Unexpected (19 page)

“
You never
cease to
amuse
me.” He turns
his face to kiss me on the cheek. “Did you really think I hated
it?”

I shake my
head. “Maybe not
hated
it...but you
need to work on the words you choose.”

He chuckles.
“Deal. How about I help you
unpack?
After dinner, of course.”

We order a
pizza and continue to work. It doesn't take long for everything
else to
fit together seamlessly.
While we work, talking and laughing along with the occasional
kiss, I can't help but think about how
I didn’t even know
Ryan two months ago.
I hadn't met
him, had no clue of his existence. Yet here we are—together in
practically every sense—and I can't imagine my life without him.
How can someone I've known for such a short period of time end up
meaning so much to me this quickly? I honestly don't know how to
understand it, much less explain it.

But I damn sure
know I never want to be without it.

~*~

Sunday
morning, we lie in bed for a
while
. Based on the way the sunlight fills the room, it has to be
at least eleven, if not noon. Ryan is spooning me, his arm draped
over my side, hand settled between my breasts over my shirt. I
cover his hand with mine, smiling. I haven't been this happy in...I
don't even know how long. I think I was happy when I first started
dating Drew, and I might have been a couple other times when I
dated before. There's something different this time around,
though.

I lift his hand to
my lips and press kisses over his fingertips. Ryan stirs, drawing
me closer as he brushes his lips over my shoulder. “Morning,
beautiful.”

“
Morning,
handsome.” I kiss his palm as he kisses my neck up to my ear. I
shiver, reaching back to touch his cheek. “Ryan?”

“
Hmm?” He
teases my earlobe with a light tug.

“
Make love to
me.”

He takes his lips
away from my skin. “What did you say?”

I turn around to
look him in the eye. “I want you to make love to me.” I chew on my
lip, running a finger over his, then trailing over his morning
stubble. “I mean, if you want to.”

He sucks in a
ragged breath, closing his eyes. “Trust me, I'd want nothing more
than to do that.”

I pull my finger
away. “But?”

“
But I want
to do it right.”

“
I'm pretty
sure you know how to do it right.” I waggle my eyebrows at
him.

A low chuckle comes
from him and he wraps his arms around me to hold me. He touches our
noses together. “Stop it.”

“
Stop what?”
I ask, fighting the urge to laugh.

“
Being so
damn irresistible that I can't control myself.”

“
Mmm...I like
hearing that.” I kiss his chin.

“
I'm sure you
do.”

I nuzzle my nose against his neck.
“
Okay, so tell me how you're going
to do it right.”

“
First,
” he says, bringing my face up to his,
“
it's not happening right this
minute.”

“
Clearly.”

He presses a finger
to my lips and a giggle slips out. “Second, we're going to have a
proper date.”

“
We're
already well past proper dates. We're living together, for
goodness' sake.”

“
All the more
reason to go back to the time-honored tradition of a dinner date.
Scratch that. Dinner and a movie. In the theater, not our living
room.”

Dinner and a movie
is about as cliché as you can get, but the fact he wants that with
me still causes flutters in my heart. I like the idea of being
wooed. “Noted.”

“
Third, I
want to savor every minute of it.”

“
And you
can't savor it if we do it now?”

“
It's more
like I'm going to rip off all your clothes and take you like the
world is ending in five minutes. So, no.” He shakes his head,
raising my chin with a finger, stroking my jaw. “I want to slowly
peel every layer of clothing off your body, taking in every inch. I
want to touch and kiss those places as I remove your clothes. I
want to feel our naked bodies plastered together like they were in
the shower, only this time I'll know it's you and you'll know it's
me.” His fingers thread into my hair, bringing our faces close
enough so our lips are nearly brushing. “And after I've had my fill
of drinking in your beautiful body, I'll sink into you and we'll
make love.”

My lips part, a
raspy breath escaping them. “Wow.” I swallow, trying to restrain
myself from getting those things to happen right this minute.
“So...when are we going to go on this proper date?”

“
Friday.”

“
You think
you'll be able to get up for work on Saturday?”

“
I won't have
to. I asked for the day off.”

“
A full day
off?”

“Mm
-hmm.” He
kisses my cheek, the warm press of his lips melting me. “A full day
off where we can do nothing except stay in bed all day.”

“
I like the
sound of that.”

Chapter Twenty-six

–
Ryan –

Friday couldn't
come fast enough.

I was being honest
with Alina when I told her I wanted to wait until we had a proper
date. I'm committed to making this relationship work, and I'm not
going to rush us to the next step until we take a few steps in
between. We may have inadvertently skipped a few since we met, but
that's no excuse not to treat a lady right.

When I get
home from work on Friday, Alina's already dressed and ready for our
date. Her hair
falls in loose waves over her shoulders.
She's wearing a yellow T-shirt that
says “Give a hoot, don't pollute” with an owl underneath, along
with a gray vest and a flowery skirt. She peeks up at me
with a smile,
set
ting her
book
to the side as she stands up.
“What do you think?” She twirls and holds up one hand in a
pose.

As if she wasn't
adorable enough, she has to twirl for me. I let out a sigh and walk
over to press a kiss to her lips. “It's perfect. Just give me a
little bit to wash up and get dressed.”

Twenty minutes
later, I'm in a nice pair of dark-wash jeans with an unbuttoned
navy blue dress shirt over a gray T-shirt. She grins when she sees
me, coming over to grip my shirt, pulling me down for a kiss. “Look
who cleans up nice.”

“
Only for
you.” I hold her chin in place so I can keep kissing
her.

“
Aw, you're
making me feel all special.”

