They stayed there talking long after the waiter had cleared their plates and Ryan had paid their check. Eventually, Ryan suggested they take a stroll in the park nearby to get some air and allow the poor wait staff to give their table to someone else.
“So, did you enjoy yourself?” he asked as they made their way down the path, arm in arm. Susie was very glad that she’d chosen low heels for their first date—Callie had tried to cajole her into a pair of three inchers, but she hadn’t been sure how tall Ryan would be and didn’t want to tower over him. As it was, he stood a good half-foot above her five foot five frame, and so if she did decide to break out the stilettos she knew there would be no issue.
“I did.” Sighing happily, she leaned her head against his arm. “I’ve never had such a great time on a date with anyone before. You’ve made my night, Ryan.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” He rubbed the pad of his thumb across her knuckles, and she shivered. “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable around me.”
She sighed again, but this time the sound was heavier. “It almost seems too good to be true, you know? I’ve been looking for a man forever who likes me for who I am and isn’t just looking for a skinny body and a pretty face, and I’ve never been able to find one in real life. Then the first time I set up an online profile I get you, and so far you’ve been everything I could ever want. It’s unreal.”
He squeezed her hand, sensing that she was unsettled. “Honey, if I knew the names of the men who’d burned you so bad I would track them down and give them a piece of my mind. But I can assure you that I’m very real, I’m here, and I’m definitely interested in you, for you.”
She pulled her hand away as they stopped beneath an apple tree. It was spring, and the plethora of pale blossoms crowding the branches practically glowed in the moonlight. “I just don’t understand. You’re a successful businessman with a great life who likely has a body underneath that suit to match your killer looks. Why would you go on an online dating site to find someone when you probably have women falling all over you in real life?”
Pushing his fingers through his sandy hair, Ryan sighed. “It would almost be easier if the women falling at my feet just wanted me for my looks, Suz. At least then I could just get myself banged up a few times and I could weed out the shallow ones. But the thing is, they know I make a killing doing what I do, and I can see the dollar signs in their eyes every time they look up at me. After a while I got tired of being looked at as a conquest, as a grand prize to be won. I told you before that I come from a small, grassroots-type family. I’ve always dreamed of finding a normal woman, one who isn’t afraid to be herself, who is smart and beautiful and can make me laugh. I never wanted the money grubbers or the models, and you’d be surprised at how often the two go hand in hand.”
He settled his hands on her waist then, drawing her close. “To be honest, Susie, I really had no idea how this online dating thing was going to go. But after meeting you, all I’ve gotta say is that I’m so glad that I took a chance on it.” He rested his forehead against hers, capturing her wide, green eyes with his. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be out here, tonight, with you.”
Susie’s heart melted as he laid his lips against hers. The cynic in her heart settled in quietly as his arms tightened around her, drawing her close, and she allowed her eyelashes to flutter shut so that she could revel in the moment. He kissed her just as slowly and tenderly as he had in her dream at the beach—and yet the reality was so much better than the fantasy. Dreams were so blurry, so out of focus, but standing here, in the park, she could feel the breeze dancing across her skin in direct contrast to the warmth emanating from his body. She could feel his long, strong fingers digging into her sides, his firm, yet somehow sensual lips moving against her own, and just the hint of his tongue gliding against the seam of her own lips.
Ryan couldn’t believe how good she felt in his arms. She was soft and pliant and giving, almost innocent as she opened her mouth to him and allowed him to taste her sweetness. He sensed somehow that she wasn’t completely inexperienced, but her tiny hesitations told him that this wasn’t something she did very often.
To be honest, it had been a long time since he’d held a woman like this. Certainly he’d made out with plenty of the women he’d dated, and had tumbled with quite a few between the sheets, but those woman had been cold, calculating in their efforts to seduce him, to try and wrap him around their fingers as effectively as they’d wrapped their hands around his cock. He’d seen them for what they were, and had sent them packing at the first opportunity.
Use them and lose them had been his philosophy. After all, it was only fair since they had been trying to use him, wasn’t it?
But he knew it wouldn’t be that way with Susie. She wasn’t the kind of girl who would treat him that way, and she deserved better than what he had given those other woman. And better was exactly what he would give her. Not just better, but his best.
As their tongues dueled, teeth lightly scraping as they tasted each other, he felt her nails dig into his upper arms through his suit jacket, and felt her n**ples harden through the dress he was wearing. He knew it would take very little effort for him to slip his hand beneath the plunging neckline, to cup one of the round, heavy br**sts that had tantalized him throughout the entire night, and knew that she probably wouldn’t protest too much from the tiny little moans escaping her mouth. But he sensed from her lack of self-esteem and her constant worry about what he thought that she’d been hurt, most likely by other men that had been in her life, and that she didn’t know what it was to be truly loved and cherished by someone.
