Page 45 of Save Me

Why is that so damn sexy? She wondered.

Once he straightened, he scooped her up in his arms and strode over to the bed. Gently, he placed her down before he stripped down to his dark boxer briefs. When he straightened and stared down at her, Ryleigh actually felt herself tremble. She’d never let herself be this…exposed before. There she was lying in the middle of his bed in nothing but a pair of panties and Ryker was staring down at her like he was ravenous and she was the feast.

She’d read romance novels where women felt themselves get all quivery and she always thought it was nonsense.

Now she knew better.

Leaning forward, Ryker placed one knee on the bed and slowly—purposely—lowered himself onto the bed, covering her body with his. They both let out a sigh of appreciation at the same time when they were touching from head to toe.

“Tell me you want this, Ryleigh,” he whispered. “Tell me you want me.”

Her arms slowly wound around him. “I want you, Ryker. So much it scares me.”

Placing a soft kiss on the tip of her nose before resting his forehead against hers, he replied, “You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of you saying those words to me.”

Shame filled her as she realized how Ryker was willing to accept her rules because he had feelings for her, and she felt horrible that she was messing with his emotions like this.

“Whatever you’re thinking, stop,” he told her, interrupting her thoughts. “Don’t think about anything else except for you and me and how good this feels.” Then he kissed her and kept on kissing her until she felt herself simply melting beneath him. It was all tongues and teeth and wet and wild and it was impossible to think of anything except the two of them and what they were doing.

And what they were doing felt fantastic and she knew she was going to want to do it again and again all night long.

* * *

“This room is amazing.”

Beside her, Ryker pulled her in close with a low chuckle. “You want to talk about home décor after what we just did?”

Curling into him, Ryleigh placed a kiss on his chest. It was somewhere around three a.m. and as much as she knew she should sleep, it seemed more important to lie in his arms and talk. “Well, we’ve been talking about what we just did the entire time we were doing it, so I figured we’d mix things up a bit.”

That made him laugh again. “There’s that sass that’s been missing all night.”

Pulling back, she looked at him. “Missing?”

“Yeah. Since the day we met, you’ve responded to most things I say to you with either snark, sass, or sarcasm. Since we started this whole fake dating thing, you’ve reeled it in a bit and I’ve missed it.”

“Aww…”

“I think that was sarcastic sympathy.”

“And I think you have a weird obsession with words that begin with the letter S.”

“What can I say? You’re sexy, sacred, sage, scintillating, sharp, spirited, sensual, stimulating…”

Unable to help herself, she laughed. Hard. “Oh my goodness! Stop!” Her hand roamed over his chest. “You’re being ridiculous!”

“Every one of those words describes you. Particularly the stimulating part.” Rolling her onto her back, he kissed her. “And sexy. Definitely the sexy.” Another kiss. “And spectacularly stunning. Especially when you’re naked and in my bed.”

“Ryker…” she panted as his hands began to wander. It didn’t seem possible to be aroused again, and yet…the more he touched her, the more she wanted his touch. One night of making love with this man and she was suddenly insatiable and addicted to sex.

And right now, that didn’t seem like such a bad thing.

His movements were slow and languid and so perfect. Ryleigh enjoyed this side of him just as much as the wild and animalistic side he’d shown earlier. There was so much she was discovering about him and all of it was appealing. She wanted to ask him what his tattoos meant. She wanted to talk about his design choices for this room.

But more than anything, she wanted to tell him to keep doing what he was doing.

In typical Ryker fashion, however, he could read her mind and did just that.

* * *

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