Hot Finish (10 page)

“Do you remember when we went to New York for the end-of-the-season awards ceremony that one time and they put us up in that really nice hotel and we got in a pillow fight? The people in the room next to us called and complained about us laughing and shrieking.”

Ryder smiled. He did remember that weekend well. Suzanne had been bounding around the bed in her bra and panties taking swipes at him until he’d dropped her to the mattress and kissed her breathless. “We weren’t shrieking.
You
were shrieking. Until you were moaning.”

“I remember.”

The tension Ryder had felt shifted, the energy in the car between them heated and sensual. Just like that, he was hard again. “It was a good weekend.”

He pulled into the parking spot in front of her condo and turned to her.

“It was a fucking great weekend,” Suzanne said, the vehemence in her voice catching him off guard. Her eyes ran over him, up and down the length of his body, the parking lot lights casting a glow over her pinkened cheeks.

Ryder felt a rush of blood down south under her scrutiny and from her words. “Get inside,” he told her. “Or I’ll take you in the car again.”

She opened the car door but paused, glancing back at him over her shoulder. “Just so we’re clear on it, this is just tonight, this doesn’t mean—”

Ryder cut her off, not wanting to hear the speech of how they weren’t together. He knew they weren’t together. He lived it every day.

“I know. I understand. I don’t expect anything.” Ryder ended that thread of conversation by getting out of the car and slamming the door shut. He came around to the passenger side and hauled her door open the rest of the way. “Now get inside, Suz.”

He took her hand and tugged her out of the car toward him.

“Well, aren’t you bossy as hell,” she said, but her voice was breathy, taking the sting out of the words. “But I can be bossier.”

“As if I ever doubted it.” He handed her the key ring. “Open your front door and get inside. Now.”

“Fuck you,” she said, yanking the keys out of his hand, her voice more turned on than angry.

“That’s the plan.” Ryder followed her up the walk, unable to resist reaching out and cupping her ass in her jeans as she paused at the front door to insert the key.

Without even looking at him, she said, “You’re really playing with fire tonight, Jefferson.”

Ryder picked up her hair and kissed the back of her neck, taking in her scent, one hand still on her backside, caressing, gliding toward her inner thigh. “We’ve already both been burned. What’s a few more flames?”

God, he wanted to be with her so bad, even more than he wanted to win a championship. He knew it was stupid to think that Suzanne would want him for more than tonight—she’d just flat-out told him that’s all it was—so he needed to be careful, to guard himself. But for now, for tonight, he was going to take whatever she was willing to offer.

“Taking risks is dangerous.” Suzanne shoved her door open.

“And when have you ever played it safe?”

She turned and shot him a look over her shoulder, one he couldn’t decipher. “Oh, I think I’ve always played it safe. I just do it with attitude.”

That puzzled him. He would have never called Suzanne cautious. But before he could question her further or turn it around in his head more than once, she peeled her sweater off and tossed it to the floor. There was a light on in her kitchen and the beam filtered down the hall, casting her head in shadow, putting her now bare back and legs in a soft glow. Suzanne unzipped her jeans and shoved them down, bending over and giving Ryder a hell of a view of her red panties.

Trying not to swallow his tongue, he said, “I’m about to have an attitude.”

“Really, why?” Suzanne turned to face him, her body fully displayed for him in a cleavage-creating bra and those scrap-of-nothing panties, and he was certain for a second that he had actually inhaled his tongue because he couldn’t speak.

As she walked toward him, Ryder enjoyed the view, his anticipation building with each step, until she skirted him, her arm barely brushing his, and walked right on past him. She slammed her front door shut and locked it.

“Chances are, you’ll never have as much attitude as me.”

“I think we’ve already established that.” Suzanne was about to sidle on past him again, the little tease, but Ryder blocked her by turning his body. She retreated a step and wound up close to the wall. Perfect.

Ryder took her by the shoulders and pushed her the rest of the way until her back made contact.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m going to kiss you.”

“That’s all you better do. I want my oral sex and I don’t want it against this wall.”

“You’ll take it wherever I give it to you,” he told her, fingers stroking across the front of her panties, enjoying the heat coming from her. “And like it.”

Suzanne’s breathing was increasing, just from his light touch across her clitoris, but she gave a scoff. “Who says I’ll like it, you arrogant ass?”

