He’d loved her then. He loved her now and he didn’t want to lose her again.
With a muttered curse at the way she’d closed down emotionally, he loaded the golf cart up again.
They drove back to the resort and returned the items. He took heart in the fact that she let him hold her hand as they walked back to their room, and when they stepped inside, he was surprised by what awaited them.
The suite had been cleaned and the shades pulled down. Fake candles were lit around the living room and along the stairs leading up to the hot tub. A champagne bucket sat by a large cheese-and-cracker platter on the table. Rose petals lined the floor leading to the bedroom, where white washcloth swans had been created and sat, intertwined, on the red bed.
“Wow, this is incredible,” Sierra said, happiness in her tone as she glanced around. “And the hot tub looks inviting,” she murmured.
“Does it?” he asked, imagining them inside it.
“It does.” With a twinkle in her gaze, she pulled her dress off and immediately removed her bathing suit. Next, she slid off her flip-flops. Then she turned and walked toward the stairs, giving him an amazing view of her from behind.
He adjusted himself, squeezing his cock tight in warning to behave. It wasn’t time. Yet.
Glancing over her shoulder, she crooked her finger at him. “Aren’t you going to join me?”
She didn’t have to ask twice. He dropped his shorts, removed his shirt, kicked off his flip-flops, and followed her up.
When he joined her in the hot tub, she was playful and eager, kissing him as she grasped his shoulders and lowered herself onto his eager cock.
Whatever was going on with her emotions, sexually she was all in, and they spent the rest of the late afternoon together in the Jacuzzi and the later part of the evening and night enjoying the luxuries provided by the hotel.
The only drawback to the entire day was the emotional separation he knew was between them. He wished he was privy to what she was thinking, where her head was when it came to them and the future.
But she was keeping her feelings close, and his gut told him it wasn’t the right time to ask.
* * * *
Sierra woke up the next morning to an orgasm building inside her that wasn’t a dream. One thing she’d learned about Ryder as a man, he was a generous lover, always giving to her, not caring if he received in return. Of course, she always tried, but he was demanding, wanting to come inside “his” pussy, as he’d declared her private parts last night.
He loved oral sex, which in turn had, in two short days, taught her to love oral. He hadn’t yet let himself finish in her mouth, but he thoroughly enjoyed what she did to him before he slammed inside her and made her come so hard she saw stars.
No one could say they weren’t sexually compatible, she thought, as his mouth worked on her now. She arched her back, and unable not to, she ground herself against him as his tongue slid in and out of her sex, his teeth alternately grazing her clit.
Her climax, when it hit, was as explosive as usual with Ryder, sending her soaring. And when she came back down to earth, it was to the sight of him rubbing his mouth on her thigh with a grin.
“Good morning, sweetheart.”
“Good morning.” She smiled back, but neither the incredible orgasm nor his easy, sexy smile could prevent the unwelcome anxiety that balled in the pit of her stomach. Because it was the morning of their second day.
The end of their retreat.
Time to return to reality and everything that waited for her. She had to face the people she’d left behind when she’d willingly run away from her wedding with the man who wasn’t her groom.
“Talk to me,” Ryder said as he slid up beside her and pulled her into his arms. “I saw the minute your mind turned back on.”
She rubbed her eyes, which had stupid tears forming. “It’s time to go home.”
“It is.” His jaw pulled tight. “But that doesn’t have to mean the end of us.” He threaded their fingers together in a show of unity she wasn’t sure she could reciprocate. “I understand that just two days ago you were engaged to another man.” He paused, then said, “But he let you go.”
“He did. But that doesn’t mean I’m–”
“I love you, Sierra.”
The words she hadn’t heard in years seemed to echo around her. Words she’d come to believe were a lie because, if he’d loved her, he wouldn’t have left her.
“I have always loved you,” Ryder went on, not waiting for her to reply. “I just shoved the feelings away so you could go on with your life. The time wasn’t right then but it can be now.”