ROMANCE: THE SHEIKH'S GAMES: A Sheikh Romance (79 page)

He laughed but she didn’t join in. “You’re serious?”

“As a heart attack. Pace yourself Ryder, this weekend is going to be one wild ride.”

He smiled. “I can’t wait.”

***

Skylar had been right, Ryder was in for a wild ride. After lunch, Aunt Marie as she insisted he call her, had taken them out to explore her property. On horseback. He didn’t even think California had any ranches but Lyla Peterson, no Aunt Marie, lived on an honest to goodness ranch with horses, chickens, a few cows, dogs, barn cats and ranch hands. He’d never been on a horse before, not in his life, and that’s how he found himself sitting behind Skylar with his arms wrapped around her waist.

“Hang on a little tighter than normal and you’ll be fine. In a few minutes you’ll get used to the feel of being on a horse.” Skylar smiled at him over her shoulder and he did as she asked. He held on tight to her tiny waist.

“This okay?” His voice was gruff. The proximity and her sensual scent tortured him in the best way. He felt the telltale tightening in his jeans when she looked over her shoulder again, auburn lashes framing smiling hazel eyes.

“Perfect.” Skylar didn’t know what had happened between her and Ryder since arriving in California, but she felt more relaxed around him. She was at ease and relished the low hum of desire every time she caught sight of Ryder. “Don’t let go.” That husky, sexy voice was hers. Hers!

Ryder and Skylar listened as Aunt Marie outlined her hope for the school she wanted to open right here on the New Day Ranch. “This place will be dedicated to kids with learning disabilities that will make it difficult to learn a trade, but who want to learn a trade.” She pointed to a building set apart from the main house and bunkhouse that would house the school. “Kids can stay here or go home each day. Given the location I imagine most will be living here.”

“This is very impressive, Aunt Marie.” He still had a hard time calling the woman he’d known for just a few days his aunt. “I’m interested in the type of software you’ll need.” In fact his fingers itched to get started.

She nodded. “We’ll get to that. In the meantime I need to go get dinner started. You two enjoy the property and be back in two hours.” She winked, turned her horse around and galloped off with a wink.

“I think Aunt Marie is up to something,” Ryder whispered in her hear, making her shiver. That small move brought a measure of satisfaction. She was as affected by him as he was by her.

“She’s trying to get me laid.”

He leaned in again. “Is that what you want?”

She nodded and leaned back just enough to feel his hard chest against her. “It is, but I’m not looking to just get laid. I don’t do hookups or one night stands. I haven’t waited all this time just to…nevermind.”

He was curious but she was obviously embarrassed. “So you’re looking for something more, then?”

“Yes. I am.” She wanted to find the right guy to give herself to, not just some guy. She thought Ryder might be that guy. “Are you that guy, Ryder?”

“Do you want me to be?” His lips brushed against her ear as he spoke, his hands caressed up and down her sides, grazing against her breasts. His tongue reached out to touch her, to taste her, gliding up and down the muscles in her neck, sucking right where her neck met her shoulders. Damn she tasted good.

“I think you might be.” She hoped she was right about Ryder Tomkins because her body wanted whatever he was offering and she feared she wouldn’t be strong enough to stop whatever was happening between them.

“Skylar,” he whispered against her neck. “I want you and not just for a night.” No, it would take a lot longer than one night with her to satisfy him. The horse had come to a stop, pulling Ryder from the bubble of lust he’d been in. “Where are we?”

Skylar looked up and she too realized they’d stopped. “Oh. This is called the Honeymoon Cabin. Ranching is such a full-time around the clock job that when one of the ranch family members or ranch hands got married, they used this little cabin for their honeymoon until there was a better time to get away.”

Interesting. “How many days did they stay out here?” He slid down the horse in a clumsy dismount and waited for Skylar to follow.

“Usually a week. They worked all day on the ranch and spent their evenings here.” She walked to the door and pushed it open. “Alone.”

