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  Brooklyn didn’t miss the slight widening of Ryan’s eyes as his appreciative gaze swept her from head to toe. Stepping up to the top step and then down into the steamy water, she felt a tingle of satisfaction. At five-foot-eight and one-hundred and twenty-five pounds, she wasn’t stick thin, but her body was well-toned and her ample-sized c-cups were well-proportioned in relation to her tall, slender frame. Turning to the tray he had so thoughtfully set out, she gave Ryan a quick view of her backside as she nibbled a cracker and then picked up the empty wineglass and filled it to the top. Then, sitting down directly across from him, she sighed in pleasure.

  “Oh wow, this feels amazing,” she said, as she leaned back against the curved seat. Taking a sip of wine, she eyed Ryan over the top of the glass.

  “I’ll say. This is just what the doctor ordered,” he replied, lifting his own glass to his lips and taking a long drink. “Thirty minutes in here and a couple more glasses of this delicious wine and I’m guessing that our sore muscles will be long forgotten.”

  “It was definitely worth it though, wasn’t it?” Brooklyn said with a warm smile. “I had a blast this morning.”

  “You bet it was worth it. That’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” Ryan answered truthfully.

  “Really?”

  “Why do you look so surprised?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I just thought that…well…considering your lifestyle-”

  “My lifestyle?” He cocked an eyebrow.

  “You know what I mean. You’re a professional athlete, not to mention incredibly rich and famous. I’m sure you must do fun and amazing things all the time.”

  Ryan laughed. “I think you’d be surprised at just how normal my life is.”

  Brooklyn eyed him dubiously. She recalled the picture of he and Michelle Reese on the cover of People Magazine, walking down the red carpet at the Academy Awards, just a few months prior to their breakup.

  “Seriously, it is,” he insisted. “When I’m not playing ball, I spend most of my time just hanging out at home, working out, maybe spend a little time with the guys on the golf course, or visiting my family and friends back in California during the off-season.”

  She cocked her head to the side and continued to eye him somewhat doubtfully.

  “Come on, Wade’s in the NFL. Don’t he and Kate lead a pretty normal life outside of the football stadium?”

  He had a point, but then again, it wasn’t really the same type of situation. Wade was a totally different person than Ryan. Ryan was a gorgeous, California-born golden boy who made game winning plays on the field and dated actresses and supermodels off the field. Wade was a small town, average looking farm boy who’d grown up in a small Nebraska town and played on the defensive line. He’d met Kate when they were both juniors at Colorado University, and they’d gotten married the same year that he’d been drafted into the NFL. She didn’t point out the obvious differences to Ryan though. “Yes, I suppose so,” she said, more to sound agreeable than anything else.

  “You don’t sound convinced.”

  “I’m convinced.” She tried to sound sincere.

  He leaned forward, eyeing her with a look of mock intensity. “So do you believe me when I say that I did have more fun today than I’ve had in a long time?”

  She nodded because he looked so earnest.

  “Nodding isn’t good enough,” he countered playfully. “Tell me you believe me.”

  She couldn’t help smiling. “Yes, I believe you.”

  “Good, I’m glad we got that cleared up then,” he said, relaxing back against the seat with an easy grin.

  But a moment later, watching as the steam swirled around Brooklyn in delicate whirls and the soft, almost ethereal light of the moon cast her in its luminous glow, his thoughts began to take a different turn. Damn, she was so breathtakingly beautiful, and when she smiled at him like she had just a minute ago, it made him feel something he couldn’t quite put a name to, something he’d never really felt before. It wasn’t just physical attraction, for Brooklyn had so much more to offer than that. She was intelligent and warm, playful and funny, adventurous and self-reliant, and so, so many other things.

  “Is something wrong?” Brooklyn asked, curious as Ryan’s expression grew serious and his mood seemed to suddenly turn pensive.

