Phantom Waltz

  Ryan cautiously increased pressure then. When she didn’t shrink away or cry out, his heart soared and he went for the finish with hard, circular drags of his tongue over the spot. She jerked and arched her spine. She tried to hike her hips. He felt the urgency building within her, and knowing he almost had her there brought tears to his eyes.

  “Ryan?” she cried throatily, her voice laced with panic. “This is—I—oh, God, I need you to hold me.”

  He cupped her bottom in his palms, hooking his thumbs under her hipbones and lifting her up to his mouth. Against her secret place, he said, “It’s all right, honey. I’m right here. Trust me, and just let it happen.”

  “Oh, God. Ryan?”

  He resumed his assault with renewed determination. Her slender body quivered like a plucked bowstring, and then she sobbed. The next instant she cried out, her muscles jerking and going into spasms as her first orgasm rocked her. Hallelujah.

  For the first time in his life, Ryan Kendrick wept as he brought a woman to climax.

  Bethany’s bones had melted. She couldn’t move, couldn’t think, and didn’t care. She just lay there in a limp sprawl, dimly aware of Ryan rising over her.

  “You okay, honey?”

  Her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth. Her heart was still pounding. He had obliterated her thoughts. Her bones had turned to the consistency of runny pudding. And he wanted to know if she was all right? There was a possibility that she’d died of heart failure and was now in heaven.

  “Mmm” was all she could manage to say.

  He laughed softly. Then she felt that odd sense of fullness she’d experienced last night, which told her he’d just entered her. “Hold on, sweetheart. Arms around my neck. Come on. I’m going to take you flying again.”

  Bethany blinked. Arms, go up, she silently commanded. Instead of obeying, her appendages just lay there, limp and useless, one flung above her head, the other out from her body. Ryan’s dark face came into focus. His teeth flashed in a broad grin. He dipped his dark head toward hers.

  “Come on. Grab hold.”

  With effort she finally managed to lift her arms and loosely hug his neck.

  “There’s my girl,” he whispered. He reached back to lift each of her legs to vise her knees under his arms. “You ready for takeoff?”

  She nodded, wishing he’d just let her go to sleep now. Having lain awake for over a month, she felt so deliciously relaxed that she selfishly thought, I won’t feel this part anyway. However, she managed to croak, “Ready,” before she yawned.

  He chuckled and shifted his torso sharply forward, the velvety length of his shaft making firm contact with the one place that had a lot of feeling. Zing. Bethany’s eyes flew wide, and she stared up at him. He flashed her another grin as he made his first, cautious thrust. She gasped and dug all ten fingernails into his shoulders.

  “I can make you come this way,” he whispered. “Feel that? I’m connecting with thousands of lively little nerve endings, honey. It won’t be uncomfortable, I promise. Not now.”

  To her surprise, it wasn’t uncomfortable. At least not yet. “Why is that?”

  “Because you’re aroused, and it’s all swollen, which makes it a little less sensitive.”

  She knew little about that sort of thing and could only trust his word.

  “Don’t be tense. If it doesn’t feel nice, I’ll stop.” He dipped forward to kiss her. When their mouths parted, he whispered, “Come fly with me.”

  Bethany expected the friction to be unpleasant. He’d been so careful, kissing her there, but this was different. She felt sure that the rub of all that hardness against her would hurt. Yet instead, his shaft felt like steel sheathed in velvet, and for some reason, wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Her breath snagged at the back of her throat when he thrust forward again.

  “Tell me if you start to feel tender,” he whispered.

  With that, he picked up speed, and before she could formulate a thought, let alone articulate it, she was lifting off with him. Her mind spun at the indescribable sensations that rocked her. With every thrust, he was now connecting directly with her clitoris, which sent electrical shocks shooting out every which way to ribbon through her.

  “Ryan!” she cried.

  “I’m here, honey.” His voice had turned husky and clipped. “I’m gonna go deep now. All right? If it even sort of hurts, you tell me, and I’ll back off.”

