Bedding The Best Friend (Bedding the Bachelors, Book 4) (5 page)

He laughed. “You are kind of a sucker sometimes.”

“You think? So, I get over there, and of course the first thing I do is make the rounds and meet my patients, who, by the way, I had sixteen of. I met two of the sweetest little old ladies you’ve ever seen in the first room. In the second room, there were two older men, playing checkers. I thought that was so cute, right up until one of them, the one in a wheelchair, grabbed a handful of my ass.”

Ryan immediately frowned. “Did you report him?”

“No, he was harmless.”

“How old was he?” Ryan asked.

“Ninety-four,” she said. “It’s a miracle he can remember what it is and where it’s at.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Still, I don’t like it. You deserve to be treated with respect.”

She patted his arm. “Thanks, but calm down, Super Man. It wasn’t that big a deal. Anyway, once I disengaged my ass from his old claw, I moved farther into the room. It was filthy, and there were things stacked everywhere. I couldn’t even imagine how a guy in a wheelchair maneuvered around all his stuff. It was a fire hazard, I’m telling you. Anyways, I sent two of my CNAs to clean it up while I prepared the guy’s feeding tube. I had everything hooked up, and I was ready to start the machine when Mr. Grabbed My Ass suddenly rolled up behind me. The guy goosed me, I jumped, and since I had my hand on the knob, the machine came on. It wouldn’t have been a big deal, but the clipboard I had in my hand somehow got caught on the tubing and pulled it loose. I didn’t realize that as I turned, but the tube feeding was pooling around my feet.”

“Oh no,” he said, trying very hard not to look amused.

“Oh no is right. The old guy tried to roll away, and I took one step in his direction. Both of my feet went out from under me, and within seconds I was sitting in a creamy, nutritious pool of Ensure.”

Ryan laughed. Annie pretended to be annoyed with him, but in truth it had been what she was going for. She loved it when he was happy, and she loved it even more when she was the one who made him that way. She’d fall on her ass any day just to see him smile.

“Thank you,” he told her when he finally stopped laughing. “I needed that.”

“I live to serve,” she said with a smile and bow of her head.

“Did you hurt yourself when you fell?”

“Nope.” She swatted her hip. “Still plenty of padding left to cushion my fall.”

His gaze dropped to her lower half, and his hand twitched, as if he was imagining touching her there. He looked…aroused. Pupils dilated. Cheeks red. Nostrils flared. Eyes dark and blazing with some kind of inner fire. Feeling like the temperature had gotten twenty degrees warmer, she licked her lips and leaned slightly closer to him.

He blinked and suddenly his expression went blank. He reached out and held her hand between his. “So nothing else is going on? How are you, really?”

Annie wanted to snatch her hand away and slap him. God, the way he’d looked at her, she would’ve sworn…

But no. Her mistake. Again.

She forced herself to say, “I’m good, Ryan.”

He didn’t seem to believe her.

“What?”

He cleared his throat. “Nothing. Have you been thinking of your mom?”

Ah, so that’s what was going on. “I miss her,” she admitted. Of course she did. She missed her mom so much, but the reason she continued celebrating
Jean Marie Christmas
was so she could focus on all the wonderful moments she’d had with her, not the sad times. Ryan knew that, but he always checked in to make sure she was okay. “I talked to Dad and Janie.” Janie was Annie’s sister, who’d followed in Annie’s wake and celebrated
Jean Marie Christmas
, too. Usually they celebrated together, but her sister had moved to Chicago a couple of years back, and it was harder for them to get together. “They’re good.”

“I’m glad.” Releasing her hand, he leaned back on the couch, arms spread on the back. “So…I know we normally wait until after dinner to exchange gifts, but I thought we could get to the gifts early this year.”

Looking toward the Christmas tree, Annie immediately spotted the new gift nestled next to the box with the…special toy. Despite herself, she blushed, but covered it by jumping up. “Oh goodie! I’ll grab yours, you grab mine, and let’s meet back here.” As if the five feet back to the couch would be some significant journey. But he just stood and then joined her again on the couch with the gift.

“You first,” she said.

He ripped through the wrapping and opened the box. As he lifted the gift from the paper, she watched his face anxiously. He wasn’t smiling anymore, and as he pushed the button on the front of the frame and stared at the screen, she winced, wondering if she’d made a mistake.

She’d gotten him a digital album and loaded it with pictures. There were several of them, and she’d forced herself to include the ones taken before she lost weight because she wouldn’t have been in the album otherwise. There were also pictures of his family, his friends, and his dog, Butter, who’d passed away suddenly, just before Ryan had left for Northern California. He’d loved that dog, and so had Annie. He’d had him since he was sixteen years old. But maybe it was too soon—

He laid a hand over his heart. “I love it, Annie. Thank you.”

He reached out and hugged her. Once again, she felt equal amounts of affection and lust zing through her body, concentrating between her legs. Truth was, that place always ached when she was around Ryan. Bigger truth was, it ached when she simply thought of him, and despite her whole transformation agenda, she still thought of him all the time. Biggest truth? He was the reason she’d visited Sweet Sensations in the first place. After several nights of dreaming about him, of the two of them doing all kinds of nasty and wonderful things to each other, she’d felt so empty and frustrated she’d decided to do something about it. More than she usually did, that is, which was get herself off the old-fashioned way.

Hopefully her naughty list would pave the way for better things and rid her of this longing once and for all. Maybe it would help her finally accept that Ryan would always be her friend but nothing more. Hopefully it would kick-start a whole new segment of her life, one where she didn’t have to fear Ryan would someday figure out how much she wanted him and things would get beyond awkward between them.

