Learning Curve (BBW Romance) (4 page)

He settled his hands on her waist then,
drawing her close. “To be honest, Susie, I really had no idea how
this online dating thing was going to go. But after meeting you,
all I’ve gotta say is that I’m so glad that I took a chance on it.”
He rested his forehead against hers, capturing her wide, green eyes
with his. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be out here, tonight, with
you.”

Susie’s heart melted as he laid his lips
against hers. The cynic in her heart settled in quietly as his arms
tightened around her, drawing her close, and she allowed her
eyelashes to flutter shut so that she could revel in the moment. He
kissed her just as slowly and tenderly as he had in her dream at
the beach—and yet the reality was so much better than the fantasy.
Dreams were so blurry, so out of focus, but standing here, in the
park, she could feel the breeze dancing across her skin in direct
contrast to the warmth emanating from his body. She could feel his
long, strong fingers digging into her sides, his firm, yet somehow
sensual lips moving against her own, and just the hint of his
tongue gliding against the seam of her own lips.

Ryan couldn’t believe how good she felt in
his arms. She was soft and pliant and giving, almost innocent as
she opened her mouth to him and allowed him to taste her sweetness.
He sensed somehow that she wasn’t completely inexperienced, but her
tiny hesitations told him that this wasn’t something she did very
often.

To be honest, it had been a long time since
he’d held a woman like this. Certainly he’d made out with plenty of
the women he’d dated, and had tumbled with quite a few between the
sheets, but those woman had been cold, calculating in their efforts
to seduce him, to try and wrap him around their fingers as
effectively as they’d wrapped their hands around his cock. He’d
seen them for what they were, and had sent them packing at the
first opportunity.

Use them and lose
them
had been his philosophy. After all,
it was only fair since they had been trying to use him, wasn’t
it?

But he knew it wouldn’t be that way with
Susie. She wasn’t the kind of girl who would treat him that way,
and she deserved better than what he had given those other woman.
And better was exactly what he would give her. Not just better, but
his best.

As their tongues dueled, teeth lightly
scraping as they tasted each other, he felt her nails dig into his
upper arms through his suit jacket, and felt her nipples harden
through the dress he was wearing. He knew it would take very little
effort for him to slip his hand beneath the plunging neckline, to
cup one of the round, heavy breasts that had tantalized him
throughout the entire night, and knew that she probably wouldn’t
protest too much from the tiny little moans escaping her mouth. But
he sensed from her lack of self-esteem and her constant worry about
what he thought that she’d been hurt, most likely by other men that
had been in her life, and that she didn’t know what it was to be
truly loved and cherished by someone.

Hell, it had been a long time since he’d
romanced a woman—his last sweetheart had parted ways with him when
she’d flown across to California to follow her dream as an
actress—but he hadn’t forgotten what it was like, the low
fluttering in his belly as he brought smiles to a woman’s face with
kind words, little trinkets, dropped love notes. And he remembered
well what it was like to bring them pleasure in other ways, with
his hands and his mouth. He especially was looking forward to that
one, but he knew she needed some of the former first before she
would truly be ready for that.

Susie didn’t realize how hard she was
clutching at Ryan until his fingers gently pried her nails from his
suit. He broke the kiss softly, stepping back, but though he
created distance with the motion, he kept his fingers loosely
linked around her wrists as he held her forearms against his chest.
She could feel his heart pumping strong against the inside of her
wrist, could hear his labored breathing, and a part of her wished
he hadn’t pulled away. Her nipples were puckered, her panties were
wet, and she had a feeling that if her skin had a voice, it would
be begging for his hands to glide over it.

But this was only their first date, and even
though they’d gotten awfully… intimate, over the phone, she didn’t
think she was quite ready to take it to the next level.

“
Sorry.” She blew a stray
curl out of her face, then realized that her hair must have gotten
mussed somehow—whether it was because of the kiss or just in the
course of the night she wasn’t sure, but her hands automatically
flew upward, patting and tucking. “Guess I got a little carried
away.”

