C10 Long time coming

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Ryan asked Beth.

"I've hit the jackpot, babe" she beamed

"How?"

"Do you happen to know Gabe Konstantinou, CEO of Konstantinou Cooperation?"

"Ofcourse I know him. Who doesn't?"

"He asked me to marry him" Beth gushed.

Ryan looked at her like she was crazy.

"Girl, be serious" he said

Beth jerked up from the bed. "So here's what happened..."

She explained every single thing that happened this morning, from the point Gabe entered her house to the point he left.

She watched Ryan's eyes widen in shock, then narrow in acceptance.

"I only feel a little guilty because I'm taking what's meant for Nina. But then I know I deserve it!"

"You sure do girl!" He said. "This is such great news, it calls for celebration"

"And I know exactly how I want to celebrate"

He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her roughly against his body and kissing her until she was groaning into his mouth and every single part of her was flush with need and heat.

“What took you so long?” he demanded, pulling away from her just long enough to ask the question, before her hands reached for his shirt and ripped it out of his pants, needing, after a whole day apart, to touch his skin with hers.

“I know,” she agreed, without explaining. And she didn’t need to explain, anyway.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, kissing her now, pressing the words into her mouth. “We’re here.”

“Yes, we’re here.”

And then his hands were pushing at her clothes with the same desperate need as hers, stripping her naked, piece by piece, just as she was doing to him, a frantic urgency underscoring every single part of their movements. Finally, naked, he lifted her up so Beth could wrap her legs around his waist and he carried her effortlessly to the bed, placing her down with a reverence that was at odds with the way he proceeded to master her body, his weight heavy on hers, his touch demanding and commanding, effortlessly driving her to the edge of sanity and reason, teasing her, his hands touching every inch of her even when that same touch was setting her alight.

His mouth crashed down on hers, and his tongue lashed her sensitive flesh, her mouth first and then lower, taking her nipples in his mouth, one by one, flicking her with his tongue, sucking some more, so she knew that in the morning her skin would be marked. Just the thought of that made her heart soar.

He drew his mouth lower, to her sex, and just as he had that first night in the forest, and every night since, he used his incredible skills to bring her to the brink of orgasm. Only this time, rather than driving her over it, he held her poised on the edge of that precipice, with her pulse raging and her needs firing like darts through her bloodstream, so she cried his name again and again, the air heavy with the sound of need.

“Please,” she begged, pushing up onto her elbows and staring at him, wildness in her features.

His eyes were darkly determined, glittering when they clashed to hers.

“This has been a long time coming,” he said darkly, reaching past her to the condoms he’d placed on the bedside table. Her heart lurched with desperate need.

“Too long,” she agreed, reaching for his length and stroking it with her fingertips. She was rewarded with his shuddering release of breath. Then, he was spreading the contraceptive down and nudging her sex with his tip.

“Ryan —,”

He held himself above her, staring down into her eyes, and her heart skipped a beat, and then another.

“Don’t hold back,” she said, simply. “You have no idea how much I want this.”

“You want to make a bet?”

He kissed her then, still pressed against her sex, so she spread her legs wider and lifted her hips, trying to draw him in. Ryan though was teasing her even now, making her wait when it was the last thing she wanted.

“Please,” she begged again, the word almost manic.

He cupped her face and held her still. “I’m scared of how much I want you.” She was surprised because Ryan seemed like a man who would fear nothing. “I’m scared of how much I want to own you, to make you mine, to mark you as mine.” He ran his finger lower to her nipple and squeezed. “I have never felt that before. It’s primal and I don’t recognize this part of myself.”

Her lips parted on a wave of surprise, and something else. Something explosively exciting, because it was all so different for her, too, and she was glad she wasn’t alone there.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he said, simply. “You must tell me if?—,”