Seized by Love (Love in Bloom: The Ryders, Book 1): Blue Ryder (17 page)

“I want to go, but there’s a lot on my plate right now.”

Walking along the shore, the scents of the sea surrounding them, the comfort of their relationship warmed her despite the evening breeze. She wasn’t ready to let this go—to let him go. Would she ever be?

A sense of relief washed over her, and she clung to it like a lifeline, pushing away the gloom of her reason for being there. She would tell him, but not on such a perfect night. Not when he was so happy to see her, or when even just holding his hand made her this happy. She did so much for others. Was it really too much for her to want to take a little more for herself?

***

BLUE’S MIND WAS running all over the place. He’d been thinking of Lizzie the whole time he was working, and as if she’d read his mind, here she was, making his evening a million times better. He’d felt tension all around her when she’d arrived, but it seemed to fade quickly, and now she was smiling and as relaxed as she usually was. He worried about her. She did so much every day, between the flower shop and making special efforts to drop off the flowers after work so someone, somewhere could enjoy them, or so people wouldn’t be forgotten. Her generosity was just one of the things he adored about her. And adore he did. He wanted to make her life wonderful.

“Thanks for letting me drag you away from work,” she said.

“Sweetheart, you can drag me away from anything, anytime.” He stopped to pick up a conch shell, brushed the sand from it, and held it up to her ear. “What do you hear?”

“You, whispering how much you want to kiss me.”

They both smiled as he sealed his lips over hers, and she melted against him. That was what he’d craved all day, the feel of her giving herself over to him, the way he instantly gave himself over to her. The press of her body, the sweet sigh of surrender, and the way she looked at him like she’d been waiting for him her whole life, made his head spin.

“Mm. This is just what I needed tonight. To be with you.” She pressed a kiss to the center of his chest.

“It’s such a beautiful night, isn’t it? Soon it’ll be too cold not to be by a fire.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked hand in hand. “Then we should enjoy this while we can.”

Blue imagined taking walks with Lizzie years from now, maybe with a child or two in tow. His chest tightened, as if his heart had actually swelled with the thought.

Lizzie sank down to the sand, pulling him down beside her. It didn’t matter that the sand was cold and damp or the breeze off the water was chilly. Being with Lizzie made everything seem new and somehow
better
.

She began piling sand up in a mound. “I love the beach so much. When I was little I spent most of my free time at the beach, but I never did much else.” Her eyes turned thoughtful. “I wasn’t very rebellious.”

“Well, as a guy, rebellion sort of came with being a teenager. Was there something you never did but you wish you had?” Blue asked.

“Do you want the truth or a safe answer?” She piled more sand on top of a mound.

“With a question like that, I can only imagine what I’m in for. Truth.” He leaned over and kissed her.

“I just wish my parents would have caught me doing bad things so when I did things after I left home, I didn’t feel so guilty or like I had to hide it from them.”

“That’s a pretty big regret. Should I expect you to hit a midlife crisis a little early, like when you turn thirty?”

She laughed. “No, but my parents are so conservative. I think it would have made some things easier for me if my parents had
expected
me to do questionable things instead of always assuming I’d do the right thing. Maybe I wouldn’t have kept so many secrets if I’d known they would roll their eyes and say,
That’s just Lizzie.
”

“Secrets? Care to share?”

She patted the sand castle she was building into a peak and sighed. “You know, normal stuff like making out with guys when I was in college or going to parties. If Maddy were older, I could have confided in her, but she was too young.” She shrugged. “So I learned to keep things to myself. It’s not a bad thing, just…a
lonely
thing.”

His heart ached for her. He’d always had an open relationship with his family, and with so many siblings, there was always someone to talk to about girls or problems, or anything, really.

“I’m sorry you went through all those years without having someone you felt close enough to talk to about those things.” He moved closer to her. “But I’m here now, and I want to share your secrets. And if you want to be rebellious, I’ll be right there by your side.”

She turned curious eyes to him, her dimples in full adorable force. “You’d do bad stuff with me?”

