Robyn
Without warning, his mouth met the sheer heat between my legs, and he pushed his tongue deep into me.
"Wider, baby. I want to taste what's mine."
With a degree of nonchalance that was almost terrifying, he threw one of my legs over his shoulder, allowing a reverent palm to skate down my thigh. If I wasn't mistaken, it was trembling.
"I've dreamed about this," he murmured, in what sounded like a prayer. "You have no idea."
"I have too," I confessed.
His eyes slowly came up to meet mine. "Yeah?"
I bit my lip and nodded.
"Have you slid your hands between these sweet thighs of yours and thought of me as you made yourself come?"
I should have known he was a talker. Under all those crisp suits and pressed shirts, there was a dirty talking man who was clever as the devil.
"Was it my name you screamed whenever you rode yourself to oblivion?"
"Christian."
"I want an answer, Ms. Hale. I don't take lightly to being disobeyed."
God. "Yes."
Alternating between sucking on my clit and thrusting his tongue inside me, he grabbed my thighs with both hands, and spread me further out for him to enjoy. He was enjoying this so much. As if he was doing this entirely for his pleasure, and mine was just a convenient side effect. It was such a heady feeling, seeing those calloused hands wrapped around my olive skin. I wanted to run my fingers through his hair, bringing him closer to where I wanted. But with the belt around my hands, all I could do was stare.
"I want you to ask me something," he murmured.
"I'm a little pre-occupied at the moment," I panted.
"So greedy," he chuckled, his tongue circling my clit with light, easy flicks that made me see stars.
I could hardly remember my name and he wanted to have a conversation. What was wrong with him? Just the way he looked at me brought me shamefully close to orgasm.
"Ask me what my future looks like, Ms. Hale."
"God, do I need to?"
"Do you want to come?" He asked casually.
"Yes," I gritted.
"Then you better ask me, baby."
Through pursed lips, I managed, "What does your future look like, Christian?"
"I'm so glad you asked," he said in a low voice, pushing two fingers back into me. When they reached that spot again, my back arched in pleasure. I was almost on the verge of tears, because I could taste release, and yet he wouldn't let me have it. He was denying me what I wanted, and he loved every single moment of it. With another blasé swipe of his tongue along the length of me, my legs trembled.
"Waking you up in the morning with my head between your legs. I see you lying on my kitchen counter with my head between your legs. I see you in my bed, shower, and splayed across my piano with my head between your legs."
"Christian..." I begged.
"Because I have no idea how the fuck I lived without this."
"Can you please stop talking?"
"Easy now," he purred. "Save that fire for my bed."
The sound that came from me was a mix between a moan and a sob.
He chuckled, pushing his tongue deep inside me. "God, you're delicious," he said. "You even taste sweet."
He ate me out leisurely, staring into my eyes as each stroke threatened to send me over the edge. But when I was close, he stopped sucking on my clit and licked me thoroughly, giving me attention everywhere except where I needed it.
"Stop teasing me, Christian," I pleaded.
"Where's the fun in that?" He smiled into me.
I wanted to pass out from pleasure and frustration. "Please."
"Please, what?"
"You know what."
"Tell me anyway," he purred, looking up at me like I was the most intriguing creature in the world. The most beautiful person. The most delicious meal. That was a dangerously addictive feeling.
"Please let me come," I asked with as much sharpness as I could muster.
A dangerous glint flashed through his eyes. "Good girl," he said as he sucked hard, finally letting me finish.
My entire body collapsed all over him.
"Two. You look beautiful when you come," he rasped, rising up to his feet and running a hand over his stubbled jaw, lips glistening. He sucked his fingers clean again. "All over my mouth the way you were always meant to."
"There's no way I can do that again," I sighed, my head hanging low.
"Oh baby," he chuckled, pressing two fingers to the bottom of my chin and forcing me to look at him. "You can. You will. And most of all, you'll love it."
"I'm going to wear plaid more often if this is what it gets me," I said innocently.
He stepped closer. "It'll do but I'd prefer it if you didn't wear anything."
"Luckily, I'm not in the business of doing what you prefer."
"Luckily, you're in the business of doing me."
"Lucky for you or for me?"
"Me. Definitely me," he growled, diving down and shutting me up with a furious kiss.
I strained against the belt on my hands, aching to touch and undress him. He cupped my face hard, pushing his tongue into me, forcing me to taste myself on him. I groaned into it, trying hard to untie myself and feel his body pressed up against mine.
Within a second, my arms dropped around me, and I nearly collapsed from being released so suddenly. Right before I hit the floor, Christian's arms wrapped around me, pulling me into him, and tugging my sweater over my body. We sunk down to the floor, his body enveloping mine as I curled into his chest.
