“So I’ve heard,” she replied with a sassy lift of one eyebrow.
He had to lower his mouth to one breast and then the other again before asking, “What else did you hear?” When she didn’t answer right away, he licked at her again. “Come on, I’m dying to know.”
“I can’t think when you do that.”
His grin grew wider. “Good.” Shifting over her on the couch, he sat back so that he could reach the zippers that started just above her knees and ran up the outer length of each thigh. “God, this is hot,” he said as he slid the first slowly open, baring inch after inch of her gorgeous thighs.
He could feel her trembling slightly beneath his hand, but it was clearly from arousal, not fear, so he relished it, let the edges of his fingernails scrape softly across the top of her thigh so that she actually shuddered in his hands.
How could he have done anything else but lick his way up the leg he’d just uncovered? Open on one side now, the fabric of her dress was barely covering her sex and he was a beat away from lifting it and pressing his mouth to her heat. Somehow, he managed to pull back to undo the zipper on the other side. He wasn’t able to go as slow this time, could barely handle the thought that Vicki was almost naked on his couch.
With a quick yank, he grabbed the dress and slid it completely off her. When Vicki instinctively moved to cover herself, he caught her hands in his and held them over her head.
“You were completely naked under this thing.” He was breathing so hard he could barely get the words out.
He was holding her hands up high enough on the couch that she had to arch a little, and in one quick move he reversed the position of their legs so that his were inside of hers and she was open to him, everywhere, all at once.
Ryan had never before seen anyone as beautiful as Vicki.
Not even close.
He knew he was staring at her like he was a teenage boy seeing his first naked girl, but in a way that’s what it felt like. All the other women he’d been with fell away—the models, the movie stars, the baseball groupies—all reduced to utter insignificance.
“You should always be naked. You’re perfect. Beyond perfect.”
Her laughter caught him off guard. “You really do always know what to say to the girls, don’t you?”
He loved it when she laughed, but not when it was at her own expense. Or his. “Are you calling me a liar?”
She gave him a look that few people ever had outside of his own family. The one that said she had no problem calling him on his crap.
“We both know I’m not perfect. Not even close.” She quickly added, “And I’m okay with it, with who I am. I thought you of all people should know you don’t have to say things that aren’t tr—”
He closed his mouth over hers before she could say anything else to piss him off, but even lost in the heat of her, he couldn’t forget the way she’d doubted what he’d said. What he believed.
What was true, damn it.
He’d show her just how perfect she was...one caress, one kiss at a time.
And he’d keep at it until she believed.
Chapter Eighteen
“Leave your hands above your head.”
Vicki’s eyes widened at Ryan’s command, but he didn’t stop to soothe her surprise or laugh like he was joking. Instead, he wrapped her fingers around the arm of the couch.
“This will help if you need something to hold on to.”
A second later, his mouth was back on hers for one more kiss before he began to run kisses over her face, her eyelids, her earlobes slipping between his teeth for a split second before he drew a small moan of pleasure from her at the flick of his tongue against her neck.
Even as she relished every single second of his attention, every one of his kisses, Vicki couldn’t believe it.
Not any of it.
Was she really naked beneath Ryan Sullivan? Was he really kissing her this passionately? Had she already climaxed, fully clothed, on his couch, with another orgasm hard on the heels of the first if he kept kissing her like this?
And had he figured out the truth about her...that the slightest restraint and the gentle command spoke to all of her hidden desires?