virgin, but I’d never slept with a man like Ryker. He was intimidating and I was positive he’d been with more attractive, more experienced women than me. Would he be disappointed? And why did I care if he was?
I hadn’t wanted to sleep with Ryker last night, but tonight I felt way different. Between the baseball game, him being there for me when Hanna was murdered, to taking me someplace fun today, he’d done more for me in three days than Parker had in the past year.
Maybe this relationship with Ryker wasn’t going to be long-term, but I liked him. A lot. And he liked me, too. I believed he wanted me, not just sex, and that made a world of difference. But was it still too soon? I wanted it to be about us, not about me still hurting because of Parker’s rejection. Should I wait? I didn’t want to wait, but maybe it’d be for the best…
I’d worked myself up into quite a state, arguing with myself and changing my mind a dozen times, so that by the time we reached his truck my beer buzz had evaporated. Ryker reached around me to open the passenger door. I could feel the brush of his body against mine, then his hands on my waist, helping me into the cab. I settled into the seat; then he surprised me by leaning in and laying a kiss on me.
It wasn’t the same slow exploration it had been earlier. This was harder, his lips moving over mine with purpose, the stroke of his tongue demanding and urgent. I lost my train of thought, the pros and cons of temptation versus guilt, the taste and feel of him overtaking everything else.
I don’t know how much time passed before he eased back, leaving me longing for more. His mouth trailed along my jaw.
“Don’t be nervous,” he whispered against my skin.
The fact that he could tell how I was feeling should have set off alarm bells. Instead, all I could think was that if he was this attuned to me before we had sex, how much better would he be during? Maybe sleeping with Ryker wouldn’t be about Parker at all, but instead all about us.
He shrugged out of his shirt, leaving him in just a white tank—the holster still holding his gun at his side—climbed in the cab, and fired up the engine. I watched him unabashedly as he drove back to his house. His sunglasses were hooked on his shirt and with one hand he pulled me toward him. I slid across the seat, forgoing the seat belt (I’m such a rebel). His hand settled on my leg, his fingers sliding between my bare thighs.
The anticipation of what was to come was giving me a whole different kind of buzz now. Here was this incredibly good-looking man, a cop no less, who appeared very attracted to me and wanted to have sex with me as soon as possible.
My fingers were practically itching to touch him, and I didn’t think he’d mind, so I slid a hand underneath his tank as he drove. The warm skin of his abdomen met my fingers, the muscles there hard and lean. He sucked in his breath at my touch, which encouraged me. Stretching up, I fastened my lips to his neck and lightly sucked.
His skin tasted slightly salty and smelled like cologne mixed with the outdoors—pure man. My hand crept farther up his chest underneath his shirt as I licked and sucked his neck up to his jaw. The hand on my leg tightened and I noticed his arm wasn’t lying casually on top of the steering wheel anymore. Instead, it was gripping it tightly.
The ride back to his house was quick, though I thought he might have been speeding, and then he had me out of the truck and inside fast enough to make my head spin. One word barked at McClane and the dog disappeared into another room. Then Ryker had me pinned to the wall, his mouth on mine and his hands tugging my T-shirt free from my shorts.
I was just as frantically trying to get his shirt over his head. He pulled away enough for both of us to accomplish that goal; then his arms were around me and his skin against mine. In the next moment, he’d lifted me and was carrying me to his bedroom.
His chest was warm and smooth. There was a fine sprinkling of hair across it and his