Seized by Love (Love in Bloom: The Ryders, Book 1): Blue Ryder (15 page)

“Lizzie,” he warned.

She pressed harder on his hips, keeping him in place as her thighs tensed and her inner muscles clamped down. Heat shot down his spine, and they both spiraled over the edge in a bucking of hips and moans of ecstasy as they drank in the evidence of their desire.

Holy hell. Blue could barely breathe. He’d never come that hard, never felt a woman come so hard or taste so good. He moved to the top of the bed, taking in the hazy look of lust in Lizzie’s eyes, the glistening of her swollen lips, as he sealed his mouth over hers. He didn’t care that she tasted of him. He wanted to be closer to her, so close he would climb beneath her skin if he could. And the way she was holding him, kissing him, pressing her wetness against him, told him that she felt it too.

“Lizzie,” he said between kisses. “Fuck, Lizzie. I can’t get enough of you.” He kissed her harder, unable to hold back, and within seconds he was hard again. He shifted over her, parting her legs with his, and drove his hard length into her until he was buried to the root. They both cried out with the intense coupling.

“Harder…faster,” she pleaded. “Deeper…”

He pounded into her so hard he worried she’d bruise, but he couldn’t stop. Too much emotion welled inside him. He moved his hands beneath her knees, bringing her legs up beside his hips as he drove in time and time again.

“Yes. So good…” She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her tongue in his mouth.

He’d never felt such intense pleasure. Her muscles tensed, and he knew she was on the verge of coming again. He slowed his efforts, easing the roughness, wanting to come with her, needing to look into her eyes as she spiraled over the edge.

“Don’t stop,” she begged.

“Never. I’ll never stop.” He continued the slow, torturous shifts as she arched beneath him.

“
Ohgodohgodohgod. Blue…Please…I have to…
”

She cried out, a sexy, greedy noise filling the bedroom. Their slick bodies slid together in a perfect rush of momentum as he buried his face in the crook of her neck and grunted through his own powerful release, holding her tightly as aftershocks shuddered through them. They collapsed to the mattress, breathing hard, their bodies still tangled together.

He cupped her cheeks, kissing her with all the love in his heart and all the emotions that had been mounting for so long.

“You own me, Lizzie. Heart, body, and soul.”

She smiled up at him, the sleepy smile of a sated lover, as he gathered her in his arms, never wanting to let her go.

LIZZIE BLINKED SEVERAL times, her thoughts slowly coming back into focus. Blue’s arms were wrapped tightly around her. Even in sleep he held her possessively, and she loved it. His bedroom was silent, save for the peaceful cadence of his breathing. Her eyes were drawn to the digital clock, glowing like a beacon in the darkness.

Shit!

It was after midnight and she still needed to film her show—and now she needed to shower first. She slid as quietly as she could from Blue’s arms, feeling the fatigue in her muscles. The type of fatigue that came only from a night of incredible sex. She was sore in places she didn’t realize she could be sore. Lord, did that man know how to love a woman.

She sat on the edge of the bed, torn between cuddling up beside Blue again and staying the night and going home to film her show. She knew her ratings sank by at least forty percent when she missed posting a new show on time. She’d trained her viewers like Pavlov’s dogs. They knew when to expect their next episode of bakery porn. She’d tracked the income, and the few times she hadn’t been able to film the show, views and income had both tanked. Maddy needed books next semester, and Lizzie held on to the shred of hope that one month she’d hit it really big and she wouldn’t need to continue filming. All she needed to earn was enough money for Maddy’s last two years of school—times two, to allow for taxes.

Every time she taped a show she hoped it would be the one that found twice as many viewers and went viral. The one that would make it possible for her to stop doing the show altogether. One lucky break.

Like that’s ever going to happen.

She had no choice. She had to leave and tape the show. Her eyes skirted around the room, searching for answers that wouldn’t come. They caught on a streak of moonlight streaming through the curtains and the string garden she’d given Blue for his birthday a few months earlier. She smiled, loving that he kept it in the bedroom and that he’d cared for it well enough for it to still be alive. Why would she have doubted that he would look after a plant? Wasn’t that who he was? Look how well he cared for her. Whether they were out or he was loving her, he always had her best interests at heart.

