Burn (5 page)

She tunneled her
fingers through his hair to hold him close and shifted her stance a little,
giving him free access to whatever he wanted to explore with that sinful mouth.
He parted her labia with his fingers then plunged his tongue through the slick
valley he created. Tate moaned, her head tipping backwards to hit the door with
a soft thump.

Pleasure spread
through her core and up into her breasts as he teased her clit in long, slow,
agonizing strokes. She wanted it faster, harder, but if she made any sort of
demand, Ryan would only use it as an excuse to torture her more. Not that what
he was currently doing was true torture. Oh no, definitely not that. There was
nothing cruel about the way he used his agile tongue. Nothing tortuous about
the way he lazily coaxed her body toward climax.

One long finger
slid inside her, easing the achy emptiness there. Her pussy clenched eagerly
around the intrusion. He looked up at her and
smiled,
his mouth shiny with her juices. It was such an erotic sight, her knees nearly
buckled from the onslaught of raw lust.

“I missed this,
Tate.”

Her heart did a
funny little dance, similar to the one it had performed when she’d spotted his
flowers.
God, so have I
.
The only thing she could do was nod in agreement because her throat had
something thick and solid clogging it up.

Ryan dipped his
head, covering her with his mouth again. Her hips bucked when he circled her
clit with his tongue. Languor suddenly replaced with purpose, his hand
tightened on the cheek of her ass, forcing her to hold still for his direct
assault on the swollen, sensitive flesh.

Everything
between her hipbones grew taut as a bowstring. Her nipples tingled beneath the
silk cups of her bra. Tate shoved her fingers beneath the silk fabric and gave
herself a hard pinch. When Ryan pushed two fingers deep inside her and closed
his lips around her clit in a hard suck, she shattered, rocking against his
face while he continued to relentlessly push her orgasm to near pain.

Panting, her
back now pressed flush to the door, Tate fluttered open her eyes to see him
shucking his jeans. His cock arced toward his stomach proudly, and all she
could think about was reciprocating, tasting him, wrapping her hands around his
length and taking him deep into her mouth. Instead, he slid his hands beneath her
bottom and lifted her up.

Wrapping her
legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders, Tate kissed him,
taking her time to get fully reacquainted with the depths and contours of his sublime
mouth. Reluctantly, she admitted to herself she’d missed his kisses, his touch,
his everything. Feeling them all again only drove that realization home,
followed by a sharp stab of discomfort. What she would do with that information
she didn’t know, but right now wasn’t the time to consider it.
Later.
Maybe.

Ryan carried her
through his apartment, down a hallway, into a darkened bedroom. The bed was
mussed, the room cool. Those sheets would smell like him. The thought made her
shudder in his arms.

“Cold?” he
asked.

Tate shook her
head.

He laid her back
on the bed, but didn’t follow her down with his body. He helped rid her of her
bra, tossing it behind him to the floor. Holding himself above her on his
hands, he regarded her thoughtfully. “Did that orgasm steal your voice?”

“No,” she said
hoarsely.

“Then
why so quiet?
It’s disconcerting.” His eyes did that attractive
crinkly thing in the corners as he teased her.

Tate reached up
to touch his mouth. “I’m apt to say something completely unlike me during times
like these.”

Beneath her
fingers, his lips curved. “I remember.”

“Do you, Ryan?”

“Yes.” He kissed
her fingertips,
then
left her for a moment to fish a
condom out of a box in his nightstand drawer. An unopened box, she noted, and it
gave her a silly selfish thrill. As soon as he had it on, he crawled over her
body, urging her with his to scoot further across the bed. “I remember
everything.”

Oh
no.
This was going to rattle her foundation, the things he would say.

He positioned
himself between her thighs, sliding a hand over her hip and up her ribcage, the
look on his face almost reverent as he considered her body. “Your sounds and
tastes and smells. Little things like how much you love strawberry jelly on saltine
crackers. The way you play with your hair when you get engrossed in a good book.
How you write out those long to-do lists,
then
never
do anything on the list.”

“I stopped doing
that,” she said. The fact that he really did remember such tiny, insignificant things
made her heart ache.

His cock nudged
her entrance, igniting a tiny fire. “I still remember how you looked the first
time we made love, all wide-eyed wonder and flawless skin.”

Tate turned her
head to the side and closed her eyes, but Ryan wouldn’t let her escape the bittersweet
memories. He caught her jaw in his palm and kissed her hard. When he finally
pushed inside of her, her eyes fluttered open to catch his. Oh yes, she
remembered this, too, just how great they were at sex, how perfectly they fit
together, how wonderful it felt.

“How could I
forget this, Tate? How could I forget any of it?”

She didn’t
answer because she couldn’t. He’d trapped her beneath him and assaulted her
with sweetness and desire and memories. And just as if it had been yesterday,
it all came flooding back. He was making a point, she knew, proving that time
hadn’t dulled the deep connection they’d once had.

When Ryan began
to rock into her body, pleasure speared through her, and Tate’s mind emptied.

****

Ryan had to
struggle to keep his body focused on taking things slow. Inside his chest, his
heart hammered with relief.

Tate might still
be angry about the past, but she wanted this whether she would admit it or not.
Like him, she was unable to deny the pull between them, the physical
attraction. Yeah, what he’d done to get her here was a tad devious, but the
important thing was he’d been right. She still desired him just as much as he did
her. As long as he could remind her of that, the rest would follow suit,
hopefully.

The warm clasp
of her body brought him back from the dark, worrisome corners of his brain.
The sweet smell of her skin, the silken glide of it beneath his
hands.
The soft raspy whimpers escaping her throat. He catalogued it
all. She was his again, and even if it only lasted for an hour, he’d take it.

