She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (7 page)

Ryan had to admit that the sight of one beautiful woman touching another was provocative. But the thought that wouldn’t leave him was that all that smooth, tanned skin should be under his mouth, not under another woman’s hand.

He moved in even closer, his hand going to Amanda’s hip. He rubbed over the silky material and looked into her eyes. Okay, the hot girl had a point. “What do you think, Mandi? You want this gorgeous girl all over you?”

She gave him a sexy smile. “Kind of.”

He raised an eyebrow.
Kind of
. Okay. And he still wasn’t sharing her.

“If you hadn’t had four shots and told me to be sure you don’t do anything too crazy, I might go for that.” Or maybe
he
was crazy for not going for it anyway. “But I think you’re stuck with me.”

“I had five shots,” she said with a smile. “You need to keep better track.” Then she turned to face the brunette. She cupped the back of the woman’s head and brought her close to whisper in her ear.

The woman was still breathing hard when she looked at Ryan. “You sure?”

“Completely.”

“He’s got what you need?”

“Definitely.”

Damn right he did.

The woman nodded. Then leaned in and kissed Amanda before stepping back. “You better,” she said to Ryan.

He watched her walk away, then looked down at Amanda. “Now what?”

“I need your hands on me.”

His thoughts exactly. “We could—”

But she was already tugging him toward the couches in one of the corners. It wasn’t right on the dance floor, but it was hardly as private as their hotel room would have been.

“I have some big plans for this touching,” he said as she pushed him to sit on the middle cushion. “We might be better off at the hotel.”

“Can’t wait that long.” Amanda straddled his thighs and leaned in to kiss him again. The position pulled her skirt up, and he immediately cupped her butt in his hands to block anyone else’s view. And because he couldn’t help it.

His hands met bare skin and he was lost. In her kiss. In the smell of her, the feel of her, her heat. All of it wrapped around him and fueled a number of fantasies he either had only imagined subconsciously or that had only now materialized. Either way, he wanted her, over and over again, in every position there was.

“Touch me,” she murmured against his lips. “I’m burning up.”

He knew, in the back of his mind, that he wasn’t the sole reason for her burning, but at the moment, with her tongue stroking his, he couldn’t really work up any protest.

He slid his hands forward on the smooth skin of the back of her thighs and moved his mouth to her neck. He didn’t want her mouth to be too busy to gasp his name, after all.

He caressed from the curve of her ass to just inside her thighs, making himself go slow.

She wiggled against him. “Here too.” She leaned back slightly and his fingers made contact with hot, wet skin. Bare skin. No soft curls. Just bare skin.

“Jesus, Amanda,” he groaned.

“I need you, Ryan. I need something. Make this ache go away.”

But it wasn’t going to go away. It was about to get much worse.

His fingers glided forward to meet her slick clit. His thumb circled, as his middle finger pressed into the wet heat that showed exactly how into all of this she was.

She gripped the hair at the back of his head, arching closer, gasping and moving against his hand. “Yes. Ryan.”

He stroked deep and looked up into her face. God, she was something. And she could easily reach down, undo his fly, and they could finish this right here and now. But before he could say a word, the brunette from before materialized behind Amanda. She gathered Amanda’s hair up in one hand, tipped her head back and kissed her, cupping Amanda’s breast.

Ryan felt Amanda’s inner muscles clamp down again and he was at war with himself. He could move his hand, pick her up and get her out of here. But she was clearly enjoying herself. A lot. He moved his finger in and out again, feeling the ripples of pleasure the movement created.

“Damn, you are good together,” the brunette said, lifting her head. “I’m all in.”

Before he knew what she was doing, Amanda lifted herself from his lap. And his hand. “Mand—”

The brunette took her place. “I’m Jennifer.”

“I, uh…” He looked at Amanda, who had climbed up on the cushion next to him, her knees under her.

“Go ahead,” she said with a smile. “It’s okay.”

What was okay? What the hell? Hands on Jennifer’s waist, he started to lift her off of him. “No. We’re good. Let’s go.”

“Come on, Ryan. It’s okay. I want you to have fun too.”

He stared at her. What the fuck was that supposed to mean? “There are about thirty ways I can think of to have fun right now and none of them involve Jennifer.”

Amanda rubbed her hand over his chest. “Come on, Ryan. It’s fun. It doesn’t mean anything. We’re just messing around. I figured you’d go for this.”

He would. Typically. And he hated that that was why she had him here with her.

Jennifer’s hands were busy against his fly. She rubbed up and down the length of his erection—the erection that was all about Amanda—and he resisted the urge to dump her on her ass on the floor. He did, however, toss her, fairly gently, to the other couch cushion.

He stood and rezipped. “No,” was all he said when Amanda opened her mouth.

She frowned and scrambled to stand as well. “I’m trying here, Ryan. This isn’t enough? What do you want? To go to the balcony?”

He scowled at her. “I didn’t even want to come over
here
.”

“Did Emma go straight to the third level?”

He stared at her. Had she just mentioned her sister?
Now
?

He couldn’t even speak. He took her upper arm and started for the door.

They were out on the sidewalk, several paces from the front of Frigid, before he dropped his hold and shoved his hands into his back pockets. He wanted to yell. And he
never
wanted to yell. If there was yelling to be done at work, Conner took care of it. And if there was yelling that needed to be done on the football field, Shane, Cody and Conner were well ahead of him and Nate.

But he really wanted to yell right now.

“What is going on?” Amanda asked him, hands on her hips.