She glanced over her shoulder just as he rolled toward her and wrapped an arm around her waist, pinning her against him.

“Sneaking out?” He shifted to her side of the bed and kissed her spine.

“Not sneaking, but I do need to go.”

“Stay. I’ll make you breakfast in the morning.” His voice was thick with sleep and rich with comfort.

She turned and kissed him. “I wish I could, but I have to be up early tomorrow and I still need to go through my inventory lists tonight.” She was going straight to hell for lying to the best man on the planet.
A gentleman on the outside and a beast in the bedroom. The perfect man
.

Her
perfect man.

He tugged her down on top of him and kissed her again. “Okay, if you must, but I’ll miss you.”

Forty-five minutes later, alone in her own home, Lizzie stepped from the shower, dried her hair, and wondered what the hell she was doing with her life. She had the most amazing man begging her to stay in bed with him, and here she was, putting on makeup at one thirty in the morning, tying an apron around her back, and putting her feet into a confining pair of heels.

This sucks
was the first answer that came to mind, followed by,
I’m doing this for Maddy.

She carried her laptop down the basement stairs, wishing she were walking back into Blue’s bedroom instead, and went about setting out her baking supplies while giving her laptop the evil eye. She had no right to sneer at the damn thing. The
Naked Baker
was the only reason she’d been able to pay off her school loans and buy her flower shop. And she really did love baking. She loved the smell of sugar, flour, vanilla, and other scents blending together and warming to the perfect temperature. She loved putting her heart into anything—her flowers, baking…now Blue.

She pushed thoughts of him aside, or at least she tried, and focused on what else she loved about baking, to try to get into her
Naked Baker
frame of mind. Of course the outcome of baking was utterly delicious almost every single time. But then there was this part of baking—baking for the show—that tainted baking as a whole for her. This was the part she disliked, the part that sucked all that goodness from it and made her feel like a video prostitute.

She glanced at the picture of Madison she kept on the wall on the other side of the room for motivation.

Forcing her best smile, she pointed at the picture and said, “This is for you, Maddy.” She turned on the camera, thrust out her chest, and gazed seductively into the little black camera lens, and saw Blue’s eyes looking back at her.

She quickly turned off the camera, breathing hard at the shock of the image. Closing her eyes tightly, she exhaled and said under her breath, “I can do this. This is for Maddy.”

She turned the camera back on and once again mustered her most seductive voice.

“Welcome back to the
Naked Baker
. I’ve been thinking about you.” She trailed her finger over the edge of the counter, remembering what Blue had said about wanting
to be
her counter, and as she dragged that finger down her neck, she buried the thought as deep as she could. She had to. For Maddy.

“Have you been thinking of me?” she purred to the camera.

Suddenly keeping a sexy facade while filming the episode was like treading water with no arms. Every time she gazed into the camera with a sultry look, she thought of Blue. Every sensual movement she made was chased by guilt. Every word out of her mouth was pushed by self-loathing. This had to be her worst episode yet, and by the time she was done baking the yellow cake in the shape of handcuffs, she felt like she’d been run over by a train—or chased by one. It didn’t matter which, because the outcome was the same. The ecstasy that had laced every breath, every thought, just hours earlier when she was with Blue was gone. Tarnished. Ruined.

She took another shower, feeling dirty and unworthy of the only man she wanted. Under the hot water she tried to scrub the guilt from her body. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she scrubbed her skin raw until they finally subsided. By the time she dried off, she’d wiped all the goodness of Blue away, and buried the filth of her dirty secret a little deeper.

HOPING TO CATCH Lizzie before she left for work, Blue arrived at her house early Tuesday morning, but despite the early hour, her car was already gone. It had been so wonderful to start his day by seeing her yesterday morning before work that he’d hoped for the same again today. And after the incredible evening they’d shared, he was having thoughts of going to sleep with her in his arms every night and waking with her every morning. Disappointment washed through him with a force he hadn’t expected, and he found he had to work hard to move past that unfamiliar feeling. Falling for her didn’t begin to touch on what he really felt.

