Gypsy Beach (11 page)

Memories of Ryan’s lips against hers and the
way he’d wrapped her up in his arms gave temporary solace as long
as she didn’t allow herself to recall all of the many reasons that
she had no business seeking shelter in his intoxicating warmth and
in his substantial strength.

All she’d wanted was a little space to call
her own. Some place where she could exist outside of her mother’s
disdain and away from the badgering world. Some place where she
could peel off all of the layers others had added to her that had
never belonged. All of the expectations that she could never have
met. Somewhere she could wash away anything that was truly,
authentically her. Now, it appeared that her dream was never meant
to be. She couldn’t afford another loan on the house, and she
certainly wasn’t going to pay Mr. Roby, either the way Nana had or
with money every single year. She didn’t know what she was going to
do. She’d dumped everything she had into the Inn, and the loan was
to fix up the property she didn’t really own.

The wind beat against the Inn making the
windows shudder and the foundation creak. A quivered chill shook
through her. She could just make out the tide whipping against the
shore in the moonlight against the gales. A storm was blowing in.
Sienna hated storms. She hated the memories and the way the thunder
always seem to shake her very soul. The way the lightning fractured
the sky haunted her.

Nana’s voice offered her counsel.
Listen
to your soul, Sienna Rose. Gypsies go where the wind takes them.
Always let the wind be your guide. If life gives you a gift, accept
it even if you do not fully understand it.

The house gave another frightened shiver, and
desperation gave flight to her bare feet. She couldn’t stay inside
that house with all of the demands it carried.

She let the winds sweep her away. Maybe she’d
never really belonged there either. Maybe it wasn’t her sanctuary.
Maybe her home would never be a physical building.
If you’re
very lucky, my dear, your home will have a heartbeat.
Maybe her
refuge was a pair of insanely strong arms that somehow she knew
would make everything better. Maybe her home was awaiting her on
the other end of Gypsy Beach.

The growing storm outside was nothing
compared to the fusillade of grisly emotion assaulting his gut. How
could he have left her there? Why did he just keep leaving her?
He’d known better, but she’d wanted him to go. That much had been
painfully obvious. His eyes remained trained on the Inn. He’d
debated running back to her a million times over, but he didn’t
want to be there if she didn’t want him. He’d pushed too hard, too
far, too fast. He’d never had any restraint when it came to her
anyway.

At eight o’clock, he lifted his phone and
managed to placate enough to convince his four-year-old that
everything with Daddy was fine and that he couldn’t wait to pick
her up in another week and a half and bring her to the beach. He
told her a story about Princess Evie and her friend the mermaid
before he told her how much he loved her and how much he missed
her.

The rain and
the knock on his front door seemed to arrive at the same moment.
Flying to the door, he flung it open. Her face was dotted with a
mix of salty tears and raindrops. Need was penned on every sexy
curve and every innocent dip of her entire body. Her eyes were
alight with intrigue and abandon. They begged him. Her hair hung
limply against her shoulders. She was shivering against the cold,
and her chin trembled as she stared up at him in anticipatory
questioning.

Aware that breath had returned to his lungs
and that his heart was beating again, he pulled her into the warmth
of his embrace

She started to speak, to make up some excuse
for coming, but he cut off her explanation with another deep
drawing kiss. There was no room for thought, for formation of any
mental images other than the ones of him taking her to bed. The
rest of the world could just wait outside his damn door. Finally,
he would make his requisition while worshipping her body and
soothing her soul. They could figure out the rest in the
morning.

She gasped for breath and stepped back just
as he worked his lips to the hollow of her delicate neck,
determined to take her so thoroughly and with so much intention
that she never doubted him again.

Her propensity to fly still lingered in the
motion of her body. She’d flown to him this time, but if she wanted
to fly again, he had to make her understand that he only wanted to
come along. He never wanted to hold her down, never wanted to clip
her wings or cage her. The only longing of his heart was to be with
hers.

“Come here to me. No more pushing me away,
okay? I want to tell you everything, but I need to know that you’re
not gonna run away.”

