Skin Deep (13 page)

“I’m sure she would feel the same way about you,” he said, leaning in to kiss her cheek.

“I wanted to do something to honor her,” she said, considering whether she was ready to share such a personal part of herself with him. “Let me show you.” She walked to the door where the bellman had deposited her carry-on bag and retrieved an item. Re-claiming her seat on the bed, she handed him the white velvet pouch. Engraved on the front were the words, “Cici’s Fine Jewelry” in fancy script.

He smiled, holding the pouch in his hand. “That’s the name of your business?”

She shook her head, brushing a fingertip over the soft velvet. “It is, and I still use the same kind of velvet pouches she bought for me back then.” After loosening the silk ribbon, she slid the engraved linen card out of the pouch. “She used to tell me that every piece has a story to tell. If it’s a custom piece, it has a story to tell about the person who ordered it and it’s the jeweler’s job to tell that story. If it’s part of a collection, it’s the jeweler’s story to tell. This is a piece I made for Jackie to wear on her wedding day, so this is the story of the love she found with my brother.” She handed him the small card, waiting for him to read it aloud. Holding her breath, she hoped he realized she was telling her own story, their story, in those words.

“Once in a lifetime, if we’re lucky, we meet someone who understands what makes us who we are. They celebrate our victories, share the burden of sorrows, love us conditionally, and are there to hold our hand when we draw our last breath. We call that person our soul mate. This piece is given with all my love to celebrate your love.”

He looked up at her, his eyes reflecting his unshed tears. “Wow,” he whispered. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”
   

“Say that you understand,” she said.

He looked at her for a long time before responding. “I do.”

She slipped the necklace out of the pouch and laid it carefully in his hand. “This is the first piece I’ve designed and created in a long time. I had to stay up half the night for weeks to finish it in time,” she said, thumbing the luminescent pearls. “Each pearl is hand-knotted, hand selected; the crystals are all hand-made, and the clasp is antique. I incorporate a little piece of history in all of my pieces.” She watched him turn the piece over and over in his hands, admiring each of the three strands.

He wasn’t giving it a cursory glance to be polite, he was trying to see it as she did, through the eyes of the artist. “It’s exquisite,” he said, looking up at her. “This kind of creativity is a gift. Too few people in the world can take nothing and create something beautiful to share with the world. This is your calling, honey. This is what you need to be doing with your life.”

She was so relieved, so humbled, that he recognized her talent and believed in her potential. “Thank you. Someday…”

He shook his head. “No, not someday. Today. You can’t put this off, baby. None of us knows if tomorrow will ever come. I don’t want you to have any regrets.”

The love she felt for this man surged through her body, pounding in her veins, making her feel as though she waited for this moment, this man, forever. “I love you,” she said, knowing no words could describe to him the depth of her feeling.

“Not as much as I love you,” he said, leaning into kiss her.

“Make love to me,” she said, framing his face with her hands. She may not be able to tell him how she felt, but she could definitely show him.

Chapter Ten

Ryan knew, without a doubt, what he had to do. He was not going to allow that damn dealership or her family to steal her dream. By the time they returned home, she would be out from under that immense pressure and free to build a life with him.

Tonight wasn’t about dominance or submission, past hurts, or regret. It was about the secrets they’d shared, the risk they took in loving each other, and the promise of a future that exceeded all of their expectations.

Ryan had engaged in sex hundreds, hell, thousands of times over the years, but he had never made love like this. He stripped her clothes off slowly, worshipping her with his eyes, memorizing every delectable curve and tiny freckle that made her unique. “You’re gorgeous,” he whispered, wishing the twenty years he’d spent in school enabled him to express himself with the eloquence of a poet because that’s what she deserved. Sadly, he could only use the only tool at his disposal, his body, to show her how much he needed her tonight and every night from now on. There was no room for error. He knew his heart would never survive the loss if he managed to screw this up again.

His hands skimmed her body, over her firm breasts, down the length of her ribcage, over her taut stomach, until they finally reached the apex of her thighs.

He nudged her legs apart with his thigh and stepped between them, spreading her wide. “I want to watch you get wet,” he whispered. “Just close your eyes.”

She did as instructed, plucking her nipples between her fingertips.

“Put your hands over your head. Don’t touch yourself unless I tell you to.” He was doing this to heighten her pleasure, not to assert his dominance. He only hoped she recognized the difference.

“Okay,” she said, stretching her arms above her head.

“Spread your legs wider. I want to watch that sweet pussy get all wet and pink and swollen…” Fisting his hands at his side, he watched her grind her hips into the mattress.

“I want you to imagine my hands all over your body. I’m stroking your neck and shoulders, then I work my way down to those magnificent tits.” He groaned as he spread her legs even wider, treating him to an abashed view. “I’m taking those gorgeous, deep red nipples in my mouth, one at a time, swirling my tongue over the tip, nibbling, sucking, and drawing them deep into my mouth.”

She moaned, and he knew she was desperate for him to act out the scene.

“That’s it, baby, one at a time, over and over again.” He watched her getting wetter and hotter, closer to the unseen threshold of insanity. “Has anyone ever sucked on your tits until you climaxed and then licked your pussy until it was throbbing against their lips?”

She thrashed her head against the pillows. “No.” The sound was a plea, a cry, torn from her throat.  

“That’s a shame,” he said, watching as his words bathed her cunt in her own erotic juices. “Imagine I’m moving down your body slowly, trailing my tongue over your ribs, your stomach, oh wait, hmm, I’m stopping to dip my tongue into that sexy belly button. Now I’m twirling that little diamond stud around on my tongue. Hmm, I like that, I’m swirling it around and around inside your little hole.” His cock was like granite, watching her grind her hips, silently begging for mercy.

