Lost in Her (10 page)

He tugged on a strand of her hair and then let it go. “It does bounce back. I’ve been dying of curiosity about that. So, why do I like you?” The corners of his eyes crinkled, and she would swear the little streaks of orange in his irises brightened in pure deviltry. “It’s your ears. I’m wicked hot for them.”

Laughter spilled out of her. Before she could catch her breath, she was flipped onto her back on the sofa, and Ryan was braced on his elbows over her.

“You think that’s funny, cherub?”

Well, she had, but with his hard male body pressed against hers, and his mouth just inches away, her breath hitched as desire swept through her. His grin faded, and his eyes darkened to the green of leaves wet from rain. The scent of him washed over her, and she inhaled his smell deep into her lungs. She didn’t think he wore cologne, but the spice of his aftershave and the clean smell of what she thought might be bay-scented soap made her want to press her face against his neck and lick him.

Caught in his intense gaze, Charlie slid her hands up his arms. Firm muscles flexed under her palms, and certain there was much to admire under the cotton material, she wished she had the nerve to ask him to take off his shirt.

He nudged her legs apart and settled between her thighs. She kicked off her sandals and rubbed her feet over the backs of his calves. She wished he would take off his jeans, too. With a grunt of what sounded like approval, his mouth claimed hers.

His kiss was playful, nipping at her lips—quick tongue licks at the corners, then brushes as soft as the feathery wings of a butterfly. She had never been kissed like that before. In her experience, men were quick to go right for the tongue. Ryan toyed with her mouth as if she were a delicious dessert that he wanted to savor.

Deciding she wanted to play, too, she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth and held on to it with her teeth. A chuckle rumbled through him, and when she let go, he kissed a trail over her cheek to the side of her neck.

“Such a pretty pink shell of an ear you have, Charlene. No wonder I’m hot for it,” he said right before his tongue swirled, damp and hot, around it.

Shivers rippled through her, and her body shook from the sensation. Heat pooled deep inside her, and she heard herself moan. In response, and even through the thick denim of his jeans, she felt his erection pulse against her stomach where he lay over her.

His mouth found hers again, and this time, his tongue swept inside. He tasted delicious, like coffee and Baileys Irish Cream. God, she wanted him. The man was melt-her-bones hot, and past caring if she was too forward, she unbuttoned his shirt, tugging on it.

“Off,” she said.

Breaking their kiss long enough to yank off his shirt, his mouth came down on hers again as soon as he tossed it away. There were any number of stunts she performed in her plane that gave her a thrill, but this man topped them all. She wasn’t even sure of her name anymore.

The naked hard chest hovering over her was even more than her imagination had conjured. She began at his shoulders and worked her way down to his nipples. Each place she touched on his skin seemed to grow hot under her fingertips. When she lightly scraped her nails over his broad back, then trailed her hands down to the curve of his spine, he grunted. He rocked his hips against her, the hardness of his erection rubbing her in places that made her feel hot and bothered.

With his tongue still making love to hers, she slid her hands down his sides, over his rib bones, and then ended her quest at the round metal button of his jeans.

“No, cherub.”

His hand wrapped over hers, and she wanted to scream in frustration. “I’m not saying no.” She almost cringed at how begging that sounded. It was impossible that she had mistaken his desire, not with the bulge in his jeans even now.

“I am,” he said, taking his marvelous heat away when he stood. “I’m saying no.”

CHAPTER TEN

H
e must be crazy. That was the only answer as to why he was standing there when a beautiful woman was on his couch, offering herself to him. Ryan fisted his hands and tried to get a grip on his raging lust.

The last thing he wanted to be to her was one of those boys who had kissed her, then ignored her. He sat on the edge of the coffee table and picked up her hand. It really was small compared to his, and so baby soft.

“You really are beautiful, and don’t doubt I want you. I just . . . I just—”

She pushed herself up, and grabbed a pillow, holding it to her chest like body armor. “You just what?”

“We’re not ready for this, not yet.”

“I can’t figure you out, Ryan. You’re not like any man I’ve ever known.”

“Is that bad?” He hadn’t explained a thing, and it was no wonder he was a puzzle to her. Hell, he even puzzled himself.

Instead of answering his question, her gaze roamed over him, then her eyes lifted to his and she grinned. “It’s kind of weird. You know, like our roles are reversed. Makes it interesting if you want to know the truth.”

Her perusal of his body reminded him he was shirtless, and he caught himself contracting the muscles in his arms like a damned peacock showing off his tail feathers to a hot chick. For the first time, he resented that he hadn’t spent his teen years learning about women and how to act around them. How to date them. He was sure he was screwing up with Charlie.

His rabbit hopped out of the kitchen and across the room, landing with a thud on his bare feet.