Hell, it had been a long time since he’d romanced a woman—his last sweetheart had parted ways with him when she’d flown across to California to follow her dream as an actress—but he hadn’t forgotten what it was like, the low fluttering in his belly as he brought smiles to a woman’s face with kind words, little trinkets, dropped love notes. And he remembered well what it was like to bring them pleasure in other ways, with his hands and his mouth. He especially was looking forward to that one, but he knew she needed some of the former first before she would truly be ready for that.
Susie didn’t realize how hard she was clutching at Ryan until his fingers gently pried her nails from his suit. He broke the kiss softly, stepping back, but though he created distance with the motion, he kept his fingers loosely linked around her wrists as he held her forearms against his chest. She could feel his heart pumping strong against the inside of her wrist, could hear his labored breathing, and a part of her wished he hadn’t pulled away. Her n**ples were puckered, her panties were wet, and she had a feeling that if her skin had a voice, it would be begging for his hands to glide over it.
But this was only their first date, and even though they’d gotten awfully… intimate, over the phone, she didn’t think she was quite ready to take it to the next level.
“Sorry.” She blew a stray curl out of her face, then realized that her hair must have gotten mussed somehow—whether it was because of the kiss or just in the course of the night she wasn’t sure, but her hands automatically flew upward, patting and tucking. “Guess I got a little carried away.”
“Anytime you want to get more than a little carried away, feel free to let me know, sweetheart.” He tucked her arm into his again, grinning down at her, and she couldn’t help the answering smile that formed on her lips. “But for now, it’s getting late, and I know we both have to be up early. Let’s get you home, and we can do this again another time. If that’s alright with you?”
“Are you kidding?” She set off down the walkway with him. “I’d love to.”
****
They went on a couple more dates, varying greatly in locale and motif—a picnic in the park, a stroll by the boardwalk, an Italian restaurant where they got to re-enact the spaghetti scene between Lady and the Tramp. He was sweet and attentive, always making sure she was comfortable and having a good time, and her heart melted a little bit more on each date.
And even though each kiss became just a little more fevered, a little more scorching, and his hands and lips had begun to roam a little farther than their original territory, he never once crossed the unspoken line between them. It was as though he was waiting for her to make the move, and she was terrified because she was afraid of what he would find.
Their fifth one was quite a bit more casual than the first—he took her out to the movies, and bought them tickets for a rom-com. Susie loved rom-coms, but rarely went out to the theater to see them, and she was relatively certain that Ryan wasn’t particularly a fan. The fact that he was allowing her to drool over Gerard Butler on screen while munching on a bucketful of popcorn without complaining or snoring in her ear gave him major brownie points, in her opinion. He obviously wasn’t afraid to show her consideration for her preferences.
Then again, it was entirely possible he had ulterior motives, because instead of sitting there and watching the screen with her, his hands were stroking gently over the skin of her arms, and his lips were trailing butterfly kisses down the side of her neck.
“Would you quit that?” she whispered for the hundredth time, thankful that the theater was dark so he couldn’t see the grin on her face. “Can’t you see it’s getting really good?”
“It’s definitely getting good,” he agreed as he nibbled on her earlobe. “It could get a whole lot better, too.”
His tone was suggestive, and sent shivers down her spine. “Could it?”
“Mmm.” He pressed kisses to her jawline, then scraped his teeth gently down the side of her neck. “Delicious. And yes, it definitely could get better. But I have a feeling that if I showed you exactly what I meant right now we might be fined for breaking public ordinances. Even if teenagers do get away with this kind of stuff all the time.”
Even so, he didn’t stop teasing and nibbling, and by the time the movie was over she could barely remember what it had all been about. Her head was swimming, her skin was flushed and sensitized, and her br**sts were aching.
“Did you enjoy the movie?” he asked as they walked out of the theater.
“What movie? All I remember is some creep chewing on my neck.”
He laughed as they reached his car, and he pressed his body up against the passenger door. “Want me to do it again?”
She took a deep breath in, then flashed him a smile. “Maybe I wouldn’t mind if you did a little more than that.”
His roving hands stilled. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Just don’t be cheesy and try to press me back against the hood of the car.”
Laughing, he eased off, and then opened the car door for her. “I try to be a little less tacky than that. My place or yours?”
“Yours.”
The drive back to his apartment was filled with tension—of the sexual kind as well as the nervous kind. They kept shooting each other heated glances and soft touches, but underneath it all Susie was unconsciously bracing herself for rejection. Just because he was hot for her now didn’t mean he would be when he finally got her clothes off.