She pulled away from him and folded her hands in her lap. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Now you,” he finally said.

Flustered, she snatched up his gift.

She opened it with far more care than he’d shown.

Ryan was great at gift giving. And he had exquisite taste. She could tell from the packaging that he’d gotten her another piece of jewelry, which was awesome, considering she never bought jewelry for herself. The earrings she wore almost every day were from him, and so was her watch.

She lifted the lid to the box and gasped.

It was a necklace, with a dainty diamond heart.

She touched it and whispered, “It’s beautiful.”

She threw her arms around him, hugging him tight. Letting go of the restraint she’d been forcing herself to exercise.

“Not as beautiful as you,” he said.

Closing her eyes, she relished his words and his closeness.

When he moved to pull away from her, however, she found herself hanging on. She squeezed his arms, so hard her nails pinched his skin and he gasped.

Swiftly, she let go and pulled back.

His gaze met hers. Hot. Intense.

His gaze flickered to her mouth.

Time stopped.

The air around them quivered.

Shimmered.

Her pulse accelerated.

Her breathing grew ragged.

God, he looked like he wanted to kiss her.

Not as a friend, but as a lover.

But that didn’t surprise her as much as what he did next.

He leaned in and actually did it.

He kissed her.

It wasn’t the peck on the lips he often gave her.

Nor was it a full-on open-mouthed kiss with tongue.

It was somewhere in between.

It was a gentle graze.

It was a quick flick.

It was a hint of teeth and pressure that increased slightly, then slightly more, before vanishing.

It was both sweet and hot.

It left her confused.

And when he pulled away, it left her wanting more.

Much, much more.

* * *

Ryan felt like he’d been sucker-punched multiple times.

Mother of God, he’d kissed Annie. And not the chaste way he usually did, but with heat. Passion. And with the intense desire to pull her deeper. Kiss her harder. To open her mouth and plunge his tongue inside.

Taste her.

Take her.

He’d had to force himself to pull away.

The feel of her mouth had been incredible.

He knew what her lips felt like—he’d given her sedate kisses over the years. The first time was in college, after he hadn’t seen her for a while and was so excited when she showed up at his dorm on a prearranged visit that he’d grabbed her and given her a big smack on the lips. But like all the others that followed it, that kiss had been closed-mouth.

Not like this kiss.

Kissing her had nothing to do with her new look. Annie’s new look was hot, but he’d always found her sexy as hell—in high school, he’d been in love with her, but he’d accepted she didn’t feel the same way.

When he’d kissed her just now…

He stared at her, trying to get a feel for her emotional state. Had she been turned on? Had she wanted him to keep going? But her gaze flickered away from his, and she had a bright smile on her face, nothing to indicate heat was rushing through her system the way it was rushing through his.

“Thanks again for the lovely gift,” she said, but in contrast to her smile, her tone was cold.

He almost winced. Great. She was upset. No wonder. What the hell had he been thinking, kissing her like that?

Say something, Ryan.
And not about her trip. Not about her list. He was dying to confront her about it, but she was obviously hiding it from him, and the last thing he wanted was to make her feel cornered. He cleared his throat. Forced himself to smile as he pushed her hair behind her ear. “You’re welcome. So…dinner…”

She jolted and jumped to her feet. “Um, right. I should check on dinner. I’ll be right back.”

He watched her tinkering around in her kitchen while he tried to get a hold of his scrambling thoughts. He kept wanting to draw her in for another kiss. Or twenty.

“Dinner’s ready,” she called out. The smell of chicken piccata wafted out with her, but Ryan’s mouth watered for something else altogether.

Another taste of Annie.

“Ryan?”

“Yeah?”

“Dinner’s ready.”

He got up and went over to the table. Annie had it all set up with her Christmas china. She’d served up a salad for each of them. She heaped a pile of linguini on his plate and handed him the bowl with the main dish in it. He noticed she skipped the noodles and took only a small piece of chicken for herself.

“It looks great,” he said as he scooped the chicken dish onto his noodles.

“Thanks. I hope it tastes good. I added some artichoke hearts tonight.”

“I love artichokes.”

“I know,” she told him with a smile. “I was thinking about the time you ate the whole jar of the pickled ones back in high school. Our senior year. Do you remember?”

He winced. “How could I forget? I was sick for two days. It was your fault, really.”

“How do you figure that?”

“I was so caught up in learning what you were teaching me that I wasn’t even paying attention to how many I was eating. You should have warned me.”

She laughed again. “Yeah, I’m sure you were enthralled by my math lesson. I never suspected you’d eat the whole jar until I happened to glance over and they were all gone.”

“It was English not math,” he said.

“Really?”

“Yup. You were the only one who could make me enjoy English. You made me want to learn. You should have never stopped teaching me. If you hadn’t, I’d be as smart as you are now.”

“What are you talking about? You’re a really smart guy, Ryan. You just didn’t have the high grades because you were too busy chasing the cheerleaders to concentrate on school, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I guess high school does come with a lot of distractions,” he said. Annie had been one of those distractions. She just hadn’t known it. Learning with her had been fun, but making himself stop thinking about her after tutoring time ended had been beyond difficult. In the end, he’d moved past all that.

At least, he thought he had.

“So how’s Samantha? You haven’t mentioned her once since you’ve been back. Afraid I’ll be jealous?”

He glanced over. She was obviously joking, but she wouldn’t look at him. Her cheeks were flushed.

“We broke up right before I got back.”