Daring Time (29 page)

Hope's smile widened. It did something to her to see Ryan so transported by pleasure. It really did. She could easily become addicted to the experience. Her hand squeezed tighter and her pumping motions grew more rapid. She watched in fascination as his breathing came faster and a slight coat of perspiration began to gleam on his muscular, flat abdomen.

"That's right, honey. Don't stop. It feels so good."

She glanced down and saw the head of his penis poke out amidst the long strands of her dark hair. For a moment or two she merely watched the fat crown while she stroked him with her hair-lined fist and he moaned in pleasure. A globule of clear liquid gathered around the slit and began to stream down the head. She leaned down even further to watch its progress and saw it was about to flow into her hair.

Without thinking she swiped her tongue over the head of Ryan's cock, capturing the liquid.

He started. She stared up at him in alarm only to see his eyes pinned to her opened lips and partially exposed tongue. His essence melted on the tip of it and she caught his flavor. She closed her mouth and swallowed.

"Hope."

"Yes, Ryan?" she asked shakily.

But he didn't speak even though it looked like he knew precisely what he wanted to say.

"Remember . . . remember last night when you put your mouth on me?"she asked.

He merely nodded, his eyes glowing like embers between narrowed eyelids.

"Would you like me to do—"

"Yes."

She smiled before she slid the crown of his cock between her lips. His girth stretched her lips wide when they encircled the entire head. She tightened her mouth around him and began to slide the stalk of his penis between her fisted curls.

He moaned.

"That's it. Now move your mouth up and down a little bit, honey. Follow the rhythm of your hand."

Hope looked up and saw that Ryan had come up on his elbows and watched her with profound focus. She loved the weight of his penis on her tongue. She bobbed her head up and down on the first several inches of his cock. When she experimented with suction his expression turned rigid . .. even a little feral. He met her stare while she moved over him even faster both with her mouth and hand.

"Witch."

Her smile stretched around his cock. She felt him throb in her hand, sensed his mounting excitement. He clenched his eyes shut. Hope lost herself in the sensation of giving him pleasure.

"I'm going to come," he said eventually.

Hope's eyes went wide at his harsh proclamation. What did he want her to do?

His big body shuddered and he opened his eyelids into narrow slits. "Come off me unless you want to swallow, Hope."

Swallow? His seed? She wasn't sure if she wanted to do that or not, but she couldn't bring herself to move away from him. It was thrilling to be so intimately touching him as he reached his moment of crisis. His cock jerked in her hand. She kept the head fixed tightly in her mouth and continued to pump him with her fist.

His sharp shout of release segued into a deep, guttural groan. Hope whimpered in wonder as his warm semen began to shoot into her mouth. She struggled to swallow at first, but then his taste penetrated her awareness—musky and rich, the very essence of Ryan Daire.

She took him deeper into her mouth then, suckling him while he continued to grunt in pleasure and erupt in orgasm.

Finally his convulsions lessened and the former jets of semen waned to irregular spills on her tongue. It struck her as being a little sad—poignant—for some reason when she'd licked off the last seeping drop and he fell back against the pillows, breathing heavily.

She slid his sticky member out of her mouth. Although he was noticeably less hard, his cock still looked ruddy and full, she noticed.

"Come here."

She felt her cheeks warming at the sound of his low, gruff voice. The intimacy of what had just occurred seemed to crash in on her when she looked into Ryan's face and heard his tone.

"Would . .. would you like me to remove your ... jeans first?" she asked uncertainly.

He scowled. "What I'd like is for you to come here, Hope."

She leaned down over his chest and he pulled her into his arms. She snorted and then giggled when he put his face next to her neck and rubbed her lightly with his whiskers.

"Oh, stop!" she shouted, squirming on top of him to get away from the torture. "I'm extremely ticklish."

"I can see that." He swatted her fanny once as she wiggled around, trying to get away from him. Hope jumped like the smack

of flesh against flesh had been a gunshot. Before she had the opportunity to squawk, however, Ryan was already at the business of soothing her with firm, warm lips that curved into a grin. He scraped his front teeth lightly along her nape.

