Play With Me

kiss his wife. “He has time.”
    “I know.” She
pulled away and snorted as she cast her brother a grin. “I’m just waiting for
the day that a girl sees through you…and decides to like you anyway.”
    Ryan laughed.
“Yep, me too.”
    After hiding
from his mom in his parents’ beach house yesterday, it was odd to see him
banter with his family like that. Free, uncomplicated. Funny.
    “That shouts for
a drink.” Philip fetched two small glassed from behind the bar, placed one in
front of himself and the other in front of Ryan, and started filling them with
Tequila.
    “You can have
your drink with Rach. I’ll skip tonight.” Ryan shoved the glass toward his
sister, his lips suddenly getting a little too tight.
    “You pass? With
that beautiful drinking partner?” Philip’s beam my way confused me. I didn’t
intend to drink a teeny tiny drop of that shit, but he hadn’t given me a glass
anyway, so what did he mean?
    “I’m not having
this drink with her.”
    Okay, now Ryan’s
implications hurt. He would drink with other girls, but not with me?
    “Why? Is she
shy?” Phil demanded.
    “She’s too
nice.”
    “Ah, she’s a prude
then.”
    What bullcrap
was that? “I’m not a prude! And I’m standing right beside you, so I would
appreciate it if you told me what the hell you’re talking about.”
    Ryan turned a
sheepish grin on me. He brushed his knuckle across my cheek. “She’s decent,” he
told Phil.
    “Yeah, and
decent is a shit word for niminy-piminy,” I muttered. “So why don’t you want to
do with me whatever you use to do with others when you come here?” Somehow I
felt that my hurt pride would land me in trouble. Still, I couldn’t let them
get away with calling me a prude. After all I slipped out of my room twice for
this guy while being grounded. And currently I sat on a barstool in a club that
opened its doors only for people at age twenty-one and over.
    “You don’t know
what you’re asking for, Matthews.”
    “Well, it won’t
kill me to find out, right?” God, I should bite off my tongue.
    “Okay,” Ryan drawled.
“Remember, I gave you fair warning.”

 
     
     
    CHAPTER
    11
     
     
    LIPS PRESSED
TOGETHER, I gave Hunter a determined stare, but with his last words he had me practically
wetting my pants.
    Philip seemed
pleased with the situation as he filled the two glasses; Ryan’s only half full
on his sister’s demand. He placed one half of a lemon-slice on either glass.
    Ryan grinned at
me. “You still game?”
    “I don’t have to
drink this, do I?” Shit. My voice almost cracked with my rising unease.
    “No, you don’t.
That’s for me. You only assist with the lemon.”
    Assist with the
lemon…meant to do what? Feed it to him? Okay. I could do that. “Game on.”
    Ryan cast me a
smirk that made me wonder if I was in the right place at the right time. But it
was too late to cop out. He took the lemon off the Tequila and clinked his glass
to Philip’s. At the same time he held the slice out to me. “Bite.”
    “What?”
    “ Bite ,”
he repeated.
    He dragged the
brim of his cap around to the back of his head then knocked the shot down. I
leaned forward and bit into the fruit he held out, my eyes trained on his face.
Yuck, the sour taste made me grimace. I pulled back. Ryan tossed the slice away
and cupped my neck, yanking me toward him. Everything happened so fast, I
couldn’t even lick the lemon juice from my lips.
    But he did. And
my heart stopped beating.
    He traced my
bottom lip with his tongue, catching the juice there, and gave it a gentle nip.
His tongue then delved in between my parted lips and slid against mine with a
sensual slowness that sent little electric shockwaves of pleasure to the very
tips of my fingers and toes.
    The taste of
liquor and lemon stayed behind when he drew back a few inches. His hand still on
my neck, he gazed at me with something close to an apology in his eyes. That
and satisfaction.
    Me? I probably
looked like a cat that was thrown into cold water. Stunned to the point where
no sound came over my lips.
    “Thanks for your
help with the lemon,” he said in a voice so low I had to lip-read him.
    I breathed in
slowly, but my heart was racing. “Uh-huh. Anytime.”
    My bafflement
and dropped open mouth fueled his amusement. Ryan cocked his head, close to
letting go of the grin he bit down. Eventually, his hand slipped away from my
neck and he turned to his brother in law but keeping me close to him.
    Rachel