Heat of the Night (6 page)
“Pretty much since we were six years old,” she said wryly. “He officially asked me two years ago.
Our parents were thrilled.”
“Your parents aren’t the ones getting married. How did
you
feel about it?” Ryan asked quietly.
She bit her bottom lip. “I…was happy, I guess. I’ve wanted to marry Bryce since we were kids. I thought he was a wonderful guy.”
“Thought?” Ryan echoed, picking up on the past tense.
To her dismay, they reached a red light, which allowed him to turn his head and study her. His blue eyes flickered with curiosity, and discomfort rose up her spine. The last thing she wanted to do was tell Ryan about Bryce’s parting words, about what a priss she supposedly was.
“He said some mean things before he left,” she finally admitted.
Ryan’s jaw hardened. “What kind of mean things?”
She shrugged and casually glanced out the window. “You know, about me, and our sex life, and…”
She suddenly gritted her teeth. To hell with it. “He pretty much called me a prude, okay?”
Ryan was silent for a few seconds. Then he burst out laughing.
“It’s not funny,” she said, her cheeks burning up.
“Sure it is.” He chuckled again. “It’s also not
true
. Don’t tell me you believed him, babe.”
Annabelle didn’t answer.
“You did, didn’t you?” Ryan said, sounding amazed. “Is that why you wrote that list? Come on, Annabelle, you should know better than to listen to some asshole. I just spent the entire day and night with you, and I can assure you, you’re no prude.”
“Um, thanks?”
They reached the hospital and Ryan parked the Jeep. Shutting off the engine, he looked at her and shook his head. “Don’t even think about that ass anymore, okay? Because I know for a fact that you’re the sexiest, hottest, wildest fuck a guy could ever have.”
Despite the lewd description, she found herself laughing. Her heart may have skipped a couple of beats too. She liked knowing that she’d provided this gorgeous military man with a sexy, hot and wild time.
Ryan hopped out of the Jeep to grab a parking ticket from the machine in the lot. When he came back, he shoved the ticket on the dashboard, as Annabelle got out of the vehicle, slinging her purse over her shoulder. “Are you sure they won’t mind that I’m here?” she asked once more.
“Trust me, they’ll be ecstatic.”
31
Chapter Four
Strangely enough, he was right. When the two of them entered the large waiting room in the fifth-floor maternity ward, a brunette with bright green eyes and a blue-eyed redhead jumped up and swarmed Ryan and Annabelle like two excited bees. Ryan made the introductions, but the two women kept babbling about how exciting this was and how happy they were for Shelby that Annabelle had a tough time keeping up. The brunette was Holly, and the blond man with the killer smile who rose from one of the plastic chairs was Carson, her fiancé. Jane was the redhead, and she introduced Annabelle to
her
fiancé, Thomas Becker, a man with short brown hair and a body that belonged in an action movie.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to them,” Becker said dryly as Holly and Jane continued to talk Ryan’s ear off.
“She’s only three centimeters dilated,” Holly was explaining. “Garrett came out an hour ago and said the doctor thinks it might be a while.”
“Are Will and Mac coming?” Ryan asked.
“They’ll be here in a few hours,” Carson supplied. “Mac wasn’t feeling well last night, so Will wants to let her sleep a while longer.”
“She’s pregnant,” Holly told Annabelle. “And Will is totally overprotective. He thinks she’ll lose the baby if she sneezes, but we keep telling him to quit worrying. Unless she has a vision of it or something,
then
he should worry.”
Annabelle was lost again. She figured Will was another SEAL, but all this talk of pregnancy and visions made her head spin. It spun even more when Ryan suddenly shook hands with Becker and congratulated him for apparently getting Jane pregnant, though something in that exchange felt…stiff.
Ryan was smiling, his voice ringing with sincerity, but for a moment, Annabelle could swear she’d heard a twinge of sadness. She discreetly glanced from Ryan to Jane, but the redhead was staring up at her soon-to-be husband adoringly and Ryan looked perfectly unruffled.
Huh. Maybe she’d just imagined it.
“Shit, I’m starving,” Carson mumbled. “Anyone want to make a trip down to the cafeteria?”
