“What’s wrong?” she asked when he paused and waited.
His lips grazed her neck, licking, nibbling, and kissing her. “I’m just savoring the moment,” he said in a deep voice, made rough by emotion.
Her heart cracked at the admission, the words meaning something deep in her heart. The heart she’d sworn to protect.
And then he started to move again and she wasn’t thinking about anything except maintaining her hold on the wall and the way he filled her up, thick and hard. With his grip on her waist, he pounded into her, taking everything and giving back at the same time.
“Ryder, Ryder, Ryder,” she chanted in time to his thrusts. “I’m so close.”
“Damn, my name on your lips sounds like heaven,” he muttered. “Wait for me,” he said, followed by increasingly faster shifts of his hips.
She held on, whimpering, until he groaned. “Now, sweetheart.”
She gasped, released everything she’d been holding back, and screamed as she came, feeling him swell and pulse inside her as he climaxed along with her.
Her legs shook and she wasn’t even aware when he turned her around and eased her down on the stone seat in the shower. The water had cooled and he moved quickly, soaping up his hands and rinsing them both off.
She was a boneless mess as he cleaned them both up, shut off the shower, and wrapped her in a fluffy white towel.
He dried her off, then slid the hotel robe around her body. By then she was able to help get herself together. He dried himself quickly and picked her up in his arms, striding back to the bed. He stripped her of the robe, and they crawled back under the covers, where she proceeded to crash hard.
* * * *
Ryder couldn’t fall back to sleep. Not after what had just happened in the shower with Sierra. He wanted a second chance. Not because the sex was spectacular, which it was, but because this woman was the very best part of him.
As much as he, his father and brother, had been a tight-knit family after his mother died when Ryder had been thirteen, it had taken being with Sierra to fill that missing piece and make him whole.
After he’d ended things, he’d more than missed her but he’d had to let her go. He’d had no choice but to move on with his life, and sure, there had been other women, but he’d already had the best and none after had been her. None lived up to her memory, so he’d never gotten close with anyone else, never considered a future with any other female.
As he’d told her, he hadn’t let himself think about going back to her, but now that he thought about it, maybe a part of him had been holding on to the past, hoping for another chance with her. Something had kept him from moving on completely.
She, on the other hand, had had no choice but to believe they were over for good. He’d given her no reason to think they could have anything ever again. She’d been so hurt, she’d avoided him when his relationship with her brother brought them together. She’d had boyfriends who came and went. And then she’d found Jason, a good man, but she hadn’t been in love with him. Something inside Ryder’s chest had loosened when he’d heard that, learned she’d had second thoughts.
He might have objected as a spur-of-the-moment decision, the fear of losing her forever suddenly stark and clear. But when they’d been in the car, his understanding had crystallized, along with his determination to see if what they had was still real.
By this morning, he knew what he wanted.
And when she’d joined him in the shower? A purely primal need to claim her had overtaken him. He’d never experienced a moment like that with a woman ever before in his life.
He didn’t think that just because he’d explained himself, she’d fall into his arms and they could go forward together. She was sweet and sensitive and he’d bruised her heart. He’d also proven himself to be unreliable when it came to his staying power. Which left him in the unenviable position of having to win her all over again.
Because he had every intention of keeping her, this time for good.
* * * *
Since Ryder was the only one with pants and a shirt to put on, he went to the shops downstairs and bought everything he could think of that they might need. Most of the clothing included resort logos, which he didn’t think Sierra would be too fond of but he found amusing.
The weather in Pennsylvania was warm for this time of year, so he picked out tank tops, T-shirts, shorts, and sweat pants for later on when the sun went down. He added bathing suits, knowing Sierra was going to strangle him for his choice for her. He shrugged. Next time she could go shopping for them, he thought wryly. He even found resort-themed flip-flops so they didn’t have to wear their dress shoes. All in all, he was pretty impressed with himself.