Broken Love (10 page)

DID HE JUST call me buttercup? Something about it made my insides melt.

Ryder walked past the barn and continued on walking away from the house. “Um … I don’t know how to tell you this, but you passed the barn.”

“We’re not going to the barn.”

“Are we gonna find a tree or something? That also doesn’t seem like a fun first time. I mean, call me old fashion, but I’d at least like to actually lay down when we make love.”

Ryder laughed. “Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much? Hush up before someone hears you.”

I glanced back at the fading lights of the house. “I’m pretty sure my dad can’t hear us this far out. Unless he has me bugged … which I wouldn’t be surprised.”

With another chuckle, Ryder shook his head. “We’re going to the original house.”

“The original house?” That’s when I saw the small stone structure. “What is this place?” I asked as Ryder walked up to the large wooden door.

As he set me down, I glanced back over my shoulder. I could barely see the barn in the distance. “I didn’t even know this little house was here!”

Ryder reached up and took a key down and opened the door. “You can’t really see it through the trees. My grandfather built this house for my grandmother as a wedding present.”

The old wooden door creaked open as Ryder took my hand and led me into the darkness. The smell was familiar, and I couldn’t help but smile. “It smells like my grandparents’ attic,” I whispered.

Never letting go of my hand, Ryder walked over to a table where he opened a drawer and took something out. Hitting a match, he lit an oil lamp. The entire room filled with light as I sucked in a surprised breath.

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered.

The room was probably the size of my living room and bedroom in my condo back in Austin. In the corner was a small kitchen area. A table that could seat two sat across from the kitchen. In the middle of the room was an old antique sofa that was flanked by two small tables that had oil lanterns on them as well. The sofa table that sat in front of the sofa looked fragile, but held a small bouquet of flowers along with a sketchpad.

“Who lives here?” I asked.

“No one really. I’ll sometimes stay here when I come to visit if I need some time to myself. It’s usually my mother who comes in here. She grew up in this little house and often spends time here.”

“Did she put these flowers here?”

Ryder walked up to the flowers and ran his fingers along one of the flowers.

“Yeah, she brings them for my sister, Kate.”

“Kate?” I quickly ran through his sisters’ names. I knew I had them right. Before I had a chance to ask, Ryder turned and looked at me.

“My sister Kate was the oldest. She loved this little house and always said it was going to be her house someday. Every day she would come after school and sit on the sofa and draw. She wanted to be a designer and would tell us how proud we would all be when her designs were on the runways of Paris.”

My heartbeat increased as I instantly felt a connection to Ryder’s sister. I was so afraid to ask the next question. “W-what happened to her?”

Dragging in a deep breath, he looked away. “She died the summer before her senior year of high school. She slipped coming down the stairs, hit her head and broke her neck. She died instantly. Her boyfriend was the one who found her.”

My hands covered my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

Ryder smiled and nodded. “I didn’t bring you hear to tell you a sad story. I brought you here to start a new one.”

My chest fluttered. I was feeling so many different emotions. “A new one?”

His hand caressed my face softly as his thumb ran lightly over my skin. “Yeah, buttercup. Our story.”

I’d never in my life felt this way, and I was beginning to wonder if this was what love really felt like. There was no way I could possibly be in love with Ryder. There was no doubt there was something amazing between us, but I wasn’t ready to say it was love.

“You swooned me again,” I whispered.

Ryder’s lips moved lightly across mine as he softly spoke. “I’m starting to think this swooning thing is something good.”

A moan escaped from my mouth when his hand cupped my breast. “Very,
very
good thing.”

The warmth of his body was gone and I instantly missed it. Ryder lifted the oil lamp and held it up, lighting up more of the space. It was then I noticed it was two stories.

“There’s an upstairs?”

Ryder smiled. “Yeah, the bedrooms are up there. Only two.”