“
Anytime you want to get
more than a little carried away, feel free to let me know,
sweetheart.” He tucked her arm into his again, grinning down at
her, and she couldn’t help the answering smile that formed on her
lips. “But for now, it’s getting late, and I know we both have to
be up early. Let’s get you home, and we can do this again another
time. If that’s alright with you?”

“
Are you kidding?” She set
off down the walkway with him. “I’d love to.”

****

They went on a couple more dates, varying
greatly in locale and motif—a picnic in the park, a stroll by the
boardwalk, an Italian restaurant where they got to re-enact the
spaghetti scene between Lady and the Tramp. He was sweet and
attentive, always making sure she was comfortable and having a good
time, and her heart melted a little bit more on each date.

And even though each kiss became just a
little more fevered, a little more scorching, and his hands and
lips had begun to roam a little farther than their original
territory, he never once crossed the unspoken line between them. It
was as though he was waiting for her to make the move, and she was
terrified because she was afraid of what he would find.

Their fifth one was quite a bit more casual
than the first—he took her out to the movies, and bought them
tickets for a rom-com. Susie loved rom-coms, but rarely went out to
the theater to see them, and she was relatively certain that Ryan
wasn’t particularly a fan. The fact that he was allowing her to
drool over Gerard Butler on screen while munching on a bucketful of
popcorn without complaining or snoring in her ear gave him major
brownie points, in her opinion. He obviously wasn’t afraid to show
her consideration for her preferences.

Then again, it was entirely possible he had
ulterior motives, because instead of sitting there and watching the
screen with her, his hands were stroking gently over the skin of
her arms, and his lips were trailing butterfly kisses down the side
of her neck.

“
Would you quit that?” she
whispered for the hundredth time, thankful that the theater was
dark so he couldn’t see the grin on her face. “Can’t you see it’s
getting really good?”

“
It’s definitely getting
good,” he agreed as he nibbled on her earlobe. “It could get a
whole lot better, too.”

His tone was suggestive, and sent shivers
down her spine. “Could it?”

“
Mmm.” He pressed kisses
to her jawline, then scraped his teeth gently down the side of her
neck. “Delicious. And yes, it definitely could get better. But I
have a feeling that if I showed you exactly what I meant right now
we might be fined for breaking public ordinances. Even if teenagers
do get away with this kind of stuff all the time.”

Even so, he didn’t stop teasing and
nibbling, and by the time the movie was over she could barely
remember what it had all been about. Her head was swimming, her
skin was flushed and sensitized, and her breasts were aching.

“
Did you enjoy the movie?”
he asked as they walked out of the theater.

“
What movie? All I
remember is some creep chewing on my neck.”

He laughed as they reached his car, and he
pressed his body up against the passenger door. “Want me to do it
again?”

She took a deep breath in, then flashed him
a smile. “Maybe I wouldn’t mind if you did a little more than
that.”

His roving hands stilled. “Are you
sure?”

She nodded. “Just don’t be cheesy and try to
press me back against the hood of the car.”

Laughing, he eased off, and then opened the
car door for her. “I try to be a little less tacky than that. My
place or yours?”

“
Yours.”

The drive back to his apartment was filled
with tension—of the sexual kind as well as the nervous kind. They
kept shooting each other heated glances and soft touches, but
underneath it all Susie was unconsciously bracing herself for
rejection. Just because he was hot for her now didn’t mean he would
be when he finally got her clothes off.

When they reached his apartment—a Soho loft
that probably cost her monthly wages in rent—he led her through the
tastefully furnished living room and into his bedroom. She got the
impression of a large bay window and a California-king sized bed,
and then grabbed his wrist gently when he reached for the light
switch.