He thrust his
hips, burying himself deep inside her snug, wet warmth. Slowly he withdrew, then
watched desire slacken her features as he plunged back in. Her kiss-bruised
lips were slightly parted and damp, and her soft panting breaths warmed his
throat.

Ryan could feel
her entire body winding tighter and tighter. Her fingernails dug into his
flanks, and her thighs clenched around his waist, her climax nearing its
breaking point. He was close too. Too close. He’d rather this last all night,
but that wasn’t going to happen, not with the way she looked and felt and
sounded. Not with the taste of her still clinging to his lips. Not with the way
his body reacted to hers, greedy and impatient.

The pebbled tips
of her breasts grazed his chest. He dipped his head and took one into his
mouth, sucking firmly, laving her with his tongue, before using his teeth in a
hard scrape. Her back arched in a silent plea for more, so he switched to the
other nipple, showing it the same fervent attention.

“God, Ryan.”

A little fissure
of excitement raced up his spine behind her words. Urgency prodded him to speed
up, yet Ryan fought it off as long as he could. He worked his hand between
their sweat-dampened bodies and found her swollen clit with his thumb, applying
firm pressure as he worked her in small circles.

One hand flew up
to grasp the back of his neck while the other fisted the sheet. Tate’s chin
tipped back, exposing the long line of her pale throat. Her eyes slid closed,
and she groaned deeply. Her pussy clenched around his driving cock. Incredible
sensation caused white spots to dance in the periphery of his vision. Ryan gave
up the fight to hold his own orgasm at bay, following her over the edge.

Balancing his
weight on his forearms while he recovered his senses, he pressed his face into
the beautiful tangle of Tate’s hair. It smelled like fresh mint leaves. Her
skin smelled even better, nothing but sweet, warm woman.

He sighed and
lifted his head to look down at her, waiting to see what her reaction would be
now that the fantastic reunion sex was over. When she gave him a faint smile,
the anxiousness tightening his chest eased off, but it didn’t disappear
completely. He withdrew from her body and rolled onto his back, staring blankly
at the ceiling until he summoned the energy to get up and deal with the condom.

He quickly washed
up and flipped off the bathroom light. When he walked back into the bedroom,
Tate sat on the edge of the bed fastening her bra. The rest of her clothes were
still in the foyer, along with his.

 
“Are you hungry?” He sat down beside her. “It
wouldn’t take me long to whip us up something.”

“I still have
laundry to finish.” She winced after she muttered the excuse not to stay. That
wasn’t the reason why she wanted to leave, but Ryan wasn’t going to press any
harder. If they had to
do this
in baby steps, then so
be it.
Although what just happened felt more like a giant
leap off a ten story ledge.

Trying to hide
his disappointment, he stood again. “I’ll go grab our clothes.”

When he
returned, he asked, “You’re not upset with me for lying to get you over here?” She
took her clothing from him, and he stepped into his jeans.

“After what we
just did, I don’t think I have a right to be.” Her eyes drifted up his torso
before finding his face. “At least you copped to it rather quickly. The lying
that is. I guess you’re making
some
progress on the truthfulness front.”

Ouch
. “Okay,
I deserved that. But how long are you going to keep punishing me?”

She began
jerking on her clothes. “It’s not meant to be a punishment, Ryan. Or maybe it
is, I don’t know. I just need you to tell me why you left me like you did. It’s
the only way I’m ever going to finally bury all that old pain, put it behind me
for good, and I want
desperately
to
do that.” She blinked away
a sheen
of tears and turned
away from him, scooping up her shoes before walking out of his bedroom.

Ryan followed,
his heart pounding so hard he thought it might crack a rib. “Tate, listen. I’ll
tell you why I left … I just…” She stopped dead in her tracks and faced him,
ready to hear what he had to say. Only thing was he didn’t think he could spill
his guts just yet. The past was a topic that hurt like hell to talk about. “I
had a valid reason, okay? But it’s something that’s not going to be easy for me
to tell you.”

“Why
not?
I don’t understand why you can’t just say it! Did you kill someone?”

“No!”

“Cheat on me and
knock some girl up and now you have a child somewhere?”

He gritted his
teeth and glared. “Fuck no. I never even looked at another woman when I was
with you.”

“Then what is
it?” she asked, her voice growing louder. “Dammit, just spit it out!”

“It was my
family, all right?” She jerked like he’d slapped her, her lips parting in
surprise. Ryan swallowed the bile that rose in his throat and shook his head.
“It wasn’t me or you. It was my family, and I had no choice but to leave you.
I’m not lying to you about this. And that’s all I’m going to tell you tonight,
so you’re just going to have to fucking
trust
me
. Please, will you at least do that much?”

She drew a
stuttered breath, some of the tenseness in her body easing away, before nodding
weakly. “I’ll let it go for now. But if you expect me to trust you ever again,
you’re going to have to do the same with me.”

Tate opened the
door and walked out. Ryan pressed his forehead to the cool wood, realizing his
days were numbered. If he wanted Tate back in his life for good, he had to come
clean very soon. Otherwise, she’d slip through his fingers again like sugar.
And that thought made him even sicker.

Chapter
Five

For the next
three days, Tate worked herself into an exhausted stupor on purpose. She’d even
covered a few partial shifts for other doctors, just so she wouldn’t have time
to think about what Ryan had said. It was all for naught. She puzzled it out in
the car on her way home, over the sink as she brushed her teeth, and in her bed
before sleep overtook her. Then somehow her dreams formed conclusions and wove
together ridiculous scenarios that made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but
when did dreams ever make any sense?