Exquisite Betrayal (26 page)

***

Fallon gets her wish and I think we nearly
empty out all the water in the hot tub with our vigorous
activities.

“
Damn, Fallon, you’re a little
firecracker.”

“
I am?”

“
Maybe more like a
hellion.”

She sucks in her breath. “I am not.”

My comment has offended her.

“
Oh, honey, I mean that as a
compliment. A man doesn’t want a woman who lies there like a piece
of wood. I want someone who is wild, knows what she likes and isn’t
afraid to enjoy herself.”

“
Yeah?”

“
Hell, yeah.” She’s naked and sitting
on my lap facing me, her nipples begging for some attention. I dip
my head and give them some, just so they don’t feel deprived. She
moans. “That’s what I mean. I love it when you make noise and tell
me what you like, when you demand things from me.”

“
You do?”

“
How in the world am I supposed to
know if I’m making you feel good if you don’t tell me
somehow?”

“
I don’t know. I never thought about
it. But Ryland Thomas, everything you do makes me feel good. You
can just look at me and I go all gooey on you.”

“
Is that right?”

“
Uh-huh. I thought you knew
that.”

“
Perhaps, but a man likes to hear
those things, too. You know, our fragile egos and all.”

“
Is that true?”

“
You’d better believe it. Though none
of us likes to confess it.”

“
Hey, look at me, please.”

I take my eyes off her lovely breasts and
look into her bottomless gray eyes. They’ve darkened on me now and
her face is all kinds of serious.

“
You are the most beautiful man I’ve
ever known. Don’t ever fear for your ego because you have nothing
to worry about. I’ll be nothing other than kind to it, as I will to
your heart. I love you with all that I have and you’re a part of me
now. That means if I hurt you, I hurt myself. Where there were two
hearts, there is now only one; yours and mine together.” She seals
it with a kiss.

I can’t speak. My heart is so far up in my
throat and my eyes are clogged with tears that don’t fall. I
haven’t done this since my parents died. Why do I feel like crying
now? It doesn’t make sense at all to me, yet then, maybe it does.
Maybe she’s the only person I feel close enough to that I can drop
every wall, every barricade I’ve ever built. And perhaps her words
merely let me do that. I’m now rid of all that crap I’ve carried
around for so long. No wonder I feel rearranged, reorganized. She’s
helped me put everything back to where it belongs in the first
place. Besides that, she’s also given me strength to face the world
with open arms again.

“
You’ve no idea what you do to me…
what you’ve done for me. You’ve brought new life to my heart,
Fallon.”

She smiles. “As you have to mine.”

“
I want to rent a flat in San
Francisco so we can be together more often. This three hour drive
is killing me.” That thought just pops into my head.

Her eyes bulge. “You’d sell this?”

“
No. I’d keep it for the weekends. I
can work anywhere, but you can’t. I hate this weekend only thing.
If I have a place in the city, then we wouldn’t have to do
that.”

“
You’d really consider
that?”

“
I’d more than consider it. I’m going
to call Tilly and have her get right on it.”

She throws her arms around me and says, “Oh
my gosh. I can’t wait to have you there all the time.”

“
Same here. The weeks are miserable
without you. I’d pretty much kill to have you in my bed every
night. My dream is to wake up next to you every
morning.”

“
Mmmm, sounds so yummy.” Her lips are
on mine again; this love and heat between us is undeniable. I smile
against her mouth and she mutters into mine, “What?”

Standing, I carry her out of the tub and
walk her into the house, dripping wet. I don’t give a shit about
the water, but she does. “Ryland Thomas, you’re going to slip and
fall,” she says.

“
No I won’t,” I say as I slide and
almost fall. She screams and I laugh.

“
Put me down.”

“
Not a bloody chance. I’m giving you
part two of your birthday gift.” I carry her up to my room and
straight into the bathroom where I wrap her in a bath sheet.
“Better?”

