Not my type?
Was she fucking kidding me with that?
I loved women who want to be taken care of?
What was that shit?
A little attraction?
I moved to go after her and set her straight, but stopped myself.
Dex was right. I was sixteen years older than Ryan, and she deserved better than to be tied to someone that much older. If we had kids, I would be in my sixties when they were still only in their twenties.
I don’t need anyone. I’m fine alone.
My gut twisted at the thought of Ryan spending her entire life keeping people at a distance. Of that gorgeous, funny, sweet woman being lonely. And the thought of her returning to that apartment where she’d been attacked made me break out in a cold sweat.
Dex was wrong.
Yes, in the past, I’d dated women until I got bored.
But I had never felt about any of them the way I felt about Ryan Baillie.
Before I could stop myself, my feet were taking me to her.
Chapter Five
RYAN
I was shaking as I hurried into the bedroom where I’d slept last night. If I was so cool about being alone, about not needing anyone, then why did it feel as if Joe had just ripped out my guts?
It was stupid of me to feel this way.
Of course I was not as important to him as his son.
Dex should come first.
His devotion to his son was one of the reasons I loved Joe so much.
My breath caught.
Loved?
No.
I didn’t love Joe.
I shook my head, searching the room for my jeans.
I couldn’t love Joe.
No way.
Trembling even harder, I spotted my jeans in the corner, folded on top of a chest of drawers. Hurrying over to them, I pushed down my pajama shorts and was just reaching for the jeans when Joe suddenly marched into the room.
My heart lurched in my throat as he drew to an abrupt halt.
His cheeks flushed at the sight of me standing in nothing but my Henley and plain cotton underwear.
Joe’s gaze dipped to between my legs, and the area throbbed in response.
“Joe?” I whispered hoarsely.
His hot, dark gaze drifted down my legs and back up my body, drinking every inch of me in. “One,” he rasped, his voice hoarse, “not my type?”
I shivered. “Small, petite brunettes ring a bell?”
“Apparently, they don’t make my dick as hard as a tall redhead with legs that go on forever and the most beautiful fucking green eyes I’ve ever seen in my life.”
I gasped, my gaze falling to see his jeans straining with his erection. Oh my God. My skin flushed from head to toe, and my breasts suddenly felt heavy with need.
“Two,” Joe continued in that thick voice, “I don’t have a thing for women who need to be taken care of. Do I like to take care of my woman? Yes. But the woman I care about has an independent streak a mile wide, and I like it a fuck of a lot. Three: This isn’t just a ‘little attraction.’” He took a step toward me, determination and need dark on his face. “This is a code-red situation.”
“Code red?” I could barely breathe.
“Code red. I can’t live my fucking life because all I can think about is you.”
Oh my God.
“Joe—”
His eyes flashed. “I want to hear you say my name just like that as I move inside you.”
Oh. My. God.
“Joe—”
Then he rushed me. Our bodies collided seconds before our mouths did.
Joe’s kiss was ravaging. It was a man’s kiss. Dark, deep, and sexual. His stubble rasped against my skin.
His hand fisted in my hair as he held me to him, and I grasped onto him as he plundered my mouth. It was as if Joe couldn’t kiss me deep or hard enough.
I whimpered against his tongue as his other hand gripped my ass to pull me into the hard-on straining the zipper of his jeans. The whimper turned to a moan, reverberating into his mouth. Joe ground his hips harder into me, squeezing my ass. I slid my hands under his tee in answer, shivering at the delicious feel of his smooth, hot skin beneath my fingertips.
He groaned as I touched his nipples. The sound rumbled in my mouth as we kissed harder, bruising each other’s lips.
I needed him inside me. I wanted to be overwhelmed by Joe. To have all my senses captured by him. To feel and taste and smell and hear nothing but him, all around me, over me.
Inside me.
Fumbling for the button on his jeans, I made that very clear.
Then suddenly, I was in his arms for a few seconds before finding myself on the bed, Joe covering my body as we pawed at each other’s clothing. Or what little I wore. Joe broke our kiss to whip off my Henley, and I reached around my back to unhook my bra. He took hold of it and ripped it away from me, throwing it over his shoulder. His fiery eyes devoured my naked breasts.
“You were over one Saturday,” he said, even as his hips undulated against me with a mind of their own. “Nicole was there too. You were both in your bikinis. But I couldn’t stop looking at you. Every time you laughed, I wanted to kiss the sound into my mouth. I wanted to press you up against the pool, rip off your bikini, and suck on your nipples.”
Wet slickened between my legs. “Joe.”
“I broke up with Nicole after that.” He reached for my breasts, caressing them, plucking at my nipples as they tightened into hard points. “I couldn’t be with one woman when all I could think about was another. And all the nasty, dirty, grown-up things I wanted to do to her.”
“Do them,” I begged, my mind a haze of lust. “Joe, please. I want you so much.”
“God, baby, you have no idea how much I want you back.” He kissed me again.
I frantically pulled off his shirt, breaking the kiss to do it, wanting to explore his beautiful body … but then he bent his head to my breasts, sucking a nipple deep into his mouth, and I forgot about everything but what he was doing to me.
I cried out, arching against him.
His long fingers curled around my underwear, and he tugged so wildly, I heard them tear.
Neither of us cared as he yanked my underwear down my thighs. They got caught around my ankles, and I kicked to get them off. My patience was obliterated. “Come inside me. Please, Joe, now.”
“Fuck,” he murmured, his eyes wild with need. “You kill me.” He kissed me again. Prolonging my need. Toying with me.
In answer, I fumbled for his zipper. As I slid my hand inside his boxers to feel his throbbing, hard heat, he slipped his hand between my legs, sliding his fingers into me. The wet he found there made him grunt into my mouth. He tore his lips from mine, and my chest rose and fell in frenzied breaths as he stared into my eyes with a passion that blew my mind.
“You’re soaked.” His face hardened with need, and he gently captured the hand I had wrapped around him and removed it. He pinned my hand to the bed.
Anticipation made me squirm beneath him. Joe never broke eye contact as he shoved down his jeans and boxers just far enough to release himself.
The fingers of my free hand curled into the bedcovers until Joe captured it, too, and held me down. My panting filled the room, and I let my legs fall open wide as he nudged against me. I moaned into his mouth.
He pushed into me. Hard.
My desire eased his way considerably, but he was big, thick, and that overwhelming fullness I’d been desperate for caused a pleasure pain to zing down my spine.