She writhed again on top of his long, hard body, but her restlessness had nothing to do with panic this time.

Ryan groaned and spread both of his hands over her hips and bottom, holding her into immobility.

"I've never known a woman who squirms as much as you do."

Hope gasped when he nipped at the shell of her ear and then placed a kiss on the opening.

He lightly licked at her earlobe and then kissed the entire opening once again. This time the slight suction he applied made warm juice flood from her sex. Hope pressed down on her hips and wiggled, desperate for pressure where she most needed it. "Oh, you
make
me squirm, Ryan. Don't be mad at me when you're the one who makes it happen."

He chuckled and leaned back onto the pillow, inspecting her. His long fingers began to knead her bottom. "Why would I be mad at the fact that you have such a sensitive little body?" He smoothed both palms over her bottom and parted her thighs. Hope moaned when he penetrated her slit with a long finger. His penis lurched against her hip. "Or that you get so wet from a few kisses and making me come?"

Hope's mouth fell open and she stared blankly as he stimulated her with his finger. A sound of protest left her throat when he withdrew. He brought his finger to his mouth and sucked it, his cerulean eyes never leaving her face.

"So sweet," he murmured after he'd taken his finger from his mouth.

Hope groaned and ground her pelvis against him again, her body moving more sinuously this time compared to her former desperate writhing. If she interpreted Ryan's knowing grin correctly, he knew precisely what she was experiencing. His hands went to the back of her corset.

"How do I get this thing off?" • "There are hooks—" Even as she spoke, however, he popped open several of the fasteners.

"It's like getting off a bra times fifteen."

"What's a bra?" Hope asked, but she wasn't really paying any attention because Ryan had rolled her onto her back. He paused to kick off the remainder of his clothing before he came down on his side next to her with an eager look on his face.

"I'll have my mother explain to you the dynamics of a bra, I think. Suffice it to say it's an abbreviated version of this thing and I'm guessing a hell of a lot more comfortable," he muttered as he removed her stiff corset and tossed it to the side of the bed carelessly.

Hope scowled as he tossed away the garment but she was much more interested in Ryan's casual reference to his mother.

"I meant to ask you about your family. When will I get to meet your mother?"

"Hmmm?" Ryan asked after a moment. She realized he stared fixedly at her bared breasts, a small smile curving his mouth that reminded her of a tiger about to feast—and feast
well.

"Ryan. We were speaking of your mother."

"You
might have been. I was talking about your breasts. Or thinking about them, anyway."

Hope swallowed as she stared up at him. The secret flesh between her thighs twanged sharply with arousal. Why did the hungry look in his beautiful eyes make her feel as though she was about to be ravished and cherished at once?

Then he lowered his head and caught a nipple between his lips and teeth and Hope thought she began to understand what it meant to be both nourishment and a source of worship to a lover at once.

A
lover,
she thought as she arched her back, feeding him her flesh even as he added fuel to her flaming desire with his firm suck and lashing tongue. She ran her fingers through his thick, soft hair and thought: I
have a lover.

And
what
an exquisite, awe-inspiring experience it was to desire and be desired full measure in return. Never. Never when she'd read Shakespeare or Whitman or imagined the tawdry romps in the Levee District had she imagined the fullness of this experience, the intense, blazing carnality of it.

She glanced down and saw Ryan's cheeks hollowed out as he suckled her, the taut, firm squeeze of his lips, the surprisingly touching sight of his closed, smooth eyelids—as though she witnessed him at a moment of sublime, peaceful bliss.

Her womb seemed to clench inside of her, the pain so great she cried out.

"Ryan!"

He opened his eyelids slowly.

"I... don't think you should continue doing that. It... it hurts."

His dark brows and the sticking bandage went up on his forehead, but his lips remained sealed around her nipple.

"Well, not
hurts,
precisely," she admitted rapidly when the divine suction of his mouth lessened noticeably. His firm suck resumed and Hope's fingers clawed desperately in his hair, making him grunt in discomfort. Despite what she'd just said she cried out "no!"

when Ryan released her nipple.