  He simply looked at her for a time, the little voice inside his head telling him to be careful, that his thoughts were leading him down a potentially dangerous path. Hesitating, he recalled Wade’s voicemail and his friend’s subtle warning. Was he willing to risk jeopardizing a long-time friendship with Wade if things with Brooklyn took a wrong turn? Then again, Brooklyn wasn’t an innocent young girl who needed protecting anymore. She was twenty-two now, and definitely old enough to make her own decisions. Who knew what the future held, he certainly didn’t. But, if there was the slightest chance that she still felt even an inkling of what she’d felt for him four years ago, he wanted, no, he needed to know.

  “Brooklyn, can I ask you something?”

  She twirled the stem of her wineglass between her fingers, eyeing him inquisitively. “Yes, of course.” He looked so serious all of the sudden.

  “Did you believe me, when I told you that sending you away that night was one of toughest things I’ve ever had to do?”

  She felt her breath catch in her chest, and for a moment she could only stare at him in stunned silence. “I don’t know,” she responded truthfully, once she found her voice.

  “You were barefoot,” he began softly. “You had on a pink, knee-length tee shirt with different colored candy hearts all over the front of it.”

  Brooklyn gazed at Ryan in wonder, her blue eyes wide. Her parents had sent her that nightshirt for Valentine’s day, shortly after they’d moved to Florida, along with a huge box of chocolates, a pair of fuzzy penguin slippers, and a note telling her how much they loved and missed her.

  “Your hair was pulled forward over your right shoulder, and just a little longer than it is now, and when you leaned forward to whisper in my ear, you smelled like strawberries and champagne.”

  “But, you…” her voice trailed off as she tried to make sense of what he was saying.

  “You were eighteen and I still had a hell of a wild streak,” he said wryly. “Wade would have killed me if I’d touched even a single hair on your pretty little head.”

  A faintly uttered “Oh,” was all she could manage. Her head was suddenly spinning.

  “You looked so hurt, and I felt like such an ass for sending you away, but I knew that it would be a mistake to go after you right then and try to explain.” His expression was tender. “The next morning, I wanted to apologize and tell you why we couldn’t…you know…but when I got up you were already gone.”

  She’d fled the house at first light, leaving a note for Kate that she’d gone over to a friend’s house for the day, terrified of running into Ryan after making such a fool of herself. “I couldn’t face you,” she admitted, her voice whisper soft.

  He nodded understandingly, and for a long moment, they simply looked into each other’s eyes.

  Brooklyn summoned her courage. “So if I’d been, let’s say, twenty-two at the time?”

  He pinned her with his steady green gaze, a wicked smile suddenly tilting up the corners of his lips. “I would have tossed you into that bed and made love to you until dawn.”

  Her heart seemed to skip a beat. Ryan Landry had just made the first move.

  Chapter 5

  Brooklyn wasn’t exactly sure how it happened, but one minute she and Ryan were sitting across from one another holding their respective wineglasses, and in the next he was beside her, her glass plucked gently from her hand and placed onto the serving tray behind them alongside his. Even so, as Ryan looked into her eyes, and then raised his hand to her cheek, she could sense his hesitation.

  Brushing his thumb along the line of her delicate cheekbone, Ryan fought against his conflicting emotions. What if he was making a big mis
take? “Brooklyn, I-”

  Brooklyn leaned into him and pressed her lips softly to his, cutting off whatever it was he’d been about to say. She didn’t want to give him time to think, time to change his mind. Here, now, this, it all felt so right, and she didn’t think that she had ever wanted anything more in her entire life.

  As soon as her lips touched his, Ryan was lost. He couldn’t have stopped, even if he’d wanted to, and he certainly didn’t want to. Sliding his hand to the back of her head, he pulled her closer as his fingers delved into the thick strands of hair at the nape of her neck. He kissed her softly for what seemed like a very long time, his lips molding themselves to hers as she leaned into him, her fingers moving lightly along the naked planes of his chest, to rest for a moment along the tops of his shoulders, and then finally to the back of his neck where they then remained.

  She felt like she was burning up as Ryan’s other hand drifted along her waist and then moved around to her back as he pulled her up against him. She could hardly contain a moan of pure pleasure as he then shifted her onto his lap, all the while kissing her until she was breathless and lightheaded. Good lord, she thought in the back of her mind, as much as she’d adored him, Kevin’s kisses had never made her feel like this, not even close. Only in her dreams, when it had been Ryan kissing her instead of Kevin, had it ever felt anything even remotely like this.

