Page 23

23

NICKY

R onan doesn’t hesitate to give me what I want. His big hands capture my cheeks and his warm lips slide over mine. I cling to the front of his T-shirt as he walks me backward.

He tips me over the edge of the bed. I hit the mattress, eagerly pulling him down on top of me. He braces himself on his strong arms, careful not to crush me under his weight.

“Peach. You’re fucking beautiful. It blows my mind. You blow my mind.”

I feel my heart swelling from all the emotions rushing through it. I’m not supposed to feel this weak. “Goddammit. You sure know how to knock down a girl’s defenses, Hockey Guy.”

He pushes his hips into mine. Just enough to drown me in the heat and cinnamon-y musk of his body. Just enough to let me know how hard he is for me.

“I’m not the bad guy here.” He traces a finger over my lips. “You’re turning me into a man I don’t even recognize.”

Ronan leans down and kisses me some more. I wrap my arms around him, returning each lick of his tongue with a passion I haven’t felt before.

Unsealing our lips, I drag my palms down the broad expanse of his back. “You know this can’t go anywhere, right?”

Just saying the words out loud makes my soul ache. I’m so attracted to him. I really freaking am. But we don’t fit. We’re not compatible. We can’t afford to delude ourselves.

“I know that,” he says, and although I agree, hearing him confirm it deflates something inside me. “I’d probably get into even more shit with the team if they found out about this.”

I nod, reaching up to rake my fingers through his hair. “And it would probably wreck my reputation. No one at the office would take me seriously if they found out you and I fooled around.”

He drops his lips to my collar, gently kissing a path along the bone. “Plus, all this is temporary,” he says into my neck. “Once the Saints’ season is over, we won’t even see each other anymore.”

I press my eyes shut against that reality. “Right.”

“So let’s just enjoy this. Right now. Let me make you come, Nicky. We don’t have to think about what happens next.”

My head bobs slightly. “Yeah. Let’s not think about what happens next.”

Kissing me again, he explores my mouth with the probing force of his tongue. His lips are warm and sweet like chocolate almonds. I melt deeper into this moment with each feverish swipe of his tongue.

Still bracing himself above me, one of his hands finds my breast. His palm kneads and caresses my globe through my blouse.

I want these clothes gone.

“Get me naked. Touch me,” I command him, my mouth pressed to his.

If this night together is nothing but a stolen moment, we might as well make the most of it.

He pulls his lips away from mine. “So you think you’re going to boss me around?” he says with an ironic chuckle, his lips barely grazing mine.

I’d like to believe that I’m bossing him around. The truth is, I’m begging. Shamelessly begging. I just want more of his skin on more of my skin.

“I’m giving directions. Like a tour guide. Think of it like that.”

His fingertips steal under the hem of my blouse, tracing up my ribs and making me shiver. Skin on skin. Yeah. More of that .

“I don’t want a fucking tour guide.” His fingers slip beneath one cup of my bra and his palm covers my tingling globe. “Let me get lost. I wanna get fucking lost in you, Nicky.”

The way he’s touching me with those big, strong hands makes my spine arch off the bed. How can his touch be so tender yet so powerful at the same time? It feels so ridiculously good.

“Your skin is so soft,” he whispers, a note of awe in his voice.

He absolutely takes his time, undoing every button of my blouse, kissing along the outline of my bra, slowly unfastening the clasp and slipping the straps down my arms.

“Fucking hell…” he mutters when my tits are exposed to him.

He cradles them in his hands, pushing them together and burying his face in the valley. His short stubble bruises my skin as he licks and kisses me there. His warm breaths make me tingle.

“Ronan…” I whisper, my legs locking around his lower back.

“Fuck, Peach. You’re perfect. Just like I knew you’d be.”

He proceeds to worship my tits. He kisses along the slope of each breast. Then he circles one tight nipple with his tongue while tweaking the other with his fingertips. When he’s good and satisfied, he switches sides. So patient. So unhurried.

Ronan is nothing like I’d expected him to be. I’d expected the testosterone-fueled hockey god to be aggressive and rushed in bed. But right now, he’s surpassing my every expectation.

I’m going crazy with need, squirming and whining beneath him as my panties soak through. I feel like I’ve wanted this for so long. Denied myself of this for so long. Now, I want it all. I can’t hold back any longer.

“Get me naked, Ronan,” I mutter, wrestling with my skirt. “I want to be naked.”

Ronan chuckles. “Slow down, greedy girl.” He brushes a kiss beneath my navel and my stomach contracts. “I want to savor you. I want to take all night to explore you. I don’t want to rush.” Reaching behind him, he rips his T-shirt over his head and flings it off into the weeds somewhere.

And now, Ronan Brighton is shirtless. Shirtless and immaculate and shirtless.

My tongue darts out, wanting to taste every toned, tanned, tattooed inch of his upper body. From his Adam’s apple, bobbing thick in his throat. To his tan shoulders, all corded in a network of bulging muscle. To the planes and ridges of his tight abdomen. I’ve never seen a more beautiful male specimen.

He’s way more patient than I am. I want him all over me. Right now. “God—you’re going to torture me, aren’t you?”

“If you’re not a good girl for me, you bet I will.” With a wicked half-grin, he drops to his knees, positioned between my spread thighs. His confident hands push up the hem of my skirt, causing all of the material to gather around my waist.