  He shoved sharply forward with his hips, burying himself to the hilt. Bethany cried out. He stiffened and drew back, his gaze glassy and riveted to her face. “Does it hurt?” he asked.

  “No, but I—oh, Ryan, way deep, I can feel you.”

  “You can?”

  She laughed tearfully and locked her hands over his upper arms, urging him forward again. “Oh, yes,” she cried when he drove into her again. “Oh, Ryan! Yes, yes, yes! I can definitely feel that.”

  He established a hard, fast rhythm then that made further discussion not only impossible but unnecessary. Her moans and gasps of pleasure communicated her feelings with absolute clarity, she felt sure. Flying. He was taking her on a private tour of paradise. The building pleasure. The coiling need and urgency. Soaring ever higher. When she crested and plunged over the edge, he stiffened and she felt a white-hot surge pour through her, way down deep.

  She arched up as best she could to meet him, her mind splintering as a violent orgasm rocked her body. Definitely paradise, she decided dizzily as the small aftershocks jolted through her.

  Ryan Kendrick was the most wonderful man ever to draw breath.

  He drew her into his arms and held her with fierce possessiveness when it was all over—hugged her so fiercely that she could almost feel the intensity of his love for her.

  “Oh, Ryan,” she whispered. She smoothed her hands over his hair, wanting to comfort him. “It’s all right. Everything’s going to be all right now.”

  In response he only tightened his hold even more. In that moment Bethany realized just how tormented he’d been about his inability to satisfy her.

  She pressed her face against his shoulder. “Oh, Ryan … I love you so.”

  He rested his jaw against her hair, a shudder racking his big body. After a long while, when his breathing evened out, he sighed and said, “Now I wish I’d gone ahead and kissed you there last night. It would have saved us twenty-four hours of sheer hell.”

  Bethany rubbed her cheek against his skin, loving the feeling of muscle over bone, hard yet forming a comfortable pillow for her head. “Maybe we needed to experience the hell to fully appreciate the heaven. I’m still not normal. I feel absolutely nothing when you first go inside of me.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Bethany,” he murmured. “Unless I’ve been misinformed, you’ve got feeling where it counts. If given a choice, I think most women would choose to have a clitoral orgasm over a vaginal one.”

  Bethany grinned against his shoulder. It had definitely been intense—indescribably intense. “I wonder why it didn’t feel nice when you touched me there last night?”

  He nuzzled her hair. “You were so tense, for one thing. And I think you’re right about having nerve damage there, which makes you supersensitive until I get you really hot.” He chuckled, the sound laced with male satisfaction. “That’s all right. You asked what things I really like? Kissing you there is my all-time favorite. I think I’m already addicted.”

  “I’m glad. It was wonderful,” she whispered.

  “I’ve been told there’s no other orgasm that compares to it.”

  “By whom?”

  Silence. Then a cough. “Never mind. That’s not really important, is it?”

  “I guess not,” she said with an impish grin she hid by keeping her face against his shoulder.

  “By shifting forward while I make love to you, I can give you a clitoral orgasm and make you climax with me. That’s the important thing. It’s fantastic for me, knowing you’re enjoying it, too.”

  It had been pretty fantastic. Feeli
ng so content and satisfied she could barely keep her eyes open, Bethany pressed closer to him and sleepily whispered, “I love you, Ryan. That was the most fantastic experience of my whole life. Thank you so much.”

  He chuckled and drew her more firmly against him. “Prepare for a lifetime of fantastic, lady. I enjoyed it as much as you did.”

  Sometime in the darkest part of night, Bethany woke up, realized Ryan wasn’t beside her in bed, and reared up on her elbow to glance around. She blinked bewilderedly when she saw him kneeling beside the bed, elbows resting on the mattress, his big, rough hands clasped in prayer before his bowed head.

  “Ryan?” she whispered hoarsely. “Are you all right?”

  He glanced up. “Never been better. I was just saying my prayers.”

  “Your prayers?” Bethany had never figured him for the type of man who got on his knees. Now she wondered why she’d been under that impression. Any man as kind as Ryan Kendrick probably had a deep, abiding faith that guided him through life. “I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I’m sorry.”