But there was more arousal than scolding in her voice and Ryder kissed the corner of her mouth, lingering over the taste of her. “You would if you weren’t so stubborn. Just relax and let me kiss you.”

Suzanne gave a short nod, and Ryder closed the gap between them, his legs on either side of hers, hands on her neck, his mouth falling onto her soft, sweet lips. But when he kissed her, she bit his bottom lip, just a quick nip to show him she wasn’t about to be submissive.

“Oh, we’re going to play it like that, are we?” Ryder used his foot to shove her legs farther apart.

“Like what?” she asked, eyes open in mock innocence. She leaned against the wall, her breathing quick, torso tilted up toward his body.

“This power play. We’re going to fight for control.”

“Let’s not fight. It’s such a waste of energy. Just give all the control to me.”

Ryder took her mouth with a hard kiss, wanting her so bad he couldn’t believe that it was possible to want that deep, that hard, that desperate. “I’ll give it to you.”

“I bet you will,” she said, her hands sliding down and grabbing his ass. She squeezed and fondled him with a total lack of inhibition he found very hot.

Ryder ripped her bra straps down and yanked the cups so her breasts spilled out. He was losing it. They were crashing into what was about to be rough sex against the wall, right next to her framed picture of the Eiffel Tower. Bending over, he nipped the creamy swell of her breast, earning him a hard swat on the ass.

“What, you don’t like that?”

“I want more,” she said. “Suck me.”

Since that was punctuated by another smack, Ryder had no problem obliging. It was on. All his blood was rushing south, his mouth was hot, his dick hard, his muscles tense. He tore at her bra until it was down by her belly button, and then he covered her nipple with his mouth and sucked. Suzanne gasped in pleasure and Ryder wedged his knee up farther between her legs, rubbing his thigh against the slippery satin of her panties.

Her nipple was hard and slick, a tight little bud that felt amazing in his mouth, so good that he had to bite it.

“Ah!”

The little gasp of shock and pleasure egged him on. He bit a little harder, cupping the weight of her full breasts in his hands. Suzanne had deliciously round and perfect breasts, naturally large enough that Suz had always joked they were officially hooters. Ryder didn’t care what they should be called, he was just grateful for their soft fullness and for the fact that they were one hundred percent real, giving Suzanne plenty of sensation in them.

She smacked at his head even as she arched her back, guiding her breasts back to him when he pulled away. “Too hard.”

“No, it’s not. You like it hard.” Ryder flicked his tongue over the taut bud, giving it a third nip.

“Shit, you’re right.” Suzanne’s fingers clamped onto his hair. “You make me nasty.”

That was one of the nicest things she’d ever said to him.

Ryder dropped down to his knees and stripped her panties to her knees. Pulling apart her blond curls he studied her dewy, shiny pink sex, knowing the longer he waited, the more she would squirm. When her legs shifted restlessly and her fingers tugged relentlessly on his hair, he still paused, blowing a stream of warm air over her clitoris. Her hips bucked forward in a blatant invitation, but he resisted the urge to touch her with his tongue, his lips, his fingers, instead just breathing steadily, his thumbs holding her apart and open, his cock throbbing intensely in his jeans, as he watched the wetness of her arousal increasing. As it trailed down her thigh, he wanted to reach out and lap it off her warm flesh, but he resisted.

“Touch me,” Suzanne demanded.

“No.”

“Well, then I’m leaving,” she said, voice shaking with irritation and arousal, hands shoving his head, hips lifting off the wall so she could move past him.

Which was exactly when Ryder used his arm to push her back and his tongue came out and lapped at her, a long bold stroke. Her body jerked in reaction, but she still tried to escape. Ryder applied more pressure to her hips with his arm and sucked her clit.

“Shit, stop it, let me go.”

He pulled back, but gave a random flick here and there, knowing this conversation wouldn’t last long. “You don’t want me to let you go.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Why?” Ryder plunged his tongue up inside her and she dug her nails into his shoulders.

“Because you’re an asshole.”

He pulled out completely. “So you’ve been telling me for years. Speaking of which . . .” Ryder slid a finger through her juicy inner thighs, then kept going down and around and slipped it inside her back door.

She gave a strangled gasp, her thighs trembling. When he ate at her, licking and sucking and stroking, his finger moving in tandem, he felt her entire body tensing around him. Fingers squeezed him, knees bucked against him, cries grew louder and louder, the scent of her sex swelling up around him.