Ryder smiled and followed her up the stairs and into the house. Something hit him in the face as soon as he passed the threshold. He looked down at it and smiled. Her shirt. He removed his own and left them both on the floor by the door, scanning the room in search of her. “Skylar,” he called out as he scanned one empty hall. He turned to the other hall and found her jeans in the middle of the floor and smiled again. His pants joined hers on the floor and he turned left and saw the bathroom so he turned right and hissed out a breath. Skylar looked gorgeous in deep red lingerie, in nothing but deep red lingerie. “Shit.”

Skylar watched desire darken Ryder’s handsome face. His slack-jawed awe boosted her confidence and she arched her back and pushed her breasts out a little further. Another hiss went straight to her core, making her clench and moisten under his scrutiny. “Ryder,” she moaned. His gaze so heavy and thick it was like a caress.

In a few short steps Ryder was at the bed, his blue eyes raked over her underwear clad body and he bent to caress the silky skin of her leg. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered, his voice full of reverence. She shivered under his hands while they stroked her ankles and her calves before he moved up to her thighs. A finger stroked at her core over the scrap of red lace and a gasping moan escaped her mouth. He smiled and slid a finger inside the lace, dipping it into her core.

“Ryder,” she screamed and her hips bucked off the bed.

“Wet and responsive too,” he told her moments before he ripped her panties from her body. One yank and she was bared to him, pink and glistening. He bent even further, her gaze glued to his body as his head sank lower and lower until she felt his breath where she ached for him. His tongue snaked out and swiped against her three times, up and down and back up again. “Tasty too,” he choked out before he covered her body with his.

“Ryder,” she moaned his name over and over. The feel of his mouth on her most sensitive area was more erotic than she could have ever dreamed. Her body vibrated with a need she couldn’t identify, but her legs opened wider to accommodate his large body, instinctively knowing what to do.

“God Skylar, I need you.”

“Yes,” she moaned. His words hit her deep and low in her belly. He needed her and that was a heady sensation she wasn’t used to. “I need you, Ryder. Now.”

He reared up and looked down at her, one hand held him up while the other deftly removed her bra. He gasped and dipped his head low, his tongue swirled around first one nipple and then the other. She screamed when his teeth made contact with the beaded tip. He watched her as she watched him, taking note of every reaction. Her eyes darkened to a burnt gold when his fingers swiped through her moisture and again dipped inside her body. Ryder stood and quickly removed his boxers, a smug smile touched his mouth at her gasp.

Skylar had never seen a sight as beautiful, as sexy and as erotic as Ryder staring at her naked body and stroking his impressive length. “Ryder, please.”

Those two words were his undoing. He climbed up her body, planting kisses along her thigh, her belly button and her breast before licking his way up to her mouth. “Are you sure about this, Sky?” He needed her to be sure because one he started it would take a superhuman effort to stop.

“I’ve never been more sure about anything, Ryder. Please, I need you. My body needs you.”

He growled and took himself in hand, rubbing his erection through her folds and coating himself in her moisture. “You’re so damn wet.”

His lack of control turned her on more than she ever thought. Instead of being terrified of how intense things were between them, Skylar was intoxicated, she was aroused and her body was poised to explode. His body was lined up with hers and she tensed when the first couple inches slide inside.

He bent to kiss her so she would relax. His tongue played with hers, soothed and caressed until her body sank into the mattress. He pushed a little more and she was so damn tight he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to hold on for her. “Sky,” he groaned and slid in to the hilt.

She screamed as intense pain ripped through her and Ryder stilled above her. “Please, don’t stop.”

“Skylar why didn’t you say anything?”

“It doesn’t matter, I wanted this. Don’t stop. Please.”

“I want you too damn bad to stop but I would’ve taken my time to make it better for you.”

“It’s good Ryder, so good. And I didn’t want it to be a big deal. Move, please. Move!” She realized his entire book shook with the force of holding back. He really was a good guy, she thought as she saw the battle in his eyes. He wanted her but he didn’t want to hurt her. She clenched around him and he groaned. “Ryder. I want this. I want you.”

Ryder still didn’t move inside her, instead he bent and sucked her breast into his mouth. When her hips began to move he pulled out and slammed back in and the floodgates were open. She was too hot and too tight and so goddamned wet his control was close to snapping. His thrusts came harder and faster, her moans and mewls spurring him on.

