I writhe against him, delirious. I could lie like this forever, but already I need more. All of him.
Now.
I wrap my legs around his hips, feeling the white-hot friction where his hardness grinds between my thighs. Ryland lets out a tortured groan against my skin, so I rock up against him again, relishing the tension in his body, every muscle wired taut with restrained power as his mouth continues its miracle on my skin.
This is freedom, I think dizzily. To give myself so freely, and accept his thrilling passion in return. To lose myself in his embrace, not because I need distraction or escape, but because together, we’re more than we could ever be alone.
Ryland drags his mouth from my breast, and now he’s kissing a trail lower, lower down my stomach, sending shivers of heat through my body. He pauses at the waistband of my pants, long enough for me to lift my head and find his gaze.
There’s a silent question there, steady beneath the racing of our heartbeats. I inhale a shaky breath, and nod.
Ryland slowly unbuttons my jeans. I stay, raised up on my elbows, watching him. Time has stopped, the world has frozen. Nothing exists but the two of us here in the dark, the lamp swinging gently above us, casting a golden glow that bathes him in soft light, a halo above his dark curls.
I swear, I forget how to breathe.
Ryland gently eases my jeans lower, leaving me in just my panties. I shiver, and he shoots me one of his heart-stopping grins.
“I dreamed about you,” he murmurs, his voice throaty with lust. “About this. Tasting every inch of you. Feeling your body rise…” His fingertips trail softly up the inside of my thighs.
“Unravel…” Ryland breathes, dipping his head to kiss me through the damp cotton of my underwear. I moan, falling back again, straining for his touch.
“Break…” The word is a hum against my most tender place. Pleasure ripples through me, light and sweet.
God, I could come undone from this alone. The feel of his hands, gripping my hips in place. The teasing nudge of his tongue against my panties. The shudder of sensation as his stubbled cheeks brush the inside of my thighs.
I hear myself moan, a breathy cry in the night, and then Ryland is tearing my panties away and licking up against me in a hot swoop of pleasure.
“Oh God!”
My body goes rigid. I claw for solid ground, but there is none to be found, not with Ryland’s mouth on me, his dirty, charming, miraculous mouth. He licks my clit with a slow, teasing rhythm, lapping against me, dropping tiny kisses against my thighs, pausing to dip lower, nudging at my wet, aching core but never delving deeper where I crave to be possessed.
I grasp his head, tangling my fingers in his hair, desperate to speed his rhythm, but he doesn’t give in, doesn’t pause for a moment, just keeps up the exquisite torment. Steady and sweet and relentlessly slow.
My bones unknit. My muscles melt into stardust and pure sensation. I fall into the starry sky above us, into the bliss of him, and this moment right here.
Ryland sinks two fingers deep inside me, and I break with a desperate cry. Pleasure slams through me, over and over, my body clenching around his searching fingers, bucking against his eager, greedy mouth until I’m lost in the waves of pure white-hot fire. I fall, crying out for more as my body crests in ecstasy, coming alive in the dazzling velvet dark of the starry sky above, blazing with a light I feel in every nerve, every atom, every part of my soul as Ryland brands me with his mouth, his hands, his tongue…
I fall, and it feels like coming home.
21.
When I surface, Ryland is propped on one elbow above me, tracing slow circles on my bare stomach.
I give him a shy smile. “Hey,” I whisper. The charge between us is still electric, but there’s something new in his eyes, an intimacy that makes my stomach twist.
Everything’s different now. Not because of the way he’s touching me now, the way I gave myself over to him moments ago, but what we’ve shared. The truths we’ve revealed, the wounds we’ve bared.
There’s nothing between us anymore.
“Hey,” he whispers back, leaning to drop a tender kiss on my lips. I breathe him in, the scent of clean shampoo and deeper salt and him. My self-consciousness melts away, leaving nothing but the glow in my veins and the low burning embers of desire, sparking to life again.
“You were right,” I realize suddenly.
He looks confused.
“That day on the roadside. You said I would be the one kissing you next time.” I giggle, trailing my hands down his chest, savoring the feel of his muscles.
Ryland’s smile turns wolfish. “That isn’t all I promised,” he says, moving to whisper in my ear. “If I remember, I said you’d come screaming my name.”
I blush. “That wasn’t so much a scream as a moan,” I tease.
Ryland chuckles. “There’s always next time.”
His eyes catch mine, and the lust there is hot with promise. I shiver, already pulling his head down to mine again. This time, our kisses deepen, simmering with heat as bright as the fireflies dancing in the woods.
God, I want him so much. I’ve never felt this way before, so in tune with my body; every part of me humming a fevered song.
Take me.
I arch up, lost in the giddy feel of his lips on mine; the deep, seductive plunge of his tongue. Ryland scoops my body against him, molding my curves to the hard planes of his body. I gasp for air, my head clouding with desire, my body aching in his arms. I slide my hands lower, finding his belt; unhooking the buckle, slipping my hand under the waistband—