He wasn’t going to yell. This was Amanda Dixon. This was Conner’s sister. He was not going to swear either. Then he looked at her haughty stance and the look of affront on her face and decided that, on second thought, he probably was going to swear.

He advanced on her, backed her up against the hot bricks of Frigid, and slapped his hands onto the wall on either side of her head. “What does all of this have to do with Emma?”

Amanda’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you so pissed?”

“Just what the
fuck
do you think happened between me and Emma?”

“Emma said she and a friend came to Frigid one night. I assumed it was you considering it’s—” She gestured at the building “—you know.”

“A place where anything goes and people can get kinky?”

She nodded.

Ryan gritted his teeth. “I didn’t know Emma had ever been to Frigid.”

Amanda’s eyes widened. “Does that bother you?”

“What?”

“That Emma might have come here with someone else?”

He frowned. “Why would I care if Emma came to Frigid with someone else?”

She frowned too. “Why are you mad that I thought you and Emma came to Frigid together?”

“Why are you so determined to paint me and Emma as nymphomaniacs?”

Amanda looked surprised at that. “I don’t mean to paint you as anything. You’re just both so…free and daring.”

He looked into her eyes for a long moment. She was sincere in that she hadn’t been trying to insult him or her sister. But she really did think of him and Emma as wild and, apparently, without boundaries.

He pushed himself away from the wall and took a deep breath. “I’m going to say this once, Amanda and you’re going to remember it. You listening?”

She nodded, her back still pressed against the bricks.

“Your sister and I were messing around one night and we lost our clothes and we kissed. Actually, we kissed,
then
we lost our clothes. Then we went skinny dipping. It was nothing more, nothing less. We’ve let everyone believe it was more than that because it’s fun to rile your brother, but it was just
swimming.
That said, your sister is a sweet woman who has more going for her than a smokin’ bod. I think if you really want to do everything Emma would do, you might be surprised where that lands you. And I’m not talking about inside Frigid.”

Amanda was staring at him, her hands flat on the wall behind her, her breathing ragged. “You’re…you’re defending my sister.”

“Damn right I am. And myself, by the way. Yeah, I like to have a good time and yeah, I’ve been to Frigid before and had some fun. But that doesn’t mean that’s what I want from you.”

She was still staring at him.

“What?”

“I… How can you defending my sister to me be hot?”

He started to reply, then shut his mouth. She found him defending Emma hot? “Seriously?”

She lifted a shoulder. “Emma’s made a name for herself and most of the time I agree she deserves it, but I still worry about her. Knowing that a hot guy took time to see past all of her…”

“Curves?” Ryan suggested.

Amanda narrowed her eyes. “No. Her…” But again she trailed off.

“Hotness?”

Her eyes narrowed further. “
No
. Her…shenanigans.”

Ryan couldn’t help it. He snorted. “Yeah, ‘shenanigans’ was never even on my list of possible words to use.”

Amanda’s mouth curled slightly. “It’s the perfect word for Emma.”

He moved close again, now past his urge to yell. “Emma’s okay, Amanda. You don’t have to worry about her. And you certainly shouldn’t measure your own sexiness by her. You’ve got it all, babe. Doesn’t matter who you’re next to.”

She looked up as he leaned in close. “Are you sure?”

He ran his hand from her waist, over her hip, to the bare skin of her thigh. “Absolutely sure.”

“I mean about Emma being okay?”

He peered closely at her face. She really was sincerely in doubt. “Emma’s always gonna land on her feet, Amanda.”

“Emma’s never been without a safety net to land in.”

“How many times have you bailed her out of jail?”

“None,” Amanda admitted.

“How many of her unwanted babies are you raising for her?”

“None.”

“How many marriages has she broken up?”

“None. That I know of,” Amanda added.

Ryan chuckled. “Emma’s smart. Yeah, she’s got an adventurous streak, but she’s not hurting anyone, including herself.”

“You sure you’re not in love with her?” Amanda asked.

He nodded. “Completely sure.”

“Why not? You think she’s pretty great, obviously.”

“She is pretty great. But Emma and I were seasonal.” He took Amanda’s hand and started for the car.

“Seasonal?” she repeated. “Like you were only together for Christmas or the springtime?”

He shrugged. “Kind of. My mom always told me that people come into your life for different reasons. Some are forever, but those are rare. Most people are seasonal—they’re with you for a reason and when that reason is fulfilled, they move on.”

Amanda didn’t say a word as he held the car door open for her and she got in. But once he was settled behind the wheel, she said, “And Emma’s reason in your life was sex?”

He shook his head, pulling into traffic as he tried to explain this. “Emma was in my life to get me back in a swimming pool and, I think, to intrigue
you
into choosing me as your one-night stand to get rid of Tim.”

She pivoted in her seat, and he was sure she was going to ask what he meant by Emma being in his life to get Amanda there. It sounded fanciful, but that’s what happened when you were raised by a gypsy-hippie free spirit. His mother believed there was a reason for everything that happened and that all of those reasons were like threads that, over time, wove together into the pattern of a person’s life. Every thread was necessary for the final pattern to be complete.

“Emma got you back in a swimming pool? What do you mean?”

He smiled. Maybe she was cool with his theory that they had been brought together by fate. Or maybe she hadn’t really heard that part.

“I’ve been freaked out about swimming pools since I was fourteen and one of my buddies almost drowned. But Emma got me back in the water.”

“How’d she do that?”

“Skinny-dipping.”

Amanda swung around to face forward, and he could see in the dashboard lights that she was scowling.

“What’s wrong?”

“I thought you just had a whole bunch of hot sex.”

“And you’re
bothered
that we didn’t?”