When he knew she was going to come, he paused, finger inside her, tongue hovering over her clitoris. “Oh, wait, you want me to let you go, don’t you?”

“If you let me go, I’ll rip your dick off with my bare hands.”

That’s what he loved about this woman. Balls to the wall, and she still came out swinging.

“That won’t be necessary,” he told her and finished the job, reveling in the sensation of her coming over, on, and around him.

Suzanne screamed as her body exploded and contracted, and Ryder was really damn grateful that she liked getting nasty with him.

CHAPTER
NINE

IF
Ryder’s arm hadn’t been holding her up, Suzanne would have dropped to the hardwood floor in a postorgasmic puddle. She hadn’t come that hard since . . . she had been married to Ryder.

Trying to breathe, she leaned against the wall and looked down at him, expecting to find him grinning in triumph. He wasn’t. His expression was all business as he ripped her panties down the rest of the way and lifted her foot out, one after the other. Then he stood, hands moving up her legs, her hips, her sides, as he rose, the denim of his jeans and the cotton of his T-shirt erotic brushes against her bare flesh.

While his fingers unhooked her twisted bra, which had drooped to her stomach, his mouth covered her breast, like he couldn’t control himself. Suzanne understood the feeling. She wanted him inside her now, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars. Just get her done.

But when he pulled back, she realized that wasn’t his plan. He was gathering his control, damn it. After a deep breath and a hand through his hair, he pulled off his T-shirt and tossed it to the floor. Then he bent over, hands out, and Suzanne realized what he was about to do.

“Ryder, do not pick me up.” She screamed when he did it, a hand sliding under her butt, another across her back. Still a little oxygen depleted from what he’d just done to her, the movement of having her legs yanked out from under her made her dizzy.

“Quiet,” he told her.

If she’d had more strength, she would have fought him, hating how being lifted made her think about everything on her that jiggled and how broad her butt was. But she was too sapped to protest further, and actually, when she banished all those worries rolling through her head, it was sexy. The way he carried her effortlessly down the hall, the way her breast touched his bare chest, the way her still damp inner thighs were forced together.

By the time he deposited her down on her bed, it felt like every inch of her skin had been stroked and caressed. Even the comforter, cool against her warm bed, was tactile and arousing. Suzanne spread her legs for Ryder as he shucked his jeans at the foot of the bed.

“I’m on top,” she told him, deciding she needed to reassert herself.

Flicking on her lamp, casting the room in a soft glow, he raised an eyebrow. “Doesn’t look like that’s what you want to me at all. Given that your legs are open in such a gorgeous invitation.”

“It is what I want.” Suzanne shifted a little on the bed, raising her arms above her head, brushing her fingertips over her nipples on the ascent.

“I think you just want it any way you can get it, isn’t that right?”

It was so bizarre that those words outside of sex would have had her contemplating murder, but in the bedroom had her nipples tightening and a low burn firing low in her belly. “No,” she said carefully, her mouth thick and hot with desire. “I want to be on top.”

And she closed her legs, intending to sit up and switch positions.

But Ryder wasn’t about to concede that easily. With quick reflexes from driving, he had her legs apart before she could make a further move, his body over her, erection pressing against her in a delicious teasing pressure. God, was there any moment of greater anticipation, any moment of more heightened senses than that split second before he entered her? When her whole body tensed and quivered and focused right on that small spot between her legs, and she hovered, breath held, waiting for that eye-rolling connection to happen.

“You’ll take what I give you,” he told her, his dark eyes stormy, the muscles in his forearms bulging as he held himself over her.

“It doesn’t seem to me like you’re giving me anything,” she told him, smacking his ass, knowing it would have exactly the result she was looking for.

It did.

He pushed inside her with a hard thrust, sinking deep into her wet body, as her eyes snapped closed and her breath rushed out in ecstasy.

“Yes.”

Ryder let out a low moan, his cock throbbing as he paused, buried in her, then pulled back, starting up a quick, pounding rhythm. Leaving her legs flat on the bed, open wide, Suzanne let him take her, reveling in the hot swirling intimacy, the intensity he could drag out of her, the feeling of being his, only his.

When she thought she might come, her muscles contracting, her back starting to arch, Ryder pulled all the way out.