  Straddling Ryan with her breasts pressed tightly against his rock-solid chest, their lips fused together, and the hot, bubbling water lapping around them, it was as if all of her dreams and fantasies had finally become reality. And then, when he gently coaxed her lips open with the tip of his tongue, it was all she could do to keep from groaning aloud as he kissed her with an intensity that she’d never truly experienced before. She never wanted it to stop. She wanted all of it, and more. As Ryan’s lips and tongue continued to ravish her mouth, kissing her into a near mindless state of euphoria, Brooklyn was only vaguely aware of his hands as they moved to the back of her bikini top, to the two tiny silver hooks that held it together at the base of her shoulder blades, and then to the single tie that held it closed around her neck. It was only when Ryan tugged the tiny scrap of material from between them and tossed it aside and she felt the unmistakable brush of her puckered nipples against his bare skin, that she became fully aware of the fact that she was now naked from the waist up.

  As Ryan released her lips, dipping his head to the rounded curves of her breasts, Brooklyn felt a brief moment’s hesitation as she realized that things were quickly picking up speed. But despite her momentary flicker of apprehension, she knew that she didn’t want him to stop. And then, when he opened his lips, drawing one of her taut pink nipples into the hot recesses of his mouth, swirling his tongue around and around the sensitive peak, she no longer cared.

  She’s absolutely perfect Ryan thought to himself as his hand moved to cup her other breast, while his mouth continued to lavish attention on the first. He felt the increasing movement of her hips and thighs as he kissed and caressed her nipples, her pelvis brushing back and forth against his throbbing erection, exerting a torturous, yet exquisite pressure upon his long, rigid shaft. With his free hand, he reached down and slid it past the waistband of her bikini bottoms, cupping her rounded bottom with his palm, pulling her even closer against him.

  Brooklyn gasped softly as Ryan’s hand exerted a gentle, but firm pressure on her derriere, slowly rocking her pelvis back and forth against his rock-hard erection. It felt so incredibly good, even better than she could have imagined. Although she and Kevin had never gone all the way, they had done their share of fooling around, but nothing they had done had ever set her blood on fire, not like it was now. She’d tried to explain it to Julia once, that with Kevin, it had been like the excitement and anticipation of getting dressed up for an evening out on the town, all the while knowing that the babysitter was going to call at the last minute to say that she couldn’t make it. This however, was completely different, in more ways than one.

  Dropping his hand from her breast, Ryan’s lips trailed a path of fire up to Brooklyn’s throat, as his free hand joined the other at the base of her spine, and then slowly began tugging her bikini bottoms downward.

  Reality pushed its way through her passion-clouded thoughts. “Ryan, wait,” she breathed.

  “What’s wrong?” His lips continued to brush along the side of her face, slowly moving downward, but his fingers stilled.

  “Nothing’s wrong,” she said hesitantly. “It’s just…there’s something I need to tell you.”

  “Now?” he murmured against the side of her throat.

  “Yes, now,” she said, trying not to lose her focus as his lips and tongue traced along the curve of her neck.

  “Alright, tell me,” he whispered, nipping softly at her earlobe.

  “Do you remember when we were talking last night, during dinner?”

  “Um hmm.”

  “Do you remember…,” she gasped as his warm breath tickled her ear. She tried again. “Do you remember when I told you…” She faltered as the tip of his tongue moved to trace along the line of her jaw. “When… I told you about my ex-boyfriend, Kevin.”

  That got his attention. He stopped and pulled his head back, looking at her curiously. Wait, this was about her old boyfriend? Was she serious? “We need to talk about this now?”

  She nodded. “What I didn’t mention, was that Kevin was very… religious.”

  He eyed her in confusion.

  Brooklyn bit down nervously on her lower lip, and then dropped her gaze. “And well…he didn’t believe in…premarital sex.” There, she’d said it.