“Ryan, please,” she panted. “I just want you.
Right here, right now. I want to forget the past, just for tonight.
I want to forget everything that went wrong, whatever it was. I
think you owe me that much.”

“Oh, baby, I owe you so much more than this,
and I plan on paying back each and every one of my debts to you,
starting with the sheer number of orgasms I should’ve been the one
to give you all these years. All the kisses, all the hugs, every
tear I wasn’t there to dry, every cup of coffee I didn’t get to fix
you, every smile I never got the chance to earn, I’m making up for
it all. I’m starting right now, and I never plan to stop
again.”

A whispered moan escaped her. He captured it
in his open mouth as he began his hungry feast. Starved for the
feel of her silky skin for far too many years, his hands sought to
rectify their famine. He made quick work of the loose fitting
Stones t-shirt. Tossing it aside, he grasped her waist and tracked
his hands up and down the curvature of her spine.

When that simply wasn’t enough to satisfy
him, he dipped his hands down those jeans that had been driving him
wild with need all day. The slight tear in the pocket expanded with
an audible severing of cloth as he squeezed handfuls of her lush
ass.

An abashed grin dried her tears as she lifted
her head and giggled.

“Sorry, sweetheart. I’ll buy you some more,
but I’ve been wanting to tear off the rest of that pocket all damn
day. The temptation was more than I could stand.” Her expression
said she was extremely pleased with his slipping control.

“Speaking of temptation.” His voice turned
the consistency of gravel as he pulled her forward, making her back
arch and pushing her exposed breasts upwards towards his hungry
mouth. “That hurts doesn’t it, baby?” With his index finger, he
gently traced the rosy skin that surrounded her painfully puckered
nipples.

Her quick exhalation entangled in her throat.
She flinched from his caress. She was cold from the rain, stricken
with the fear of what had driven her back into his arms and what
might happen, and, Ryan hoped, she was desperately aroused.

Goosebumps skimmed her arms and rose on her
breasts. She shivered again. The timid throb of her nipples
beckoned him like a siren’s song, one he could never deny.

“I’m gonna make it all better, baby. I’ve
spent ten damn years worrying every single night that you might be
cold or unsatisfied. That no one was taking care of you. No more.
I’m taking you to bed. I’m gonna wrap you up in me, and I’m going
to sate you so thoroughly every single night that all you’re
capable of is falling asleep safe in my arms. I’m going to be the
one to take care of you from now on. I’m gonna make everything
better,” he promised just before he huffed hot breath on her right
nipple, gently drew it into the fiery heat of his mouth, and
suckled away her pain.

It took Sienna a full minute to realize that
the heady groan of supreme satisfaction had come from her. His
rough, callused hands on her skin primed her entire body for the
releases he kept promising her.

The things he said, she wanted so badly to
believe him. She needed to believe that she wasn’t the only one
that had dreamt of him night after achingly cold night. That she
hadn’t been the only one that had lived the unspeakable pain of
being away from the only place she’d ever belonged. She didn’t know
where he’d been or why he’d never shown at the beach that summer,
but right then she simply didn’t care. Having someone that wanted
to hold her all night long and keep her safe and warm was a form of
heaven she simply could not deny herself.

No one had ever wanted to be there for her,
no one but him, at one time anyway. Ryan McNamara had always been
her weakness, and even the thought that they might be able to
resurrect everything that had fallen apart when they were eighteen
was worth the chance.

She tried to convince herself of this, but
that one tiny fragment of her brain that was somehow managing to
resist the persuasion of his mouth on her breasts refused to allow
her to relax completely. Was placing her very fragile heart back in
his callused hands going to be the stupidest thing she’d ever
done?

With a rapacious groan that competed with the
echoing thunder, Ryan moved to her left breast and began his
intoxicating seduction there. Sienna ordered her brain to shut it.
She needed this, and more importantly she needed him. Freeing
herself from the ramparts of her doubt and her fear, she gave into
his hungry tongue. Her fingers laced through his hair in an
unspoken plea to take her deeper.

