He leans my back on the blanket again, but he doesn’t pry me off him, so in result, I’ve taken Ryke with me. He hovers over my body, so close to me. Even if he’s fully clothed and I lie naked, I feel safe in his possession.
“Don’t stop,” I cry. “Ryke.” I grab his bicep for support.
I meet his wanting gaze once before my toes curl, my spine arches, and my eyes roll back. Every part of me explodes like a thousand fireworks inside my head and body.
I go off.
And I come for the very first time.
Finally.
He keeps me full while my breath slows and I clench a few more times.
I laugh because that was one of the best things I’ve ever felt. Period. And he hasn’t even pushed his c**k inside of me yet.
“Better than chocolate?” he asks, wiping my lips that stay parted. His forearm rests beside my head, propping up his body as he stares down at me.
“I don’t know,” I pant. “I think I need to test this out five or six more times to make a definitive answer.” I smile playfully.
“I have a strong f**king feeling that we’ll hear your answer quickly.”
“I love your strong feelings,” I tell him.
“I love watching you come,” he says like it’s a simple fact. But it’s not simple at all.
“How much?”
He kisses my good cheek and then whispers, “More than you’ll ever f**king know.”
Damn. He slips his fingers out of me, wiping them on the blanket, and then he slides my soaked panties off my legs at an extremely slow rate. So slow that my body clenches all over again. When they’re off my feet, I turn on my stomach and moan into the covers. “Just take me now,” I say into the muffled blankets.
He’s on his knees, and he lifts me by the h*ps so I’m on mine too. “That’s not how I take women,” he says, squeezing my ass.
“You torture them,” I say, turning my head. “I can’t come twice before we have sex.”
“Want to f**king bet?” he says with narrowed eyes.
I grin. “Yes, I do. Let’s test it out now.”
“We don’t have time,” he says, shutting it down. It was worth a shot. He wipes between my legs with the blanket, and then he swiftly grabs me around the waist and sets my feet on the floor. Completely naked. I watch as he grabs a clean pair of panties from my bag.
He dresses me, helping me step into them. And once the soft cotton touches my hips, he puts the shirt on over my head and lets me step into my shorts. He’s taking care of me to a new degree. It makes me feel more than just loved. I feel like I’m truly his.
I hold onto the back of his neck while he zips my shorts, his body so close to mine again. He fishes the button through the hole, tension constricting his muscles. My breath is ragged. How is this possible? I just orgasmed.
I look up at him as he finishes. “I guess that answers my question.”
“What question?”
“Before, I was going to ask you if this was it for us.”
He frowns. “What are you f**king talking about?”
I don’t back down to the darkness in his features. I cling to every dangerous quality he possesses. “I just thought you’d want to go back to being just friends after what happened with my face.”
His confusion turns into a hard glare. “I’m not with you because you’re a f**king model.”
“I know.”
“Clearly you didn’t.”
“I do now.”
He’s not happy with that answer. “I didn’t think I was going to have to spell it out for you, Calloway.”
“Now I’m confused.”
He shakes his head. “I’ve never met a f**king girl that I wanted to stick around for longer than a month, and then I became friends with you—”
I cut him off, “And I thought that you could go back to being my friend.”
“No, you thought that I’d want to. You think I’m with you just because you’re f**king gorgeous? Daisy, I could have been with you the moment you turned eighteen. Having sex with a hot f**king girl that gets me hard isn’t worth risking the relationship I have with my brother.”
I breathe heavily. “What’s worth the risk then?”
“What we f**king have,” he says. “I love you beyond physical attraction.” He cups my smooth cheek, looking deep into my eyes. “I love you, Dais, because you’re the wildest f**king girl with the biggest f**king heart. And without you in my life”—he shakes his head like it’s an inconceivable picture—“I’d be the unhappiest f**king guy.”
His words flood me with so much emotion. For however ineloquent they are, they sound perfect off his lips—because they’re one-hundred percent Ryke Meadows. I focus on the three most important ones of the bunch.
“You love me,” I breathe.
He lets out a short laugh. “You’re such a f**king girl.”
“Say it again.”
He smiles, a full blown one that tingles my body all over. “I f**king love you, sweetheart.”
I lean in to kiss him, forgetting I’m hurt, but he holds my jaw, controlling the touch of our lips that desperately wants to be something more. Before it turns wild, he kisses my forehead and murmurs, “I’m not going anywhere.”
I never knew that a relationship could be so mental, so emotional before all the physical. I wonder if we’re doing this backwards or if this has been the right way all along.
Right. I’ve found the one person who makes me the happiest, but I just wonder how long I’ll be able to keep him. I wonder if there are too many outside forces pulling us apart for this to last.
I’ll take each day as they come.
Live in the moment with Ryke Meadows.
If I ever die, I want that across my headstone.
29
DAISY CALLOWAY
Janet hands me a plastic bag with all my valuables and the bloodied maroon turtleneck I was wearing that night. I slip the gold ring on my thumb while Ryke heads down the hall, talking on the phone and waiting for me to leave.
“You need to go over to that cashier’s window and they’ll give you the hospital bill.”
I nod. “Will the ambulance fee be added with that?” I don’t know how the French medical system works.
Janet frowns. “There is no ambulance fee. Didn’t you know that?”
I shake my head. “No, but I…” I blink as I wrack my brain. The pub isn’t even close to this hospital, so how…
“He carried you,” Janet says, a hand to her chest, like that night was emotional, even for her. “You were in his arms when he reached the hospital doors. He arrived about ten minutes before anyone else from the riot.”
Tears well, and I suppress them as best I can. My voice trembles. “He ran here?”
She nods and reaches out to touch my wrist in comfort. I glance down the hallway at Ryke who speaks with force into the phone, like he wants the person on the other end to fully listen to him. He’s the hero of my story, but he refuses to claim any of those moments, as if they don’t matter.
They do matter. Everyone sees partial sides to Ryke, and he lets them think he’s just an athlete with no brains, an aggressive ass**le. It’s like he’s been alone for so long that he’s lost any interest in showing off his worth.
I think I’ve hit the lottery—to have him in my life.