Ryan Hunter

hugged Liza a little tighter, pressing my cheek against her brow. “So, what are we going to make of this situation?”
    “ Situation? What do you mean?”
    What I meant? Oh, I could be quite creative with my dream girl in my arms. “I mean you…me…” I kissed her shoulder to give her an idea of what I meant. “Alone…in this place…”
    Her skin coated with a nice layer of goose bumps when I trailed my tongue in a slim spiral toward her neck and up the column of her throat. “With only the frogs to watch us…” I finished with pressing a gentle kiss on the tempting spot behind her ear.
    Liza didn’t move, and I hated not to see the reaction to my caresses in her eyes. Shaping my palm against her burning cheek, I tilted her face slowly toward me. “What do you say, Matthews? Should we two give it a try?”
    Liza remained silent long enough to make me feel uncomfortable and lose all hope. But then a reluctant smile curved her lips. “Only if you start using my first name, Hunter .”
    The relief and joy I felt made me laugh. And also how she called me Hunter. When she said my name, it always sounded like something dangerous. And hell, with those tender lips in front of me, it was too easy to turn into a wild wolf with her. I brushed her cheekbone with the tip of my nose, then I stole the first sweet kiss after three torturous weeks.
    But before I went on with something I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop later, there was something I needed to sort out first. “While we’re at it, Liza …I have a condition, too.”
    “You do? ” She quirked her eyebrows. “What is it?”
    “F or the time being,” I said very slowly, so she would know how serious I was, “I’ll be the only one climbing through your window.”
    A beautiful laugh escaped her and made my heart skip inside my chest. “I think I can agree to that.”
    “You think ?” That wasn’t enough for me by far. Gently biting into her bottom lip, I wanted to coax out a real promise.
    Liza pulled back, smiling. “Okay, you win. You’ll be the only one.”
    That was all I needed to hear . I stroked her silky hair from her forehead and made her look directly into my eyes. “See, baby, that sounds a damn lot better.”
    And the next thing I knew our tongues were entangled in a kiss that raised the temperature around us by at least ten degrees. I made her turn around on that log so she would straddle my legs and I could run my hands over the length of her amazing body. She shivered when I touched her and released a moan that drove me wild.
    Leaning back on the fallen tree with my feet still planted on the ground on either side, I pulled Liza down with me, just to feel every bit of her body on top of mine. And I made damn sure that she felt how much every bit of me desired her.
    We kissed until our lips were swollen and an owl hooted deeper in the wood, reminding me that it was way past the time to take Liza home.
    “It’s quite late. Do you want me to drive you?” I asked as we walked back to my car, our fingers laced and me wheeling her mountain bike with the other hand. “We can come back for your bike tomorrow.”
    “Nah, I’m not scared in the dark. And it’s not far, anyway.”
    I didn’t like the idea of Liza riding home alone in the dead of the night, but neither did I want to force her into anything. “All right. Will you send me a message when you’re home? Just so I know I don’t have to go looking for you?” When I winked at her, she smiled, and it brightened the dark for me.
    The first quarter of a mile, I drove slowly beside her, with my window open, but as we reached the town, our ways parted and I blew her a kiss before I turned left and she kept straight.
    Driving up the street to my house, I slowed the car. But I never stopped. I just didn’t want to wait half a night before I could see her again. And I damn sure wouldn’t wait for a message to tell me that she arrived home safely, when I could assure myself of it.
    In a drift, I spun the Audi in the middle of the street, heading back the way I had come. Three minutes later, I zoomed up the avenue to Liza’s house. As I slammed on the breaks, parking it smoothly next to the curb, she just got off her bike and wheeled it into the shed.
    Leaving the headlights on to break through the dark, I got out and followed her into the garden. As she returned from the shed, she walked up to me until her body was flush against mine and wrapped her arms around my neck.