Sullivans 06 - Let Me Be the One

they’re doing.”
    Damn it. He’d just hurt her feelings. It was the last thing he wanted to do.
    “Actually, a massage would be great.” When she hesitated, he said, “Where do you want me?”
    “One of the kitchen chairs is probably best, so you’re the right height.”
    He willed down his erection as he sat on the chair. He could smell her fresh, clean scent as she moved behind him and had to brace himself for the moment her hands touched him. By the time she laid them down on his shoulders, his muscles had never been tighter.
    “Let me know if you need it harder. Or softer.”
    His erection immediately told his ideas of what was right and wrong in a friendship to take a hike.
    Vicki started rubbing him and heaven and hell rolled into one as pleasure and torture came at him in crashing waves. Fortunately, she didn’t speak, so he didn’t have to, either. She’d opened the French doors out to his deck and he worked to focus on the surf hitting the shore rather than how good she smelled...or the fact that she seemed to know exactly how he liked to be touched. Because if she knew how to rub his shoulders, did that mean she’d also know exactly how to rub his—
    He cursed aloud.
    Vicki jumped back. “Did I just hurt you?”
    “No.” How the hell was he going to stand up without her seeing what her innocent touches had done to him? Down, boy! “It was great. I just remembered something I should have taken care of last night.” Namely, beating his desire for her into the ground.
    By the time he had his erection under control enough to turn around, she was picking up her keys and bag from the counter.
    “I should get going now, anyway. I’ll see you at the stadium this afternoon.”
    She was gone before he could apologize for being a jerk.
    His phone rang just as he was about to get into a very cold shower. When he saw it was Rafe, Ryan turned off the water and picked up. “You found something.”
    “Maybe. James Sedgwick is into some pretty creepy things. Heavy duty S&M mostly, which isn’t that out of the ordinary considering some of the things I see.”
    “But you’re still not convinced he’s clear.”
    “This friend of yours he was hassling is a sculptor, right?”
    A muscle jumped in Ryan’s jaw as he unclenched his teeth long enough to say, “She is.”
    “I’m guessing she’s pretty, huh?”
    Ryan thought about the way she’d looked the night before on the couch, her big green eyes slightly dilated from the darkened room, her mouth plump and begging to be kissed. “You can’t even imagine how pretty.”
    “As far as I can tell, every year he picks a girl just like your friend to be his. And then at the end of every year, after sending the girl on her way with some career prize, he gets a replacement. I’m guessing he’s wanting your friend to fill his current vacancy.”
    Ryan nearly crushed his cell phone in his fist as he stared blindly out at the ocean. “That. Is. Never. Going. To. Happen.”
    Just the thought of letting the pervert look at Vicki while fantasizing about tying her up and hurting her to get his sexual kicks, had Ryan’s fists tightening.
    Vicki thought they could “break up” and everything would still be fine. She’d thought she’d overreacted to the creep’s advances.
    If anything happened to her, Ryan would not only never forgive himself, he’d end up in jail—because he’d kill James without even blinking an eye.
    That was when the truth hit Ryan hard enough to jolt him with the force of an earthquake rolling beneath his feet.
    Of course Vicki’s friendship meant a great deal to him. And it was also a given that he’d always wanted her, right from that first moment he’d landed on top of her in high school. That was why, these past few days, it had been easy to focus on first their friendship and then the wanting, the bottomless desire he felt for her, as his reasons for wanting to protect her and keep her close.
    But the real reason went so much further, so much deeper, than friendship.
    Ryan didn’t just want Vicki, didn’t just crave her laughter, her curves, her mouth beneath his.
    He loved her.
    And every other woman he’d been with since that day she’d come into his life had only been a placeholder for the real thing.

Chapter Ten
     
    Ryan timed his arrival at the Hawks’ parking lot perfectly in order to intercept Judy, a reporter for ESPN.com. Some of the reporters were all business, but since he was pretty much responsible