It Started With... Collection

Despite knowing deep down that he was making a big mistake taking a work colleague to bed—business and pleasure don’t mix, remember?—Ryan told himself that he might actually do Laura a good turn by proving that sex and love didn’t have to be joined at the hip. After all, it wasn’t healthy for her to continue living without a man in her life. Her responses tonight had already shown him that she wasn’t the ice queen she’d been pretending to be with him these past two years. Far from it.

By the time he sat down beside her on the bed and reached for her left foot, Ryan had almost convinced himself that what he was about to do had a noble side to it.

Almost …

Laura clenched her teeth hard in her jaw as Ryan slowly undid the ankle strap on her shoe then eased it off her foot. Where did he learn to touch a woman like that so softly and so gently? She would have thought a goalkeeper’s hands would be harder and rougher. But, no, they had the sensitivity and the skill of a surgeon. Every time one of his fingertips touched her flesh, an electric current ran up her legs.

‘I’ve always admired your dainty feet with their slender ankles,’ he said as he dropped the shoe onto the bedside rug and moved onto her other foot. ‘And, whilst I adore these particular shoes, I can’t risk leaving them on right now. The thought of your digging their lethal-looking heels into my back does not appeal.’

When an image popped into Laura’s head of exactly how she might manage to dig her heels into Ryan’s back, her heartbeat went from a fast trot to a wild gallop, her mouth falling open as she sucked in some much-needed air. But when the second shoe was dispensed with and his hands started travelling up her legs she found herself holding her breath once again. By the time he made it to the tops of her thighs, she had to breathe or die.

Her gasp brought his eyes to her flushed face.

‘These have to go as well, Laura,’ he told her, hooking his fingers under the sides of her panties and peeling them down her legs, all the while holding her eyes.

At last, he looked at her there.

By then Laura found it impossible to speak.

She was dying for him to touch her more intimately, but dreading it too. She knew she would be wet down there. She could feel it.

‘Ryan,’ she managed to blurt out when his finger moved perilously close.

Too late. He was there, and it felt incredible.

Her moan brought his eyes back to hers.

‘You have a problem?’ he asked, but without stopping. He was still using just the one finger, but it knew exactly where to go and what to touch, an erotic weapon of total seduction.

Her face twisted into a grimace which reflected her dilemma. She was going to come. And, whilst she was dying for release, it was not what she wanted. She wanted to come with him inside her.

‘I … I … You have to stop!’ she cried out.

He stopped. Just in time.

Laura shuddered with relief.

His head cocked to one side as he frowned down at her. ‘Would you like to tell me why I had to stop? It wasn’t because you weren’t liking what I was doing. I could tell.’

She gnawed at her bottom lip and looked away.

‘I won’t know what you want if you don’t tell me,’ he said softly, and quite sensibly.

So she told him, her voice faltering and her face flaming with embarrassment.

‘Is that all?’ he said, sounding and looking pleased. ‘Just give me a minute or two.’

He stripped off with considerable speed, chucking his clothes onto a nearby chair and not stopping until he was down to his underpants. At that point he did hesitate, first to go over to put another log on the fire then to search through his jacket pockets for his wallet, out of which he extracted two foil packets.

Laura could not believe that she hadn’t thought of protection herself. Just as well Ryan wasn’t so silly. But then he wouldn’t be, would he? she thought ruefully. Not a man of his extensive experience!

Laura did her best to put her sensible head back on, but it was all to no avail when Ryan stepped out of his underpants. Oh dear, oh dear; she’d known he would be built like that. He was seriously impressive. His body was the sort of body that you saw on billboards advertising jeans or male Y-fronts. He could easily have made it as a male model. And he was all hers—for tonight, anyway.

This last thought brought excitement, but apprehension as well. Despite knowing she was way beyond changing her mind at this critical stage, Laura could not dismiss the niggling feeling that going to bed with Ryan would change her life in ways which might not be all good. She might have given the consequences of tonight’s impulsive actions some more thought if a naked Ryan hadn’t joined her on the bed at that point.