“I would walk to the ends of the earth with you. I’d lick chocolate off your entire body if you’d like. What other kinds of
bad
stuff did you have in mind?”

The sand she was holding fell from her hands. “Wait. I’m thinking about the chocolate.” She raised her brows, and that little invitation had his fingers twitching to pull her in close and kiss her again, but before he could, she said, “Nothing too bad.”

He thought he saw a hint of restraint in her eyes, as if she was holding something back, but then she smiled and the look of restraint washed away as she said, “But you know Sky and her friends go skinny-dipping. I’ve never even done that.” She walked to the water’s edge, brushing the sand from her hands.

Thinking about how sexy she would look running naked into the water made the twitching in his hands travel to more aroused parts of his body. He joined her by the water. “Sure, I’ll go skinny-dipping with you. Want to go now?”

“Now? What about sharks?” She reached for him.

“That’s the reaction I was hoping for.” He nuzzled against her neck. “We’ll go skinny-dipping in a heated pool when you go with me to my brother’s wedding.”

“I’m going to your brother’s wedding?” She smiled up at him. “But my shop?”

“Your shop? I didn’t hear any concern for your boyfriend having to go all weekend without you if you don’t come with me,” he teased.

“My boyfriend,” she said in a dreamy voice. “You can’t imagine how much I like to hear that.”

“Actually I can, because I’m sure you get the same feeling I do when I think of you as
my girl
.” He held her hand as they walked toward the blanket. “I really do want you to come to New York with me and meet my family. Sky already said she would watch your shop.”

“I’ve never asked anyone else to watch my shop. I could close it for the day, actually, and that way I’m not imposing on her. Do you really want me to go meet your family? That’s kind of serious.”

“Are you kidding? I never want to go a day without seeing you. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re very serious.”

She gazed up at him and said, “I’ve noticed, and I never want to spend a day without you, either.”

That sounded damn good to him. They sank down to the blanket and Blue asked, “What other types of rebellious things would you like to do? Because I can think of a few naughty things you might enjoy.”

She leaned in to him. “I bet you can, and I want to do them all with you.”

“You don’t even know how naughty I can be. You might regret giving in so easily.” He felt himself getting aroused.

“Tell me.” Her tongue swept over her lower lip, and her eyes darkened seductively.

Christ.
She had no idea how she stirred his deepest desires. Desires he’d never played out with anyone before. “Maybe we should table this discussion for a while. I wouldn’t want you to think I only want to be with you for sex.”

“I think we really are made for each other,” she said with a coy smile. “I’ve never felt close enough with anyone else to get
really
naughty, but I want to with you.”

Their eyes held, and the air heated up about fifty degrees despite the cool breeze coming off the water.

“Lizzie, you have no idea what you do to me.”

She climbed over him, straddling his lap. “Then tell me all the naughty things you want to do to me.” She pressed her lips to his chest.

It was one thing to play out a fantasy in the bedroom when they were both into it, but another to hear it spoken when they weren’t in the heat of the moment. He worried that despite her willingness to play along, he might cross a line that shocked her. “One day I will show you.”

Her lower lip came out in a hard-to-resist, sexy pout. “You’re a tease.”

“I’m anything but a tease, but if I tell you what I want to do, I doubt we’re going to
talk
for long.” He was already aroused, and thinking about what he wanted to do to her only made him want it—
her
—more. He slid his hand to the nape of her neck and brought his lips to hers. He deepened the kiss, needing to have more of her. She moved against him like she wanted to climb inside him the same way he wanted to climb into her.

When their lips finally parted, her eyes remained closed in that hazy state lovers found when they’d hit a sweet spot and didn’t want to leave it. He brushed his thumb over her lower lip, and when she opened her eyes, he said, “I want to make you mine. I want to do everything with you. Things we haven’t done with anyone else.”

“Like what?” Her words whispered over his mouth.

Her tongue swept across her lower lip again, and he couldn’t resist taking her in another kiss, drinking in the sweetness of her desire. He placed tender kisses over the bow of her upper lip, knowing from the way her body arched into him that she was craving more of him, just as he was going crazy for more of her. He wanted to stay right there, kissing her, loving her, until the sun came up.

