Authors: Mia Caldwell
“Ryanna, I love you and I have from the start. It was stupid of me not to have said it a long time ago. Rutledge Electronics and the board of directors have nothing to do with why I want to marry you. You’re what I first think about when I wake up and what I last think about before I fall asleep. You complete me in every way. Please say you’ll marry me, Ryanna. I don’t want to live without you. I don’t think I can.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Tears splashed down my face as I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders. He buried his head in my chest and I rested my head on top of his.
“I love you too,” I whispered in his ear. “I can’t live without you either. There will never, ever be anyone for me except you.”
Andrew squeezed me tighter and we clung to each other like that until we seemed to remember at the same time we were at my mother’s house and not in the privacy of his bedroom at his mansion. Still holding each other, we separated enough to face my mother and aunt, both of whom looked as thrilled as I felt.
“I’m so happy for you both,” Mom said.
“Me too,” Aileen said as she stood up and walked towards me, gesturing for me to hold out my hand. Her brow furrowed a little as she examined the ring. “Why is it so small?”
I snatched my hand back as my mother let out a disgusted sigh and glared at her. Only Andrew seemed unfazed, laughing even.
“It’s small because it was all my grandfather could afford at the time he gave it to my grandmother. They met only three months after he immigrated here to Philadelphia from Germany. He worked on the shipyards but it still took him a long time to save up to buy the ring my grandmother wanted most. She passed it down to me shortly before she died. My grandmother meant a lot to me, and I want to give her the ring to the woman who means more.”
Andrew winked at me before he said, “But, of course, you’re right Ms. Howard. Ryanna should have a ring at least as big as one that ballers’ wives show off on Instagram.”
Aileen nodded her approval while I shook my head. “I thought the ring was perfect when you first put it on my finger but it’s even more special now that you’ve told me its history. Nothing you could buy from a jewelry store would mean as much to me as this.”
“She should at least have held out for a pendant or bracelet or something,” my aunt grumbled, but Andrew and I ignored her. We wrapped our arms around each other again and the rest of the world slipped away. Nothing mattered except that we were back together, sure of our feelings and our commitment to each other and the child I carried.
The rest of the afternoon passed by in a happy blur. After Andrew proposed, I didn’t focus on anything else except my ring. Although I was vaguely aware of Aileen suggesting plans for a wedding ceremony that would make William and Kate’s seem like a quiet, understated affair, I tuned her out. The bells and whistles didn’t matter to me. As far as I was concerned, Andrew and I could go to City Hall and have a quickie wedding there.
“No way!” Andrew said later, once we’d returned to his mansion. We’d left my mother’s house at the same time and I’d followed him in my own car. I took my ring off as I drove out of fear I’d keep staring at it, get distracted, and have an accident. But now that we were back here in Andrew’s bedroom, the ring had returned to its rightful place on my hand.
“I want our wedding to be special,” he continued. “Not some rushed, bureaucratic, by-the-numbers type deal.”
“I’ve never been one of those women who dreamed of a big, poofy dress and a church full of people,” I said. “Plus, aren’t we still safeguarding our privacy? Getting it done at City Hall would seem to be the way to go if that’s the case.”
Andrew smiled and wrapped his arms around me. The last of the evening sun rays streamed in through the lavish French window, illuminating the chiseled features of his face. He’d never looked more handsome as he tenderly looked down at me.
“There’s got to be something in the middle between the lavish spectacle your aunt has in mind and going to City Hall. What about if we get married here? I can think of a couple of spots that might be suitable places for us to exchange vows.”
“I’d love to get married here,” I told him, meaning every word. “I’ve come to think of this place as home.”
“Glad to hear it.” Andrew stroked my hair as his expression grew serious. “These last three weeks have been torture. Even though we were under the same roof, it felt like you were a million miles away. I never want us to grow that estranged again.”
“But you understand why I needed some space, right? I wasn’t playing games or trying to be cruel. It didn’t seem like we were on the same page where we wanted to be as a couple. Time apart seemed to be the best way to figure things out.”
“You were right.” He kissed my forehead and the tip of my nose. “I hated not being with you but the time alone helped me think through some things and gave me some much needed clarity.”
“What kinds of things?” I asked, knowing I could be treading on dangerous ground. “How did you decide to ask me to marry you again?”
“Just like I said, I love you and I don’t want to live without you. I’ll admit, it is difficult to bare my feelings this way. I’m so used to being the one with the power and in control, it’s hard to accept that loving you is something I have no power or control over. Being that vulnerable scared me. But after I realized I would lose you if I didn’t open up and was honest about how much you mean to me, I knew I had no choice but to expose my feelings and emotions. I’d never felt as strongly for any other woman to even consider doing so.”
