Like a lightning flash, he grabbed me under my arms and lifted me up onto the counter; his forcefulness turned me on even more.
My fingers wove into his hair and my legs wrapped around his hips; our lips expressed our mutual desire. He pressed himself into me; I could feel through his jeans that he was completely aroused. My mind raced, thinking about having him inside me.
His fingers clenched and clawed at the back pockets of my jeans, pulling me forward and bumping me into him. I envisioned him making love to me right here on this counter. By the way he rubbed into me, I was sure he was thinking the same thing. I softly moaned as the hunger turned to passion.
The intensity of our kissing calmed and slowed until our lips rested together. We both smiled.
“I don’t remember. Did I even say hi?” Ryan whispered, joking with me.
“Yes. You had me at hello!” I giggled on his lips.
He chuckled in my mouth.
“I think you have me confused with another famous actor,” he said, kissing me in between laughs.
His mouth locked back on mine, convincing me that this amazing connection between us deserved a chance to grow.
Both of our hands had already found skin; his hands were under my shirt and midway up my back. One of my hands had skimmed down his neck and underneath the collar of his T-shirt.
I had his bottom lip between my teeth when thoughts of Marie walking in on our make-out session started to put a damper on my lust.
“You know… before we get busted…”
I slipped off the counter and into his arms.
Ryan gathered his bag from the floor. I was amused to see that he had to adjust his pants. His arousal was definitely noticeable.
I peeked out the door before attempting to sneak him from the kitchen to the stairwell. Most of the crowd had disappeared. There were only about twenty people left in the pub, but I still wanted to get him upstairs unnoticed.
Ryan had just slipped through the stairwell door as Marie came around the corner at the same moment. She was looking for me and I was busted.
Her face broke into an exultant grin when she saw what I was up to. “Ryan?” she mouthed as she pointed to the door.
I shrugged. My shameful smile was enough of a confirmation for her.
“Glad to see you’re taking my advice! Go on, I’ll lock up. There are only a couple of people here. Pete and I will take care of it. Go, have a great night!”
I was halfway up the steps when Marie called me back. I tossed my key to Ryan.
“I’ll be right back,” I said to him, nodding for him to go on without me. I trotted down the steps and almost ran right into Marie.
“You forgetting something?” she teased, holding out a chilled bottle of champagne.
Ryan had his coat off and was in the living room when I walked into my apartment.
“Gift from Marie.” I handed the bottle to him. “She saw you. Sorry,” I apologized. “Don’t worry, she won’t say anything.”
“Do you want me to open this?” he asked, even though he already started to peel the foil off the top.
“Sure. Let me get some glasses.”
He popped the cork and poured as I held the glasses. Ryan slipped one glass from my hand and held it up.
“To… possibilities.” He tapped his glass gently into mine and flashed a sultry smile at me.
“What time do you think you’ll be done tonight?” he asked, sipping his champagne.
“Actually, I’ve been given the rest of the night off. Marie and Pete will close tonight.”
“Really? You’re done for the night?” He sounded pleased.
“Yep. We weren’t that busy for some reason. Guess there was some big commotion going on at the Synful Grill tonight – took most of my customers away.”
He tilted his head to give me an annoyed look.
“The only reason I know that is because one of my customers received a message that you were there. She said your location was posted on the Internet.”
“Unbelievable,” he muttered. I could tell that upset him.
“Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
He stopped me. “No, no, I’m not mad at you. It’s just messed up. I can’t even go out to eat without it being a huge pain in the ass. It’s like having a stalker, only they travel in packs. I don’t know why they even give a shit.”
He started rubbing his face hard, so I tried to think of something that would get his mind off of this path.
“Hey, would you help me a second?” I held out my hand to pull him up from his seat. He willingly followed me to the kitchen.