In Bed with Mr. Wrong

Chapter Nine

The feeling of Ryan’s mouth opening under Bri’s made every worry she had float right out the window. What did anything matter when his hands were on her and his tongue traced hers? It didn’t. Nothing mattered but this man—right here, right now. Hadn’t she laughed herself silly over the last novel she’d read where the heroine thought just that?

She’d been wrong. So terribly wrong.

Ryan sighed when she dragged her teeth over his bottom lip, then he settled his hands on her behind, pulling her more firmly into the spot between his legs. Before she realized what he meant to do, he unfastened her skirt and it dropped to the floor. She started to pull away, all too aware of the curtainless windows and new chill on her bare skin.

Oh God, where are my panties? It wasn’t like she’d gone searching for them after he’d ripped them off earlier.

He hooked the back of her thighs and lifted her as he stood. Bri gave a little squeak that turned into a moan when she wrapped her legs around his waist and his hard length rubbed against her. “You feel so good.”

“I know.” But instead of laying her on the conveniently close couch, he started down the hall. As if reading her mind—or maybe just the confusion on her face—he said, “We’re making it to the bed this time.”

“Too far.” She reached between them and palmed him through his jeans since he really seemed to like that. His curse only confirmed her suspicion. So did his missed step.

Fully intending to take advantage of his distraction, she wiggled out of his grasp and dropped to her knees. His eyes went hooded even as he shook his head. “Not necessary.”

Who cared if it was necessary? Ever since she’d touched him earlier, she’d needed this. She’d read enough different variations of it in her novels, and she’d always wanted to try. It seemed right that it was with Ryan. She wanted to make him feel the same way he’d made her feel when he put his mouth on her.

She wanted to drive him out of his mind for wanting her.

Ignoring his warning growl, she unzipped his jeans and worked them down his hips until he sprang free. She moved forward, but stopped when she thought back to their encounter in the front seat of his SUV. After glancing at him from under her bangs, she pulled her shirt over her head and unhooked her bra. His muffled curse was exactly the reaction she’d been aiming for. He watched her as if she was giving him the greatest gift, but it didn’t feel selfless. Not when she thought she might die if she didn’t follow through on this.

She nearly laughed at the dramatic thought, but then Bri wrapped her hand around his erection and let the rest of it go. Right here, right now, it was only about this. She leaned forward and gave him an experimental lick, dragging her tongue along his underside. He hissed out a breath, which was all the encouragement she needed. She took him in her mouth, wondering at the feel of so much soft skin covering such hardness. Ryan cursed again and his back hit the wall, which suggested her romance novels really knew what they were talking about.

He murmured under his breath, whether cursing or praising her, she couldn’t tell. It didn’t matter since she had no intention of stopping. She stroked him with her hand, taking him deeper, until his hips bucked against her mouth.

“Bri.”

The warning was blatant, but she wasn’t sure she could ever get enough of the power coursing through her. Not when it seemed as if every muscle in his body was tensed, poised to lose control. To see this man who seemed to so enjoy driving her insane lose himself was high on her list of priorities right now. She wanted it. Hell, if she were going to be perfectly honest, she needed to level the playing field between them, to make him feel even a portion of the turbulence he caused just by being in the same room as her.

“Bri, you need to stop.”

But his hands were loose in her hair. He didn’t want her to stop. Which suited her just fine, because she didn’t want to, either. She picked up her pace, moving over him in the same way that made him moan earlier. Then she reached between his legs and cupped his balls, feathering her nails over that sensitive skin. He groaned, his entire body shaking, but just when she thought victory was guaranteed, he tried to pull away.

“No.” She wasn’t stopping until she finished this. She needed to finish this—to finish him.

His grip tightened, but Ryan let her take him back in her mouth. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

She ignored him, maintaining her gentle hold on his balls and moving her other hand in counterpoint with her mouth. His hands spasmed in her hair, his curses stringing together until she could barely understand the words. It didn’t matter, not with him swelling in her mouth, and his hips moving even though he was obviously trying to hold still. He came with a groan and she swallowed him down, loving the way his knees shuddered, just a little.

Before she could luxuriate in the desire and power coursing through her, he hauled her to her feet and spun around to press her back against the wall. “Where did that come from?”

“Where did what come from?”

“You, me, the best blow job I’ve ever had.”

She attempted a grin, but it was difficult to be amused with him looking at her like he’d never seen her before. “There’s more to the library than the hunting and fishing section.”

