Flicker emotions.
Ryder sat across holding her hand, watching emotions flicker across her face, unreadable but suggesting some kind of sorrow. Well, he thought. This woman had her bucket load of sorrows and he hoped he wasn't adding to them.
Don't know if anybody's told you, he said frankly, but you are one hell of a beautiful woman.
Her hand fluttered to her cheek and her eyes widened, blushing at the words.
Their eyes met and locked and for Ryder there was no mistaking the sizzle of sexual electrifying that snapped between them. No mistaking the darkening of her eyes or the way her breath suddenly quickened. Part of him thought it might be smart to yank his hand back to safety but another part of him didn't want to lose the moment of magical contact.
It was almost magical, lifting him out of the lonely place he has lived in for so long, to a place where hopes and dreams weren't lost in a sea of pains and loss.
But the warning went unheeded as they continued to sit on, his hand pressed to her breast, her hand covering his, their eyes locked in astonishment as if they had both either wakened from sleep or had fallen into a dream.
He wanted the moment never to end.
* * *
Shelley could feel the zap of sexual electrifying between them, so surprising in her life now. After so many years of feeling as if they might have died.
She likes it, didn't want to let go of it, even though she knew it could amount to nothing. He was a man on a mission and would be gone in a few days. But not even that thought could quell the hunger she feel for him.
She needed to feel desirable, needed to feel pretty and attractive. Needed to feel as if she were more than a run around girl and something to be kicked around.
God she said, it was a heady feeling. And although she felt a flutter of fear about it, that flutter couldn't suppress years of repressed longings.
Shelley heard Ryder stir and opened her eyes in time to see him closing the distance between them. Her heart tripped then sped up as she caught the intensity in his gaze.
He perched on the arm of the chair, touched her cheek and hair then started lowering his mouth towards hers.
In her mind, she wanted this to be more than a kiss.
He lowered his head until their lips touched and she tilted her face up to him like a flower seeking the sun. At first, his mouth rested gently against hers, a gentleness that made her heart beat with longing before it struck the tinder of her body. She loved it.
He even paused to smile at her and look deeply into her eyes, adding an intimate awareness she has never experienced before.
She returned Ryder's smile then sighed as he began to kiss her again. He touched her breast again, rubbing his thumb slowly over it, then kissing her cheeks and throat.
He made her feel worshipped.
When at last his hands trailed lower and began to caress her VJ, she discovered a new sensitivity that she had never experienced before. No hard squeezing, no pinching, no demanding massage of tender flesh. Just a light sweet teasing touch.
Then he did something that made her breath catch in her throat. He returned to kissing her, putting his tongue deeply, fondling her breast, rubbing it gently over the entire nipple, cherishing her in a way she could scarcely believe.
By the time he stopped and lifted his head up to gaze at her eyes again, she was certain that Ryder was the man she could trust with her body.
She smiled and murmured, "I like that"
"Me, too", Ryder whisper back.
She wished he hadn't stopped but she understood. In the deepest reaches of her being understood. This man didn't want to move too fast or risk taking advantage of her.
In that moment, even though she knew she would lose it, she gave a tiny piece of her heart to Ryder.