Tears filled my eyes and I wiped them away. “Damn, I’m usually not so emotional. It must be the pregnancy hormones.”
“Just so long as they are happy tears and not sad ones.”
“Oh, these are definitely happy tears, believe me.” I took a deep breath before I spoke, hoping I could match his eloquence. “I love you, Andrew, and I’m glad you trusted me enough to be open and honest about your feelings. My feelings for you make me feel vulnerable and powerless too. It’s kind of scary to be as crazy about someone as I am about you.”
Andrew drew me to him until we were as close as we could possibly be. His hands rested near the small of my back while my heartbeat sped up as his erection rubbed up against my lower stomach. I’d missed this intimacy during the last few weeks when we’d been estranged and sleeping in separate rooms.
I did my best to finish my thoughts, but Andrew’s warm embrace and being pressed against his hard, muscular body threatened to distract me. “When you proposed the first time, I was scared you only did so because you wanted to look good to your board of directors, not because you loved me. But today, I could tell you want to marry me because you truly do care about me and want to be with me. Even though I’m pregnant with your child, I couldn’t marry you unless I knew how you really felt about me.”
“I love you, Ryanna,” Andrew said, words I would never, ever tire of hearing. “I should have said it a long time ago but I plan to tell you and show you every day from now on.”
“And I’ll do the same,” I told him just before he lowered his mouth on to mine. Though our lips only lightly touched at first, sparks still rocketed through my body, like it was throwing its own celebration that Andrew and I had reunited.
With the tip of his tongue, Andrew traced an outline around my lips, both tasting and savoring me. Eager to join in on the fun, I opened my mouth and allowed my tongue to meet his. We simultaneously moaned as our kissed deepened while our tongues dueled for control.
Andrew seemed content to proceed at a leisurely pace, kissing me while his hands cupped my ass and he ground his hard-on into my lower stomach. However, I couldn’t wait and tugged at his clothes. We stopped kissing long enough for me to pull his sweater over his head. I allowed my hands to roam over the hard ridges of his chest, delighting in the grooves and indentations of his defined abs.
I used my index finger to circle around his belly button several times before turning my attention to the waistband of his jeans. However, the erection jutting out from the crotch begged for my attention and I stroked it through the denim material.
Andrew let out a low growl. “You’re driving me crazy. Keep this up and we will be over before we even start. You don’t want that, do you?”
“No, but I’m having fun here. You wouldn’t deny me that, would you?”
“Nooo . . .” He dragged out the word as I unzipped his jeans and pulled them down along with his briefs. His cock sprang upwards, as if eager to be free from its constraints and ready for my touch.
I grasped his enormous dick in my hands and smiled as it swelled even further. A bead of precum formed at its tip and I rubbed my thumb over it, coating my finger in its sticky goodness. After swiping my thumb across my lips, I then stood on my tiptoe to kiss Andrew on the lips.
“You’re always talking about how I taste on your lips, so you should taste how good you taste on mine,” I explained after the kiss ended.
“Clever lady.” Andrew bent down to kiss me deeply, and then said after he pulled away, “But you still taste better.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think you taste better because you’re saltier and I like salty things.”
“And I like sweet things. That’s what you are, pure sweetness.” He unbuttoned my shirt and unfastened my bra, dropping both items to the floor. I took a deep breath as he gently cupped my bare breasts in his hands, my nipples hardening as he rubbed his thumbs over their tips.
“They’ve gotten bigger,” he said as his caresses grew bolder. “Are they still tender?”
“A little,” I admitted. “But don’t stop. The way you touch them makes me feel good all over.”
“That’s right, Ryanna, tell me exactly how you feel. I want to do any and everything that makes you feel good.”
“Then keep this up.” I moaned as he fondled my breasts some more before bending down to kiss each nipple, one and then the other.
I hadn’t realized just how much I missed the worshipful way he stroked and petted me. The emptiness that had hung over me for the last few weeks evaporated as Andrew kissed a trail from the valley between my breasts down my stomach, with his lips coming to rest right below my belly button. He unbuttoned and unzipped my pants, and I wriggled my hips to aid his sliding both garments off of me.
His hands lingered as they glided over my thighs and calves. “You don’t know how good it is to be touching you again. These last three weeks have been torture. It was all I could do to make myself stay in my bedroom and not join you in yours. I hated not being with you.”
“I didn’t like it either.” I steadied myself by holding on to Andrew’s shoulders while he helped me step out of my leather ballerina flats. When he bent down to kiss the tops of my feet, tingles shot straight from my toes to my throbbing bud. An involuntary shiver betrayed the depth of my desire.
