Margaret Way - Six Australian Heroes

‘Yes I do know that, Laura,’ he replied a little impatiently. ‘But I don’t subscribe to analysis of any kind. It does a person no good at all to rake over the past, especially when the things they’re raking over are usually wretched and made them miserable. It just sets off old problems again. Far better to put things behind you and move on.’

Laura almost said that was much easier said than done but decided to let the matter drop. She didn’t want to say or do anything to spoil the rest of the evening.

‘Speaking of moving on,’ he added dryly. ‘So come with me, woman. Bed awaits.’

LAURA still fell asleep, but only after a lengthy sexual marathon where they made love over and over and over, in every position Ryan knew, including up against the wall again, though in the shower this time and with Laura facing the wall.

He didn’t succumb to sleep, however, despite feeling drained. His mind would not let him rest, plaguing him with the things Laura had said earlier about how much the past influenced the present, and the person one eventually became. As he’d already told Laura, he did actually know that. Ryan understood full well why he avoided love and marriage. Why he avoided emotional involvement of any kind with the opposite sex.

He’d always believed that nothing would ever change that. That no woman alive was capable of unlocking the iron cage he’d fused shut around his heart the day he’d come home from school and found his mother dead on the floor and his father curled up in a corner, sobbing that he hadn’t meant to do it, that he loved her.

Ryan had lived a long time since that day—twenty-five years to be exact. Not once in all that time had a woman touched his heart, let alone his soul.

Until now …

Was this love he was finally feeling? He wondered as he frowned down at Laura’s sleeping form.

He wasn’t sure, since he didn’t know what romantic love felt like. All he knew was that sex with Laura was different from anything he’d experienced before. He could not seem to get enough of her. Usually, his desire lessened sharply after a couple of times, his days of wanting sex all night long a thing of the past. Not so with Laura. Already he wanted to feel that special feeling again, the one which jolted him every time he entered her, then grew in intensity, culminating in waves of rapture. He’d never felt anything like it. Hell on earth—would he never be satisfied?

This can’t be love , he decided as he rolled over and stared down at her naked bottom with its peach-like buttocks. True love would be less sexually driven. It was still just lust. A more obsessive form than usual, but just lust all the same. Give it time and these cravings would fade.

But not yet, he accepted when he reached out to touch her.

Laura woke to the delicious sensation of Ryan stroking her back. She was lying face down, on the bed, her arms bent upwards, her hands under the pillow that her head was resting on.

‘Mmm,’ she murmured sleepily, her mind not yet fully awake.

It soon snapped to, however, when his hand abandoned her back and started paying her more intimate attention. Today, she was just all excitement. She’d abandoned embarrassment as a lost cause; Ryan didn’t have an embarrassed bone in his body when it came to sex. Everything in his view was natural and healthy, every part of a woman’s body put there for his pleasure. And her own.

After a while, however, Laura didn’t want to just lie there, letting him do what he was doing—though it was lovely. She wanted to do things to him for a change. With a small moan—it was seriously tempting just to stay where she was and let him have his wicked way with her—she rolled over abruptly. Pushing her hair out of her eyes, she sat up and met his somewhat startled eyes.

‘You can do that later,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It’s my turn now.’

His eyebrows arched. ‘Your turn to do what?’

‘Will you please stop talking? Oh my goodness!’ she gasped when she pushed him down onto his back and she saw how aroused he already was.

‘How long was I asleep?’ she asked him in amazement. After all, they’d already made love quite a few times before she had dropped off, including that incredible time in the shower.

‘Long enough,’ he growled.

‘Obviously,’ she said, unable to stop herself from reaching out to touch him.

When she encircled him in her hand, he sucked in sharply, sending her eyes to his. This was the one thing she still hadn’t done. Up until now it had been all him doing things to her.

‘Do you like women going down on you?’ she asked him, her voice thick with excitement.

‘I do if they do,’ he replied, his voice sounding strained. ‘You said you didn’t—like it, that is.’

‘True. But that was before and this is now. I think I will like it with you.’

He groaned when she began to bend her head, groaning again when she put her lips to him in a tender kiss before slowly, ever so slowly, licking the head all over.

She didn’t just like doing it, Laura realised dazedly by the time she drew him fully into her mouth. She loved it. Loved the feeling, not of power so much, but of knowing how much he was loving it. He’d given her so much pleasure; now it was her turn to give him pleasure. Lots of pleasure, by the strangled sounds he was making. She didn’t care if he came in her mouth. She wanted him to come. Wanted him to stop struggling for control—which she sensed he was—and just let go. Determined, she picked up the pace, lifting and lowering her head to the rhythm of the thudding drumbeat her own blood was making in her head.

But, just when she was sure he was about to come, he grabbed her and dragged her upwards, his strong hands lifting her up over him then lowering her down so that she was straddled across his hips.

‘I want you with me,’ he growled. ‘Here, put this on me,’ he ordered in gravelly tones, shoving a condom into her hands. ‘Hurry,’ he snapped when she hesitated.

She had a little trouble sliding the protective sheath over him but managed at last, amazed when he slid inside her with shocking ease, her internal muscles automatically taking hold of him in a vice-like grip.

‘Hell on earth, woman,’ he choked out, his face twisting.

Laura’s face fell. ‘Am I hurting you?’ This was the first time she’d ever been on top in her life. Mario and Brad had both been the kind of males who would never allow a woman to take the reins during sex. ‘I’m sorry. It’s just that I … I haven’t done it this way before.’

He stared up at her. ‘You’ve never been on top?’

‘No. Never. I’m so sorry.’

‘There’s absolutely no need for you to apologise.’

‘But I hurt you!’

His smile was rueful. ‘There’s a fine line between pleasure and pain, Laura. I promise you that what I’m feeling is more pleasure than pain. Now, this is the way,’ he said, cupping her buttocks with his large, strong hands and moving her.

She gasped. Oh, how heavenly it felt. She soon didn’t need any help, riding him all by herself, faster and faster. His hips began to lift from the bed, pushing him even deeper inside her. She moaned and leant forward, her breasts swinging free of her chest wall, her bottom lifting slightly. Incredibly, the level of her pleasure increased with the change of angle, each forward thrust sending electric shocks charging through her body. Her climax hit with such blinding force that she cried out. Ryan cried out as well, his body spasming wildly within hers. She collapsed across his chest, her head coming to rest over his madly galloping heart.

It was then that she began to weep, her whole body suddenly surrendering to a storm of emotion that she was yet to understand.