“Don’t be an asshole about this…” I warn, when he trails a solitary finger along the lace trim of my nude-colored panties.

“Only as much as absolutely necessary.” He dips his face between my thighs in a way that makes me believe that he’s only trying to conceal his big grin.

“What the hell does that mea— ohhhh !” My tune changes the moment his tongue swipes up the edge of my undies.

Ignoring my half-asked question, Ronan spreads my thighs further. “So pretty—you in those wet panties, all opened up for me…” He slips a finger under the fabric, pulling it away from my core. “And you smell so good,” he breathes out, running the tip of his nose along the seam of my groin. “And you’re so goddamned wet.”

I throw my head back, letting my eyeballs roll up to the ceiling with pleasure. Oh fuck. He is so going to torture me.

“Please…” I whimper, arching my spine and dragging my heel up the center of his back. “Please…” My voice is reedy, high-pitched, desperate. And I’m too strung out with need to hide it.

“Fuck. I love hearing you beg, Nicky. I didn’t expect this. But you sound so sweet, begging for me. Keep begging for me like a good girl.”

My fingers tangle in his hair and I pull. “Please, Ronan,” I whisper again and again. “Stop teasing me. You know what I want. Give it to me.”

For once in my life, I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to give sass. I want to be as agreeable as possible.

Maybe if I give Ronan what he wants, he’ll give me what I need.

“What do you want?” he asks me, a devious tone in his voice. “Tell me. I want you to say it.”

“Your lips and your fingers and your tongue. Between my legs.”

A sharp hiss leaves his mouth. “Yes. Mmm. Fuck. I want that, too.”

He slowly pulls my underwear down my thighs, ridding me of that drenched scrap of silk. Then, I feel Ronan’s palms slip beneath my bare ass, searching for the button at the back of my skirt.

My pussy clenches hard and I can feel the gush of wetness that spills out. When I moan, Ronan takes a moment to gently knead my ass cheeks, stimulating me even more.

His chest rumbles when I’m completely bared to him. “So beautiful, Nicky. So Damn, beautiful. Warm and pink and dripping for me. Do you know how lucky I feel right now?”

The way he’s looking at me. The hunger in his eyes. Yes—I do feel beautiful right now. I feel wanted. Hell, I feel powerful. In a way I haven’t felt in a long time. Maybe ever.

Smoothing his palms up to my knees, Ronan pushes me wider apart and then finally—finally—he slides his hand into the warm, wet space between my thighs.

He starts with a single soft caress, his fingers slipping through my slickness. Then his thumb focuses on my bud.

“Oh my god,” I gasp, holding onto his hair as he makes circles on my clit.

“You like that, Peach?”

I nod. And I nod. And I nod some more as an electric storm takes form between my legs.

From where he’s kneeling, the warmth of his heavy breaths washes over my pelvis. And when he splits my folds apart with two fingers, my eyes flutter into my skull. One long digit penetrates me, sliding in and out before effortlessly curling and brushing against my G-Spot.

Hell. Fucking. Yes.

I grind against his hand as he adds another finger, moving in and out.

“I’m gonna taste you now, Nicky,” he announces, half a second before the wetness of his mouth covers my clit. He swirls his tongue around the packet of nerves before sliding his lips against my nether lips.

His guttural sound mixes with my reedy cry as he savors his first taste of me.

“Yes,” I cry out, sounding broken and desperate. “Yes, Ronan.”

“Fuck. The way you say my name, Nicky…” He’s swiping his tongue back and forth, through my center, making my hips buck against his face. “You make me feel like the most important man in town.”

In this moment, he is. Nothing else matters in this world. Nothing aside from the magic this man is working between my legs.

The swirls. The circles. The flicking back and forth. Oh god.

I’m vaguely reminded that this is forbidden. That what we’re doing could create a world of problems for us. But those thoughts melt away when his lips close around my clit and his fingers probe deep inside my hole.

“I think I’m going to…I think I’m going to come.”

My words shock me. I’m about to come? Really? So fast? So easily?

Ronan takes me off-guard when he flips me over, onto my stomach. He’s pulling my ass up in the air. And he’s burying his face at my core.

I moan and I whine and I grunt with pleasure, my sounds lost in the pillows and the blankets and the comforter. I rock my hips against his mouth, losing myself completely.

The orgasm that hits me is reckless. Intense. Out-of-control. My limbs shake and my hair stands on end and sweat pours down my skin.

Ronan doesn’t stop. He eats me until my knees can no longer hold me up. Until I’m a puddle. Facedown in the bedding, shaking and swearing and shivering at what this man just did to me.

I collapse, demolished. I find myself searching my muddled thoughts for the last time any former lover ever made me come with his mouth. Has any man ever been this patient? This thorough? This determined to give me pleasure?

My mind comes up with a blank.

I can’t remember ever being this thoroughly wrecked.

As I recover from the aftershocks, I feel the mattress dip under the weight of his body. Ronan drops onto his side and tugs me up against his chest.

“Fuck. You’re incredible, Nicky,” he mutters into my neck. “You were such a good girl, letting me eat your pussy all up like that.” He kisses a path along my shoulder blade, whispering soft words into the air. “You did so fucking well. I loved the way you rocked your ass on my face. And you tasted so fucking good.”

And all I keep thinking is, We shouldn’t have done that. We shouldn’t have done that. We shouldn’t have done that.

But now it’s too late for woulda, coulda, shoulda’s, isn’t it?