Another hungry groan ripped from his lungs as
he complied. She shook in his arms. It felt so insanely good. His
tongue ripened her nipples and then sucked away the exquisite pain
he brought her. All too soon, he lifted his head and captured her
mouth again. The remnants of doubt that plagued her soul seemed to
dissolve in that kiss.

Suddenly, she was being lifted up into his
capable arms. She tucked her head against him. She just needed to
feel the safety of those arms that he’d offered her without end all
day long.

“I’ve got you, baby, and I’m never letting go
again.” His husky promises somehow managed to slip past her
eardrums, to balk at the misgivings of her mind, and to speak
directly to her heart and her soul. “I’m right here.” With sure,
solid steps he carried her up the stairs and settled her in a room
she’d never been in before.

She inhaled deeply. That sexy musk of him
lingered on the pillows and clung to the sheets he cradled her in.
Her breaths panted from her lungs. She needed more of him.

He stood back and stared down at her topless
in his bed. The craving desire was palpable as it blazed from his
eyes. He made her feel things she hadn’t felt in so long she hardly
recognized being desired, being worshipped, being loved. The looks
he gave her said he intended to make this an evening she wouldn’t
soon forget.

Leaning slightly, he popped the snap on her
jeans and slipped them slowly down her legs. She was breathtaking a
decade before, but now she was exquisite. His eyes raked over the
slightly obscured, airy, lace bird that was tattooed from the
bottom of the ribs on her right side, down over that plump ass, to
the top of her thigh.

Need seeped from her lower lips, hot and so
ready. His eyes flashed in ardent hunger. “Every fucking night for
ten long years I’ve dreamed about this, Sienna. Every night just
like this. Having you swollen and wet, in my bed, all for me.
Having that sexy little body so hungry for me to fill you that you
beg. God, baby, this is better than every dream I’ve ever given
into.”

Sienna’s breath shivered in her lungs again.
Given into?
She groaned from the images of Ryan getting
himself off while thinking of her. The dreams had been mutual, but
he was right, the reality was complete perfection.

“You are so beautiful,” he panted as he knelt
before her in reverence to worship her properly. Running those
work-rough, capable hands up her thighs he paused as her body
writhed. He hooked her knees behind his shoulders and slowly traced
his fingertips up the sensitive skin of her inner thighs. He
skimmed just along her slit, and she whimpered in desperation.

With a wicked grin, he repeated the move.
“I’ve waited so long to know how sweet you taste, baby. I should
have done it all those years ago. I should have been doing this for
the last decade, so I’m gonna take my time, enjoy every moment of
this. I’m so damn hungry, sweetheart, but I want you soaking wet. I
plan to drink every last drop of you.”

He circled her mound with his fingers,
priming the flesh just above her clit, making it distend and weep
for his mouth. “That’s it.” He rewarded the efforts of her body by
spinning his tongue over the hood. Certain she was going to lose
her mind, Sienna bucked against him.

He settled her hips once more and blew a
cold, teasing breath over the tender bundle of nerves that was so
anxious for his love. She trembled. Her head shook back and forth.
“Please, please, Ryan.” If he wanted her to beg, she was more than
willing as long as that meant he would give her reprieve from the
delectable torture.

He moaned his approval and used his thumbs to
gently separate her.

Ryan stared down into what he was certain was
the entrance to heaven. He had no idea how he was getting to live
his lurid fantasies, but he certainly planned to indulge himself.
All of those stupid years that he’d drowned his misery in liquor
he’d known that what his body craved, what his mouth desperately
sought was the nectar of her. There would never be anything as
intoxicating as this.

Her lips were swollen full of heat and
arousal. She was glistening with desperate desire, hungry for him.
His imagination could never have done this justice. That sweet
little clit pulsing so timid and so eager. She was open. Her inner
lips inflamed with heat. Her body so willing. He couldn’t draw it
out any longer. Desperate to satiate his tongue with that sweet
cream, he lapped from her opening slowly upwards to her clit,
listening to her beg for more as he worked his tongue back and
forth.