Page 41 of Claimed Gem

She couldn’t live like this any longer, and she’d resolved to leave Ries, no matter how much he tried to fight her on it.

He headed down the hallway and entered his bedroom. She followed him, walking in just as he was shutting the bathroom door and she called out to him, “Ries, can we talk?”

He opened the bathroom door and met her eyes warily, “What is it?”

“I can’t keep doing this,” she told him, wishing there wasn’t so much distance between them. They’d been so good together, if only they could get back to that place…

“I know this has been hard on you,” Ries’ eyes were as hard as ever. “But I just want to see you safe,” he hesitated, then opened the door and took a step toward her. When he was close enough to touch her, he gently brushed her hair off her cheek and searching her eyes, he drew her against his chest.

Stephanie let herself be held, slowly relaxing her muscles as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. She closed her eyes. She’d missed this part of their relationship and had yearned to get back there somehow.

But what if it was all an act?

Ries ran his hands up and down her back, his thumbs finding the pressure points that were tight in her shoulders and slowly working them free. “You’re really tense. Lie down and let me rub your back.”

Stephanie pulled back and gave him a curious look. “You want to rub my back?”

“I’ve been told I give a mean massage,” he told her, and Stephanie tried not to let jealousy ruin this moment by wondering who had told him that.

She turned toward the bed, but before she could lie down, Ries stopped her and quickly pulled her t-shirt up and over her head. She was still processing that when he unhooked her bra and then pushed her onto the comforter.

Stephanie did so, keeping her bra in place until she was lying down, and then slipped the straps over her shoulders and let Ries take it from her fingers. Her shorts had a drawstring in the front, and Ries reached beneath her, untied them, and skimmed them off her legs, leaving her clad in nothing but the skimpy thong underwear she’d donned that morning.

He skimmed his hands up the back of her leg and asked, “Are you cold?”

She shook her head, turning and watching him as he reached into the bedside table and retrieved a bottle of oil. He poured some into his hands and then rubbed them together before placing both palms in the middle of her back. He used just the right amount of pressure to have her moaning in delight as the tension fled and her muscles turned into jelly.

He paid attention to every inch of her back, her legs, her feet, even her butt. When hemurmured for her to turn over so that he could do her front, Stephanie was so relaxed that she did so without a care for her nakedness. At some point during his massage of her butt, her thong had disappeared, but Stephanie couldn’t have told you when.

“Close your eyes,” he whispered as he put a kiss on each eyelid to make sure she complied. “Keep them closed and just feel.”

Stephanie did so. Her senses heightened and her skin felt like a live wire had been attached to it as he used his palms and fingernails.

He rubbed her shoulders, her collar bones, and then each arm in turn, paying special attention to her palms. He then moved to her feet and worked his way back up, avoiding her erogenous zones and driving her crazy with need for him to put his hands on her breasts or between her legs.

She could feel him next to her thigh, but each time she squirmed or opened her eyes, he simply removed his hands and waited for her to hold still and close them once more. Then he continued his massage, almost chastely – driving her into a deeper state of arousal.

Stephanie was going out of her mind and when he finally placed both palms over her breasts, she could only arch up into his touch and clasp his hands to keep them in place, should he think to remove them again.

“Ries,” she whimpered. She opened her eyes, bowled over by the look of lust burning in his eyes. “I need you.”

“And you shall have me,” he told her. He bent his lips to her skin then, mapping each and every erogenous zone, some she didn’t even know she had. When he reached the apex of her thighs and moved them apart to make room for his hands, she closed her eyes and gave herself over to the beautiful feelings he was creating.

“Stephanie, open your eyes. I want to see you when you fall apart for me.”

She complied with his request, watching him as he pleasured her, her breathing coming between her lips as she raced toward the pleasure that was just…out of …reach.

“Let go. I’ve got you,” he whispered, changing the angle of his fingers and touching that spot that was guaranteed to send her over.

She groaned his name as her orgasm rocked through her, barely able to register when he made room for himself between her thighs and quickly slipped a condom on.

She’d been impressed from the beginning that Ries had never forgotten to protect her in this way, and now she raised her knees, locking her ankles behind his back as he slowly slid into her until he was fully seated in her warmth.

He began to move, linking their hands together and raising them above her head as his hips shuttled his cock deep inside of her. She tried to move her hands down, but he only pressed them against the pillow and changed the angle of his thrusts, quickly pushing her back toward another orgasm.

Stephanie couldn’t deny the pleasure they gave one another. She arched against him, goingover once more while he continued his slow and easy movements inside of her.

Once her shaking subsided, he released her hands, grabbed her thighs and pulled them up higher on his hips and then leaned forward, warning her, “Hang on tight.”