She makes that harrumphing sound she likes
to make and says, “Right. Nothing’s better than your arms.” Then
she swats my shoulder. I pick her up and throw her on the bed.

“
Now do not move. I’ll be right back.”
I head to my closet and come out with a gift bag, which I dangle in
front of her face. “Do you want your present now?”

“
Yes,” she giggles. I drop it on the
floor. For some reason, I’m in a very playful mood. I yank her
towel off and attack her with my fingers, tickling her
mercilessly.

“
Stop it!” She’s laughing so hard and
trying to scoot away from me. I grab her hands and hold them in one
of mine, pulling them above her head. Then my mouth is on her
stomach, blowing loud raspberries while she begs for a truce. Her
laughter is the sweetest music I’ve ever heard.

“
What will you promise if I
stop?”

“
Anything you ask.” She has to eke the
words out between her guffaws. Her belly is tight with her efforts
of trying to escape and now I’m seriously aroused.

“
Fallon. Christ, I can’t even tickle
you without getting stiff.” She looks down at me and then at my
mouth.

“
Let me taste you.”

My breath whooshes out of me as she slides
to the edge of the bed and her mouth closes around me. “Ah hell,
love.” This is the first time she’s done this, and I hope it won’t
be the last.

“
Does this feel okay?” She’s unsure of
herself.

I groan. “It’s much better than okay.”

“
Tell me what to do.”

So I tell her how I like it. Her tongue
circles my crown and then sucks and slides down me. I’m shocked as
all hell when she takes me in deep. I can’t help bucking my hips
when she slides up and down, pumping me, and I know I’m going to
blow. When I tell her, she only sucks harder.

“
Fallon, you need to stop,” I cry out
as I try to disengage myself. She only grabs my ass harder and
pulls me against her. That’s it. I explode in her mouth and she
moans. That vibration against me sends me shooting off like I’ve
never done. And damn it all, she moans again. My hands are knotted
in her hair, and I’m about to collapse on top of her.

She lets me go when she feels my spasms
stop. “Jesus, love.” I fall to the bed and pull her up to me. She
immediately straddles me and starts kissing me.

“
My turn,” she says and the next thing
I know, she’s straddling my face and I’m going to town on her. My
girl is certainly not shy about what she wants and when. I love to
feel and hear her shatter. Her orgasms are spectacular to
experience. When she’s finished, she curls up next to me and
snuggles into her favorite spot on my neck.

I’m not having any of that. I want her on
top of me, full length contact. “I need all of you on me now,
love.”

“
Hmm, yeah, me, too.”

“
I guess you didn’t want your present
after all, huh?”

She pops up like a jack-in-the-box and I
laugh my ass off.

“
I forgot.”

“
Get back here a minute. I need you on
me.” For some unnamed reason, I do need her. So I hold her on me,
feeling the thrumming of her heart. “That’s better.”

“
Yeah, it is.”

After a few minutes, when I feel I can let
her go, I set her aside and reach over the side of the bed to grab
the bag. “For you, love.”

She peeks inside and pulls out a book. It’s
a hard back, my latest one that she hasn’t seen yet. Her eyes land
on mine, questioning me.

“
You know we go to Atlanta in two
weeks and I release my new book the week before, right? Well, I
wanted you to be the first to have it.”

The smile she’s wearing spreads across her
face and I feel like a chocolate bar that’s been sitting in the sun
too long. I have it so bad for this girl I can barely look at her
without doing a complete meltdown.

“
You’re giving me you’re first copy of
your first edition? Oh my God.” Her voice is soft and filled with
awe. She’s holding the book like it’s made out of the most delicate
and fragile crystal that one tiny movement could destroy
it.

“
Fallon, who else would I possibly
want to give it to?”

“
You! Isn’t that what authors do?
Don’t they keep the first copy for themselves?”

“
I want you to have it. I want you to
see the dedication.”

