If he tried too much harder, it might kill her, but she just smiled at him while he tucked his credit card back in his wallet. It was going to be a very, very long ride home.
They were about halfway home when it hit her that he’d never given her the word he’d use to describe his place in her life. He’d used humor to deflect her and, while “helpless sex toy” wasn’t a bad thing, she would have liked a serious answer to the question. If she introduced him to somebody as her boyfriend, would he balk?
But that moment had passed. He was telling her a funny story about the time Matt had called him from a customer’s home because he needed an answer from the homeowners before he could continue working. Unfortunately, they were occupied in the bedroom and he didn’t want to interrupt them having sex, so Matt wanted the office to call and ask them and then call him back.
It didn’t really matter if he had a label, she told herself. She was just going to enjoy his company.
She was laughing so hard at a Dill story, she almost fell out of the truck when he parked in her driveway and come around to open her door.
“You’re lying,” she said when she’d caught her breath and unlocked her front door.
“Ask him tomorrow. I swear it happened.”
Lauren was a few feet inside when she realized Ryan hadn’t followed her in. He was still standing in the open doorway. “What are you doing?”
“Waiting for you to invite me in. Or at least kiss me good-night.”
She laughed and walked back to the door. “Really? So if I just kiss you and say good-night, you’ll just go home?”
“Well, plan B would be to kiss you good-night until you’re so crazy with lust you forget you weren’t letting me in. But plan C would be going home.”
“What’s plan A?”
He braced his hands on the doorframe and leaned forward so that he was almost close enough to kiss her without technically being in her house. “Plan A is a race to your bed, stripping on the way, and the first one there naked gets to be the choreographer.”
“I don’t think so.”
He almost managed to hide his disappointment. Almost. “On to plan B.”
“We can’t leave our clothes scattered all over the house again, and we have to close the bedroom door, just in case.”
“Okay.”
“But we can still race. Go!” She took off running, then called over her shoulder, “Make sure you close the door!”
She laughed when she heard him curse, but he had long legs and she lost her little bit of advantage when she fumbled with her bra hooks.
Just as she kicked off her panties, a jumble of clothes landed at her feet, her bedroom door slammed closed and Ryan launched himself—totally naked—past her, hitting her mattress so hard he bounced. “I win!”
“How the hell did you get your clothes off so fast?” She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “And why didn’t you let me win?”
“I’m a Kowalski. We’re genetically incapable of taking a dive.” He rolled onto his side and propped himself on his elbow. “Standing like that makes your boobs look great, by the way.”
She walked over to the bed and lay down next to him. “Fine. Choreograph me.”
He lifted her arm by the wrist and let it go, then laughed when she let it flop bonelessly back to the mattress. “Somebody’s a sore loser. I never would have guessed that about you.”
“I think you cheated.”
“Hey, you should be proud. You came in second.”
She rolled to her side and then shoved him to his back so she could straddle him. “Didn’t anybody ever tell you it’s not nice to gloat?”
He reached up and cupped her breasts. “Yeah. Usually the people who come in second.”
She pinched his nipple and his body jerked under hers.
“Ow! Be nice.”
“Oh, did that hurt?” She leaned forward and kissed the same spot, then flicked her tongue over the sensitive nub. “Is that better?”
He moved his hands to her hips. He pulled her forward and then pushed her back so his erection glided between her legs. “A little.”
Lauren swiveled her hips and his fingertips gripped her hips tighter. When she leaned forward to brace herself on her hands, Ryan lifted his head and captured her nipple between his teeth.
“Don’t you dare,” she hissed.
He dared, just enough to make her squirm, but not enough to hurt. She whimpered as he switched to her other breast and did it again.
Then he flopped back onto the pillow. “Shit. Condoms are in my pants, which are in a ball...somewhere. I threw them.”
“I tucked one under the pillow earlier. Just in case.”
Seconds later, he was wearing it and she lowered herself onto him. Slowly—so slowly she could hear him grind his teeth—she rocked her hips, taking him deeper and deeper.