Sullivans 06 - Let Me Be the One

go out with the guys.”
    “I’ve had a lifetime of space,” he growled. “I don’t need space. I need you, Vicki. You. ”
    She was shellshocked by his intensity.
    And honesty.
    “Then take me, Ryan, because I need you, too.”
    He yanked off his shirt and then hers, stopping only long enough to run his fingers over the engagement ring hanging on the chain between her breasts. Her leggings were gone a second later and then he snapped open the clasp at the back of her bra and it fell, too. All that remained was for him to push his thumbs into the sides of her panties and shove them down over her hips and thighs.
    Her hands were wet and covered with clay, but Ryan clearly didn’t care as he threaded his fingers into hers and backed them up against the nearest wall. He lifted her hands up over her head and lowered his mouth to her breasts, roughly rubbing the stubble on his chin over her, making her flesh even more sensitive by the time he laved first one and then the other with his tongue.
    Even lost in the sweet shock of arousal, Vicki realized she was surrounded by all of her favorite things.
    Clay. Sculptures. Ryan.
    Full to bursting with a joy she hadn’t ever let herself believe could be real, the next thing she knew, Ryan was kissing her again and letting her hands go to press his now clay-covered palms over her breasts.
    Every inch of skin he touched came alive beneath his fingers, marking her with clay, claiming her as his even more with every caress.
    Wanting to mark him, too, desperate to feel his heat and strength beneath her fingertips, she laid her hands over his shoulders and slowly slid a path of clay down over his chest and then his abdomen.
    He pushed himself between her naked thighs so that the zipper of his jeans—and the huge bulge behind it — was a deliciously hard press of heat into the vee between her legs, making her gasp as he hit just the right spot. Always incredibly in tune with her body, he reached for one thigh and slid his hand down to grasp her beneath her knee and pull her leg up and around his waist.
    Vicki was entirely sensation now, a bundle of nerves ready to spring apart at any moment. But she didn’t want to go there alone.
    Suddenly clumsy with desire, her hands shook, fumbling at the button and zipper on his jeans. He moved his hands from her breasts just long enough to pull a condom out before his jeans fell to the ground. She was the one yanking off his underwear now and thank God his hands were clean enough from brushing over her skin again and again to slide on the condom.
    So strong, he lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist just as he lowered her down onto him. Both of them breathed out hard at the sweet moment of connection, her body a perfect fit around his, and then he was cupping her hips hard in his hands and riding her against the wall while she kissed him with more than just her mouth. Her entire heart and soul were there in every slick of her tongue against his, in every gasp of ecstasy...and especially in the explosion of pleasure that soon took them both over in the middle of her studio.
    They clung to each other for several long moments, working to catch their breath. She loved the way Ryan kept holding onto her as if it didn’t even occur to him to ever let her go.
    “I like dating you,” he said into the curve of her shoulder.
    She laughed before losing her breath all over again at the aftershocks that her body made jostling over his in laughter. Thirty minutes later, when they’d pulled their clothes back on over their clay-covered bodies and were sitting on the floor devouring the slices of pizza that had just been delivered, with Ryan’s fake-engagement ring lying between her breasts, she realized it was the craziest second date she’d ever had.
    Crazy...and so right.

Chapter Twenty-three
     
    Vicki snuggled in closer to Ryan. He had a bad habit of kicking off the covers while they were sleeping, but as long as he was there to keep her warm, she didn’t mind.
    A few minutes later, alarms started to sound from around the room. “Time to wake up, sleepyhead. You have a plane to catch.” She softened her words with a soft flick of her tongue across his earlobe.
    He groaned and tried to pull her closer, but as much as she wanted to let him drag her beneath him to make their morning even more perfect, first she needed to wiggle out from beneath his arm to find his various alarms and turn each of them off.
    By the time she