She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (12 page)

Free of the plastic and electronics, Ryan ran his hands down her shoulders and over her back to her ass, and lifted her closer.

She gripped his shoulders, arching against him, kissing him again, her mouth hot under his.

Ryan curled his fingers into the firm flesh of her butt. He wanted to eat her up, lick her from head to toe, taste every sweet, soft, silky inch of her. He wanted to know how her lips tasted compared to her toes and how the back of her knee felt on his tongue compared to the skin on her inner elbow.

She pulled back and took a deep breath. “No-sex rule still in place?”

“Yeah. For now.” It would be a good excuse to drag this thing out. “But I never said no orgasm.”

He slid his hand to the front of her capris, intent on loosening the buttons and getting inside. He didn’t have to worry, or work too hard—Amanda undid the buttons for him. With a heartfelt groan, he slid his hand into the front of the cotton pants and the silky panties inside.

Amanda ran her hands up under the back of his shirt. Her hot hands made him want to strip everything off and have them all over him—some places more than others.

Ryan stroked his fingers over her sensitive flesh, and her breath hissed out.

“Ryan.”

“Oh, yeah. Right here, babe.”

He slid his finger lower, the heat incredible, the temptation to lunge and taste and thrust almost overwhelming. But he made himself go slow, enjoying every millimeter of heat and wetness.

She started to pull in a breath and held it as he pressed in, his finger sliding deliberately and deep.

Once he was as deep as he could go, he paused. “Breathe, babe,” he told her.

“Can’t,” she gasped.

“Got to. You can’t hold your breath for as long as I plan to be doing this.” He stroked in and out, slow, pulling his finger along her inner wall, making her tremble.

She sucked in a deep breath.

“Good girl,” he said gruffly.

He stroked in and out again, this time spreading the wetness up and over her clit.

She gripped his shoulders. “
Ryan
.”

“That’s right, Mandi. That’s right.”

“Faster,” she whispered.

“What was that?” he asked, stroking nice and slow and deep.

“Faster.” She dug her fingers into his shoulders. “
Please
.”

“Oh, I like that.” He picked up the pace a little. “
Please
is, after all, the magic word.” He circled over her clit, then pulled the sweet nub between his thumb and the tip of his index finger, rolling it and making her cry out.

“I like that even mo—” He groaned as her hands found his hard, pulsing cock behind his fly.

“You’re right. That’s nice.” She stroked up and down the length of him and he pressed closer.

“You’re not distracting me.” He slid his finger deep.

“It’s payback,” she said, her voice breathy.

“I love laser tag.”

She laughed softly, then squeezed him through the denim that was becoming tighter and hotter by the second.

“I’d love to strip you down and put you up against this wall, your legs around my waist, spread open so I could thrust hard and deep.”

He felt her inner muscles tighten. Ah, she liked dirty talk.

“You like words like ‘thrust’?”

“And ‘spread open’,” she said.

Suddenly the buzzer sounded, ending the game, and the lights came up.

They jerked apart, Ryan’s fingers bending back slightly as he tried to pull his hand from her pants. She yanked it free, then quickly buttoned up.

“All players please report to the console. Game two is about to begin,” the girl said over the intercom.

Ryan grabbed their vests from the floor while Amanda redid her ponytail. When she’d taken a deep breath, he started toward the console.

She grabbed his arm. “I can’t go over there. They might see me.”

Right, the students.

“The game won’t start until our vests register at the console,” Ryan said.

“Okay.” She glanced toward the computer, then toward the door. “Maybe we should leave.”

He nodded. “If you want to.” They could absolutely pick up where they’d left off at his place or in her car. Or the hallway just outside.

“Yeah. I guess.”

She glanced around. There were no other people outside of the hub area where the console would reset and register their vests for the next game.

They headed for the door, Ryan carrying both vests.

“Maybe we could come back sometime,” she said casually as she reached for the door.

Ryan looked at her in surprise. “Are you asking me out
again
?” he asked. “Wow. You can’t expect me not to brag about
that
. That’s unheard of.”

“Yes, I can expect—” She started as she stepped through the door into the outer room where the vests were stored between games. She came up short.

There were six other people in the room removing vests.

“Dr. Dixon?” one of the girls asked.

He heard Amanda sigh. “Hi, Stephanie.”

Stephanie grabbed the arm of another of the girls who had her back to them. The girl pivoted and her face brightened as she saw her professor. She lifted a hand in greeting.

Amanda smiled at her. “Hi, Jill.” Amanda spoke the words but also moved her hands at the same time, clearly using sign language. “How was your game?”

The girl spoke and signed back. “Okay. Confusing.”

So she was hearing impaired. Interesting. Ryan hung up their vests as he watched them communicate. He was impressed by how well Amanda signed.

“What are you doing here?” Jill asked.

“Just having some fun,” Amanda returned.

“Is he your boyfriend?”

Ryan grinned as Amanda glanced quickly at him and shook her head. “A friend.”

“Too bad. He’s cute.”

Ryan’s grin grew. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall to watch and wait.

“Yes, he is,” Amanda agreed with her hands only. “But it’s not like that.”

She was going to be very surprised to find out that he knew sign language.

“Why not?” Jill asked.

Yeah, why not? Ryan wondered.

“He likes to have too much fun,” Amanda told her.

“And you don’t?”

No, she didn’t, Ryan thought. Because of the consequences. And today—running into her students—would likely go on her list of negative consequences.

Dammit.

The three guys and two other girls headed out to the front, and Jill and Amanda followed.