‘Only got two of these, I’m afraid,’ he said as he placed the condoms next to the lamp on the bedside chest. ‘But they’ll be enough. For now …’

When he pulled her round and rolled on top of her, Laura gasped at the weight of his body. But, as soon as he propped his upper body up on his elbows on either side of her chest, the feeling of pressure lightened considerably.

‘Open your legs wide, Laura,’ he commanded, ‘And lift your knees up. Yes, that’s the way, sweetheart. This could take a few seconds.’

Without using his hands in any way, he angled himself at her entrance but he didn’t push himself in. Instead, he rocked back and forth and rubbed himself against her until she was almost at screaming point. She could feel her whole insides squeezing tighter and tighter, desperate to feel his flesh filling hers.

‘Oh please,’ she heard herself beg at last. ‘Please …’

Only then did he enter her. But still not very far.

‘Lift your feet and wrap them high around my waist,’ he ordered her. ‘That’s it. Now rock back and forth with your hips. Hell, yes, that’s the way.’

Laura followed his instructions until he was buried in her to the hilt, his flesh filling hers like a sword in its scabbard. Only then did he start to move, repeatedly pulling back a few inches before surging forward until he could go no further. Each thrust brought a gasp of pleasure from her lips, along with an increase in the most maddening frustration. As her body twisted tighter and tighter with sexual tension, her nails began clawing at his back, her heels digging into his buttocks. He responded by thrusting into her even more powerfully, and suddenly she came, her head thrashing from side to side as her flesh convulsed wildly around his. She’d never experienced anything like it before in her life. It was incredible!

‘Yes, yes!’ she cried.

And it was whilst her head was still whirling with the wonder of it all that Ryan came too, his whole body shuddering as it found release. He cried out as well, a loud, raw sound which reminded her of a creature from the jungle—Tarzan, maybe. Or possibly something less human.

So this was sex at its most primal level, Laura realised dazedly as she clung to his shuddering body. The kind animals indulged in. She could not pretend there were any fine emotions involved in their mating. They weren’t in love. They barely liked each other.

No, that wasn’t true any more. Not for her, anyway. She did like Ryan in a perverse kind of way. But she wasn’t in love with him, despite having given him her body.

This last realisation came as a great relief. Maybe she would survive having a strictly sexual fling with him after all. Maybe she wouldn’t do anything so foolish as to fall for him. She’d already fallen for two Mr Wrongs in her life. A third could prove fatal, if not to her sanity then at least to her soul. Because falling for her would never be on Ryan’s agenda. He’d spelled it out for her already in no uncertain terms. He didn’t do love, or marriage, or long-term commitment. Sex for him was just a physical pleasure, to be indulged in regularly, the same way he regularly ate and slept. Okay, so he did stick to only one bed partner at a time, but he always moved on. Always. She should never forget that.

Finally, his head lifted from where it had dropped down on the bed just above her left shoulder.

‘Amazing,’ he said with an almost surprised look on his face. ‘Was that as good for you as it was for me?’

What could she say? It was way too late to be coy with him.

‘It was wonderful,’ she said truthfully.

He smiled. ‘Tired?’

She shook her head.

‘Great,’ he said, and after giving her a brief peck on the lips he abruptly withdrew, his reverse action forcing her legs to unwrap from around his waist and drop back down onto the bed. ‘Have to go to the bathroom,’ he said. ‘Don’t go away, now.’

Laura could not help it—she laughed. Wild horses wouldn’t have been able to drag her out of this bed. But as she lay there, waiting for Ryan to return, her infernal female mind did start worrying about how she might feel in the morning. Not ashamed, she decided with a surge of defiance; she wasn’t doing anything to be ashamed of. Ryan had broken up with Erica, after all. There was nothing to be ashamed of in consenting sex between two free adults.

Nevertheless, she found herself reaching for some bedclothes so that she wouldn’t be lying there spreadeagled and stark naked when he returned. Which was really quite hypocritical of her, Laura realised after she pulled the sheet up over her breasts. Because, in truth, she’d rather liked being naked in front of him. Had liked seeing the admiration in his eyes. But she kept the sheet up all the same. Maybe she needed him with her to be bold.