“Now. On top.” He flipped on his back, pulling her with him.

Chest on chest, Suzanne moved her legs to either side of him and kissed Ryder hard. Teasing him for being so damn bossy, she slid her clitoris over his erection, sending pleasant little shivers through her body. He moaned, and she smiled down at him, her hair falling onto his cheek.

Ryder tried to enter her, but she shimmied out of the way, going lower on his thighs.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish,” he told her, hands digging into her arms as he tried to pull her back up onto his cock.

“I’ll finish it.” She flicked her tongue across his lip. “My way.”

Sitting up, she pressed her hands on his abdomen, sliding her moistness down the length of him again. It was a delightful sensation, one that kept her arousal sharp, body ready. Then lifting up her hips in a move that her muscles would protest tomorrow, one hand stroking Ryder, lifting his erection, she joined them again.

Being on top was something she had always loved, the freedom, the control, the deep penetration, and she flung back her head, hands behind her on his legs, and rode him like a rodeo star.

“There you go,” he told her, head on the pillow, fingers gripping her knees as he watched. “Damn, that feels good.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” she asked breathlessly. It had been a long time since she’d been this aroused, this abandoned with a man, and it was because she trusted Ryder, and because he’d always been able to do this to her. Drive her past desire to desperate.

“You don’t even know,” he said, eyes dark, jaw clenched. “Suz, I need to come soon.”

“Well, that’s good.” Suzanne slid him in and out of her, her hips bucking, pace hard and determined. “Because I’m coming right fucking now.”

“You go, you sexy bitch.”

“You know it.” Then Suzanne couldn’t speak because a loud, wild wail came out of her mouth as her orgasm broke, sweeping in her, over her, around her.

Ryder swore and paused inside her, before she felt him coming, a hot rush of release into her open and pulsing body.

As the sensations claimed her, owned her, shook her to her core, and left her flopping weak onto his chest, she had to admit they were good at this.

His skin was dewy, his breathing ragged, and he stroked her backside softly. “Jesus. You’re amazing.”

Her eyes were already drifting closed, so with great reluctance she disengaged them and slid down his side to the mattress. Hand on his chest, leg draped over his, she murmured, “I told you I would finish it.”

“That you did. But Suz,” he said in her ear, his lips brushing up and down her jaw, “I don’t think any of this is finished. It never was.”

For the first time in a long, long time, Suzanne actually agreed with Ryder.

SUZANNE’S
first thought when she opened her eyes and saw Ryder lying naked next to her, softly snoring, the sheet just barely reaching his waist, was that she had just had an awesome night of amazing sex.

Her second thought was now what the hell did she do with him?

The room was lit with the morning sun streaming in and she was curled up snugly under the sheet and comforter on her bed. Rolling onto her side, she studied him. Damn, he was just as cute as he’d ever been, perfect lips, perfect nose, perfect eyebrows that were not too small and not too big and bushy. Cute, cute, cute, the bastard.

When it was good, it was good, and last night had been just that.

Why couldn’t they make it work?

Suzanne wasn’t even sure anymore, and that was dangerous. There had been reasons, solid, legitimate reasons. She had not walked away lightly, in fact, she’d agonized over it, yet here she was telling herself that maybe there was a chance . . .

She sat up in bed, tossing the covers aside and shivering when the chill of the room hit her. Time for a dose of cold November air on her ridiculous thoughts. Which was good timing, because as she padded across the room toward her bathroom, stepping over the pile of Ryder’s clothes, his phone went off on the nightstand.

Ryder groaned and silenced his phone before asking in a groggy voice, “Where are you going?”

“Bathroom.”

“Can I come with you?”

“You want to watch me pee?” Suzanne shot a glance at him over her shoulder, wondering why on earth she suddenly felt self-conscious being naked in front of him. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her ten thousand times before. But she was feeling oddly vulnerable, and Lord knew, she couldn’t stomach that. “I don’t think so.”

“Hurry back. I have plans for you.”

Just to prove to herself she could, Suzanne stopped in the bathroom doorway and turned, putting one arm up on the door frame and posing, giving him a full frontal view. Not that it was meant to seem posed, but she wanted him to look at her and see all her stuff. And get that lusty look in his eye that he was already getting. It made her feel more in control.

