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Junie~
Ouch.
Seriously.
Ouch.
I never thought there’d ever be a moment when I’d feel sorry for Leslie after what she’d done to me but talk about calling someone out on their bullshit.
Leslie’s chin came up. “We’re getting married,” she fired back. “That’s plenty respectable.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Ripley replied with enough sarcasm in his voice to make me cringe a bit.
Choosing to ignore that, Leslie went on with her attack of doubt, and it was hard to fault her since she wasn’t wrong about any of it. “We haven’t even seen you kiss,” she pointed out.
“That’s not true,” Paul said, finally joining in the conversation. Phineas, Bruce, and Démon were wisely staying out of the discussion.
Leslie’s head swiveled like a woman possessed. “What are you talking about?”
Paul was staring at me, and I didn’t miss the way that Ripley’s warm hand found its way onto my thigh. I was wearing shorts, so the feeling of his rough skin on my smooth thigh was seriously turning me on. If this was all an act, then Ripley needed to go into movies with his acting skills.
“I saw him kissing her neck earlier when they were in the water,” Paul informed her. “It seemed pretty loving from what I saw.”
Even though Leslie was facing Paul, there was no mistaking the anger radiating off her. If looks could kill, Paul would be nothing but ash right now. This wasn’t about right or wrong. This was about Paul never being able to side with me on anything ever. Even though Leslie was the one that had ended up with him, it was obvious that I was always going to be an issue between them.
“Besides, as much as I love them both, I don’t need to see them sucking face like a couple of crazed teenagers who can’t control their hormones,” Roark remarked, making everyone chuckle a bit, soothing the tension.
“You’re such a child,” Ripley tossed out teasingly.
“Speaking of children, what do you say, Sheridan? Fancy having some with me?”
“Why do you talk like that?” she asked Phineas, her voice sounding annoyed but amused. “You’re not British.”
Phineas grinned, showing off that damn dimple again. “I am not,” he agreed. “I was born in the good, ol’ US of A. Raised in Pennsylvania, in fact.”
“Then why do you use words like fancy, love, and crazy shit like that?” she asked.
After pulling another drink from his beer, Phin answered, “Lots of nannies, housekeepers, and tutors with wonderful accents and world history to share during my impressionable years.”
Sheridan cocked her head. “Oh.”
“You still haven’t answered my question about children, love,” he pointed out. “I’m thinking three is a good solid number. The boys can play sports, and the girls can do whatever it is that you do.”
“Christ, that has got to be the most sexist thing that I have heard in a really long time,” Démon choked out.
“What if you have nothing but girls?” Bruce posed like Sheridan and Phineas having children was a real possibility.
Phin shrugged. “Then my lovely wife will get to choose which one she wants to follow in her footsteps, and I get the other two.”
“Now I’m your wife?” Sheridan asked, and I turned my face into Ripley’s chest, muffling my laugh at their absurd conversation.
“You were always going to be my wife, love,” he replied easily. “From the moment that I saw you laying out on the deck out by the lake.”
“Oh, I do hope that you two start dating,” Roark said, rubbing his hands together. “I want to see Sheridan eat you up, chew viciously, then spit you out.”
“That’s vivid,” Démon chuckled.
Reaching into the ice chest sitting between him and Bruce, Roark said, “Because that’s exactly what would happen.”
“Okay, okay,” I laughed, pulling away from Ripley. “I’m going to go inside and grab a couple of blankets. Do not get married or have any babies until I get back.”
“I’ll help you,” Ripley offered, standing up, then stretching his arm out to help me stand.
I grabbed it because I was supposed to be in love with this man. “Thanks.”
Ripley linked his fingers in mine, then tugged me behind him. “C’mon, baby.”
Silently we made our way into the house, Ripley leading me to one of the many linen closets in the place. When we got to the one near the guest restroom near the washroom, Ripley let go of my hand to open the door. However, what happened next was not us innocently grabbing a few blankets for everyone outside.
Nope.
Before I knew it, Ripley had his hands on my shoulders, then he nestled me into the crook of the opened door. “What-”
“I’m going to kiss you,” he said, one of his hands going to my hip, the other cradling the right side of my face.
Remembering his reasoning earlier, I asked, “Crap, is someone watching us?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “And I don’t give a fuck if someone is or isn’t.” My lady bits clenched at the roughness of his voice and the words that I was hearing but weren’t making sense. “I just want to kiss you, baby.”
Holy.
Shit.
Ripley Storm wanted to kiss me.
Me!
“O...okay,” I stuttered in the most unromantic, unpassionate way possible. “Okay...if-” Ripley’s lips came down on mine, and that was the end of my rambling.
My fingers curled into the waistband of his board shorts, and I just held on as Ripley Storm gave me the kiss of a lifetime. Lips, soft but insistent, had me opening up, letting his tongue sweep in and play with mine. Ripley tasted like imported beer and all flippin’ man, and it was the perfect combination to make me say yes to anything that he wanted to do to me, and it was only a goddamn kiss.
It wasn’t until I found my legs wrapped around his waist and my arms anchored around his neck that he broke away, my body pressed deliciously against the shelves of the linen closet. It should have felt uncomfortable against my back, but it didn’t. Ripley’s hard body pressed up against my front was too distracting to care about the shelves digging into my back.
“Say yes, so I can carry you upstairs and use you all night long,” Ripley rasped against my lips, and my entire body screamed with my answer.
Holy. Crap.
I wasn’t a virgin by any stretch of the imagination, and while I considered myself sexually open-minded, I’d never had a guy tell me that he wanted to use me all night long. A part of my brain was telling me that I should ask for some clarification on that, because the word ‘use’ could be interpreted in some very negative ways. However, the rest of my brain wasn’t caring if Ripley only wanted to use me. I hadn’t had sex since Paul, so I wasn’t opposed at being used by this man.
“Yes,” I panted. “God, yes...”
What happened next had me ready to pour my heart out and beg this man to keep me forever. Ripley grabbed my hips, then tossed me over his shoulder like a goddamn caveman. Leaving the linen closet door opened, he hauled my body up the stairs, then into his bedroom like I didn’t weigh an ounce. It was the sexiest thing a man had ever done to me. Knowing that this man wanted me so badly that he didn’t want to waste time hoping that I could keep up was a heady feeling.
When he set me back on my feet, his hands were back to cradling my face, and his lips were on mine once again. My hands slid upward, then around his neck, and I did my best to hold on, considering that he was so much taller than I was.
I wasn’t sure how long we were kissing, but when we pulled up for air, Ripley gave me one last chance to change my mind. “Are you sure you want this, Junie?” he asked, his blue eyes alive with so much lust that it felt impossible to say no, even if I’d wanted to.
Not that I did.
I nodded. “I’m sure, Ripley,” I told him. “I’ve never been so sure.”
He dropped his forehead against mine. “You better be,” he said. “Because once I get you into my bed, I’m never letting you go.”
I moaned, because...well, what else could I do?
