committed lovers. Interspersed amongst all of the older photos were newer ones, too, many taken at his new place in Northern California, where Annie visited him every chance she got.

“It looks like Christmas,” he said. “And it smells like Christmas. I wasn’t even hungry until I walked in here.”

“You better be hungry,” she told him. “The turkey is big enough for a small army.”

Wrapping his arm around her waist again, he said, “So, do you miss your job yet?”

Annie shook her head. “I’ll miss my co-workers and the regular patients who we see all the time, but I can’t wait to be in a place where I get to come home to you every night.”

“Good answer.”

For the past six months, Annie and Ryan had been doing the long-distance thing. One weekend he would come and stay with her, and the next, she would stay with him. Occasionally, they’d been able to fit in a week together. Annie had found a nursing job up by Ryan, and as soon as the holidays were over, she was going to move in with him.

Annie went back into the kitchen to check on their dinner, and when she came out, he was slipping a few presents under the tree.

“About twenty more minutes until dinner. Just enough time to open presents.”

She grinned and touched the diamond heart pendant she wore—the one that had been stolen in Las Vegas and then thankfully recovered. She was already anticipating Ryan’s reaction when he saw the gift she’d wrapped in gold foil. She’d give it to him last. Maybe even after dinner. Because once he saw the bondage tape Paige had bought her all those months ago, she didn’t think they’d be able to concentrate on anything else.

Turning, Ryan handed her a long and narrow, box, the kind that posters came in. “This one first.”

Suspecting it was some kind of art for his apartment, Annie carefully unwrapped it. Inside the box was a thick roll of multiple pieces of paper held together by a ribbon. As soon as they were unrolled, she knew what he’d brought her.

House plans. For a two-story home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kitchen was huge, with a big island and breakfast nook. In the master bathroom there was a huge Jacuzzi tub. And next to the master bedroom was a room with floor-to-ceiling windows, labeled Annie’s Studio.