Wild Embrace (Wilder Irish #11) - Mari Carr Page 0,22
nearly enough and only reminded her exactly what kind of kisses the man was capable of.
“Wait,” she whispered when he started to draw away.
Ryder stopped, close enough that she could still feel the heat of his breath on her face, smell the vodka he’d drunk.
“One more real kiss? Please?” She tilted her face up to his, thrilled when he lowered his head and closed the distance. This kiss wasn’t as rough or hungry as the ones they’d shared in the elevator. It was softer, sweeter, a little bit sadder, but it still packed a punch.
Ryder pulled away first, pressing his forehead to hers in a gesture that was surprisingly charming. Until he spoke.
“That won’t happen again.”
His words were firm and spoken with enough conviction that she knew he meant it.
Poor guy.
“Good night, Darcy.”
“Good night.”
“I’ll see you at work on Monday.”
She nodded, and once again, Ryder had taken an innocuous statement and provoked two opposing feelings. Monday felt like years away and yet, at the same time, it would be here too damn soon. She needed time to figure out her next move.
He waited until she’d walked inside and locked the door, then she stood in the shadows of the darkened pub and watched as he climbed back in the car.
She sighed heavily as she headed upstairs to the Collins Dorm, the name her mother had given the upstairs apartment she shared with Colm, Gavin, and Oliver.
Sunnie was the only person in the living room, gathering up cups and trash.
“Party over?”
“Yeah. Everyone went home or passed out. Can’t guarantee your bed is empty. We all got pretty shit-faced. Hey, where the hell have you been?” her sister asked.
“Power outage. I got stuck in the elevator at work.”
Sunnie stopped in mid-clean-up. “Oh my God. Are you okay?”
Darcy nodded. “Yeah. I’m good.”
She’d stepped off that elevator determined to go after what she wanted. Ryder was clearly still devastated by Denise—not just her death but her betrayal as well. And while it had been four years, it didn’t look like he had made any strides toward moving on. Instead, he’d buried his head in the sand—or in his case, in work and his sons.
Ryder wasn’t going to make it back alone. He needed a shove. And she was just the woman to do it.
“Ryder was with me.”
Sunnie’s eyes lit up. Her sister suspected her feelings for Ryder, even though Darcy had never come right out and confessed. “Do tell.”
Darcy dropped down on the couch. “Oh, Sunnie. He kissed me.”
“Whoa.” Sunnie put down the empty beer cans she was carrying and joined her on the couch. “And?”
“It was…” Darcy twisted on the couch to face her sister, and she was reminded of the million times previous to this when she and Sunnie would be the only two awake at home. Darcy, three years younger, had always idolized her fun-loving, crazy sister growing up, so she would wait up for Sunnie to get home from her dates, and the two of them would spend the next hour or two dissecting everything that had happened.
“It was…” Sunnie prodded.
“It was fucking amazing.”
“It had to be. Ryder’s all brooding and mysterious. You just know that guy is alpha from the word go. Believe me, if he hasn’t tied a woman up and spanked her ass, he’s thought about it a time or twenty. So, what happened after? What did he say?”
“He told me to take off my shirt and bra.”
“Shut. Up. He did not!”
Darcy laughed. “Sunnie, I swear to God, I’ve never been so turned on in my life.”
“Did you take them off?”
Darcy tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Are you serious? Of course I did. I wasn’t born yesterday.”
“Then what did he do?”
“I swear it was just like one of those super-sexy movies where the guy can’t keep his hands off the girl. He pushed me down to my back and he came over me, kissing me the whole time and—”
“Darcy! Are you still a virgin?”
Darcy grimaced, sighing heavily. “Dammit. Yes. He figured out I didn’t have much—any—experience, and he stopped. Said he wasn’t going to take me on the floor of an elevator.”
“That’s sweet. Chivalrous, even.”
“Yeah. Lucky me,” she replied sarcastically.
“So that was it? Just some hot-and-heavy topless petting?”
Darcy lifted one shoulder, but the casual gesture only piqued her sister’s curiosity.
“At what point did he stop?”
Darcy blushed, her grin huge when she said, “He went down on me, and I came so hard, I thought I was going to shatter into a million pieces.”
Sunnie—who was never