  She lay back, intending to leave him to his meditations. But he lowered his hands and grinned at her. “No problem. I was done.”

  A carnal gleam had come into his eyes. He slipped his hands under the covers to lock them over her knees. The next thing Bethany knew, her bottom was skidding over the mattress toward him, the rest of her startled self following.

  “What’re you doing?”

  “Nothin’.” He gave her an innocent-looking smile as he positioned her legs, one on each side of him, then slid his hands to her hips to pull her the remainder of the way to him. “Yet, anyhow.”

  Her most private place bumped intimately against his hard belly. He hooked his arms under her knees, curling his hands over her uplifted thighs.

  “Hi,” he said softly.

  Bethany cupped her fingers over that place he had just laid opened to his gaze. He glanced down at her splayed fingers. “You’re gonna have to move those, sweetheart. I got business down there, and they’re in my road.”

  She laughed. “You surely don’t mean to—you know—do that right now.”

  He bent his head to kiss the sensitive place on her inner left thigh. Against her skin he rumbled, “Name me one good reason I shouldn’t.”

  “Because my heart may not be able to take it twice in one night?”

  His nibbled her skin. “Nah. You won’t die from it.”

  Bethany tried to think of a way she might explain that this was all still new to her, and that she felt a little embarrassed. It had been different when she was aroused and already wanting him. She’d barely been able to think, let alone feel modest. “But, Ryan, you haven’t even kissed me yet.”

  “Hmm.” He angled her a look with eyes that were definitely glinting with lust. “You particular about what part of you I kiss first?”

  She giggled. “A lady needs a little bit of foreplay to get in the mood.”

  He arched an imperious brow at her. “I’ll tell you what,” he said huskily. “Move your pretty little fingers out of my way and prop up on your elbows to watch. You’ll get in the mood real fast.”

  “Oh, I don’t think—I’m not going to watch.”

  “Why not?”

  She couldn’t readily think of a reason, and he didn’t give her any time to come up with one. She giggled again when he started nipping at her fingers to make her move them. “How can you switch from saying your prayers to doing this before you even get off your knees?”

  “Because I believe with all my heart that the love we have is a sacred gift, and that anything we do to express that love is beautiful.”

  “Oh, Ryan …” Bethany’s throat went tight, and she did push up on one elbow then. Being loved by him was beautiful—the most beautiful experience of her entire life. He’d kissed her scars. He touched her as if she were a priceless treasure. She felt content as she never had when he held her in his arms. What could be more beautiful or right than that? “I love you so much. So very, very much.”

  “Then, don’t hold anything back from me,” he whispered against her skin. “I know we’ve moved fast, but for us, it’s the only way. I want to make love to you again, and I want it to be wonderful for you. I can be sure it will be, doing this. It’s a miracle, Bethany mine, a gift from God.”

  It really was a miracle, Bethany thought. A beautiful, wondrous gift. It would be the height of stupidity to let modesty ruin it for her—or for him.

  She moved her hand, watching as he kissed his way up her leg. For just an instant she wished she could feel the silky brush of his lips, but she quickly shoved the yearning aside. Seeing him kiss her inner thigh was just as erotic in its way, and it was so wonderful to know she would be able to feel every light brush of his lips when he finally reached his destination.

  He finally got there and touched the tip of his tongue to her. Bethany gasped at the shock of hot delight that coursed through her. “Oh, Ryan. That—feels—so—good.”

  His hot, wet mouth closed over her, and his tongue flicked lightly at her flesh, gently teasing her sensitive nerve endings until her head was spinning and her blood started rushing.

  “You okay?” he rumbled against her.

  The movement of his mouth and the thrum of his voice vibrated through her, and she nearly died on the spot. She tried to answer him, but her throat was locked shut, the only sound she could make a soft panting noise.

  That was evidently answer enough, for he resumed his gentle assault. He hiked her bottom off the mattress to situate her just so. Every muscle in her upper body snapped taut and jangled. Then she forgot everything. Lightning bolts. It was the only way to describe the sensations that jolted through her.