“Suzanne . . . damn, you’re gorgeous.” He tossed the sheet aside so she could see his erection. His hand enclosed it and he stroked lightly up and down. “Come on, babe, come back to bed.”

“I have an appointment with Nikki to try on wedding gowns at ten.” A glance at her bedside clock revealed the ugly truth. “It’s nine already. I’ll be lucky if I can shower the smell of sex off me and still get there on time.”

His hand fell off his penis. “Well, that totally sucks.” Then he gave her a wheedling smile. “Just five minutes? What are the odds Nikki isn’t totally hungover anyway. And maybe Strickland didn’t realize she was supposed to meet you and she’s still up at the lake with him.”

“No, I can’t. She texted me that she’ll be there.” Which was a total lie, and Ryder was probably right, she would find herself at the bridal shop solo as Nikki slept off her skinny bitches, but she had to leave. She was feeling all sorts of tied up in knots, and suddenly like she might cry again, an annoying emotion that seemed to raise its sissy head only when Ryder was involved.

She expected an argument but he just nodded. “Okay. I understand.”

Dropping her arm, she cocked her head at him. “That’s it? You’re not going to try and talk me into it?”

“Do you want me to talk you into it?”

“Yes and no. I wouldn’t mind going for a pony ride, but I really can’t be late for this appointment with Nikki.”

“And I get that, so I’m saying I won’t push it.”

She stared at him, not sure what to say. “Why do I feel like we’re supposed to fight here, but there’s nothing to fight about?”

Ryder grinned. “Old habits die hard.” He got out of bed and padded over to her, stretching his arms over his head as he yawned. When he reached her, he kissed her forehead. “But I was thinking that maybe it would be nice if for once we walked away content with each other instead of pissed off. What do you think?”

Suzanne ran her fingers lightly over his back, dumb-struck and touched all at once. “I think sometimes you have kick-ass ideas, Ryder.”

“Why thank you.” This time his lips brushed hers before he backed up. “I’ll use the other bathroom so we don’t put you behind schedule. I can be ready in ten minutes.”

Ryder bent over and scooped up his clothes and ambled toward the door to the hallway.

“There’s towels under the sink,” she told him, just standing there, watching him walk away. She should be hurrying, yet she felt no urgency. Quite the opposite, in fact. Ryder had eradicated her fears with his reassurance that he wanted no drama either, and watching him, she just felt . . . happy.

That sad little sack in her chest was all puffed up and telling her that things were good with a capital G. Whatever they had been, whatever they would be in the future, Ryder was and always would be in her heart, and at the moment she wasn’t minding that one bit.

Until she opened her bathroom drawer in pursuit of her hairbrush and saw her birth control pills sitting there. Well shit fire and save the matches. She had forgotten to take one the night before. One didn’t matter though. Did it? Of course not. The timing was all wrong anyway. Popping it into her mouth, she told herself that the odds of getting pregnant were slimmer than Nikki’s forearms, and promptly put it out of her head. No sense in adding more pointless worry to the heaping pile she had already going.

Twenty minutes later she and Ryder were out the door and she drove him home, hitting the drive-thru for some coffee for her and muffins for him. A glance over showed he was destroying the giant blueberry concoction, balancing his black coffee between his knees.

“You’d better not be getting crumbs in my car.”

“I’ll lick them up if I do.” He wiggled his tongue at her and moved his eyebrows up and down. “I’m good at licking.”

Oh, Lord. Men never changed. “Uh-huh,” she told him, choosing not to give him a hard time, because she was feeling rather pleased with him.

Ryder laughed and leaned over and gave her a crumbly kiss on the cheek.

When she pulled into his driveway, she had a weird nostalgia fall over her like a blanket. They had done this before, pulled into this driveway together, many times when they’d been married. This had been their house, not his.

Shaking off the melancholy, Suzanne smiled at him. “Thanks for making sure I wasn’t the only woman around the campfire last night who didn’t get some action.”

“Likewise.” Ryder shot her a grin then opened the car door. Reaching in the back, he grabbed his duffel bag. “Have fun dodging Bridezilla’s tail today. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Thanks. Have a good day.”

As she pulled away, Suzanne wondered if that was it.

She guessed it was.

“THESE
are the ugliest suits I’ve ever seen in my life,” Evan said as he checked himself out in the dressing room mirror. “I feel like a Ken doll.”