"Do you want me to tie you down again?"

"Surely that's not necessary, is it?" she whispered weakly. Ryan gave her a wry look as he came face-to-face with her, pressing her down to the bed. It felt delicious to take even part of the weight of such a big, solid . .. hard man.

"It will be if you keep clawing me and writhing around while I take my time making love to your mouth and breasts and anything else I damn well please for a good part of the night. I want complete access to you, Hope."

Her mouth fell open to reply and Ryan silenced her by sliding his tongue between her lips.

She moaned as pleasure inundated her. Surely Ryan wasn't concerned. Couldn't he tell he had complete access to everything from her pinkie finger to her very soul?

TWENTY-TWO

Ryan's consciousness rose sluggishly into the waking world the next morning. He existed in a warm cocoon of sunlight and body-warmed blankets. He kept his eyes closed, hesitant to break the spell of profound relaxation and contentment. The most amazing, erotic memories clung around his awareness like a dream lover's embrace.

His body tensed immediately, however, when he heard the wooden floor next to the bed squeak, the sound somehow cautious, as though whoever neared him did so furtively.

"You're such a hog with the covers. Let me in there with you. I'm freezing out here."

Ryan's eyelids popped open. He felt afraid to move for a second as the strongest sense of deja vu he'd ever experienced in his life swept through his awareness. He turned around slowly and gawked at a naked, glorious, sun-gilded Hope Stillwater as though he were witnessing a miracle of the highest caliber.

She literally dazzled him. After a second he noticed that the stunning vision before him had tilted her head and that her dark brows furrowed in puzzlement.

He whipped back the covers and grabbed her before she could fade away like a dream.

He brought her onto the bed and yanked the blanket over them, hardly aware of her surprised laughter. Most of his attention luxuriated in the sensation of Hope's body pressing against his. Her skin felt like smooth, cool silk flowing beneath his hand as he drew it along the side of her torso.

He looked into her face and saw laughter in her midnight eyes.

"Just who do you think you are, sneaking around naked at this hour of the morning?" he asked before he brushed aside a swath of dark hair and buried his face in her fragrant neck. His fingers tightened in the silky strands when he recalled climaxing while his cock was buried both in Hope's coiling curls and hot little mouth at once.

She wasn't a dream. And she really
was
right here beneath him, naked and beautiful.

Maybe she wasn't a dream, but she was a miracle. The degree of distilled lust he experienced at the sensation of her soft, firm body beneath him, her erect nipples pressing into his ribs was like a blade lancing into his flesh.

He groaned when he felt her hands in his hair and then running hungrily over his shoulders.

"You've accused me of being a witch often enough. Is that the answer you want?" she teased him in that low, smoky voice he'd come to love. His cock lurched against her satiny smooth belly. Despite a night full of mind-bogglingly great sex he realized he had to have her again.

Now.

He needed to prove to himself that she was real; that Hope truly was there with him.

"It's the only answer I'm going to get for now," he growled. "By now you know the only conversing I like doing while I'm fucking is dirty talk."

He saw her black, velvety eyes surrounded by a lush thicket of lashes widen. She pressed two fingers to her smiling lips as though to seal them.

"
Witch"
Ryan muttered before he fell on the luscious pink bow of her swollen, well-kissed lips. He'd explored her mouth all night long, ravaged it.. . made love to it again and again. Still, he wanted more. When he registered her taste he sought out her pussy with his hand. He grunted in sublime male satisfaction as his fingers glided over creamy, plump labia and a slick, erect clit.

He penetrated her snug slit with his forefinger.

"You're so wet. I'm sorry, I can't wait," he mumbled after he broke their kiss roughly He dove for the bedside table where a box of condoms lay opened, his supply largely diminished after his and Hope's night of intense, abandoned "lovemaking. He noticed her eager expression as he rolled on the prophylactic, glad to see she'd gotten over her initial disgust of him using a condom. "But it's so
cold,"
she'd complained when he'd pressed his rubber-covered, lubricated cock to her slit for the first time last night. "I like the way you feel much better—so warm and smooth."