She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (15 page)

He stroked up and down her cleft, spreading her wetness over her folds and her clit. He circled her sweet spot, pressing perfectly to take her closer to the brink, then slid lower and pressed two fingers into her, stroking her inner walls with an exquisitely frustrating, almost-there pressure.

Finally, when she was moaning and gasping his name, he leaned in and licked her.

Her hips bucked and the ball of tension—good, bad, whatever—knotted hard in her gut.

He stroked his fingers deep, his other hand holding her butt, and then sucked her clit. Hard.

“Ryan!” she cried.

“That’s right, babe. Let it all go. Jump off that ledge.”

Then he sucked again and she gripped his hair—and let it all go.

She didn’t just jump. She frickin’ launched herself off the ledge, arching through the air and reveling in the feel of the fall.

It was a long fall too. It took several minutes for her to come back to feeling the mat under her, the warm heaviness of Ryan leaning against her legs, the smell of lavender in the air, the sound of the piano from the stereo, the hum of the appliances in the kitchen, and the breathing of the man with her.

She opened her eyes and looked down the length of her body.

Ryan had rolled to one side. He grinned up at her. “So, that’s what I know.”

She felt the laughter bubble up. “Did any of those books or blogs talk about how fun it can be if
both
people get naked?”

He pushed himself up to sitting. “Babe, this was like chapter one. In a forty- or fifty-chapter book.”

She gave him a naughty smile. “Oh, okay. ’Cause I thought maybe I was going to need to teach chapter two.”

He smacked her bare butt, then tossed her panties onto her tummy. “See, I know you’re trying to get me worked up, talkin’ like that.”

She frowned at her panties. She hadn’t planned on needing them for a while.

He stretched to standing and held out a hand to help her up.

“Getting you worked up isn’t a bad idea, is it?” she asked, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

“I’ve got practice in thirty minutes.”

She stared at him. “Practice?”

“Football. The Hawks. Maybe you’ve heard of us?”

“You started
this
knowing you had practice?”

He smiled down at her. “I started and
finished
helping you relax. Which was my intention the whole time.”

“But this was…”

“A great tension reliever.”

She frowned at him. “That I could have done for myself with my vibrator.”

His eyes darkened slightly, but he just said, “Self-pleasure is a very healthy way to get needed release.”

She started to reply but realized he’d led her to his bedroom.

“I’d love it if you’d stay,” he said, turning to face her in the doorway. “Now that we have all that healthy, positive, stress-release stuff out of the way, I’m thinking we could get on to chapters two and three. Maybe four depending on your stamina.”

She wanted to. She was feeling incredibly mellow. Curling up in his big bed and anticipating his return sounded awesome. She glanced at the clock.

He wouldn’t be back for at least two hours. Three if he went out with them for dinner like usual. And if he didn’t, he might have to admit why he was anxious to get home…

“I can’t,” she finally said, clutching her capris to her chest. “It’s Sunday night. I have to work tomorrow. This was all supposed to just be this weekend.”

One weekend to let go. Then back to real life—with a better appreciation for why her sister was so fond of cutting loose.

Olivia’s plan had worked, that was for sure. Amanda got it. Looking up into Ryan’s dark blue eyes, she
definitely
got it.

“Stay. Make it more than one weekend.”

Sure. With the guy who’d been raised to move on when things grew boring or routine. With her that would take like three days. But she liked that. Boring and routine never hurt anybody.

“I can’t.”

“Please.”

Wow. Ryan Kaye was asking her—with a please—to stay in his bed for the night. At least.

Why did she think Ryan didn’t say please much?

Maybe because he didn’t have to. What woman would say no to that?

“Listen, I get it.” He lifted his hand to her cheek and stroked his finger over her jaw. “I know this is out of the ordinary for you. I want you to stay. I’ll be thinking about it the whole time I’m gone, but it’s your choice. If you go, I won’t bug you about it. We’ll still be friends. We had some fun. It’s all good.”

There he was—the Ryan who just lived and let live. No begging. No stress. Just whatever. That was his motto.

And suddenly it bugged her.

Ryan got his stuff ready, kissed her goodbye and then headed out with a little “see ya” as the door shut behind him.

She glared at the door.

See ya?
As in,
see ya around maybe but it doesn’t really matter to me one way or another?
Yeah, that was pretty much how he meant it.

And that really shouldn’t upset her. They’d barely been friends before…all of this. It wasn’t like not seeing him was going to leave a huge void in her life. Or vice versa.

Dammit. He’d given her an out. Like the nice guy that he was. She should take it and go. And he’d asked her to stay, so it wasn’t quite the don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-in-the-ass-on-the-way-out that it could have been.

So, fine. She’d take the out. Because what would staying really accomplish? Another amazing orgasm? Two? Sure, probably. And there was no denying that it was tempting. She hadn’t had an orgasm, amazing or otherwise, in a long time.

But that would complicate things. Ryan Kaye was the kind of guy to make a girl want to drop everything with a simple text. The kind of guy who could talk her into shutting off her phone, climbing into his bed, and not worrying about things like work, family, food or wearing panties for days at a time.

And that was what she was afraid of. If he gave her those two or so amazing orgasms, she might do exactly that. And a bunch of other things she couldn’t do. She was needed. She couldn’t just say
damn the consequences
. Not for more than a weekend, anyway.

Plus, her life would eventually drive him crazy. There would be times—lots of times—when she’d have to leave again after just getting home, where she’d miss or have to reschedule dinner dates, where she’d say she could spend all of Saturday morning in bed with him but then she’d get called and have to leave at seven thirty, where she’d agree to go dancing and partying all night but then have a meeting scheduled the next morning, requiring her to go home at a decent hour.