“
That's
because you are.”

“
You're just
saying that so you can get in my pants tonight.”

I wrap my arms
around her. “First off, you're not wearing pants. And secondly?
I've already had my hand in your pants before tonight.”

“
Details,
details.” She steps back. “Come on, let's get a move on and get
this first date business over with.”

I give her a
dirty look. “Dude, are you
trying
to
hurt my feelings?”

She shakes
her head as she slips on her flip-
flops
. “Nope. I'm just anxious for the nightcap.” She
grins and winks at me.

I love how cheeky
she can get. “You're not the only anxious one in the room. Come
on,” I say, holding out my arm. “Shall we?”

~*~

I take Alina to a
nice Mexican restaurant downtown. We sit across from each other in
a booth munching on chips and salsa while she plays footsie with me
under the table. Our food arrives and we talk about our day.

Halfway through the
meal while she's sipping on her margarita, her eyes widen. She sets
the glass down gingerly. “Wait a second. Sunday morning you said
you had Saturday off.”

I make a face,
eyebrows furrowing. “Yes,” I say slowly. “What about it?”

“
You already
had it off before you said you wanted to take me on a proper date.
Were you planning
to do
this
all along? Were you anticipating...” She leaves the question
hanging, well aware that I know what she's getting at.

I clear my throat,
setting down my fork. “I wasn't anticipating. It was more like an
'I want to sleep in and spend the whole weekend with my girlfriend
with the off chance that perhaps something else could happen' kind
of thing.” She covers her face and I reach out to move her hand
away. “Look, Alina. I want this. Us. You and me. Not just to get to
the whole 'something else' moment. I love all the moments I share
with you—whether it's sitting under a blanket fort or in my
parents' garage or here right this minute. As long as I have you,
I'm happy. Which is another reason for 'something else.'”

“
What's
that?”

I lean forward,
taking her hand in mine, letting our hands rest on the table. “I
want to show you how I feel. I want to give to you everything you
give me.” I graze my thumb over her skin. “This, between us, is
grand, and you deserve it all.”

Her eyes are
watering at this point, but she doesn't cry. “Good answer.” She
squeezes my hand, then we go back to our meal.

Instead of driving,
we decide to walk down the street to the movie theater. She
convinces me to buy two boxes of candy so we have plenty to share.
Before we're even fifteen minutes into the movie, she has half the
box of M&Ms finished. I pluck the box from her hands and try to
hide it. She gives me a look, or at least I think it's a look. It's
hard to tell in a darkened theater. I just lean in and press a soft
kiss to her lips, then whisper in her ear, “Don't make me have to
punish you for eating all the candy.”

I feel her
grin against my cheek before I pull away. She leans in and kisses
me once, mouthing an “okay” before turning back to the movie. She
snuggles against my arm, slipping a hand into mine. It feels
natural being with Alina, like neither of us has to try. We can be
ourselves; we can laugh together and hold each other without even
second-
guessing
what we're
doing.

After an hour, I
hand over the box of Sno-Caps and Alina whispers, “Yay!” before she
starts snacking on them. I have to hold back a laugh because the
scene on the screen isn't even funny, but she's so damn cute I
almost let it slip. She surprises me by opening my hand to drop a
few in it for me. I give her a smile and kiss her cheek quickly
before popping them into my mouth.

When the movie
finishes, we walk out of the theater and slowly down the street.
She reaches for my hand, weaving our fingers together. “So...” She
trails off dramatically, peeking up at me.

I raise an eyebrow.
“So...?”

“
So, you took
me out for dinner and a movie. Isn't there something else we were
supposed to do tonight?”

I scratch my chin.
“You know I'm not sure...maybe ice cream...or was it a concert...or
maybe—”

Alina lets go of my
hand to smack my arm. “Stop playing coy. You know very well what
I'm talking about.”

“
I do...” I
take her hand in mine again. “Is there something you're expecting
me to say?”

“
Perhaps?”

“
Is there
something you're expecting me to do?”

“
Me.”

I grin and
she grins back. “Oh,
that
. How about I
remedy the situation?” I quickly lift her into my arms and start to
carry her down the street.

“
Oh my God,
Ryan! Put me down!” Her eyes are darting around at the people
gaping at us.

“
Oh, come
on,” I retort, walking faster. “What did I just say about remedying
a situation?”

“
Ah, okay.
Mush, sled dog! Mush!”

We both laugh
the rest of the way to my truck, then I end up speeding down the
back streets until we get to the apartment. Alina practically
shoves me inside before I can get the door open. The next thing I
know,
I have the door locked and her pinned against it, my
lips crashing into hers.
She opens
them, her tongue eagerly seeking mine.

“
You know,” I
say between kisses. “We really should...take this to the
bedroom.”

“
What would
the fun be in that?” She grasps for my shirt, hauling me
closer.

I groan, reaching
down to lift her up. She automatically wraps her legs around my
waist. Just as she's about to kiss me again, I turn and walk us
into my bedroom.

“
Hey!” she
says in protest, turning back to the door.

“
Sorry,
beautiful. We can fuck against the door another day. Tonight I want
to make love to you
in a bed.”
I lay her on the covers, climbing over her, settling my body
over hers gently. I carefully tuck her hair back behind her ear,
placing a kiss on her forehead. “I've been waiting for this moment
for a long time.”

She smiles up at
me, her entire face softening. She caresses my cheek with her hand.
“Me, too.”

“
Can I make
love to you, Alina?”

“
Yes, Ryan,”
she answers with a whisper, touching our noses together. “Please
make love to me.”