Love Unrehearsed (42 page)

“I went to visit Pete today,” I told Ryan when we Skyped later that night. Poor Pete. I could completely relate to the torturous itching that came from sporting a cast. His new limp also didn’t go unnoticed.

“How’s he doing?” Ryan asked while lying on the bed with his laptop on his legs. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and obviously had just gotten out of the shower, as his skin was flush and deliciously dewy. Damn, it was a beautiful sight on my computer screen.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to talk to you while you’re looking like that?”

Ryan’s face scrunched. “Like what?”

“Naked and all . . .” My hand waved since I was at a loss for words.

Ryan grinned, running a hand over his bare chest. “You like what you see?”

“You know I do.”

He flipped his laptop to the side, making sure the camera was showing what he was now stroking in his hand. Like a teenager watching a porno, I had my very own Ryan Christensen nudie show. “See anything else that you like?”

I blushed, feeling extremely nervous. “Oh my God, Ryan! What if some hacker can see you like that? That’s how private sex stuff . . . stop! You want videos of you whacking off to go viral?”

He nudged his screen, aiming the camera back on his face, which now showed demanding authority. “No one is going to see. Take your laptop back to our bed and take your clothes off.”

I jumped a bit at his stern tone, feeling oddly compelled to comply. Still, I was very apprehensive to do anything so risqué over the Internet. “Ryan . . .”

His expression was meant to show that he wasn’t going to be denied. “Now, Taryn.”

It worked.

Begrudgingly, I carried my laptop to my room and flopped down, still fully clothed.

We were both on our sides, one arm propping our heads up. I watched as his fingers moved toward the screen. “I miss you,” he said softly, cracking my resistance as if it were made of tissue paper. “I miss the feeling of completeness I have when you’re in my arms. Do you ever feel that way? Like a part of you is missing when we’re apart?”

I wanted to reach through the screen and touch him back. “All the time. I sort of feel incomplete.”

He wiped his finger over his lips. It was the sexiest damn thing, as if his hunger for me was palpable. “Do you know what my favorite part of your body is?”

I swallowed—hard—figuring he’d go for the obvious. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of guessing.

“No guess? It’s your lips. And not for the act that you might think I love them for. The curve of them makes me always wonder what’s going on in your head. Between your lips and your eyes I can more or less guess and I’m usually pretty accurate. You may not realize it, but they are the windows into your soul.”

I studied his face—the softness of his cheeks to where they met up with the shadow of beard growing on his jaw, the incredibly long eyelashes that framed those million-dollar bedroom eyes, the square cut of his chin. “Your eyes give you away, too, you know.”

“If you were here, I’d kiss you right now. I wouldn’t stop until you were naked underneath me, sighing in my mouth. I can almost feel the silky smoothness of your skin as I run my fingers beneath your undies.”

I was beginning to believe there may be some wonderful advantages to video chatting. He was seducing me with the soft cadence of his words and the visuals he created in my thoughts.

“Take your finger, run it slowly down your neck, down to the base of your throat. I want you to feel me kissing you as I make love to you.”

Obediently, I did as he instructed. Each time he told me to wet my fingers or pinch my own flesh turned me on more and more until I was drenched with excitement, panting and moaning. I’d touched myself plenty of times during those dry spells between dating, but this was a million times better.

A million.

Ryan had conveniently turned the screen so I could watch him clean up. My pounding heart was finally slowing when he nudged his laptop back to display his face on my screen.

His satiated smile lit up my heart. “You should video-seduce me more often,” I said.

He laughed lightly, finger-combing his hair back off his forehead. “I’d much rather do that to you in person, but we do what we have to do in the meantime.”

“I didn’t realize watching you would be such a turn-on.”

His lips twitched. “Oh, I did. Just hearing your voice is a turn-on for me; everything else was just a bonus.”

I rolled over onto my stomach. “Yeah, right. My voice excites you that much.”

His expression said he was dead serious. “Future wife, we’ve had phone sex before and now not only can I see your face, I can also see your naked boobs. Trust me. Now tell me about Pete, unless you want to go for round two, which I must say I’m getting ready for.” I watched him stuff a few pillows under his head and then he flashed his semi onto the screen again just to show me his exclamation point to that statement.

After I regained my ability to speak, I muttered, “Pete’s miserable.”

“You iron out that crap with Tammy?”

“No. But I will. I’m presuming we’re still in the wedding. You still want to be a groomsman? He asked if you were still in. I’d understand it if you don’t want to. You haven’t known Pete that long and—”

Ryan interrupted me. “I already told him I would. I gave him my word. They should know that my presence is going to cause a stir, so if they’re good with that, I’m in. They’ve been warned. Besides, there’s no way I’d let some other guy walk you down the aisle, Taryn. No way in hell.”

I loved his possessiveness. It made me feel safe and cherished. “Is that your final answer?”

He glared at me over my screen before saying, “That’s my final answer
forever
. You good with that, babe?”

Considering that Thomas had left me at a party once, not giving a shit who drove me home or even if I got home alive, I was more than fine with it. “Yes.”

“That’s my girl.”

Say what you will, but I was damn glad to be
his
in no uncertain terms.

“And what did he say to your other proposition?”

The memory of Pete’s reaction when I asked him made me smile wider. “You’d have thought I’d offered him a miracle.”

“So he’s on board with it?”

“Yes. He starts training with me tomorrow.”

When It Rains

It was coming down in buckets outside. It was the kind of heavy rain that you swear just might come through the roof because it’s falling that hard. I wandered to the front door of Ryan’s parents’ home, cracking the door to watch the rain pour down.