I walked around the small room and took everything in the best I could in the light and current state I was in … which was a complete mess. From the story about his sister, to his utterly beautiful job of sweeping me off my feet. My libido was begging for me to strip down in the middle of the tiny room and beg Ryder to take me.

“Oh Ryder, this is so charming. I’d love to see it during the day.”

His arms wrapped around my body as he nestled his face into my neck. “I can arrange for that. Only if you promise to spend the night with me here.”

With a smile, I lifted my hand and ran it through his soft hair. “You have no idea how happy you just made me.”

He spun me around and looked deeply into my eyes. “Let me make love to you.”

My lips pressed together as I fought to talk without my voice cracking. I’ve never had a guy romance me like this before. I’ve heard stories about things like this, mainly from my mother when she and her book club would talk about a book they just read and their current book boyfriends, as they called them. A few friends in college would share stories about how romantic their boyfriends were, but no one had ever treated me or talked to me like Ryder did. I thought I had found something different with Johnny, but I was so wrong. I never knew what falling in love was until I met Ryder. The way he made me feel was … magical.

“Please, Ryder. I can’t wait any longer. Please.”

With my hand in his, he led me up the narrow staircase. On each side there was a door. Ryder turned to the right and led me into a room that was just big enough to hold a full-size bed and two small nightstands. The only other thing in the room was a quilt rack that housed a few quilts on it.

“Everything is clean; my mother thought I might want to stay here.”

I nodded my head as I tore up the corner of my lip.
What if I sucked?
I mean, I thought I was pretty good in bed, but I never really thought to ask any of my past boyfriends how they rated me.

Ryder dropped my hand and walked over to a side table. Placing the oil lamp on it, he turned and looked at me.

I frantically began rubbing my hands together as I barely said, “I’m scared.”

His face was so beautiful in the light; I felt tears beginning to pool in my eyes. “Why are you scared, Ava?”

With a quick shrug, I shook my head. “What if I’m not any good? Like, I really suck in the sex department and you’re so disgusted you have to leave in the middle of it all.”

Ryder pulled his T-shirt over his head and tossed to the side. “Nonsense. There is nothing about you I don’t love.”

Oh. My. God. He said the L word. Do I panic?

No.

Do I say it back?

Hell no! He didn’t tell you he loved you, Ava. He said he loved everything about you.

Isn’t that the same thing?

No. Totally not the same thing. He’s thinking with his little man and that’s all. It was a slip of the tongue.

As my mind argued with itself, I watched Ryder remove his boots, and then his belt. One quick push down of his pants and I was gasping for air.

Holy living shit balls. He was for sure not thinking with his little man, because he was far from little.

“I don’t think you’re going to fit inside of me!” I blurted out without thinking.

Ryder laughed as he took himself in his hand and I had a mini orgasm right there on the spot. “Okay well … you have successfully caused my panties to go wet.”

Lifting his eyebrow, he stroked himself slowly as he walked up to me. “Do you want me to undress you, Ava, or do you want to undress yourself?”

This was getting embarrassing. I couldn’t pull my eyes from his hand stroking himself. It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. Forcing myself to move, I quickly undressed myself except for the tan lace panties and matching bra I had on.

“My God, you’re the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes on.”

Swallowing hard, I moved my hand down to his and moaned as my fingers wrapped around his hard dick.

Ryder shook his head and grabbed my hand and pulled it over my head. “Stop. I won’t last two minutes with you touching me.”

With a wicked smile, I locked onto my lip with my teeth and batted my eyes up at him. “What will you do when you’re buried deep inside of me?”

His eyes turned dark and before I knew it, I was on the bed and Ryder was slipping my panties off and burying his face between my legs.

“Oh God!” I screamed out as he did things with his tongue I never knew possible. My orgasm hit me hard as I grabbed his hair and pushed him closer to my body while I called out his name.

His lips covered what felt like every inch of my body before he pushed my bra up and exposed my breasts. His mouth was gentle as he took each nipple in and gave them the attention they had been longing for the last few weeks.