“Tell me,” she urged in a husky voice.

“Lizzie. You make me feel things I’ve never felt before.” He captured her mouth again, breathing hard at the thought of sharing his dirty thoughts with her.

“Please, Blue. I want to be closer to you. Share your naughty thoughts with me.”

His mouth moved across her cheek, along her jaw, and he latched on to her neck, sinking his teeth into her supple skin as she pressed her body to his. He couldn’t resist lowering her to her back and pressing his eager erection between her legs. His arms swept beneath her, cupping her ass, holding her to him. They were fully dressed, and still their heat permeated his skin.

“I’m falling head over heels in love with you, and I don’t know how to slow it down.” He kissed her again, unable to believe he’d said the words that had burned inside him every time he was with her.

“Then don’t slow it down. I’m falling for you, too. I want to be yours. Really yours.”

His heart swelled to near bursting. His eyes blazed and his heart thundered as the words came out hot and fast and full of greed. “I want to make you mine in every way possible. To hold you down while I take you to heights you never imagined.”

He lifted her wrist to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to it. “To bind these delicate wrists with expensive silk while I pleasure every inch of your body, until you’re so impassioned, so lost in desire, that you can barely think, much less breathe.” He kissed her again, harder, sealing in his confession.

“What else?” she said in another needful breath.

“Lizzie…”
Christ
, he was hard as a rock, and she was pushing him to places that were going to make him lose his last shred of control.

“Please, tell me?” Her brows knitted together, and that sexy pout slayed him.

He knew he’d never be able to deny her a damn thing. “It might be too much for you,” he nearly growled.

“If it’s with you, it’s not too much.”

He searched her eyes and knew by the tantalizing seduction in their depths that it wasn’t going to be too much. Nothing would be too much, but still, he didn’t want to talk about all the things he wanted to do with her. He wanted to love her, here. Now. “Some things don’t need to be put into words.” He pressed his hands to her cheeks, brushing the pad of his thumb over her soft skin.

Her eyes went nearly black, and for a beat there were no words, no thoughts, just unbridled sexual tension about what would one day come. She pressed her hands to his cheeks and crashed her mouth to his in a savage kiss that nearly made him come undone.

“I’m yours,” she said. “I want to explore everything with you.”

His breath rushed from his lungs as he tried to regain a modicum of self-control. “I love you so much.” He kissed her again, their confessions taking root in his soul, their love spiraling around them, binding them together.

When they finally drew apart, he held her close, feeling the frantic beat of her heart. “Lizzie, love isn’t a race. I want everything with you, when we’re ready. When I no longer see a shadow of doubt in your eyes.”

“There’s no doubt,” she said with too much conviction.

He smiled and pressed his mouth to hers again, tenderly this time.

“Not usually, but sometimes there’s a hint of hesitation. My mother once said that love comes in stages, and if you rush them, you miss out on all the best parts. I want the best parts with you. I want every part. The anticipation, the laughter, the certainty of knowing that at the end of the day we’ll be there for each other no matter what. That feeling that’s burning through us right now will only grow hotter, and I promise you, by the time I take you there, you’ll have no more doubt—and it’ll make our love that much sweeter.”

LIZZIE LAY IN Blue’s arms beneath the stars, his naked body safely cocooning her, their skin glistening from the efforts of their lovemaking. Guilt washed over her with every gust of wind off the sea. She’d come there to confess her secret, and instead she’d told him she loved him. She did love him, but that wasn’t the secret she needed to tell him. How could she reveal the truth now and risk what they had when she loved him so much that she physically ached inside as she tried to weed through the guilt that was pulling her from his arms?

“Are you cold?” He reached for her shirt and helped her put it on.

“A little.” She dressed quickly, struggling to figure out how she had allowed herself to get in so deep. When he’d been telling her how he felt, what he wanted to do with her, talking about a future,
their
future, she could picture it all. For a while, the webcast disappeared, like it had never existed. And she’d allowed herself to hang on to the fantasy and hang on to her love for him.