Skylar clawed at his back, the pain a distant memory as other more pleasurable sensations took over. The way he disappeared inside her and the sounds of his pleasure touched every nerve ending until she shook beneath him, crying and screaming his name as pleasure better than any she’d ever known swept over her. “Ryder, Ryder” she said over and over as he continued to seek his own pleasure.

“Baby you feel so damn good,” he drove in and out, in and out until she convulsed around him and his own control snapped. He growled her name along with a few expletives and stilled above her as he spilled into her body. He bent and kissed her mouth again, this time slow and sweet. He groaned again when she clenched around his length and pulled out of her. “Shit Sky, I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry. She stiffened at his words and pushed him off of her. “I’m a big girl Ryder, I don’t need”

Ryder pushed her chest until she was lying on her back and he covered her mouth with his hand. “Stop. Just stop.” He thrust back into her and her eyes widened. “I’m not apologizing for this,” he thrust again just to make sure he had her attention. When she moaned behind his hand he knew he had it. “I’m sorry because I didn’t protect you. Protect us.” He removed his hand from her mouth.

“Oh.” She wasn’t on any type of birth control because until this moment it had been unnecessary. “I’m not on anything.”

He smiled and leaned to kiss her forehead. “I figured. But Skylar I want you to know this is alright with me. I want us to see where this can go, if you do.”

She nodded. “I do too.” Then she pulled him down and kissed the hell out of him.

When Skylar returned home she felt lighter and freer than when she’d boarded the plane to California. The report she’d read from Kendra was excellent news for their company. In addition to ETI, Kendra had signed up an artisan soap maker and a management company that handled a dozen different singers and bands. Businesses like those were why they’d started their company in the first place and she was satisfied that things had finally started to look up.

Business was good and if the last two nights in California had been any indication, things between her and Ryder were better than good. He was a giving and imaginative lover with infinite patience. She smiled and let her thoughts wander to the time she’d spent exploring his body, and what a beautiful body it was. He’d lain completely still while her fingers and then her mouth explored every inch of him. She wanted to learn what he liked so she could please him the way he pleased her. Her mouth tasted his nipples which he liked, and down his stomach which he loved. When her lips wrapped around his length, Skylar wasn’t sure who liked it more, her or Ryder.

He’d groaned and wrapped her hair around his hands. She’d been overwhelmed by the scent and taste of him combined with his firm fingers rubbing her scalp and the twinge of pain from where he pulled her hair. It had been too much sensation and she’d erupted when he filled her throat. She’d been embarrassed until Ryder’s dark blue gaze honed in on her, full of desire and lifted her until her legs straddled his face. She blushed as she opened the door to her apartment, thinking of how naughty she’d felt and how satisfied.

He had awoken her body and her heart. For so long Skylar had ignored her own needs and desires as a woman, in favor of building her career. Now she was glad that she had because she knew she’d been waiting for Ryder. She’d arrived home from California four days ago and they’d seen each other every day. And her worked hadn’t suffered a bit.

That had been her worry for years, that she would lose herself in a man the way her mother had done time and again. So far that hadn’t been a problem because Ryder was as dedicated to his company as she was to hers. They could make it work, she realized, when she heard a knock at her door. She marched on bare feet to the door and opened it to the biggest bouquet she’d ever seen. “Hello?” She called out to the person behind the flowers and a pimple faced kid peeked around the side.

“Are you Ms. Morris?”

“I am.”

He held out the flowers. “These are for you miss.” He bent over and picked up another vase, “These too.”

Skylar nodded him in and showed him where to set the other vase. “Here you go,” she handed the kid a five and he smiled brightly and wished her a good night. Skylar smiled at the rainbow tulips and put them on the dining room table. The roses, she smiled, were orange, white and lavender. Love, desire and enchantment. Those would go in her bedroom. She pulled out the card.

Missing your sweet face already. See you soon. Love, Ryder.

She smiled and picked up the phone just as her doorbell rang again. She shot off a text to thank Ryder and then opened the door to find another stranger standing with a bag in hand.