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Ryker and Molly were upside down on her bed—the top of his head touching the painted white footboard, with her body sprawled across his chest—thighs resting on either side of his.

  “You okay?” he asked as he brushed his fingers through the strands of her damp hair, listening to her breathe.

  “Mm. Never better.”

  “You’re awfully quiet.”

  “Shh…I’m enjoying listening to your heartbeat.”

  He smiled. “Think you can give orders ’cause you’re on top?”

  She giggled and lifted her head, glancing at the clock on her bed side table. “Do you realize we’ve been going for hours?”

  “Yep.”

  She traced a fingertip around his left nipple. “You’re pretty amazing, you know.”

  He chuckled. “So are you.”

  “I am?”

  “Of course.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “Molls. Why are you thanking me?”

  “I’m just happy you think I’m amazing.”

  “Look at me.” He cuffed her wrist with his hand. She glanced up at him. “You’ve always been amazing, Molly. I just….” He paused not sure how to say what he wanted to say.

  “I’m sorry for everything that happened that day,” she blurted out in a rush of words. “It was all my fault for not saying something and letting things go too far. You weren’t expecting a virgin. I know what happened freaked you out. I know you felt guilty. But you didn’t do anything wrong, Ryker.”

  He had done something wrong.

  “I hurt you,” he said. “You’d never been with a man and I—”

  “Is that what you think? That you hurt me?”

  “I’m rough, sweetheart but…I never wanted you to be afraid of me.”

  “I’m not afraid of you, Ryker. Why would you say that?”

  “I remember how afraid you were of your dad, and that day in the kitchen you had a similar expression.”

  She gazed at him, her face a mixture of shock and what he thought was understanding.

  “You could never be like my dad.” Touching his cheek, she said, “What you read on my face wasn’t fear of you. It was fear of losing you, because I read your fear.”

  “Molls….”

  “Your need for control and what my dad did to me, were, and are, two totally different things. You do know that. Right?”

  “I guess I thought—”

  “You thought I wouldn’t know the difference, and I’d be afraid of you,” she stated.

  “I know I hurt you that day.”

  “Ryker, the first time always hurts. Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

  His brow crinkled. “Your first time shouldn’t have happened that way. You deserved better. Hell, you still deserve better.”

  She splayed her fingers across his pectoral. “Are you ashamed of what you want in bed?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It took me a while to come to grips with the fact I want things a lot of other people aren’t into.”

  “But now you’re okay with wanting those things?”

  “Yes. I realized it’s who I am, Molls.”

  “And you’ve been worried I wouldn’t be into what you want or who you are?”

  “I’ve….” He paused trying to gather his thoughts on how to best answer her, because yes, he had been.

  “I’m pretty sure after today, you know I’m into what you want in bed, and who you are, Ryker.”

  He smiled, feeling some crazy, goofy ecstatic emotion he’d never experienced before.

  “I’m glad, sweetheart.”

  She traced his eyebrow. Stroked the side of his face. “No more hiding yourself from me.” She placed her nose to his. “You’re not going to break me, Ryker.”

  “I’m bigger than you.”

  “I know.” She squeezed his pec. “I love how strong you are.”

  He chuckled. “I mean, I don’t want to hurt you by accident.”

  “You won’t hurt me. Or make me run away in fear. And I don’t want you to treat me as if I’m some kind of china doll to be placed up on a lofty pedestal, with a crazy look-but-don’t-touch clause.”

  “I—”

  “I want you to be you, with me. In the bedroom and out of it. And I want every single touch, the way you want to touch.” Molly scooted up his frame until her face was above his, her hair spilling down around them in a curtain of strawberry silk. “Do you want to know what has hurt me?”

  He nodded, although he had a pretty good idea of what she was going to tell him.

  “The other women.” She closed her eyes. “And leaving me. That has hurt me. And the only thing that can still hurt me would be more of the same.”

  “No more women, Molls.” He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “Only you,” he said, speaking the truth.