My body twisted around on the bed as Ryder’s hands and lips took me to a place I never wanted to leave.

“What about birth control?”

What was he asking me? I was in a euphoria like I’d never known.

“Ava, baby, are you listening to me?”

My eyes opened as I pulled myself together and leaned up on my elbows. “Three step method.”

Ryder gave me a confused look. “What?”

“Birth control, condom, pull out.”

“You’re on birth control?”

I nodded my head as my eyes moved down to his hard throbbing dick. God, I wanted to feel him inside of me. “Please tell me you have a condom.”

The look on his face told me did. “Yeah, hold on. Nate hid a box up here a few months ago.”

I wanted to ask how many girls he’d brought here to have sex with, but I decided it was best if I didn’t know. It only took Ryder about thirty seconds to find the box and grab a handful and throw them on the bed.

“Feeling lucky?” I asked with a wink.

“I haven’t had sex in forever and I’m pretty sure making love to you is going to be like nothing I’ve ever experienced before, so yes … I’m feeling very lucky.”

Okay, now he just put the pressure of best experience ever onto my shoulders. “How long is forever?” I asked.

Ugh. Oh my God, Ava! You broke the number one rule. Never ask a guy when the last time he had sex was.

Ryder’s eyes met mine. “Over nine months.”

“Nine months! Why?”

Giving me a smile that made my insides quiver, he said, “I haven’t met anyone I wanted to be with until the day I damn near knocked you over.”

Ryder ripped the condom open and slipped it on as he motioned for me to lie back down. He didn’t jump right to it, though, like most guys would. He took his sweet time.

Ryder moved his hands over my body like he was worshipping it. I was on fire just from his touch. When his hand moved between my legs, his lips pressed against mine. Our tongues danced in rhythm as Ryder readied my body for him.

Pulling his lips from mine, he kissed softly along my neck and over to my ear where he whispered, “Ava, my sweet Ava,” as he pushed himself ever so slowly inside of me. Inch by holy-freaking-hell-he’s-huge inch.

My body lifted as I greedily took him in. The feeling was beyond amazing as Ryder buried himself all the way into me and didn't move. Bracing his elbows on the bed, he placed both hands on my face and kissed me ever so softly. Each time, he whispered words against my lips. My body felt like I was on a journey that I prayed would never end. Each dip of my stomach or flutter of my heart was another piece of myself I gave to him.

“Ava, you’ve more amazing than my dreams.”

My fingers moved over his arms as he slowly began to move in and out of my body. “Don’t stop, Ryder. Please don’t stop.”

You would think the first time two people had sex it would be raw and passionate. I had expected it to be that way, but Ryder was a game changer. Nothing would ever be the same again. Everything he did took me by surprise and I loved each and every second of it.

“God, Ava, I’m never going to be the same after this.”

I tightly closed my eyes as his spoken words mimicked my own thoughts. I could feel another orgasm building as I opened my eyes and gripped onto his arms tighter. “I’m going to—oh God I’m going to come again!” My breathing increased as my heart sped up. I’d never experienced an orgasm while having sex.

Ryder moved faster and my body began to tremble. “If you come baby, I’m going to come right along with you.”

And just like that, my body unleashed the most amazing orgasm of my entire life. Not even a super duper high-powered vibrator ever pulled something like this from me.

I wrapped my legs around him tighter as Ryder called out my name at the exact moment I called out his.

When he finally stopped moving, he stayed inside of me with his forehead leaned against mine, both of us fighting for air as if we had just run a marathon.

I wanted to cry, not because I was hurt, but because of how moved I was at this very moment.
Nothing before or after this night will ever compare to this moment.

“Ava,” Ryder whispered as he kept his forehead to mine.

“Ryder,” I breathed back.

“There will never be a moment like this in my life ever again. I want to freeze time so I’ll never forget it. You have captured my heart and soul forever.”

A single tear rolled slowly down my cheek as I closed my eyes and froze this moment forever in my heart.