Ryan kissed her, and the way his tongue demanded she open her mouth felt like he was imprinting himself on her. He didn’t move his hands from her hair, cupping her head while still effectively holding her in place.

It was too much. She pushed at his shoulders, gasping in a breath when he leaned back. Instead of being relieved he gave her the space she so desperately needed, her panic got worse. He looked down at her, those blue eyes fathomless, threatening to make this into something it most definitely could not be. She couldn’t have moved if she tried, and with the entire length of Ryan’s body against her, she wasn’t sure she wanted to. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

She tried to turn away, but he caught her chin and tipped it up, forcing her to meet his gaze. Before those eyes, she felt her entire past, all her hopes and dreams and fears, stripped bare for him, one by one. Things he had no business seeing. Her terror over being abandoned again and again. Her love of libraries and the peace being surrounded by safe, reliable books brought her—how safe she felt there because nothing ever changed. Her hope for a dream man that she’d never quite been able to quash, no matter how many times she told herself it was a foolish thing to want. Her need for a family, for a place in life that was hers and hers alone, roots. All that knowledge to do with what he pleased.

“What are you so afraid of?” he murmured.

Bri shuddered, the intimacy of the moment too much. No one saw her, not in the way he seemed to. Everything about you, she wanted to say. And the way she was already starting to crave his body against hers, like he was her favorite kind of drug. She licked her lips, all too aware of how naked she was and the fact that he still retained most of his clothing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her safety net. As long as she didn’t admit how deeply she felt about something, it couldn’t be taken from her. It was a lesson she’d learned the hard way when surrounded by other children in a barren dog-eat-dog world. When you had nothing, you were willing to fight for every scrap.

And the more someone else valued it, the more value it had.

“Bri, tell me.”

She swallowed. “A lot of things.” Some days it felt like she was afraid of everything.

Ryan smoothed her hair back. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Liar. She was pretty sure he already had. But then he kissed her again, and Bri wasn’t all that concerned about the future or the potential pain it held. Now was all that mattered, this moment with this man. She just wanted to stop thinking and feel.

She dug at his shirt, stripping it over his head and tossing it aside. Next she finished shoving down his jeans. God, this man was magnificent, his body corded with muscle beneath tanned skin. She reached for his growing erection, but he intercepted her and lifted her arms over her head to press her wrists against the wall. “Don’t move.”

“But—”

“Condom.”

For one wild moment, she actually considered telling him to keep going, but a thread of sanity raised its head at last moment. She nodded jerkily. “Hurry.”

“Do. Not. Move.” He took two steps backward and then turned and strode down the hallway back into the living room.

She couldn’t see him from her position, and the temptation to remove her hands from the wall and lean forward to look was nearly overwhelming. She didn’t, though, because it felt absolutely wicked to stand here, completely naked, completely vulnerable to him. It helped that she could hear him crashing around the living room, cursing under his breath, and knew she was the one who’d driven him so out of control.

After one final crash, Ryan reappeared, already tearing open the condom. By the time he reached her, he had it on. He lifted her against the wall and Bri immediately wrapped her legs around his waist, a whimper slipping free when he nudged her entrance.

He worked his way into her with small strokes, each one spiking her pleasure higher. She tried to arch into him, but his grip on the back of her thighs held her open and helpless. He teased her, not going as deeply as she needed. And, God, she needed so much, it terrified her.

“You’re thinking too much.” He shoved into her, sheathing himself completely. The nearly overwhelming fullness had her closing her eyes and hissing out a breath even as she gripped him tighter. “Fuck.”

The word came out so harshly, and yet knowing she affected him so deeply warmed her unexpectedly. Bri nodded, trying and failing once again to lower herself and take him deeper. With him pinning her in place in so many ways, holding so still, the need for friction drove her nearly out of her mind. He didn’t move, though, and she couldn’t. “Please. Please.”

Pressure built in her, only made more intense by the barest friction of her frantic attempts. Ryan’s breath hitched. “You feel so fucking good.”

Nowhere as good as he felt inside her. She clung to him as he spread her thighs and pounded into her, each stroke driving her higher. “Right there. Oh God, right there.”

“That’s it, honey. Come for me.”

It was as if her body had been waiting for this very moment, when they were joined so closely, to finally let go.

As if she needed to be held down by Ryan in order to be free.

And nothing in her life had terrified her more.