Ryan wondered how Amanda would feel if she knew her lipstick was smudged and that the material across her butt was wrinkled.

Jill headed to the restroom and the guys in their group stopped in front of the snack bar. The girls—Stephanie and the other—stood off to one side.

“So…back to my place?” Ryan asked Amanda.

Amanda seemed distracted when she looked up at him. “Huh?”

“Do you want to go back to my place?” He said it and signed it at the same time.

Her eyes widened. “You know sign?”

“Yep.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, I totally understood when you agreed that I’m cute.”

She rolled her eyes. “Like you didn’t already know that.”

“So, do you want to go back to my place?”

Her eyes went to the girls again. “It’s weird that Jill’s with them.”

He glanced over at them. “It is?”

“Steph is in her class but the other girl is a pharmacy student and I don’t know the guys.”

“What’s weird about it?” Ryan asked.

“She and Steph aren’t friends that I know of. Her group is Karen and Allison and RJ.”

He glanced at the group. “So?”

“So, I know Jill’s been having some trouble at her current clinical site. There’s a therapist there who’s very uncomfortable with Jill’s hearing impairment.”

“What’s that got to do with laser tag?”

“Things are different—a different group of people…makes me worry.”

“She’ll tell you if she needs you, right?”

“I hope so.”

She frowned at something over his shoulder and he turned. Her attention was on the two girls again, and he focused on their conversation as it was clearly bothering Amanda.

“She’s not as fun as I expected her to be,” one of the guys told Stephanie.

“What do you think?” Stephanie asked the boy in the blue shirt.

He shrugged. “It’s weird that she can’t hear, you know?”

“I told you this wouldn’t work,” the other girl said to Stephanie. “How can he get to know her if they can’t talk to each other?”

“Well, I can
talk
to her,” the guy said. “It just won’t do any good.”

The group chuckled and Ryan felt the tension emanating from Amanda’s body.

Ryan resisted the urge to grab the front of the kid’s shirt and shake him. He glanced at Amanda instead. What was it about being with her that made him feel all these emotions so intensely? He didn’t know the guy, didn’t know Jill. It seemed like a shitty thing to say, but it wasn’t Ryan’s style to grab strangers. It didn’t matter. Amanda had already stepped around him.

“Ladies,” she said as she approached the girls.

They turned, the guys also quieting and focusing on Amanda.

“Just because she can’t hear you,” Amanda said, “doesn’t mean that what you’re saying isn’t bitchy.”

Ryan’s eyebrows rose as the girls’ eyes widened.

“What?” Stephanie asked.

“
My
hearing is impeccable. I heard what you said about Jill.”

Ryan moved in close behind her. “Chill, Mama Bear,” he muttered softly.

Amanda took a deep breath. “Stephanie, I’m disappointed in you.”

The other girl stepped forward. “We just said that Jill didn’t seem to be having fun.”

“He said that she was weird.”

“Hey,” the kid protested.

The girl frowned. “This is a hard game to play if you can’t hear. We didn’t think of that.”

“Well, you won’t need to worry about that for the rest of the night. We’ll be giving Jill a ride home.”

“No, wait,” Stephanie protested. “You can’t take her home. She’ll want to know why.

“Of course she will,” Amanda said.

“That will hurt her feelings,” Stephanie said.

Amanda crossed her arms. “
You
will have hurt her feelings.”

Ryan wrapped his hands around Amanda’s upper arms and leaned in. “Babe, we’re going home. No Jill.”

She tried to shrug him off. “I want to take Jill home.”

“That’s a bad idea.” He turned her toward the door. “But I have a good one.” He nudged her toward the entrance, then turned back and reached to grab the boy in blue by the arm. Ryan pulled him in close. “Here’s how this is gonna go. You’re going to be sweet, doting even. You’re going to be so damned clingy that
she’s
going to get sick of
you
.”

The boy’s eyes were wide, but he nodded.

“And if that’s
not
how this goes,” Ryan added. “I’m going to take away the only thing you have going for you—that pretty face.”

He let the kid goas Jill came out of the bathroom.

“Nice to meet you,” Ryan signed to her.

Clearly surprised, but pleased, Jill signed back, “Nice to meet you too.”

Then he grabbed Amanda’s hand and headed for the door.

They were at the car before Amanda said or did anything. But when she finally did, he really liked the result. Amanda turned him, pushed him up against the car, went up on tiptoe and kissed him.

Ryan responded the way any smart man being kissed by a hot woman would. He grabbed her butt and hauled her more firmly against him. The kiss got hot fast and then ended just as quickly. Amanda pulled back suddenly, breathing hard. “Thank you for standing up for Jill.”

“Who’s Jill?”

She smiled. “Seriously. Thank you. That was…”

“Nice? Sweet? Chivalrous?”

“Sexy.”

“I like that one.” He squeezed her ass once more, then let her go. Reluctantly. But he couldn’t go any further than kissing and squeezing in the parking lot of the laser tag place, and he fully intended to go further.

Amanda glanced back at the building as he stepped back. “I can’t believe they were acting like that.” She unlocked the door and yanked it open. “I’ve always thought a lot of Stephanie. Why would she set Jill up with a guy like that?”

Ryan rounded the car and got into the passenger seat. “I don’t—”

“A true friend would be protecting her. They would have picked a better place to go and they would have prepared the guys for how to communicate.”

“Jill’s important to you,” he observed.

“Yes. They all are. But I admire her. She’s meeting her challenges head-on. I think she can teach us all a lot.” Amanda started the car, frowning out the windshield. “But if she’s having trouble, she has to let me know.”