Boring, frustrating stuff for someone who was used to doing whatever felt good at the moment and moving on when the good feelings stopped.

And would he understand driving her mother to six different stores looking for a certain kind of bath towel or buying chocolate cake for Isabelle after she had a bad day at work or staying up too late to watch a marathon of
White Collar
with Olivia—for the third time?

Those were the things the man in her life had to be okay with. They were boring, frustrating things that she did because she loved the people in her life. In her world, sometimes people needed things from her that were just about being there.

And that was the one thing Ryan didn’t really do. He was in relationships for now. She was in relationships for forever.

Did he have less frustration, fewer arguments, more fun and more exciting memories with the people who came and went in his life? Yeah, probably.

Would she trade him? Not for more than a weekend.

Amanda pulled Ryan’s front door open and came up short with surprise as a big guy stepped up onto the top step.

He looked as surprised to see her. “Well, hello, Dr. Dixon.”

She groaned internally. Crap. “Hi, Mac.”

What the hell was Mac Gordon doing here? Sure, he was a paramedic where Ryan was, but really? He had to stop by
now
?

“Ryan’s not here. He has practice tonight.”

“Was hoping to catch him before he left. I guess he
just
left.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve seen
that
look on a woman’s face often enough to know what you’ve been up to.”

Amanda’s hands flew to her cheeks. “You can tell?”

Mac chuckled. “I can now.”

She glared at him and swatted his arm. “Not funny. You can
not
tell—”

“Dr. Dixon?” Dooley Miller came up behind Mac on the front steps.

She sighed. “Hi, Dooley.” Before he could ask what she was doing in Ryan’s house, she asked him. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Ryan’s mom’s been making some tea for Dooley’s dad that’s been helping his hip pain,” Mac said.

Ah. The magical tea. What couldn’t Ryan’s mom’s tea do?

“Ryan already left,” Mac told Dooley.

“Not too long ago, I’d guess,” Dooley said, studying Amanda’s face.

“Oh, shut up,” she said, stepping out of the doorway and closing the door behind her.

Dooley laughed.

“You’ll have to come back later,” she told them, pulling her purse strap up onto her shoulder.

“We don’t want to interrupt—”

“You won’t,” she said as she pushed between them to head for her car. “It’s fine.”

Both men chuckled and followed her down the steps.

She swung back to face them. “You guys can’t tell Conner.”

“Tell Conner what?” Dooley asked. “We don’t know anything.”

Mac elbowed him. “That’s true for one of us more than the other.”

She gave them one of the frowns that she saved for students who weren’t taking something seriously. “You guys can
not
tell Conner,” she repeated.

Mac shook his head. “Trust me, Amanda, I’ve been in Ryan’s shoes. I’m not telling Conner anything.” Then he got a thoughtful look on his face. “Though, come to think of it, I’d love to torture Conner some. He’s always telling my wife how nice she looks and it always gives her this little smile—”

Amanda stepped up close. Mac was a lot bigger than her. A lot. Of course, he was bigger than most everyone. But that didn’t stop her from poking him in the chest and saying, “You are
not
telling Conner anything.”

Mac’s eyes got a little wide and he held up both hands in surrender. “I won’t say a word.”

She took a deep breath. In spite of Conner’s not-so-secret crush on Mac’s wife, Sara, Amanda knew she could trust Mac. “Thanks.”

She headed for her car and was sliding behind the wheel when Mac called out, “You’re going to have to tell him eventually.”

She shook her head. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“Then you better be careful not to think about Ryan when you’re with your brother. That little blush will give you away every time.”

She put a hand to her cheek and glared at Mac. Because, yeah, her cheek did feel a little warmer.

She slammed the door and started the car, backing out and turning out onto the street without looking back at the men on Ryan’s doorstep. And she practiced
not
thinking about Ryan all the way home.

By the time she pulled in to her garage, two thing were clear—not thinking about Ryan was going to take some real self-discipline…and a lot more practice.

“Kaye!”

Ryan turned to find Mac Gordon and Dooley Miller coming toward him. He and Nate were on the edge of the field, warming up with ball tosses. Ryan held up a hand to keep Nate from throwing to him for a minute.

“Hey, guys. What’s up?”

“We stopped by your house to pick up more of that tea for Dad,” Dooley said.

“Oh, sorry. Must have just missed me.”

“Yeah, that’s what Amanda said,” Dooley replied.

The words hung in the air between them. Then Ryan grabbed each of the men by their sleeves and turned them away from the field where the rest of the Hawks were warming up.

“You saw Amanda?”

Even her name caused his gut to knot with need. Walking away had been so hard. Necessary. But hard. Necessary because he needed her to know that he was content to spend time with her that didn’t involve sex. Of course, he’d kind of blown that. The whole thing had been specifically
not
about him and all about her, but it would definitely be considered sexual by—okay, pretty much anyone. But there wasn’t a heterosexual man on the planet who could have touched Amanda the way he had and
not
taken it further.

He wasn’t a professional masseuse, but his mother was—among other things—and she’d taught him everything she knew. He’d given plenty of massages to people for everything from stress reduction to a strained calf muscle. And even with the hottest girls, he was able to keep that separate from any attraction. But he couldn’t have kept his mouth off of Amanda for all the money, beer or touchdowns in the world.

“Oh, we definitely saw Amanda,” Mac said with a grin. “Just as she was leaving.”