“Please, God, please, Ryan. I just need you to touch me…”

“Oh I will, sweetheart. Soon. But right now, I want to imagine that I’m forcing your hips down into the mattress so I can feast on that sweet pussy. Oh God,” he muttered, closing his eyes for just a moment. “I’m licking all the way up your slit, capturing your delicious cream on my tongue.”

“Damn,” she whispered, fisting the pillows in her hand as she buried her face.

“Hmm, that tastes so sweet, baby. God, I’ve got to have more of that.” His little plan was backfiring; he was making himself even crazier than her. He was thirty seconds away from saying fuck this game of torture and thrusting his cock into her, balls deep. “Your pussy juice is trickling down between your ass cheeks now. Can you feel that?”

She shook her head, whimpering.

“I bet you’d like me to lick that up, wouldn’t you?”

“God, yes.”

“Yeah, you want me to lap up all that pussy juice, honey?”

“Yes, please. I can’t take anymore. I need to feel your tongue on me.”

“Where do you want my tongue?”

“Licking my clit, fucking my pussy, sucking my tits.” Groaning, she said, “I need to feel your mouth, your tongue, everywhere. Now.”

Deciding he’d tortured her enough, he dropped to his knees, eager to give in to her demands. He devoured her, teasing and taunting her with his tongue until she was quivering, throbbing, and finally begging him to stop.

He crawled on top of her. “Kiss me. I want you to taste how unbelievably sweet you are.”

A blush crept up her neck, staining her cheeks as she pulled his head down, cloaking her face in shadow.

Drawing back to look at her, a smile tugging at his lips, he said, “You’re not getting shy on me all of a sudden, are you, baby?”

With her luscious lips hovering just beneath his, just out of reach, she said, “I’ve never been with someone who talks so openly about sex. Most men just want to get it over with.”

He had a hard time believing that her past lovers weren’t inclined to pay homage to her perfection. Maybe it was the fact that he knew how much women were willing to risk to have the firm, full breasts, flat stomach, and smooth legs she’d been blessed with. “I love making love to you,” he said. He scanned her body slowly. “All of you…those perfect tits, that delectable mouth, that hot, tight, wet pussy and ass…”

Turning her head to the side, obscuring his view of her face, she said, “You must want to change something about me if you could. After all, you specialize in perfection, and I’m far from perfect.”

Grasping her chin, he forced her to look him in the eye. “Who told you that?”

Her eyes fell to his lips. “Forget I brought it up. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“Too bad,” he said, feeling the anger rising. He had no doubt someone had made her question herself, and he had dispel that theory before it could do any more damage. “Tell me.”

“Tell you what?” she asked, gripping his wrist, trying to escape his firm grasp.

“Tell me who disrespected you.”  He could see the embarrassment washing over her as though he was forcing her to re-live the insults, and that gutted him. “I don’t want to hurt you, sweetheart,” he said, quietly. “That’s not what this is about. I want to know what he said so I can help you move past it.”

She looked up, seemingly surprised at his insight. “It was Todd; he said things to hurt me when we fought. My friends said he was just trying to destroy my self-esteem so I would believe I didn’t deserve any better.” Shrugging, she said, “I don’t know. Maybe they were right.”

Not only had he cheated on her, but he’d verbally abused her. The rat bastard. Bracing his weight on his forearm, he hovered above her. “Tell me what he said to you.”

Shaking her head furiously, a tear slid down her cheek. “I can’t; it’s too humiliating.”

“Sweetheart,” he said, trying to force himself to remain calm in spite of the hatred coursing through his body, “just tell me, please.”

“He just played on my insecurities,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut as she sunk her teeth in her trembling lip. “My legs were too short, my tits were too small, my hair was too straight…” She drew a deep, shuddering breath and said, “I was never good enough. He always thought I should change something.” She opened her eyes. “That’s why it’s hard for me to believe that someone like you would look at me without coming up with a laundry list of things you’d like to change. You see and create perfection every day.” 

It was true that he encountered attractive women every day, but they knew they were stunning and they used it to their advantage. Her modesty only enhanced her rare beauty in his eyes. “You are the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever met, bar none,” he whispered, placing a lingering kiss on her lips. “If you gave me free rein and a scalpel and told me to work my magic, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

She linked her hands behind his head, pulling him closer. “That’s just about the sweetest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”

“Believe it,” he said, looking into her eyes. “’Cause I swear on my father’s grave that it’s the God’s honest truth.”

“I love you,” she whispered, kissing him. “For being the first man to understand and appreciate me for who I am. Hell, you’re the first man who’s ever taken the time to get to know me, the real me.”

Tracing her lower lip with his fingertip, he said, “And I know there’s so much I don’t know about you.” He smiled. “I’m dying to find out. I want to know everything, from the silly little things that make you laugh to the things that make you cry. I want to know what you’re afraid of…”

“I’m afraid of losing what I’ve found with you,” she said quietly, her eyes dropping to his chest. “That’s my biggest fear.”

He knew how much admitting it cost her, and he fell just a little deeper than he thought possible. “You don’t have to worry about that, honey. We won’t let anything destroy what we’ve found.”

“Promise me,” she said, looking terrified. “Promise me that if I put all of my faith in you that I won’t wind up broken-hearted?”

He knew her trust issues ran deep, rightly so, but he would take a bullet before he’d do anything to hurt her. “I only know of one way to answer that question, sweetheart.” Reaching between them, he positioned his shaft at her entrance. He inched inside, reveling in the slow slide to heaven. “God,” he said, lowering his head, “I’d have to be crazy to walk away from this.”

She tightened her pussy around his shaft as she nibbled his earlobe. “I’m going to make sure you don’t even think about it, Doc.”