Ryan had wrapped on filming
Slipknot,
and the cast wrap party was something else. Pete was doing an excellent job managing the pub, so I was able to meet Ryan back in Vancouver. Nicole had gotten quite intoxicated, slurring at us and insinuating it was Ryan’s fault that her lover, Lauren Delaney, wasn’t there. I knew for certain that her love life wasn’t even on Ryan’s radar when we arrived at the party, but she was under the impression that he’d banned Lauren from the guest list.

Maybe he overdid it just a bit when he said she’d be lucky to get a job waiting tables once the media catches wind of her drug habit, but it definitely shut her up quickly.

So many people only see the smiling public photos of celebrities at premieres and junkets; if the general public only knew some of the shit that went down on major movie sets, they’d be shocked. Personality clashes, overinflated egos, differences in acting methods and scene interpretations—it all happened.

But that was two days ago, Ryan finally had some downtime, and we had a family engagement party to brace for.

Ryan slid a hand over my khaki shorts and gripped my hip, peering over my shoulder. “Go,” he nudged, pushing me on through the threshold. “Let’s go stand out on the porch.”

The sky at 7:30
P.M.
was dark and ominous; the heat of the day was being quenched, causing the steam to rise up off the hot macadam driveway. I held my hand out into the thick stream of rainwater that was flowing over the lip of the storm gutters that edged along the porch roof.

“Nick and I washed my dad’s car in a downpour like this once. We had a blast. Dad gave us a bucket and sponges and put us to work, though we didn’t know we were working at the time. We were all soapy and soaked but damn did we have fun.”

The water pelting my hand was cool and refreshingly chilly as I imagined two mischievous boys running around with soap sponges. “Wow, it’s really pouring!”

“I’ll say. Last time I saw it rain this hard, we were—”

I instantly stiffened. Ryan stiffened up, too, stopping himself.

Streaks of car lights flickered through drops of rain in my thoughts; the sounds of tires screeching on wet road and a horn blaring at me to get out of the middle of the street in downtown Miami swirled into one painful flashback. That horrid memory, that feeling as if I’d just been eviscerated seeing him kiss Lauren, that wishing to have all the pain just go away washed over me. It was distant but instant. Thankfully, I was able to keep that memory separate from this current moment, not allowing those bad moments to pull me under.

“I shouldn’t . . . I didn’t mean,” Ryan fumbled, followed by the whisper of a curse to himself.

I gave him my attention, trying not to let it blow out of proportion. “It’s all right.”

Suddenly he snagged my wrist, pulling me to the opening on the porch. “I.
Fuck
. Come,” he ordered.

“Where are we going?”

Ryan stepped off the porch, then stood directly under the water overflowing from the gutter above.

“What are you doing?” I asked as the water poured onto his head. He smiled wickedly and shook the water off his head before bending and catching me behind my knees. I felt the whoosh as I was hefted over his bare shoulder and then cold rainwater pelted my hair, my shoulders, and my back, causing me to squeal.

“Ryan!”

“Come on, baby.” He walked us down the flooded driveway in his bare feet. He only had a pair of track shorts on since we were lounging around the house.

The rain was cold but refreshing and instantly blocked my thoughts out, giving me the space to only worry about getting soaked.

“What are you doing?” I giggled as he hustled down the long drive.

“Makin’ new memories,” he said in a rush, stopping when he reached the torrent of water flowing down the street.

Just when I thought I couldn’t love him any more than I already did, I fell another few miles deeper in love with him. He twirled us around, holding my legs out so I was balanced over his shoulder on my stomach. Heavy rain pelted my legs as I laughed from his playfulness.

“You’re crazy!” I felt so giddy and free.

Ryan motioned like he was going to dump me on the ground. “Do you love me?”

I grabbed the back of his wet shorts. “Yes!”

He raised my legs higher. “What?”

“Yes!” I giggled louder, exposing the top crack of his ass as he hung me down his back.

He splashed into a huge puddle. “Say it!”

“I love you!”

Ryan spun us in a circle. My wet hair whipped around, sticking to my face. “What? I can’t hear you. It’s raining. You’ll have to speak up.”

“I love you!” I shouted, wiping the wet hair out of my eyes with one hand while holding his shorts with the other.

“You what?”

I smacked his perfect, soaking-wet ass. “I love you!”

“You love me?”

He was making me dizzy, jumping and twirling us around like that. “I love you!”

His hands gripped my thighs. “You gonna marry me, Mitchell?”

“Yes! Don’t drop me!”

He dipped me back farther; my wet shirt gathered uncomfortably under my breasts. “Yes? Yes, what?”

I was laughing so hard, I was getting one of those side-stickers in my ribs. “Yes, I’ll marry you!”

He set me down in the cold, streaming rainwater; one hand grasped my hip while the other got stuck into my hair at the base of my head. And then he was kissing me. In the downpour. In the stream of water running against the curb in front of his parents’ house outside of Pittsburgh. Kissing me with everything he had and then some. Smoothing back my wet hair. Biting my lips. Swirling his tongue with mine. Mingling our hungry breath into one.

Marking my memories with new thoughts of the rain.

Shining his brightness on me in the midst of a dark storm.

My hands were on his smooth, muscular back, his ribs, his neck and face.

Mine.

Mine, mine, mine.

“I love you,” he murmured.

“I love you more.”

He broke away to grace me with his killer smile. His happiness, knowing I was a huge part of it, was like a gift. One that I’d cherish forever.

But I still had to get him back for spinning me upside down. I bent down, gathered up a handful of water, and tossed it at him.

“Oh yeah?” He skimmed his big foot through the stream, sending water splashing all over my shins.

I hadn’t felt so free in such a long time. I kicked water back at him. When he bent for his own handful, I kept kicking and splashing, until he was sufficiently drenched.

Ryan straightened, glared down, and said, “You’d better run.”