I abandon my pizza in the open box as Ryder lifts me off the counter. His lips are pressed against my neck, his hands firm on my ass as he deposits me on the ground. They follow the curve of my hips up to my waist, slipping behind my back and pulling my body tight against his.
“Can I please take this dress off of you now?” he asks, his fingers finding the zipper underneath my arm and toying with it.
“I thought you’d never ask,” I say, pressing my hands against his chest and slipping them underneath his suit jacket.
He shrugs it off easily, leaving it in a pile on the floor as he tugs on my zipper, walking me gradually backward toward his bedroom.
His bedroom. As much as I want to believe this thing between us is going to last, I can’t help noticing the disparity in our lives. He’s used to wide windows overlooking Manhattan and fancy parties where a silk dress that costs as much as my quaint little sunflower farm makes in a month.
And while I want to take advantage of this lifestyle while I’m here, I can’t help but wonder where the fantasy ends. He invited me here because he wants me around while he takes care of long overdue business… but that doesn’t mean he wants to spend the rest of his days on the sunflower farm.
And I… well, I can’t give that up. It’s more than my life–it’s my soul. My raison d’etre.
I don’t see how two people with such different lives can come to a middle ground.
But as much as that scares me, tonight is about us. We attended the library gala as a couple, dressed to the nines. While this might be par for the course for Ryder, it’s not for me–I should be enjoying this before spiraling over everything that could fall apart.
Because isn’t this the best of us? Two people from wildly different places who come together in such a beautiful way?
His hands travel along the silk of my dress and tug it down my body.
He’s been a man obsessed with my body all night, and feeling him drag his thumbs along my skin, my dress bunched in his hands, is exactly what I’ve been waiting for since I first walked out of his bedroom and his eyes went wide with the sight.
It’s nice to know that I can fake it for a night, even if it’s not necessarily me.
But a little bit of roleplay never hurt anybody.
He keeps one hand on my waist as he walks us backward, our feet shuffling along and just barely missing each other’s toes as he leads me into his bedroom. We stumble through the long, dark hallway and are greeted by the twinkling lights of Manhattan through the floor-to-ceiling windows in his bedroom.
By the time my knees hit the edge of his bed, he’s peeled the silky fabric off of my body. It drops to a pile at my feet.
I circle the buttons of his shirt with my fingers, anxious to get him naked but equally committed to preserving this moment.
He groans as my fingers drag along his bare skin, pulling one button open at a time. When the last one slips free, he shrugs out of his shirt, letting it fall to the ground.
His fingers skate along the skin of my stomach.
“I think I like this even better than the dress,” he says, his thumb tracing the crease of my breast and running lightly over my nipple.
“Wow, high praise. You were drooling on it earlier.”
He shakes his head, laughing lightly as he wraps an arm around my back and lays me down, crawling easily over me as we sink into the comforter. I fumble with the clasp of his pants, pushing them down over his hips with his underwear.
“What can I say, Evie? You’re goddamn gorgeous and everyday I’m relieved you’ve chosen me.”
I laugh, but it comes out light and airy as his words hit my chest. “Aw, Ryder.”
His lips brush along my neck, his thumb and forefinger toying with my nipple as he rests his weight on me.
I take my time as my hand finds him, hard and long between us, and pump him slowly.
His body curls into me, a harsh grunt emanating from his throat as he grabs at my hip, tugging me closer. “Evie,” he grumbles.
I tighten my grip ever so slightly in just the way he likes, and a shudder racks his body.
A second later, he shakes his head, holding a hand over mine to stop me.
“Nope, it feels too good,” he says, pulling my hand up to his lips and quickly kissing the back of it before moving down my body. “And I’m not about to give up the ratio I’ve been maintaining.”
I laugh as he kisses my neck, my chest. “The ratio?”
“Two for you, one for me. It’s been working pretty well, I think.”
“Sounds to me like you’re owed a few.”
