The way my name fell from her lips left me breathless and excited. She smelled the same as I remembered, she tasted even better, and I couldn’t get enough of the combination. Every moan, every cry and every plea that fell from her lips cranked my arousal up to one thousand. My hands gripped her thighs and pushed them apart while I pushed her closer and closer to the edge, eager to hear more sounds of her arousal. Her pleasure.
“Oh. My. God.” She squirmed and begged, sang my name like it was her favorite song. Over and over she said my name, begged for me to give her the release she wanted. When I was satisfied with her growls of pleasure, when she was wound so tight she climbed the bed to get away from me, only then did I let her have what she wanted. What she needed and begged for. “Ryan, yes!” Her body went tense for several eternal moments and then she went slack, a satisfied, beautiful smile on her face.
I kissed my way up her body, taking my time over every dip, every curve of her womanly shape. I lingered on her beautiful tits, sucking pretty pink tips until they were hard and aching. “So sweet,” I sighed as I reached her mouth. “So damn sexy.”
“So, so good,” she moaned and when my hips pressed against hers, blue eyes rolled back in her head.
“And it’s only about to get better,” I promised as I thrust in one long stroke. “Oh, shit.” She was tight and hot. “So slick.”
“More, Ry. Give me more.” She arched into me and the last little thread of my control snapped.
I gave her what she wanted, what we both wanted and needed. It was twenty years of loss, of grief and of longing tied up in our coming together. It was everything that we should have had for the past two decades, only it was better and more intense because we’d been deprived. Every thrust felt like a purging of sins and wrongdoings. Sweat trickled down my forehead with the effort it took to hold back my pleasure, pumping harder and deeper, enjoying the way her nails dug deep into the muscles of my back. “Oh, Pip.”
Her body trembled and shook as her tongue swiped up and down the length of my neck. Her teeth nipped at me playfully and I palmed her ass, pumping harder and faster until we both climbed the top of that mountain and we jumped together, tumbling into that dark, erotic abyss together.
Our chests heaved together as we sucked down oxygen and a moment later, our gazes locked. “Wow.”
“Right?” I couldn’t believe that things were still just as explosive between us as they were back when we were horny teenagers who couldn’t get enough of each other.
I knew, then and there, that Pippa and I weren’t done. In fact, I was pretty sure that we were just getting started.
Chapter 12
Pippa
“You can’t keep ignoring him forever, Pippa. He’s your boss and your neighbor. And apparently, now your lover.”
“No.” I pointed at my smirking best friend, a steely look on my face which she easily ignored. “Not my lover. That was a mistake. An aberration. A one-off.” I sat a little taller in my chair, enjoying a cup of coffee with my best friend, something I’d missed often while I was away. “And I can ignore him since he’s doing a very good job of ignoring me too.” A week had passed since our trip to Gatlinburg and our overnight stay, and since then Ryan had made himself scarce.
Thankfully, blessedly, scarce.
Valona’s eyes rounded in surprise. “Really?”
“Yep. It’s a relief, really.”
“Bull!” Valona shot back, her vehemence taking me by surprise.
“It is. The last thing I want is to do a rehash of that night, or talk about what it means, because it doesn’t mean a thing. It was nothing more than proximity and wine.”
She quirked a disbelieving brow in my direction. “No residual emotions from your powerful teenage love affair?”
“Nope.” My shoulders fell in relief, because this I could answer honestly. “I told Ryan the truth about our relationship, and I think this all happened because he had something to prove.”
“And you? Why did you fall into his arms and his bed so easily?”
I shrugged off her question and gave a concise answer. “Because he’s still good lookin’ as all get out, and it’s been too long since I’ve been pleased by a man.”
“And there are no other good looking men in all of Carson Creek?” Valona laughed. “I’m sorry Pippa, but that’s just bull and we both know it.”
“It was inevitable, I guess. Bound to happen sooner or later because of our history. And when I told him that, in hindsight our relationship was based more on chemistry, sex and teenage hormones than love or affection, he kind of lost it.” In the best possible way.