  Somehow one of her hands became fisted in his black hair, and the next thing she knew, she was using his hair to pull herself up to a sitting position. He hunched lower to continue loving her. Then he moved up to kiss her breasts.

  “Oh, Ryan.”

  “You dead yet?” he asked with a rumbling chuckle.

  “Not yet.”

  He kissed his way back down to her navel. “Good. Stay with me, sweetheart. I’ll take you flying again.”

  Ryan Kendrick was a man of his word.

  She definitely soared.

  Chapter Eighteen

  When Bethany awakened, the morning was too gorgeous for her to greet it with a frown. Sunlight poured in Ryan’s bedroom windows, gilding his hair and face with gold. They shared a pillow, which struck her as being symbolic of their lives together from this moment on. He slept with one arm angled up her front, his big hand curled loosely over her left breast. They were both naked, and she reveled in the feeling of all that delicious maleness curled around her.

  She sighed, blissfully content. For the first time in eight years, she’d been able to roll over during the night. True to his word, Ryan had tucked her against him several times to switch sides, making it possible for her to snuggle against his back or be cuddled in his strong arms. It had been the most heavenly feeling.

  He startled her by suddenly mumbling into her hair. “Will you eat breakfast with me like this?”

  “In the kitchen?” She giggled. “Naked, you mean?”

  “What kind of fantasy would it be if you weren’t?”

  “Only if you do the cooking. The oil always splatters when I fry eggs.”

  “Fruit and a bagel won’t splatter.” He flicked her nipple. “Imagine my mouth on you there after I’ve taken a sip of steaming hot coffee.”

  Bethany’s stomach clenched at the thought.

  “I’ll smear low-fat cream cheese all over you and lick it off,” he said huskily. “You can sit naked in my kitchen, skim your teeth over your banana, and drive me out of my mind. You’ll never make it out of the house before noon.”

  She laughed again. “I have to go to work.”

  “Stay home with me today.” He nuzzled her ear. “Go with me to city hall. We’ll break my dad out of jail and apply for a marriage license, al
l in one visit.”

  “Surely we don’t need a license straightaway.”

  “Yep. I want a ring on your finger, darlin’.”

  She turned to kiss the bridge of his nose. “Oh, Ryan, you’re so sweet.”

  “No sweet to it. If I don’t marry you immediately, Jake’ll kill me.”

  “Don’t worry about Jake. I can handle him.”

  He intercepted her before she could kiss his nose again and settled his mouth over hers. Bethany’s pulse started to race. When he came up for air, he replied, “No arguments. You’re marrying me as soon as I can arrange it.”

  “I can’t possibly. It takes time to plan a wedding.”

  His eyes came wide open. “I’d like to keep it simple. No fuss, no muss.”

  “I used to fantasize about being married at a high mountain lake.”

  “Now you’re talking.”

  Her heart squeezed. “That’s out of the question now.”

  He rose up to nibble on her throat. “I can get you to a wilderness lake. A beautiful one. In fact, that’s how I want to spend our honeymoon, just you and me, at a high mountain lake.”

  “Ryan, I can’t stay at a high mountain lake. I told you, I—”

  He laid a finger across her mouth. “I ordered you an all-terrain chair. It’s lightweight, so we can pack it in by horseback, and it’s guaranteed to go over rocks and small logs. It’s due here next week, same day as your saddle.”

  “You what?”

  He moved his finger to dip his head and steal another kiss. “Don’t frown. You’ll get wrinkles.”

  Bethany scowled anyway. “Even with an all-terrain wheelchair, I’d need special facilities for my personal needs. It’s just not feasible for me to—”

  “I’m working on that. Mom helped me design an out-house for you.”

  “An outhouse?”

  “Yeah. My dad’s been helping me, too. He’s more experienced at welding aluminum. It’ll be light, have bars, and it all comes apart for easy transport. We’re using tent nylon for the top and walls. You’ll have all the comforts of home.”