Page 35 of Her Surprise Protector
“Don’t get too excited. I never said I was any good,” Riker reminded me, handing me his poetry notebook. His fingers lingered a fraction of a second before releasing it.
I held the book like it was the original handwritten copy of one of the great classic novels. Reverently, I opened it. This wasn’t just writing. Riker had given me a window, and I could use it to take a look into his soul.
Riker’s poetry was…intense. I tended to use physical things to anchor my thoughts when I wrote poetry, but Riker clearly didn’t employ that strategy. Different stanzas often felt disconnected and unrelated until I read them again, paying close attention to the words. Riker wasn’t the man I had thought when I first met him. His poetry felt the same way – words didn’t retain their conventional meanings. I had to look below the surface to grasp what he was conveying.
“It’s…emotional,” I said aloud, my voice little more than a murmur. I was talking to myself to help make sense of the poems, but I knew Riker was listening. “It’s emotional. The meaning to some of the words is vailed. I can’t just read the words once, you know?”
“I told you I wasn’t any good,” Riker reminded me, escaping into his glass.
“Hush, you. Don’t put words in my mouth. I never said they weren’t good. They’re very you, and you are a very good poet.” Riker didn’t answer, probably not convinced. I continued browsing, but the ominous tone of the current poem didn’t sit well with me. No, it didn’t sit well with that feeling, the one that had plagued me on and off since Riker told me the news.
Then I read the very last poem in the book, and it was all about loss, loneliness, and taking steps back. That was when I finally realized what was wrong.
I closed the book. Not long ago, I would have approached this issue indirectly – beat around the bush a bit, so to speak, fearful Riker would think my distress was unwarranted or I was overreacting. Now, I felt comfortable with Riker, and I knew he would sense my mood, and he would never laugh at me for feeling uncertain. “Riker, I’m glad to be home and all, and I love you so much for making that possible, but…I’m kinda sad because we won’t see each other as often anymore. I’ll be here with Bree, and you only have weekends in the Hamptons…”
“Well, I have to go back to Manhattan and work.” He shrugged, not a dismissive motion, but an I-can’t-do-anything-about-that one gesture. “I can come here too, you know. We can all be here… You, me and Bree.”
“I know. I just feel like this is a step backward for us since we won’t be living together anymore.”
“Elena.” Riker gathered me into his right side, still holding his glass in his left hand. “I’ve had too much wine for this. I suck at talking about the future when I drink. But, I can tell you this isn’t a step backward. It’s a step forward. Your ex threatened our relationship, and now we can both relax – not take a step back, relax – and enjoy each other.” The empty glass clinked as Riker set it down on the wooden table in front of us, and he deliberately unhooked my fingers from the stem of my own glass, replacing it with his. “I don’t know about you, but…” The backs of his fingers brushed up and down my arm, tracing from the strap of my tank top to my elbow. “I think we should start enjoying each other right now.”
For a man with abs that stood out like a mountain range, Riker could give the softest kisses, one of which he placed on my lips. Kisses needed to have a time limit – at least, that was what I had always believed before Riker. If you just sat there and let one single kiss linger without renewing the motion, it got stale and dry.
Kisses with Riker were never like that. No matter how slow the motion of the kiss, it always felt incredible the whole way through. Maybe it was just because I always loved being close to Riker, no matter the circumstances.
Of course, we couldn’t discount the other kind of kisses, too. The kind where I pushed Riker away from me so I could pull his T-shirt over his head, then gave him another shove so that his back hit the couch, his head leaning against the big plush arm so he could gaze up at me lustfully. The kind of kisses that I delivered slowly or quickly as I chose, wherever I chose so I could taste his skin.
Riker could never let me stay on top for long. It was my turn to watch the world spin and look up at him, my turn to lose an article of clothing to eager hands.