  Molly’s eyelids lifted and she stared into his eyes. “Do you mean that?”

  “Every word.”

  “And the leaving?”

  The way she looked at him about undid him.

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  She kissed him with gentle lips then said, “Promise me something.”

  “What?”

  “We’ll talk about things from this point on. No running, no matter what. Can you do that for me?”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Try?”

  “No running,” he said. “And I’ve never been much of a serious talker, Molls. You know that.”

  “I don’t know,” she said her voice taking on a playful tone. “You did some serious talking earlier this morning when you called me on the phone and told me what you wanted to do to me with your mouth and tongue.”

  Ryker chortled.

  Molly grinned. He palmed the back of her head and pulled her down for a slow, lingering kiss, savoring her mouth.

  “Sorry,” she said, giggling against his lips when her stomach growled.

  “Don’t be.”

  “We better take a shower and then get something to eat.”

  “All right.” He swiped his thumb over the swell of her moist lips. “Let’s order in though.”

  “Sure. What do you feel like eating?”

  “Now, there’s a loaded question, Molls.”

  She swatted his chest in a cutesy way. He couldn’t help but smile at the painless little tap.

  “I mean as in food.”

  “I don’t care what we order,” he said, twirling his finger around the end of her hair. “Don’t you like that Chinese place over close to where you work?”

  “Ming’s?”

  “Yeah. Ming’s. They deliver, don’t they?”

  “Mm hum. They do.”

  He slipped his palm over her gorgeous ass. “Well then. Order me some food, woman!” He smacked her bottom playfully.

  Molly laughed. He basked in the sound. “Okay. But I need to get up and I don’t know if I can walk,” she teased. “My legs might be noodles.” She kissed his lips and then extricated herself from his body.

  Ryker sat up and honed in on the sway of those hips as she walked toward the bathroom door. “Looks like you can walk to me. That means I’m going to have to try harder.”

  “Any harder, and I’ll need a spinal adjustment.”

  “Ha!” he barked. “I’m all the chiropractor you’ll ever need.” He eyed her. “What are you doing? Your phone is in the other direction.”

  “Getting my bathrobe.”

  “Oh, hell no. I want you naked.”

  She spun around, tousled strawberry hair whipping across her shoulders, and stared at him. “Are you serious?”

  His gaze meandered over all her curves as he said, “As a heart attack, sweetheart.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Present.

  The hot water of the shower pelted the back of Ryker’s neck and wound down his spine as he ran his wet, soapy hands along the dip and swell of Molly’s belly, where he stopped for a moment to dally at
her belly button.

  “You should pierce this. You’d look sexy with a belly button ring.”

  He slicked up her torso to palm both delectable breasts.

  “Really?”

  “Oh yeah,” he assured, massaging her fantastic tits.

  Molly moaned. “If you keep that up, we’ll never get out of the shower, and we’ve got a ton of Chinese food coming.”

  Ryker squeezed each breast and played with those ripe little berry tips. “You’ve been a dirty girl, Molls, and I need to get you clean.”

  She reached behind her, grabbing onto his hips—the back of her head resting on the lower part of his sternum—and wiggled her fine ass into his raging erection.

  “I have been dirty,” she agreed.

  “Mm.” Ryker slicked one hand down and cupped her sex. Heated possessiveness spiraled along his nerve endings, branching out into every part of his body.

  “Touch me,” she said.

  “I am,” he whispered.

  She reached and took hold of his hand, spread her legs, and started rubbing her love-swollen sex with his fingers. Jesus that was hot. She was hot.

  Ryker held her tight, trapping his cock between their moist bodies, and played with her clit before slipping two wet fingers into her warm sheath—the heel of his hand pressing into her pebbled-hard clitoris.

  She shook.

  “You need my fingers deep inside your tight snatch, don’t you?”

  “Mmm…. Yes.”

  “Work yourself on my hand, Molls, and fuck my fingers.”