She gently opens it and moves to the
dedication page where she begins to read:

This book is dedicated to Fallon McKinley,
for believing in me and changing the direction I was headed in. She
knew from the start that my original idea wasn’t the best, and
instead of keeping it to herself, she spoke her mind like a true
friend and saved me from the disgrace in which I would have found
myself. So, Fallon, my best friend and savior, thank you for taking
such precious care of me.

She looks up at me with tears moistening her
cheeks. “That’s not all. You need to read the inscription.” She
opens the book back up and finds it on the first page.

To Fallon, the love of my life. Thank you
for saving me from a life filled with emptiness. In its place, you
have created such meaning and replenished my soul with so much love
that I am a different man than I was when I first met you. You’ve
made me whole when before I was only bits and pieces of someone
that had no purpose. I’ve learned so much from you in these past
seven months, I can’t begin to imagine what you will teach me in
the years to come.

We are only bound by the limitations we
place upon ourselves. Let’s make ours endless together. Two lives…
One Heart… One Love… Endlessly

Forever yours,

Ryland Thomas

She closes the book and sets it on the bed.
It appears as though she’s afraid she’ll damage it somehow. Then
she launches herself at me and I can feel her body trembling.

“
I didn’t mean for you to
cry.”

“
It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve
ever received. Thank you,” she whispers in my ear.

I glance at the clock on the wall and
whisper, “I think we better put some clothes on because the next
part of this night’s present is due to arrive any moment.”

“
Huh?”

“
You’ll see.”

A few minutes later the doorbell rings and I
run down to answer it. Fallon follows me and gasps when she sees a
whole crew come into the home. They’re here to cook us a gourmet
dinner. I hired them to cook her up a fancy meal so we could relax
and enjoy ourselves.

“
You’re totally spoiling
me.”

“
That’s the plan.”

The rest of the evening flies by and I hate
it because I know the weekend will be over before I know it.

***

Saturday, we have reservations at seven. I’m
downstairs waiting for Fallon to join me. My heart’s in my gut
right now because I’m giving her the last of her gifts tonight. I
hadn’t planned on giving her this until she told me she loved me,
and since that happened on Thursday, here I am, feeling like a
teenage kid about to kiss his first girl.

When I hear her coming down the steps, I
glance up and my heart flips a few times before it slams down into
my gut. She’s wearing a slate gray dress that emphasizes her eyes
and sets off her hair like nothing I’ve ever seen. She’s all fire
and heat in that thing and I’m not going to be able to keep my
bloody hands to myself.

“
Fallon.” My voice catches so I have
to clear my throat. “Wow! You look extraordinary.” I pull her close
for a kiss. My hand goes around her neck and all I want to do is
run my fingers through her lovely hair and breathe her in. “What am
I going to do with you? How am I gonna be in public with you
looking as gorgeous as you do, dangerous girl?”

She licks her lips. Oh, why did she have to
go on and do that? My mouth has a mind of its own as it zeroes in
on hers, crashing into it like a damn heat-seeking missile.

“
Sinclair,” she says as she pushes me
away, “if you keep on doing that, we’ll never get out of
here.”

I inhale deeply. “Right then. I have
something for you.”

“
Another gift?” She’s
surprised.

“
Uh-huh.” I’m not smiling so she knows
it’s serious.

“
Are you okay?”

“
I’m fine, sweetheart.” I reach into
my pocket and pull out a square velvet box. She has to know by now
that there’s jewelry inside. “Now, don’t get all freaked on me
because it’s not a ring.” I hold the box towards her and lift the
lid so she can see the contents and then I hear it. Her
gasp.

“
Shit, Ryland Thomas. Are you shitting
me?”

Now she’s completely shocked. I suppose I
would be, too.

“
No, not shitting you,
darling.”

“
Are these real?”

Only Fallon would ask something like that. I
throw back my head and laugh. It feels so damn good. “Yes, hon,
they’re very real.”