Remember that Elena-sense that I mentioned Riker had? Apparently, he used that for more than just knowing when something was wrong. The instant his lips touched my stomach just next to my belly button, I tensed because ittickled.It wouldn’t have been so bad if Riker had pressed his lips just a little harder against my skin. But the soft kisses he trailed around the area usually covered by my clothes caused the stubble on his face to brush a bit too hard over my body. I had to resist the urge to squirm under his touch. My confused mind rapidly switching back and forth between pleasure and near discomfort.
But, as usual, Riker noticed something different about how I lay underneath him and moved his mouth up to my ear instead. “We should take this to the bedroom.” His warm breath against my ear did things to me, and all I could do was nod - a limp mess.
Luckily, transportation from couches to beds was included in the Riker security package. He picked me up like I weighed nothing at all and carried me down the hall. I managed to hit the living room light switch with a toe as we passed, giggling as Riker raised an impressed eyebrow.
Darkness enveloped us when the bedroom door closed. I welcomed it, using the moment as an opportunity to run my hands up and down the hard, lean body that pressed me into the bed. The soft kisses left my tummy alone. Instead, they listened to my body language when I leaned my head back and applied themselves to my throat. Teasing fingers played with my breasts, pulling a soft, needy sound from deep in my chest.
Shifting moonlight streamed through a single gap in the blinds over the window, illuminating sporadic flashes of Riker’s face. When he lifted his lips from my neck - intensity. When he reached down to relieve me of my shorts - concentration. When his palm rubbed the warm readiness between my legs, and I let out a tinyoh- pleased. When my own hand crept beneath the waistband of his shorts, parting layers of fabric to wrap my fingers around him…
Riker lost his gentleness. Gentlemanly kisses turned into battles for dominance. Riker’s searching tongue and crushing lips dared me to tell him, no, but I had no interest in doing that. In fact, I couldn’t remember whatnomeant or why I would ever want to say that word to Riker.
His erection pushed against my thighs, just touching the spot that ached for him so badly. Callused hands pressed my shoulders into the covers, firm as the part of him that wanted me.I’m taking you,his body told me.And I’m doing it now.
Well, finally,was my own body’s trademark sassy response.
He pushed into me, and the throaty sound of pleasure he made when my readiness let him slip all the way in nearly sent me over the edge. Luckily, I had the delightful sexiness of his bulging shoulders to kiss as a distraction as he held me still against his long thrusts.
“Riker…” It was wonderful – andso hot, how did I end up with this man–to watch Riker visibly emerge from the primal act of having sex to glance into my eyes, checking that I was okay. His hands slipped from my shoulders to my breasts, then down my shifting hips to my thighs, then to my calves, where he easily lifted my legs and put them against his own shoulders.
My raised legs put an arch in my back and let him find the perfect spot inside me. One cautious, slow push tested my comfort with the position, then the quick movements were back, but I could feel a change. Now that we were both getting what we wanted, we could succumb to the desire for pleasure, but do it lovingly, pausing for long moments to give little reminders of how much we meant to each other. I could feel pleasure building inside me, but not so fast that I lost myself to it and couldn’t feel Riker’s movements getting jerkier, faster, as he kept pace with me.
Riker hit the right spot at the perfect speed, and my entire body tensed at once, sending a thousand pulsing signals of pleasure that blocked out my ability to think. I emerged from the state, gasping for breath, to realize that Riker had either collapsed on top of me or my pleasure-induced strength had dragged him down.
He rolled over and I spotted a series of suspicious, red lines across his back. “Whoo-” I almost choked over the dryness in my throat and had to swallow a couple times. “Whoops.”
Riker rolled his eyes at me and took my hand, steadying my shaky legs so we could get a shower. Light blue walls swayed in my vision, and I knew we had to be in the bathroom because it was the only room in the house that had tan walls.
Suddenly, I was so, so very tired. Streams of water hit my skin and woke me up long enough to finish our shower. But the second Riker turned the spigots off, I felt the soft gray blanket of exhaustion weighing down my eyelids once more.