“Mr. Bunny, where’ve you been?” Charlie said, reaching down to scratch him under his chin.

Ryan peered down at the fuzzy creature sitting on his toes. “He likes to sleep in the kitchen next to the oven when it’s warm.”

She trailed her hand over Mr. Bunny’s back, and the rabbit arched into her touch. Ryan remembered doing the same thing mere minutes ago when she had slid her hand over his back. Why had he gone and ruined that moment and what might have followed?

“I should go. I have to get up early tomorrow,” she said, and stood, moving away before he could touch her.

He reached out and caught her arm, pulling her next to him. “Call me when you get home so I know you’re all tucked in safe and sound. Okay?” When she nodded, Ryan lowered his mouth to hers, needing one last taste of her.

After seeing Charlie to her car and watching her drive away, he went back inside to wait for her call. Going into his bedroom, he stood in front of his wedding-day photograph and studied his wife’s features. Pain slashed his heart to look at the two of them, remembering how happy they both had been that day. He was tired of hurting because of things he couldn’t change.

At the buzz of his cell phone, Ryan picked up the photograph and put it in a drawer where it would stay until he stored it away somewhere. That he was finally able to take that step felt like some kind of milestone. A positive one. It was time to move on, time to make new memories, and he would do that with a pretty little cherub. He fished the phone from his pocket, then sprawled onto his back on his bed.

“Happy anniversary, girlfriend,” he said.

There was a hesitation on the other end. “Anniversary?”

“Yeah.” He looked at his watch. “Three hours we’ve been going steady. Does that mean we can have phone sex now?”

Silence, then laughter. “Sheesh, Hot Guy, you really do have a one-track mind.”

He loved the way she laughed, spontaneous and carefree. “I think I’ve admitted that to you already.”

“I’ve never had phone sex,” she said in almost a whisper.

He sat up and stuffed a pillow behind his back. “No kidding? You’re a phone sex virgin?”

Her soft chuckle floated through the phone. “I guess I am.”

“Maybe we should correct that, Charlene. Mmm?”
Please say yes.
Growing hard at the thought of having phone sex with his cherub, he rubbed his palm along the inside of his thigh, and then over the zipper of his jeans.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Ah, but you have me to guide you, so that objection has been obliterated. Any other reasons to say no you want to toss at me? You’ll like it, I promise. Even better, you’ll sleep like a baby afterwards.”

“Okay.”

Ryan laughed. “That was downright erotic there, Charlene.”

“Now you’re making fun of me.”

“A little,
A mhuirnín.
”

“You sound so Irish when you say that. What did that mean?”

“
Tá mé an Gaeilge.
”

“I don’t know what you just said, but it sounded sexy.”

“I said that I am Irish, and
A mhuirnín
means darling.” That was the extent of his Gaelic, but if she thought it sounded sexy, he might need to learn more Irish phrases. “Back to the phone sex.” Her laughter was pure and long lasting, and he found himself laughing along with her.

“One track,” she said between gasps.

“We’ve established that.” It struck him that he hadn’t felt this happy in over a year. If that was guilt he felt for experiencing a bit of happiness, he chose to ignore it.

“So we have,” she said. “Well, phone sex instructor, start instructing.”

She sounded so businesslike that he almost laughed again, but she’d agreed, and he wasn’t going to do anything to divert her attention elsewhere. “What are you wearing, cherub?”

“Wow, your voice changed. Got all low and raspy. Sexy like.”

“Does that turn you on?”

“Kinda.”

Kinda wasn’t good enough. “Tell me what you’re wearing.”

“The clothes you saw me in. I called you as soon as I walked in the door.”

For what they were going to do together, she needed to be relaxed, almost sleepy.

“Here’s what I want you to do. Do you have wine?”

“Yeah.”

Keeping his voice low and intimate, he said, “Okay. Pour yourself a glass, then go take a shower. I’m hoping you have something scented to bathe with so you can tell me how sweet you smell. After you’re all scented up, put on some sexy lingerie. If you don’t have any, lie to me when I ask what you’re wearing. Take whatever wine you haven’t finished with you and get in your bed. Ah, before you do that, light some candles and turn out your lights. Then call me back. You and me, we’re going to have the most burning phone sex on record.” When she didn’t respond, he pulled the phone away and looked at it to make sure they were still connected. They were. “Charlene?”

“I’m here. I have to tell you, what you just said . . . that’s the hottest thing any man has ever said to me. Call you back in thirty.”

Ryan tossed his phone on the bed and made a fist pump as he headed for the shower. As he soaped up, he played her last words through his mind. That no man had appreciated her enough to say hot things to her puzzled him. She was amazing in so many ways, and how had the men in her life not seen that?

