to give, her turn to feel the power of desire.
On her hands and knees, she leaned down to kiss him slow and lingeringly, rubbing her lips against his, tracing a line down his neck with her tongue. Tasting the salt tang of sweat, she licked her way down his flat belly, letting her hair trail over his skin, then sank down to the mattress by his hip, staring at his pulsing erection in fascination. Slowly, she touched a finger to the drop of clear liquid that glistened on the tip, then spread it along the sensitive underside. Cade’s body jolted and his breath hissed.
The last time she’d done this, she’d been a clumsy innocent groping in the dark with a man, a callow boy, really, who had been wishing she was someone else. This time, for just this hour, she knew Cade wanted her. After years of longing for contact, she was touching someone who desired her, feeling his response to her touch, watching his arousal leap and pulse in response to her teasing.
Heart hammering, she leaned over and ran the tip of her tongue where her fingertip had been. The sensation was incredible. He was hard yet silky soft against her lips as she rubbed them against him, running them up and down, first slowly, then faster, swirling her tongue around the rounded tip of him. She was rewarded with a strangled moan. More boldly now she grasped him with her hand and slipped him into her mouth.
Power. It surged through her as she heard him groan, as she felt his hips rock helplessly in response to her touch. To know that she could bring him to this level of intensity was intoxicating. She ran her head up and down in an intimate caress, feeling him get harder and harder against her mouth with every stroke. The skin was like silk stretched over marble.
“Ryan,” Cade said in a strangled voice.
“Hmm?” she looked up but didn’t slow her movements.
“If you keep doing that I’m going to—” he broke off and hauled her roughly up his body. Kissing her hard, he put her hand on him and stroked it once. A groan tore out of him and he surged against her, pulsing in her hand.
RYAN STRETCHED, FEELING relaxation settle over her slow and heavy. Cade pressed a long, lingering kiss on her lips. Ryan turned her head on the pillow and looked at him intently. “Thank you.”
“Thank you?” he laughed. “What for?”
“For bringing me back,” she said simply, and kissed him. “I haven’t done this in a very long time, years.” Her eyes were serious. “You probably don’t know what it’s like to be without sex that long, but you lose touch with the world. After a couple of years go by, you’re afraid to touch anyone, afraid you’ll hug a friend too hard or stare someone in the eyes too long because you’ve been so disconnected with the world that you don’t know what it’s like anymore, to be in touch with people.”
She was describing his life for the past four years, Cade thought. He’d been running hard and trying to ignore it, but he knew the feeling that she was talking about. Isolation, in a way that went deeper than being alone. He pulled her close, feeling the luxury of her naked body against his. “I can’t believe that you don’t have guys coming on to you right and left.”
Ryan blushed. “Well, I don’t usually wander around dressed like I was tonight. I don’t know, guys just don’t ask me out.” Suddenly self-conscious, she reached for the sheet.
Cade put a hand on hers. “Uh-uh.” He pulled the sheet back. “I want to look.” He ran the flat of his hand over the curve of her hip. “I think you’re amazing.”
“This is amazing.” She shook her head. “You don’t know what it’s like. It’s as though you’re living in the world but you’re only a spectator to the life that everyone else is living.” She kissed him again. “You’ve brought me back from that. I feel like I’m part of the human race again.”
“Incredible,” he murmured, rolling her over so that she lay on top of him. He ran his hands down her back, resting them on her hips. “I don’t know what those other guys you’ve known have been thinking. I’m glad to be the one you let inside.”
“Well, I didn’t let you in everywhere,” she said impishly, squirming against him. “I can think of some places you haven’t been, what with your forgetting items key to your profession.”
Cade winced at the reference, but his expression was lightly amused. “Oh yeah?”
“Well, yes. And as a professional, what do you propose to do about that? After all, the scenes for my book do have to be complete in the particulars.”
He rolled her again so that she was half underneath him. “Well, I pride myself on keeping my customers satisfied,” he said between kisses. “I suppose the fair thing would be to forgo payment until you receive the full treatment you were led to expect.” He stroked the tender skin on her breast until she shivered, then slid his hand over the soft curve of her hip to linger at the tops of her thighs. “What do you say you hold on to your payment and we meet again tomorrow night to close the deal?” His clever fingers teased her, stroking her into arousal all over again. “In the meantime, I think a demonstration of good faith is in order.”
Ryan’s yes was a moan that he stopped with his mouth.
4
RYAN BOUNCED TOWARD HER office building, dancing on air. With only three hours of sleep under her belt, she should have been exhausted, but she walked down the pavement buoyed by a bubble of euphoria. The sun was shining, the streets gleamed from the previous night’s rain. The whole world looked shiny and new, just like she felt.
She was no longer on the outside looking in. She was a part of it all. The elevator that boosted her to the tenth floor was no match for the buoyancy that had taken her over.
“’Morning, Mona,” she called to the administrative assistant assigned to their group.
The plump blonde smiled to her as she walked past. “Morning, Ryan. Barry says he wants to see the viewgraphs for the Internet meeting by the end of the day.”
Ryan rolled her eyes. “Barry always wants something.” She heard her phone ringing before she even made it into her office. Swinging inside, she picked it up with a grin, stretching to close the door behind her. “Hello Helene.”
“So what happened?” the gravelly voice demanded.
Ryan dropped into her chair and turned toward the window, stretching luxuriously. “God, Helene, it was amazing. Incredible. It was like nothing else that’s ever happened to me before.”
“Well, that’s surprising considering that he never got near you. What’d you do, chicken out?”
“I was up until four in the morning writing the lo…” Ryan stopped short. “What did you say?” she asked slowly.
“I just got a call from a very irate person at the agency wondering why their high-priced best boy spent the evening cooling his heels at the Copley. They were demanding payment in full, I might add.”
“Helene, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I met him at the Copley at eight,” Ryan protested. “We spent most of the night together.”
There was a short silence. “Oh really.”
Ryan stared at the phone. “This is the part where you say ha ha, just kidding, Helene,” she said. “Helene?”
