Ryder winced in the instant before his lips crashed onto hers. His hands gripped her waist desperately, and she got it. Emotion was burning her up, too. This kiss banished thoughts of Blake, and she hoped with her whole heart it banished thoughts of Ryder’s asshole biological father, too. She didn’t know what his father had done to the man she loved, but she hated his real dad for putting darkness inside a creature of the light. Ryder was a man who could make a person feel incredible with a joke or a smile, but the man who was supposed to love him the most had hurt him as a kid. He’d hurt him so badly Ryder still wrestled with the demons conjured by that rejection.
She wanted to make him feel better, and to make herself feel better, too, so she eased out of their kiss just enough to pull her tank top over her head. Without a moment of hesitation, Ryder pulled his shirt off and unsnapped her bra with a competent snap of his fingers. He yanked the loose bra from her arms. She thought he would stare, drink her in, but he did something better. Ryder pulled her immediately against his chest and exhaled a shaky breath. He rocked them, as if the feeling of her bare skin against his was a feeling he’d waited for his whole life.
He was shattering her heart with his tenderness. She’d imagined intimacy with the dirty-mouthed, sexually-charged Air Ryder would be quick and hard, but he was lips melding onto hers, soft strokes against her skin, racing heartbeats, and a soft sound in his throat that was nothing shy of content.
This felt huge—like her first time.
She rolled her hips against his, and he cupped the back of her head, fingers intertwined in her long hair as he pressed his tongue past her lips and tasted her gently. His other arm was strong and steady on her back, drawing her close, keeping her sensitive breasts pressed against his rock hard chest.
God, she loved this. Loved being this close to him. His hard erection was pressed just right against the seam of her jeans, and as he rolled his hips for the first time, she gasped at how perfect the friction was between her legs. Heat pulsed into her chest, and she let off a tiny pained sound at the shock of it. Ryder flinched away, as though he’d felt it, too, and suddenly, the wind picked up, lifting her tresses from her shoulders. He stared at her as if he was really seeing her for the first time.
A baffled smile stretched his lips. In a barely audible whisper, he said, “You felt that…right?”
Lexi pressed her hand over her chest to see if her skin was hotter there. “Yeah,” she murmured.
And now Ryder’s mouth was on her neck as he squeezed her. He sucked hard, drawing a sharp gasp from her lips at the erotic combination of pain and pleasure. His teeth grazed her, and she rocked onto him helplessly. Fingers fumbling, she unsnapped his jeans and made a pathetic attempt to shove his pants down his hips. Ryder chuckled against her throat and helped her out by unsheathing himself. He pushed his jeans down his legs until they were in the grass beside the blanket. “Your turn,” he murmured, then sucked hard again.
“You’re going to give me hickeys,” she accused as she stood and unbuttoned her jean shorts.
“Mmm,” he grunted, swatting away her hands. “Owls don’t do claiming marks. Don’t mean I want to leave you completely unmarked, though.” He slid her shorts down her legs slowly. She’d already taken off her shoes when they’d laid out the blanket, so there was nothing to trip him up from removing them completely and tossing them with his on the forest floor.
“Mmm hmm, yep,” she murmured as she stared down at his huge dick, jutting out like a damn tree branch between his legs. The head of his cock was swollen and capped by a drop of moisture. “Mark me. Yep. Hickey,” she said, trying to convince him she’d been listening, but whoa fuck, she couldn’t remember how to use her words.
Ryder’s eyes were gold and stunning as the sunlight hit them just right. They raked down her body, hitting all the hot spots as a feral smile took his face. She’d never seen a man look this hungry in her life, and he was giving that look to her. Normally, she would’ve been embarrassed about being laid bare and vulnerable in front of a man like this, but it was impossible not to feel like a complete goddess when Ryder was looking at her like this.
She moved to straddle his hips and get this show on the road, but he stopped her with an iron grip on her waist, and before she knew what was happening, he buried his face between her legs and ran his tongue up her wet slit.
Her legs went—just boom—knees gave out, but Ryder was holding her in place, supporting her completely now as he sucked gently on her clit.
God, this should be mortifying. She was out in the woods, in broad daylight, and when she looked down, both of her nipples were drawn up to tight little buds, and Ryder’s red hair was shining gold between her legs. But it was pretty damn hard to focus on how embarrassed she should be when he was laving his tongue against her and easing her toward release with every gentle suck on her sensitive nub.
Legs shaking, Lexi let off a helpless noise as the pressure built in her middle. Running her hands through his hair, she closed her eyes against the saturated sunlight and relaxed into his affection. Three more licks, and she was desperate for his tongue to be inside of her because orgasm was coming in hard and fast.
“Ryder,” she pleaded.
She swore she could feel him smile against her, the tease. She gripped his hair harder, pulled him closer, couldn’t help herself because she was gone now. And right before she lost it completely, Ryder adjusted his angle and plunged his tongue deep into her. The first pulse of ecstasy exploded around his tongue, but he wasn’t done. As she threw her head back and cried out, Ryder stroked into her over and over, drawing out every single aftershock until her legs were numb and she was a jumble of incoherent thoughts.