“You like that, huh?” Andrew looked up at me and smiled. “I think I’ve discovered a new erogenous zone of yours.”
Before now, I probably would have been grossed out by even the thought of someone touching, much less kissing my feet. But under Andrew’s touch, they’d turned into portals that opened me up to a whole new world of sensations. A warm moistness spread throughout my pussy.
As a wave of desire swept over me, my knees felt as if they would give way at any minute. Andrew must have sensed this because he stood back up and led me to the bed. I sank down on it and he joined me, lying close enough so that his enormous cock rubbed up against my thigh. I rolled over into him, expecting he would be more than ready to enter me. We’d been apart for so long, I knew he wanted to bury his dick deep inside me as much as I wanted him to. Yet, Andrew seemed happy enough to just lay there and gaze at me.
The expectation and curiosity must have shown on my face because he said, “For a while, I was afraid we would never be like this again. So I want to savor every minute and not rush.”
“You’d given up on us?”
“No so much given up as scared I wouldn’t be able to convince you to give me a second chance. Between the way I acted that day in my office and botching the first marriage proposal, I feared you might have chalked me up as a lost cause.”
“Never.” When I reached out to stroke his cheek, Andrew captured my hand and kissed each individual finger, one by one. “I would never give up on you. But I’ll admit was scared you would change your mind about letting me be a part of the baby’s life. I know our contract says it is at your discretion whether I am or not.”
Andrew froze mid-kiss of my index finger. “I wouldn’t cut you out like that. Even if we hadn’t reconciled, I wouldn’t have prevented you from being a mother. I know we conceived this child under unusual circumstances, but I want his upbringing to be totally normal, being raised by two parents who love him and each other very much.”
“There you go using ‘his’ and ‘him’ again,” I said in a teasing tone, hoping to lighten the suddenly serious mood. “You’re so sure it’s a boy.”
“Boy or girl, either is fine with me.” Andrew’s lips curled into a tender smile as he lightly brushed his fingers over the curve of my belly. “I think you’re starting to show.”
“Maybe a little.” I looked down at my stomach, which had begun to poke out a slightly lower than it did when I binged on fast food. This belly swell represented a growing life and I couldn’t have been more thrilled.
Andrew appeared happy too as he lowered his head to kiss my stomach. “I can’t wait to see our child grow and develop. It’s going to be so amazing.”
“Me too,” I said, getting lost in a tangle of yearning as Andrew kissed his way from my belly to the edge of my pussy folds. The throbbing between my legs had just begun to subside when his touch sent it back into overdrive.
I moaned out loud as his tongue took a swipe across my hot, wet, pulsating core. As much as his teasing frustrated me, I’d missed the way it drove me to the brink of insanity as desire overtook me. And it didn’t take long before I found myself back at that same precipice.
With Andrew’s head already buried deep between my legs, I spread them wider to allow him to dive further into the deepest, hottest part of me. His tongue flicked in and out as my bud throbbed harder and harder. Almost against my will, my hips undulated as the tip of Andrew’s tongue finally took the merest brush against my bud. However, it was enough to electrify my body and send spasms of passion rocketing through it.
I couldn’t breathe or think as Andrew kept up the intense pressure of licking my bud, each touch bringing me closer and closer to the most intense orgasm of my life. With fumbling hands, I reached out and pressed his face further into me, selfishly not caring about the risk of smothering him. I just wanted him as close and as far into me as he could get as my wave of bliss neared an incredible crest.
Andrew didn’t resist my efforts to bring him closer. In fact, he seemed to welcome the opportunity to get as near to my throbbing bud as he could. We moved together at a frantic, yet disjointed pace as he licked my pussy juices while his tongue continued to taunt my bud with the possibility of a mind-numbing release. I squirmed in pleasure, ready to release weeks of pent-up sexual frustration, but not waiting this fantastic sexual voyage to ever end.
While I might have wanted to, I couldn’t hold out forever. A direct strike from Andrew’s tongue to my primed-and-ready bud sent me over the edge into ecstasy. Waves of bliss washed over me while Andrew lapped up the hot sticky wetness my pussy produced. I was nuts to think I’d ever be able to live without him, without this.
It took several minutes before my breathing and heartbeat returned to normal. Andrew emerged from between my legs with a very satisfied smile on his face. “Isn’t make-up sex the best?”
I nodded with plenty of enthusiasm. “I won’t go so far as to say we should fight more often. But yeah, we’re definitely making up for lost time here.”