“Want to know what I thought of when I saw you the first time?” she asked.

He raised a brow. Clearly he wasn’t welcoming the subject change, but when she crawled toward him and unbuttoned the top clasp of his shirt, then the next, then the next, the movement of his chest shifted rhythm, from shallow inhales to deep breaths.

“I thought of how you would take me. Would you be hard or soft?” She undid another button. “Fast or slow?” The last button opened, showing his impressive skin and hard torso. “Mostly I wondered what your hands would feel like on my skin.”

His gray eyes looked over her and stopped on his hat atop her head. “I’m starting to see your fondness for a certain look. I think I just developed a crush on a cowgirl.”

She tipped her hat the way she’d seen people do in old west movies, then in her best Ryder Diamond impression, she said, “Not a cowgirl.”

“Maybe not, but I like my hat on you. I’d like it better if that was all you wore, though.”

His hot gaze had turned molten, and finally she was getting back to where she needed to be. There was safety in limiting what was between them to just sex. That was all she could offer, and that was all she could take.

Ryder sat forward and cupped her face. She braced herself for his kiss, was dying for it, but he kept a fraction of distance between them. His scent wrapped her up, almost as much as his heat.

“Whitney…” He whispered her name. “Thank you for the compromise. I’m…glad I know you.”

A fist closed around her heart, and a rush of air stuck somewhere along her windpipe. It was the most genuine thing she’d ever heard. Her skin felt like fabric, and Ryder was tearing at the seams of her entire being.

“I’m glad I know you, too,” she whispered.

He closed the last bit of space and kissed her. He dipped his tongue inside for a quick taste, then sat there—still, interlocked with her—and just…stayed.

Stayed in the kiss. Stayed in the moment. And she stayed right there with him, the feel of his firm lips and his sweet taste slowly seeping into her senses, like she truly recognized him. Knew him.

She wanted to see him—really see him—and have access to the entire strong man that was finally, finally, in her bed.

“Will you stand up?” she asked.

He looked at her for a moment, and then did as she asked. “Not loving the idea of leaving your body, sweetness,” he said, but he rose and stood at the foot of her bed.

She faced him, then got to her knees. The mattress dipped as she ran her hands along his torso and up his arms, making his open shirt fall away like white curtains off all that tan skin.

“I won’t let you go far,” she said and put his hat back on his head. The look of him shirtless, with low slung jeans and hard muscles, made her brain foggy. He was her dream man come to life.

She cupped his neck and trailed little kisses around his jaw to his chin. The clean-shaven planes of his face tickled her lips as she moved down his neck to his chest.

“Jesus, you feel so good,” he murmured. His head lolled back just a bit, and a calm happiness flooded her at Ryder Diamond standing there, letting her taste him.

He worked her shirt over her head and tossed it to the floor, then tugged on her shorts. Without taking her mouth from his skin, she shimmied out of her bottoms, and they soon were on the pile of other discarded clothes.

“Pink today,” he rasped, grazing his fingers along her lace panties.

She ran her hands down his chest, admiring all the hard ridges of his abs, and then she smoothed her palms over his sides, down his hips, and back up his rock hard stomach. She could stay there, on her knees, delivering sweeping touches across his impressive body for an eternity and never get bored.

She kissed the top ridge of his abs, nipping it, then moving down to the next set of defined muscles. And lower, until she ran her tongue along the V of his hips.

“You’re like my very own lollipop,” she said, biting and licking his hips as she unfastened his belt and pulled his jeans down until his hard cock was freed and bobbed in front of her.

He stepped from his pants and kicked them away. She’d thought his being shirtless was a sight, but Ryder Diamond put his own image to shame as he stood in nothing but a Stetson and a smile.

Her stomach flipped with butterflies, and the instant need to feel him everywhere.

“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he asked.

She delivered one wet kiss to the head of his shaft, then looked up and said, “Tell me.”

His gray eyes sizzled. “You make me feel like I’m climbing high and in control when I have a hold of you.” He wove his hands through her hair. “But then I realize it’s like trying to hold onto a strong, hot breeze. Soothing and sinful while it lasts, but then it knocks you on your ass and leaves you with the truth that you never had a good grip on it to start with.”

Her eyes searched his face. He was hitting her with so much honesty tonight it was heating up her chest in places that had long ago frozen over with ice.

“You’re holding on right now,” she said.

He nodded, his brow furrowing as his thumbs traced back and forth along her cheekbones.

“It would appear so.”

She wanted to please him. Feel him. Get lost in the lust and crazy passion only he made her feel. With a final kiss on his hip, she lay down on her back, her head hanging off the edge of the bed, and she looked up at him.

“Come here.” She opened her mouth.

The moment her intentions registered, the expression on his face was priceless. Awe and excitement transformed his handsome features as he took his hat off and tossed it across the room.

“You’re a damn dream, sweetness,” he said, holding his hard cock and stepping closer. He bent slightly to run the crown along her lips. Her head was hanging off the edge of the bed, elongating her neck as she stared up at him. She opened wider, waiting for him to close the last bit of distance.

She flicked her tongue out, urging him on.

“You ready?” he asked.

She nodded, and it was all the assurance he seemed to need. He pushed his cock into her mouth and groaned as inch after inch disappeared into her throat.

“Fuck, sweetness,” he moaned and leaned over her, his hands gripping the sheets on either side of her hips. He slowly withdrew, then thrust back in, surging in and out the way he would her core.

“Spread your legs wide for me,” he rasped.

She did, bending her knees and letting them fall wide. She heard the sound of ripping lace and felt the material tug and give way under his strong hand. He’d torn them clean off. She was left spread wide and bare. He growled with approval.

All she could see were his hard abs flexing right above her face as she sucked him over and over. And when she felt his hot tongue flick her clit, she jerked at the instant pleasure.

“I may be your lollipop, but you’re the best damn dessert I’ve ever had.” He took the little bundle of nerves between his lips.

She moaned around the thick cock in her throat, which made him tongue her faster. Harder. She concentrated on breathing through her nose while Ryder lashed her sweet spot with lick after lick.

Sparks flew across her skin, and she didn’t even feel her orgasm creep up, it simply hit like a bolt of energy, snapped across her body like lightning hitting a dry tree, splintering it down the middle. An internal storm surged, raining heat and power through her veins.

She moaned and writhed, but Ryder just kept eating at her like the dessert he’d described.

“I’m with you, sweetness,” he said. “I’m going to come…but I don’t want to. Not yet…” He kissed her once more, then pulled away, leaving her gasping for breath and trembling from aftershocks.

She barely registered him grabbing a condom from his discarded pants and putting it on. He moved her to the middle of the bed and was between her still-shaking thighs in record time.