  She did, rolling those hips, her ass bumping into his dick, pussy gripping his digits.

  “Damn,” he said, then groaned, feeling the quiver of her lower belly against his forearm, and the flutter of her sex around his fingers when he curled them against her spongy g-spot and gave her the come-hither movement.

  “Ryker!”

  She exploded on his hand. There was nothing better than feeling Molly come. He held her through the contractions of her orgasm, keeping his fingers deep inside her body. As soon as her breathing slowed, he slipped free and turned her around to face him. Molly stared up at him. He sucked the fingers he’d had inside her delicious pussy. The expression on her passion-heated face made the blood flow to his cock, rush faster.

  Ryker bent and kissed her, their tongues tangling, then pulled back, centimeters from her lips. “Could you taste yourself when I kissed you?” She nodded. His dick jerked with the acknowledgment. “Do you know how fucking bad I want you?”

  “How bad?”

  “If I had a rubber, I’d already be inside of you, balls deep.”

  Her eyelashes fluttered, and she went to her knees before him, glancing up with a wicked little grin with her wet hair plastered to her cheeks, the water dripping off those long lashes.

  Ryker grabbed his prick. “Give me your tongue.” Molly opened for him, and extended her tongue. He tapped the head of his dick on the warmth of her. “Do you want my cock, sweetheart?”

  “Yes.”

  He tapped her tongue a little harder.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Please.”

  “Tell me what you want.”

  “Please let me suck your dick, Ryker.”

  The woman was phenomenal.

  “Take it then,” he said.

  Molly sucked the head of him, nails lightly scraping up his shaft.

  “Aw, shit. That’s good,” he said.

  She hummed her agreement, sending licks of fire along the length of his shaft, and sucked him as deep as she could go.

  Ryker braced his hand on the wet wall tiles, and took Molly in as she worked him—the water from the shower raining onto both of them.

  “Sweetheart,” he said. She glanced up at him and he swore she stole his breath. “I want your tits.” She popped her plump lips from him and grabbed her breasts. Ryker bent his knees, swiped the tip of his cock over her nipples, reveling in how excited they became, pulling tighter. “Press those beauties around me.”

  Molly did, and when he fucked into the perfect white mounds she’d created for him, it was one of the best damn things he’d ever done, but when she dropped her chin, opened her mouth and tongued his slit, he decided this could very well be the best damn thing, and threw his head back.

  “Fuck, yeah!” He was going to lose it. Two more pumps, and he warned. “I’m going to come.” He started to pull free, but Molly shook her head, lips wrapped around him.

  His balls pulled up tight, and Ryker came, hard and hot in her mouth. God, that was good. So fucking good that the rush of blood rang out in his ears.

  Chest heaving, his post-release-hazed brain clearing, he realized the ringing wasn’t his ears.

  “What’s that horrible noise?” His breaths were harsh and ragged.

  “The doorbell. There’s something wrong with the chime.” Ryker helped Molly to her feet. She kissed his left pectoral, her fingertips tracing his stomach. “I’d say our food has arrived.”

  “Stay here and finish up your shower,” he said, gathering his composure. “I’ll throw a towel on and get the door.”

  ***

  Molly giggled as Ryker fed her spicy noodles straight from the little red-and-white container with his fingers.

  “I do have forks, you know,” she said after swallowing.

  “We don’t need no stinking forks,” he joked a second before he licked the line of her lips. She blinked and stared at him. Molly hadn’t seen Ryker’s goofy, playful side in a long time. “What?” he asked. “We don’t have any napkins, so I improvised.”

  There they were, sitting on her bed, nude as the day they were born, eating takeout from Ming’s, and she couldn’t think of a time she’d had so much fun, or had been this totally blissed out.

  When her house phone started its harsh bring, bring she stretched over to grab the handset from the receiver on the bedside table, and squealed when Ryker swatted her ass.

  “Damn. I do love to see your jiggle.”

