Page 19 of Playing for Keeps
“If you die before her, she’ll be able to claim your social security benefits. And she has her own pension from the school system. In addition to the retirement fund she started for herself. I’d say she’s going to be in pretty good financial condition when this divorce is over.”
Will shook his head. “I owe it to her.”
“Dad—” Rylan started to say, but her father dropped one of the buckets.
The sound was loud and cut off her words.
“I owe it to her.” Will insisted. “I made vows and promises to her when we married and I broke them. I should’ve never gambled away that money. I have to make amends.”
“You don’t have to do anything. If you’re tired of running the shop, just say that. But don’t let her guilt you into selling just because she wants more money,” Rylan said and meant every word.
She felt her mother was being unfair and that her father’s guilt was making him lay down and take whatever Estelle and her lawyer dished out. Rylan wasn’t having it.
“Sell the place to me,” she said. “You can do what you want with the proceeds, even though I think paying her off is a mistake. But I want to keep the shop.”
“No,” he said simply. “It’s deep in debt and too much for you to handle on your own. You should find yourself a good husband, go off and start a family. I don’t want you burdened with my mistakes too.”
He’d come to stand in front of the Grand Marquis. Rylan sat there for quiet moments just staring at him. He looked old and tired. When had that happened? There were wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and his almond brown skin looked ashen. Had he lost weight? After leaving the house he’d worked so hard to pay for, her father had moved in with his brother who lived in an old farmhouse just off the interstate. She’d driven out there on Thanksgiving after having dinner with her mother, Naomi and Ellis.
He moved, coming around to the driver’s side of the car where she sat with the door propped open. Squatting, he reached out a hand and touched her shoulder.
“I shouldn’t have let you hang around here so much. You’ve got more potential than I ever had and you could do more with your life.” He sighed. “I’ve always wanted the best for you and your sister. I made some really bad mistakes and I can’t undo them. But I can start to make smarter moves. I have to, Rylan.”
He was telling her to let this go. To walk away from the only place she’d ever really felt like she belonged. Rylan didn’t know if she could do that.
It was late afternoon before Rylan was able to pull Del’s truck into the bay. She was hungry and had a headache. She wanted to go home and lay down, to clear her mind. She wanted none of this to be happening.
“This” included the situation with Del.
How had she gotten herself in this mess with him? She never chatted personally with anyone online. Why now? And why him, of all people?
And on top of that, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind even after she’d found out who he really was. The dream that awakened her this morning was proof.
Del had let her take the lead and Rylan began by touching him. Inch by inch of gorgeous dark chocolate hued skin, the stretch of muscles and chiseled planes of his chest, abs and limbs. Her hands seemed small and frail as they traveled the expanse of his body, touching every part of him to ensure that he was real. That the desire she felt deep down in her bones for him was real.
He lay on her full-size bed, his six-foot two-inch frame seemingly too big for the mattress. Yet he was stretched out against her pale blue sheets, his hands tucked behind his head, eyes half closed as he watched her. She should’ve been intimidated by that look and the heat she could feel pouring from his glare, but she wasn’t. Instead, she’d felt empowered.
Moving again, she straddled his waist with a quick scream of her thigh muscles as they stretched to accommodate the motion. Flattening her palms over his broad chest she leaned forward and touched her fingers gingerly to one of his puckered nipples. He didn’t move. His sinewy build remained calm even as her heart beat a rampant rhythm.
She kissed the other nipple while her hand moved over the former pectoral and gripped it mildly. He smelled so good. Vaguely like the cologne he’d probably sprayed earlier that day, but more like man, masculine and delicious. Her mouth watered and her center pulsated. Moving down his chest, Rylan continued to taste his smooth skin while feeling his taut muscles. Until she came to his thick erection.
Her first reaction was to stop and stare. At his length and girth, the heavy sac beneath and the muscled thighs to each side of it. An eerie hunger churned in the pit of her stomach, something she’d never experienced before and once again her mouth watered. She wanted to take him into her mouth. To suck him deep into the back of her throat. But first she needed to touch him.
Rylan’s narrow fingers wrapped around his thick length and she briefly prayed he couldn’t feel her calloused skin against his. Lifting her gaze, she saw that his hands had come from behind his head and he was now staring at her with a look of pure lust on his face. She moved her hand up the length of his dick, running her thumb lightly over its bulbous tip. He made a low groaning sound and Rylan licked her lips. She continued to work her hand over him, loving the feel of his hardness and the warm drops of pre-cum that seeped from his tip.
Del was actively moaning now. He still didn’t move, but there was no doubt that he was enjoying her ministrations.
“Now,” he growled when she grasped his balls, massaging them between her fingers. “In your mouth, right, fucking now.”
The guttural command sent shivers of pure pleasure through Rylan’s body. She immediately leaned forward, opened her mouth over the head of his cock and…
She woke up.
Her nightgown had been twisted up around her stomach, the material sticking to her sweaty skin. Her panties were drenched in both sweat and desire. She sat up in the center of her bed, breathing as if she’d just run a marathon. Her breasts felt full and heavy, her mouth, still wet as her pussy throbbed with need.
She’d known she was lost as she rolled out of the bed and headed straight for the shower. She shouldn’t have been dreaming about Del. Not in a sexual way and definitely not in such vivid detail. He wasn’t attracted to her in that way. Not now that he knew who MercedesGirl926 really was. And dreaming that things were different was stupid and a waste of time.
That’s what she’d been telling herself for the past four days. That she was delirious with stress about possibly losing the shop and that’s why she was even entertaining anything so ludicrous with Del. But then he’d waltzed his fine ass into her garage.Her space. And he’d stood there looking at her as if nothing had happened between them, as if he hadn’t been haunting her dreams on a daily basis. She’d wanted to punch him in his smirking face. Only he wasn’t smirking. He’d simply talked business and stared at her.