Charlie sniffed her elbow as she read the back of the jasmine-vanilla-scented body lotion bottle. “Jasmine inspires sexy self-confidence while the vanilla scent soothes the soul,” she read aloud. Well, she could sure use some sexy self-confidence, not to mention some soul soothing. Ryan had told her to put on something sexy, and she just happened to have a little teddy that she had bought to wear for Aaron shortly before he broke up with her. One she’d never had the chance to wear, and best of all, she wouldn’t have to make up something when Ryan asked what she had on.

Bathed, scented, sexy lingerie on, candles lit, she climbed into her bed and picked up her phone. Nerves struck her then, and she chewed on her bottom lip as her finger hovered over the keypad. This would be the first time doing such a thing, and although the idea of it excited her, she wasn’t sure she could go through with it.

Sex with Aaron had been okay, but her vibrator worked just as well. She had a feeling that making love with Ryan would blow her mind to smithereens. But phone sex? The whole idea of a man listening to her pleasure herself was just weird.

Maybe she could pretend. He would never know, would he? Experimentally, she tried moaning to see if it sounded real. At hearing the fake moan, she burst out laughing. God, she sounded exactly like a woman faking it. She tried once more, deepening her voice. Gah! That one was even worse. Nope, he wouldn’t fall for it.

“You’ve never been a coward, Charlie, don’t start now.” Pep talk done, she lowered her finger to punch in his number. The ring! Shouldn’t she be wearing it? Rolling out of bed, she returned to the bathroom and picked up the pretty silver chain. It still amazed her that he’d given her his class ring. She held it up to the light, admiring the emerald-green stone, then noticed writing on the inside.

May all your dreams come true, son. Love, Mom and Dad.

The inscription made her sad. From what Ryan had angrily admitted the first night she’d met him, it didn’t seem as if his dreams had come true. Turning away, she slipped the chain over her neck, then returned to bed. Half surprised he hadn’t grown impatient and called her, she picked up her cell phone and speed-dialed Ryan’s number.

“I thought you weren’t going to call,” he said, sounding happy to hear from her.

Charlie glanced at the clock. Fifty minutes had passed since she had said she would call in thirty. “I almost didn’t.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I don’t think I can do this.” She stuck a finger through his ring and toyed with it. The rustle of bedcovers sounded in her ear, and she closed her eyes and imagined him in his bed. Was he wearing anything?

“Charlene, tell me what you smell like,” he said, his voice soft and intimate.

Glad that he had ignored her misgivings, not making her explain herself, she lifted her arm to her nose. “Sweet, like the way night-blooming jasmine smells, with a hint of vanilla.”

“And if I licked you, would you taste like vanilla?”

Sheesh, he would make a fortune if he could bottle that sexy bedtime voice. “I don’t know.”

“Close your eyes and run the tip of your tongue along the inside of your wrist. Pretend it’s my tongue licking you.”

Even though she thought it was a silly thing to do, she did as instructed. Holy Mama Mia! Her fingers tingled to their very ends when she thought of him doing that to her.

“Charlene?”

“Mmm?”

“What do you taste like?”

“Vanilla. I taste like vanilla, and a little like . . .” She licked her wrist again. “I dunno, like a flower, maybe.”

He gave a satisfied sounding hum. “Just so you know, next time that will be my tongue on your skin. Now tell me what you’re wearing.”

The man was melting her bones and he wasn’t even in the same room with her. “Ahem, well, I have on a pale blue . . . when I bought it, the description said it was angel blue, whatever color that is.”

“Your eyes are angel blue, so I can see the color.”

She had angel-blue eyes? “My ex said my eyes were ghost eyes.” Why had she admitted that?

“Your ex was an ass, so forget about him. What you’re wearing, is it transparent?”

Although she already knew the answer, she glanced down, then did a double take. Her nipples were puckered and she thought it was the first time they had ever done that. At least, it was the first time she was aware that they had. The man on the other end of the phone was clearly lethal.

“Are you looking at yourself, Charlene?”

How did he know? And oh God, she loved how he said her name, all raspy and drawn out, as if he savored saying it. “Yes,” she whispered, a little embarrassed.

“Describe what you have on.”

“Okay. Like I said, it’s pale blue and see-through. The panty part barely covers my bottom and has a row of lace around the legs. The top has spaghetti straps, then there’s some lace that stops right above my breasts, and the rest is silk.”

“You’re killing me, cherub,” he said, and by the sound of his voice, maybe she was.

Charlie couldn’t stop her smile. She’d never come close to
killing
any man in that way before Ryan. “What are you wearing?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

The word hung between them as she tried to imagine his beautiful body—what she had seen of it was beautiful—sprawled out on his bed. “Where’s your hand?” The question had blurted right out of her mouth before she could stop it. Even as she’d asked it, she knew the answer.