He presses his lips against my ribs as he tugs my legs up over his shoulders, then shakes his head. “No, this is how I keep you.”
I raise my eyebrows, struggling to focus on his words as he presses a kiss to the crease of my thigh. “How you keep me?”
He shrugs. “I’ve heard multiple orgasms does wonders for keeping partners coming back.” He kisses my thigh, shooting me a wicked grin as he pauses there for a moment.
“Please, you couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”
His grin widens as he peers up at me, then presses a kiss just above where I’m aching to feel him.
“Then I’ve got you right where I want you.”
His lips drop to my clit, his tongue slipping out of his mouth and following the line of my slit. I cry out as he passes over that little nub, my back arching up off the bed.
His fingers dig into the fleshy part of my thigh, a moan escaping him as I struggle to keep my hips steady. He squeezes one as he sucks my clit into his mouth, then presses two fingers slowly inside me.
I cry out with the feeling, my legs widening as he pumps his fingers into me repeatedly, the sensation of his mouth and hands driving me rapidly toward the edge of my orgasm.
Heat spreads through my body as his mouth works me, and before my brain has a chance to catch up, my body goes taut with anticipation.
Sensing this, he settles into a rhythm with his fingers, building my orgasm higher and higher until finally it breaks.
“Ryder,” I moan, as he works the last of my orgasm out of me.
My legs close around him and he reluctantly pulls away, wiping his mouth along the inside of my thigh before pressing a kiss to my stomach.
He climbs me slowly, noises of pleasure jumping from his throat as his lips drag all along my skin. “I think I could listen to you come every hour of every day and still not get quite enough of it.”
I shake my head as he sucks my nipple into his mouth, his tongue drawing a small circle around it before releasing it with a quick pop and continuing his way up my body. He nips at the skin of my neck as he hands grab every inch of skin they can find.
And when he finally kisses me, the taste of me is almost overwhelming.
I can feel just how hard he is between us.
And that heat starts building in my abdomen all over again, anxious to feel him. I rock my hips into him, his resulting groan only encouraging me.
His voice is low when he speaks. “Eve.”
“I want to feel you.”
He nods into my neck. “Fuck, Eve. You have no idea how much I want to fuck you.”
I roll my hips again, and this time he moves to line us up, his head slipping easily along my slit and notching home.
He presses into me, a guttural noise escaping him that tells me he feels just as good as I do.
He pauses for a second, letting me adjust to his size, and then slowly starts moving, my hips coming up to meet his with every thrust.
“You feel so good,” he murmurs, his facial hair scraping against my cheek as he kisses me.
“Ryder,” I whisper.
His name on my lips spurs him faster, his hands grabbing at every part of my body as we move as one, our skin getting tacky with sweat.
When he sees my orgasm start to build again, he pulls my knee up, throwing it over his arm.
I shudder with the new depth, my hands running along his strong chest as I wrap them around his waist and pull him close to me.
His breathing is heavy in my ear as he fills me repeatedly, my orgasm building as he grips me harder and harder.
I cry out when it crests, the friction of our bodies against each other pushing me higher and higher.
“Fuck, Evie,” he murmurs.
He keeps a steady rhythm as the sensation wanes, and as my body slowly relaxes, he thrusts harder into me, releasing with a long groan.
We lay there for a second afterward, limbs tangled up with each other as he presses lazy kisses along my jawline.
I hug him close, savoring the moment.
I don’t know what the future holds, but I believe Ryder when he says he wants to keep me around. That even though he said it in passing during pillowtalk, there’s a deeper part of him that couldn’t be more truthful if he wanted to.
I still have no idea how the two of us will be together with such big lives in completely different places, but I know we’ll find a way to make it work.
When we’ve cleaned ourselves up and gotten back in bed, I curl up into his side, his fingers dragging lightly across my back as he reaches to turn off the light.
As we settle down into darkness, he whispers against my hair, “Goodnight, Evie. I love you.”