"Be mine, my beautiful little sunflower."
My heart leapt with joy. He only called me that once before and even then, he thought I was asleep.
"I always was, cuore mio." As soon as the words left my mouth, I pressed my lips onto his, sealing the deal for good. "Now can I take your clothes off?"
He leaned back from me, kissing my cheeks. "Nope."
"So you won't have sex with me but you can...?" I gestured to my skirt.
"I can...?"
My cheeks heated. "You know."
"Say it—eat pussy."
I stared at him, scandalized. "No."
His lips turned into a devilish smirk. "Have dinner with me." He kissed every single one of my fingertips. "Let me be old school with you. I've dreamed about this for so long. Let me do things right this time."
My heart pounded violently in my chest.
"It'll be a surprise."
"I love surprises," I grinned, blowing my hair out of my face.
"I know you do." He rubbed his nose against mine, tucking my hair behind my ear. "I'll bring flowers, pick you up, we'll go to dinner, get ice cream, and then I'll drop you home and maybe if I'm really lucky, you'll let me kiss you good night."
"That sounds lovely," I sighed.
He chuckled. "Such a small town girl at heart."
We made out on the floor of my studio until my lips were chapped and swollen, at which point, he moved down to my neck, nibbling and sucking and making me squeal. Christian didn't try to take anything further, brandishing me with a tiny bite every time I tried to take his clothes off, but he did groan when I reached between his legs.
"Oh God, Christian," I practically choked. Did he get bigger?
He was amused. "I'll take that as a compliment."
Smiling innocently, I rubbed my hand along the length of his erection.
"Fuck, don't do that. I only have so much self-control and it seems to deteriorate severely around you."
"This was your rule," I purred.
"Yes, it was." He smacked a kiss on my lips. "And I'm sticking to it even if it's truly the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Let's go."
He pulled me gently onto my feet and wrapped his arms around my waist.
"You are something special, Robyn Hale."
"You are mine, Christian Ryder."
"As long as you'll have me."
Forever, I wanted to say but held back. I wasn't sure if he knew that I never fell out of love with him and scaring him away by telling him now didn't seem like the best start. Everything I had ever wanted landed so perfectly in my lap, entirely too good to be true.
There was so much that should have scared me off. The fact that he lived in the clouds and I lived on the ground. The fact that it probably wouldn't help him to be tied to the daughter of a mob boss. The fact that all those years ago, he left me behind, his childhood best friend and came back a completely different person I hardly recognized. The fact that our families were so intertwined that if this ended badly, it would cause irrevocable damage for not just the two of us but for everyone else. The fact that he had absolutely no idea how to be a boyfriend, a man in a committed relationship. The fact that I wasn't sure if I would ever fall in love with anyone else ever again in my life and getting into this relationship could essentially be like signing my death warrant.
But the thing was, I couldn't find it in me to care.
Christian James Ryder was willing to try.
And if that didn't make me the luckiest girl in the world, nothing ever would.
"I can't believe I'm not wearing underwear right now." I rolled my eyes.
"Fuck, don't say shit like that," he growled, rubbing a hand over his jaw.
"It's your fault, cuore mio," I chuckled.
We walked through my gallery hand in hand in the dark and I showed him every single one of my paintings on the two floors below me, careful to keep him away from one in particular. The piece for the auction. It wasn't that I didn't want to show him, but there was a time and a place for everything.
When his eyes came across the painting he'd commissioned for me hung up at the very forefront of my gallery, fondness entered his eyes. "You went back and got it."
"Of course I did," I whispered. "It feels very crass to say this since it is a painting of me, but it's so beautiful. How could I not?"
His throat worked. "It evokes very odd things inside me."
"Odd?"
He nodded. "Because while it reminds me of all the happy memories we had when we were kids, it also reminds me of all the time that's passed. All the time we've lost. And all the time we'll never get back."
Tears pricked in my eyes. "Then we'll make new memories, Christian."
A soft smile crossed his face. "Yeah?"
I nodded. "We'll make tons of new ones. The old ones will never really leave us." I placed a flat palm on his heart. "They'll always be here. But we have so much time to make new ones. I can promise that, cuore mio."
"You're still not going to tell me what that means?"
I shook my head. "You haven't looked it up, have you?"
"No," he grumbled. "I promised this beautiful girl once that I never would."
"She seems like a menace."
"She's an angel," he replied dryly.
Wrapping his arms around my waist from behind, he kissed my neck, and I threw my head back into his chest.
"What would you do if I bought each and every single one of these right now?" He asked. "They're so beautiful."
"Probably be mad at you for putting me out of business."
A low chuckle passed through him. "I've heard make-up sex is really great."
"I wouldn't know."
"Good things come to those who wait, my little sunflower."
They really did.