  “Hang on,” she said, seeing the number on her caller ID. “It’s Nate.” Molly tapped the answer button and sat up. “Hey, Nate. What’s going on?”

  Her brother-in-law’s panicked, rushed voice hit Molly’s ear with nonsense monosyllabic utterances over grunting sounds in the background. “Your water sister’s broke.”

  She translated and asked, “Mary’s water broke?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you guys headed for the hospital?”

  “Yeah.”

  Mary screamed. “Nate! Drive faster.”

  “Honey,” Nate said.

  “If you ever try to touch me again, I’m going to yank your dick off!”

  “Help, Moll,” Nate pled.

  “Okay. Just stay calm. I’m on my way.”

  When she disconnected the call, she jumped off the bed, not feeling too calm herself, and sprinted over to the dresser, snagging a pair of panties from the top drawer and then shimming them up her legs. “I’ve got to go.” She snatched a bra. “My sister is in labor, threatening to remove her husband’s man junk, and Nate’s so freaked about the baby coming, he couldn’t even talk right.”

  She turned around to see Ryker already had his jeans on and was buttoning his fly.

  “I’ll drive you to the hospital, Molls.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Present.

  Molly walked down the hall of the Birth Center at the University of Colorado Hospital in a quick step, with Ryker by her side. “Aah…crap balls. This hurts!”

  It was a deeper, more guttural version of her big sis’s voice, which echoed from Mary’s private room.

  “Whoa,” Ryker muttered, staring down at her with an expression she hadn’t seen on his face before. “Doesn’t sound too pleasant.”

  “No,” Molly agreed.

  “So, I’ll stay here.” He stopped dead in his tracks outside the half-closed door.

  She couldn’t blame him. She wasn’t real sure she wanted to go in either.
<
br />   “Okay. But you don’t have to stay.”

  “I’ll stay, Molls.” A moan came drifting in their direction. He tilted his head toward the door. “Just not in there.”

  She nodded, and was about to turn, when Ryker stopped her by grabbing her arm. His palm slid up to her shoulder. Her neck. Her cheek, where he cupped her face. She smiled up at him. He swiped the pad of his thumb over her lips, bent, and kissed her—a chaste kiss. Molly’s heartbeat went wild at the touch of Ryker’s lips on hers.

  When he let her go, she already missed his mouth. He smiled, those panty-dampening dimples appearing. God. The man was fantastic. She doubted she’d ever get tired of looking at him, but while she didn’t want to leave him, her sister and brother-in-law needed her. Molly gathered her scrambled wits, turned, pushed open the door, and stepped inside the room to see Mary writhing in the bed.

  Molly’s gaze shot over to Nate, who looked stricken, staring wide-eyed at the dark-haired nurse who had her hand up Mary’s crotch, checking on the baby’s progress, she supposed.

  “You’re completely effaced,” the nurse said in a sweet, calm voice. “For a first baby, you’re moving along fast, Mrs. Harper. You’re about eight centimeters. I think you’re ready for an epidural.”

  “Yes,” Mary agreed in a sorta grunt. “I want the drugs.”

  “I’ll let the doctor know.”

  As soon as the nurse was gone, Molly went over to the side of the bed. The monitors gauging Mary’s contractions started going up.

  She grabbed her sister’s hand, feeling a death-grip squeeze and gritted her teeth from the pain in her crunched fingers.

  “Breathe,” she said in the calmest voice she could manage.

  Nate wiped sweat from his wife’s brow. “Breathe, honey.”

  “I am,” Mary replied, and started blowing whew-whew.

  ***

  Making his way toward the waiting room, that one of the hospital staff had pointed out, Ryker’s attention went to the woman who was coming in his direction—her face transforming from seriousness to a sweet smile for him. With her short blonde hair, always done to perfection, the pearl earrings, and the conservative clothing she wore, Molly’s mother always reminded him of June Cleaver from the old Leave it to Beaver show.