  Ryan tried to make sense of what she was saying. “So you and he never…”

  She shook her head.

  “And you haven’t dated anyone else since the two of you broke up?”

  Again she shook her head.

  Wow, he thought incredulously, this Kevin must have not only been seriously religious, but some kind of masochist as well. He glanced down at Brooklyn’s lush breasts. Either that or he was secretly gay. “So you haven’t had sex in over two years?” he asked in disbelief. Damn, and here he’d thought that two months was rough.

  She looked back up, meeting his bemused gaze. “Well, not exactly.”

  “Not exactly?”

  “What I mean is…I’ve never actually had sex…ever,” she clarified. She watched his eyes widen, his expression going from bemused to slightly dumbfounded. “I just thought you should know.” Utterly embarrassed, she longed to drop her gaze once again, but she forced herself not to. “So you wouldn’t be surprised when...you know…” she finished lamely.

  Ryan was stunned. Brooklyn was a virgin. He tried to wrap his head around it. Yeah, he thought, that definitely would have been a surprise all right.

  Brooklyn eyed him uncertainly. “It doesn’t matter, does it?” Please, please say it doesn’t matter, she thought.

  He studied her for a long moment, watching as she bit down on her lower lip once again. Did it? Of course it did, but even so, clearly they both wanted this to happen.

  “Hell yes it matters,” he finally said. Her face fell. He raised his hand and brushed his thumb along the tip of her chin in a soothing caress. “If this is your first time, and if you’re certain you really want to do this,” he said eyeing her intently, “then we’re definitely going to need to slow things down just a bit.”

  Ryan’s slow, sexy grin nearly brought tears to her eyes as relief washed over her in waves, and her expression brightened at once. She smiled back at him. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”

  Stepping from the hot tub a few minutes later, they quickly dried themselves off, pulled on their robes and then slipped off their wet bathing suits, tossing the wet garments onto the edge of the tub. Naked under her robe, Brooklyn felt a tad self-conscious as Ryan grasped her hand and led her back into the house, but it was quickly overshadowed by excitement and anticipation as they made their way to the ma
ster bedroom.

  As they entered the moonlit room, Ryan pulled her forward until they stood at the side of the bed, then he turned and pulled her up against him, kissing her until she once again felt lightheaded and breathless and her legs felt like jelly beneath her. She clung to him, her fingers intertwining through the hair at the back of his neck as she struggled to keep her legs from buckling.

  Reaching for the belt of her robe, Ryan continued to kiss her as he slipped the knot free. Then, slowly dragging his mouth from hers, he placed little nibbling kisses along the entire length of her throat to the tip of her collarbone, his lips never leaving the delicate softness of her skin as he took a half a step backward, using his hands to part her robe and then gently slipping it from her shoulders.

  As her robe slid from her shoulders and dropped to pool at her feet, baring every inch of her naked body to his hungry gaze, Brooklyn reminded herself that this was Ryan, the man of her dreams, the man she’d loved since she was eighteen-years-old, and her initial moment of self-consciousness quickly faded away. She wanted this. She wanted him. She’d always wanted him. And as he continued to rain feather-soft kisses along her warm, sensitive skin, his hands moving leisurely up and down her back, she dropped her own hands from his neck, her eager fingers searching for the opening of his plush, navy blue robe. She pulled it apart, gaining courage as her hands moved upward along the naked expanse of his muscled torso to his shoulders. Pushing the robe from his shoulders, it fell to the floor, joining hers in the terrycloth pool around their ankles.

  Raising his head, Ryan looked into her vivid blue eyes for a moment, and then took a deliberate step back. His gaze dropped and his eyes swept slowly over her luscious body from head to toe. “Jesus you’re beautiful,” he said softly.

  Brooklyn felt her skin grow flushed and warm under his intense regard, but she made no move to cover herself. Instead, she dropped her own gaze, her eyes moving eagerly from his chest, down to his waist, and then to his long, thick appendage that seemed to pulse and throb between them. With her eyes glued to his jutting manhood, she raised her hand, tracing her fingers lightly from its base to the very tip, and then slowly back down.