me like you do, Reese. Not then…” He moved his fingers up her back, skimming the tips to her arms, sliding them over her shoulders and against her neck. “Not now.”
“You…you never…everything between us…you said there was no…”
He silenced her with his hands against her face, holding her close as he closed his eyes, forehead against hers, wanting to smell that sweet scent of her hair, wanting to bring back the closeness he once had with her.
“There was only ever you, baby. You and me and those still nights. You and me and the feel of your body against mine. You and me and the forever that got paused because I was hurt and scared and desperate not to feel that kind of pain again.” He kissed her forehead, moving his nose against hers. “I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?”
Reese held onto his wrist, grip tight, fingers trembling. “I forgave you forever ago.”
Ryder didn’t wait for permission. He didn’t wait for her to invite him for a kiss. Reese had been his a long time ago. She’d been his breath and life.
He wanted to take it all back, have it back the way it had been before.
Reese’s touch went still and steady as Ryder lowered his mouth over hers, his patience a weak thing that could not be held. He took her lips in a tentative touch that grew harder, became deeper, as she got louder.
She tasted like that bourbon and the rush of heat that filled their bodies. She was his again with just one kiss.
“Ryder,” she panted, pulling him close, fingers curled into the waist of his pants. There was a question in the sound of his name from her lips, one he answered with his lips over her skin, his tongue and teeth moving over the surface of her neck, and down to the hollow of her throat.
“God, Reesie…I’ve missed this,” he said, tugging her tank lower, teasing the curve of her breast, his thumb across her nipple, glancing at her face when that small movement made her shake and writhe against him. “You like that?” Another swipe of his thumb and her moan deepened. A second swipe, this time with a pinch of his forefinger, and Reese curled her fingers into his hair, grip tight as she pushed him close to her breast.
Ryder obeyed, coming to his knees, tugging the tank over her head, pushing down the sports bra she wore to get at both breasts, cupping them, nibbling the nipples, sucking both in his mouth as he held her close.
“Harder,” she said, both hands now in his hair. “God, you make me want…ah…”
“What do you want?” he asked her, attention still on her breast as he grabbed the drawstring cord in her sleep pants, tugging away the green knot that kept them over her hips.
“Ah…I…” The noises she made were deep and desperate, and Ryder wanted to see how many she made, but he could tell by the flush of her skin and the way she squirmed against his touch that she needed more. So much more, and he wanted to give her more.
“This?” he asked, lowering her pants, the wool fabric scratchy against his palm as he moved them down. Ryder kissed one hipbone, inhaling the smell of her skin, as he licked across her navel, to the mound of hair and silk that covered her pussy from him. “Or this?” Nose against the silk, Reese leaned back on one elbow, going easily as Ryder tugged down her thong.
“I know,” he teased, moaning himself as he looked at all that perfect, pink skin, glistening and wet, pulsing and hot. He wanted to taste all of her. “This…” he finally said, licking twice against her lips, teasing her clit with the tip of his tongue, pushing her apart and opening her wide.
“Oh, coño…yes!” Reese was sprawled before him, legs apart, skin on display as Ryder ate her, her wetness coating all over his mouth, and when he slipped two fingers inside her and she clamped around him, Ryder decided he could postpone foreplay just to see her screaming and panting his name as she climaxed.
“I’m gonna make you come now,” he told her, determined to do the job right and get it done quickly. His body was lit with fire, his cock a raging, aching thing that needed Reese’s tight, hot pussy milking him.
“Please,” she cried, sliding further up the island when Ryder lifted her legs, holding her further apart with one hand.