He set his tools down and surveyed his work. He’d replaced the water-damaged ceiling, refinished the hardwood floors, and installed most of the custom cabinetry, which Lizzie had insisted remain orange. He’d wondered at that when he’d first seen the brightly colored kitchen, but now he saw how the happy color fit her personality perfectly. He still had another few days of work ahead of him, setting the island, installing the moldings, painting, and setting the appliances.

His eyes landed on a piece of yellow cake with pink frosting sitting on the counter with a note propped up beside it. He smiled at the familiar sight, wondering when she could have possibly had time to bake. Before they’d started going out, the notes she’d left him in the mornings, accompanying a muffin, cupcake, or some other sweet treat, said things like,
Thanks for working on my kitchen!
or
It looks amazing!
This morning’s note read,
Lick-It list #1, Licking frosting off your washboard abs.
Want to choose who licks what off of which body part for #2? Xo, Lizzie.

Heat spread straight to his groin just thinking about Lizzie’s tongue licking his skin. Damn right he’d like to choose what he licked from her gorgeous body. Whipped cream from between her legs or chocolate sauce dribbled all over her breasts? He wondered what it might be like to combine both of her lusty lists into one.

A Lick-It list and a Fuck-It list
.

She was the epitome of sweet and sensual, and he couldn’t wait to see her again.

He texted her in response to her note before starting work.
Lick-It list #2…Combine with your other list. Whatever your #1 is on that list, I’ll bring the whipped cream.
He pressed send and couldn’t temper the foolish grin plastered on his face.

***

LIZZIE BROUGHT THE handcuff-shaped cake, minus the piece she’d saved for Blue, to the homeless shelter before work. She’d sliced it and rearranged it on the tray so no one could tell what shape it had been, and like every other time she’d dropped off goodies at the shelter, the director, Paul, gave her a big hug.

“You’re so good to us, Lizzie. Thank you.” Paul was tall and slim with thick blond hair and eyes the color of grass. He was always appreciative of the things she brought, and he never minded that she whipped in and out in a matter of seconds the mornings she stopped by.

“It’s nothing, really. I’ll be back Friday morning with more goodies!”

“Thanks, love.” Paul waved as he closed the shelter doors.

She drove up the highway toward Provincetown. She’d always loved the stretch of land where Truro ended and Provincetown began, where the residential area gave way to a shoreline dotted with summer cottages. Once again her mind traveled back to Blue. It had taken all of her willpower not to wait for him to arrive before leaving for work, but the battle going on between her head and heart was too difficult to manage in his presence. She knew that if she was in his arms again, feeling him holding her like he never wanted to let her go, she’d fall right back into the luxury of
them
. She needed a clear head to figure out how to tell him about the webcast, and when she was around him, a clear head was not possible—not when he made her feel so good, made her hope for more, for a future without the webcast in it.

And Maddy couldn’t afford for her to make that choice.

As she drove toward her shop she marveled at the artsy little town coming to life. The people strolling with a pet’s leash in one hand and coffee in the other, early-morning joggers, and shop owners opening their businesses.

She couldn’t imagine running her flower shop anywhere else. Even when she was growing up in Brewster, she’d always known she’d end up here. Provincetown was full of life, and she thrived on the energy that buzzed through the town. Thinking about how she’d ended up in the place she had always wanted to be made her wonder about destiny and fate. She didn’t put much stock in those things, because she’d had to fight her way through everything in life to get where she was. When she was taking on student loans, every thousand dollars she borrowed felt like another shovel of dirt burying her deeper in debt. Deeper into the reality of working for minimum wage and never seeing the light of day.

No, fate and destiny were not her friends. They were notions that people who had it all believed in. She believed in creating her own life. Making life happen the way she wanted, with her own determination and sheer will. It wasn’t fate that brought her
Cooking with Coeds
or destiny that kept her locked in her basement making the slightly naughty videos. It was the need for a better life and the drive to get it, no matter what the stakes.