“
I like the dark,” she
murmured, twining her arms around him, surprised that they weren’t
trembling with the force of her nerves. She was afraid he would
challenge her, would flip on the lights and force her to undress so
that there was no way she could hide her body from him, but he said
nothing, simply tightening his hold on her when she pressed her
lips against his.

The kiss was long and slow and tender,
similar to the one he’d given her in the park on their first date,
but she felt beneath it a hint of urgency, the same urgency that
compelled her to pop the buttons on the front of her shirt as her
tongue danced with his. Instead of resting his hands at the small
of her back the way he always did, he slid his hands up the back of
her blouse, then deftly unhooked her bra.

Blood pumping, Ryan gently nudged her toward
the bed, his lips still locked with hers. She tasted like butter
and salt and sweetness, and he couldn’t bring himself to stop
kissing her even for the sake of pulling off her clothes. When her
knees bumped against the bed the fell onto the mattress together,
and by that time she’d finished undoing the buttons on his shirt
and was sliding her hands down his chest, her fingers teasing the
crisp hairs on his pectorals.

“
Suz,” he groaned as her
dainty hands brushed against his nipples. Gooseflesh cropped up
along his arms, shivers running down his spine. The groan deepened
when she dipped her head down and ran her tongue against one of his
nipples, and his cock grew fully erect.

“
You’re so delicious,” she
murmured. “You taste like… spiciness and sexiness at the same
time.” She giggled a little. “That sounds silly.”

He smiled. “It doesn’t sound silly at all.”
He pulled her blouse and bra over her head, then cupped her breasts
in both hands, enjoying the softness and weight in his palms. “I
feel like I’ve been waiting forever to do this,” he told her before
leaning down and lavishing attention on them with his teeth and
tongue.

Susie cried out as he licked and nibbled her
breasts, swirling his tongue around her nipples and then nibbling
on the stiff peaks until she thought she was going to go mad. The
ridge of his erection pressed against her hip through his jeans,
and though it should have been uncomfortable it only made her more
eager. He was only inches away from her throbbing core… inches away
from being inside her…

“
Off.” She tugged at his
jeans. “Now.”

“
Yes ma’am.” He laughed,
divesting himself of them, and then leaned down and nibbled the
curve of her hipbone. “You too, sweetheart.” He undid the button
and zipper on her jeans, and then slid his fingers beneath the
waistband of her panties.

“
Ryan,” she moaned as he
touched her.

“
Wet already.” He nuzzled
her neck. “I hardly have to do anything at all.” He slid a finger
inside and she arched her hips, moaning.

“
Enough, Ryan,” she
pleaded. “I need you.” She whimpered as he added a second finger,
stroking softly. “Please.”

“
Just a little more,” he
urged softly, rocking his hand in time to the motion of her hips.
Using his thumb, he found her clit and rubbed as he pushed his
fingers into her, trying to get her to go over. “How’s that,
Susie?”

“
Ryan. Oh, Ryan!” she
cried as she came, spasms of pleasure wracking her body. “Oh God,”
she gasped.

“
It gets better.” He
tugged off her jeans and panties.

“
There’s better?” she
asked as he spread her legs, positioned himself.

“
Oh yes.”

He thrust inside her, and the moaned
simultaneously at the pleasurable friction. Her knees automatically
pressed into his waist, and his hands gripped her hips to hold them
both steady as he rocked himself inside her. They made love, first
at a torturous pace, then gradually faster until they flew into a
frenzy, pushing each other to the brink until she was flying off,
and she felt the same exhilaration she might’ve swan diving from a
cliff into the sea, or parachuting from a plane twenty-thousand
feet up. She’d done both before, but neither activity had been
accompanied by the intense pleasure rolling through her now. None
of them had made her feel loved, cherished, desirable, wanted.

None of them had ever made her feel like she
had come home.

When Ryan collapsed on top of her, she
didn’t mind his weight a bit. She thought she heard him say
something, maybe ask if she was alright, but her mind was floating,
and she slipped into sleep effortlessly, without fear or
self-consciousness.