Ryan and Becker chimed in. Annabelle didn’t have a chance. Her stomach had grumbled the second Carson said
cafeteria
, but Holly was suddenly gripping her hand. “Bring us some sandwiches or something,” Holly chirped to the men, then tugged on Annabelle’s hand and practically forced her butt into a chair. “Sit with us, Annabelle.”
Heat of the Night
Annabelle found herself sandwiched between Holly and Jane, who stared at her in curiosity. “How did you and Ryan meet?” Jane asked.
“Is it serious?” Holly demanded.
“Uh…it’s only been two days,” she said awkwardly.
“But you like him?” Holly pressed.
“Yeah, definitely.” Before they could grill her again, she swiftly changed the subject. “How did you and Carson meet?” she asked Holly.
With a grin, Holly launched into the whole sordid story, revealing that she and Carson had indulged in a one-night stand at a nightclub only to run into each other weeks later at Shelby and Garrett’s wedding.
Then Jane chimed in, confessing that she’d met Becker in an elevator, in which the two of them passed the time having hot sex.
Annabelle laughed, thinking of her first meeting with Ryan. Unable to stop herself, she told the two women the story of how she’d woken up to find a total stranger in bed with her. Both of them hooted with delight when she finished. “Oh, that’s priceless,” Jane said, pushing a loose strand of red hair from her ponytail. “I can’t believe you threw a lamp at him.”
“He deserves it,” Holly said, rolling her eyes. “I’ve wanted to throw a lamp at Evans since the day I met him.” Annabelle knew Holly was just teasing; the affection in her voice when she spoke of Ryan was easy to pick up on.
“Yeah,” Jane agreed with a grin. “He’s incorrigible. I’ve been tempted to do some lamp-throwing myself.”
“So, have you and Carson set a date?” Annabelle asked Holly.
“Not yet.” Holly made a face. “We’re too busy arguing about who’ll cater the wedding.”
“Having trouble picking a catering company?”
“No, he won’t let
me
do it,” Holly complained.
“The bride can’t cater her own damn wedding,” came Carson’s annoyed voice. He stepped into the waiting room, with Ryan and Becker in tow, and glared at his soon-to-be wife. “You’re just going to have to pay someone else to do it.”
“I’ll prepare everything the night before,” Holly insisted.
Annabelle smothered a laugh as she listened to them argue. She could tell they were madly in love, which brought a tiny pang of envy to her chest. Had she and Bryce ever acted that way with each other, loving and teasing and so obviously infatuated with each other?
“I got turkey and ham,” Ryan said, holding up two sandwiches covered in plastic wrap. “Pick one.”
She reached for the ham and unwrapped the sandwich, as Jane got up to sit with Becker, digging into the potato chips he’d brought her, and Holly and Carson split a tuna sandwich.
33
Elle Kennedy
John Garrett walked into the waiting room while the women were eating, looking completely frazzled.
Annabelle noted he was an extremely good-looking man, with dark hair, intense eyes and a long sexy bod.
Even the lines of exhaustion creasing his face didn’t take away from his handsomeness. Jeez, did the Navy only allow sex gods to enlist or something?
“Six centimeters,” Garrett announced, raking both hands through his hair. “Shit, I’m dying in there.”
“Is she okay?” Holly asked, her green eyes wide with concern.
“She’s fine, considering.” Garrett looked like he was going to keel over any second. “But she keeps yelling at me, and I’m pretty sure she broke one of my fingers during the last contraction.” He held up his hand and sure enough, his pinkie was red, swollen and bent at a slight angle. And yet he didn’t seem the least bit concerned about it, and a few minutes later, he said he’d keep them posted and went to be with his wife again, broken finger and all.
Annabelle was impressed. Maybe it was a military thing, but she’d never seen a man look so calm.
She shot a sidelong glance at Ryan, wondering how he’d react in this type of situation. His wife yelling and in pain, clinging to his hand so tightly she broke one of his fingers. She got the feeling he’d be calm too.
“So,” Ryan said after Garrett left the room. “How long do you think this’ll take?”
“Not long,” Carson said at the same time Holly replied, “Probably hours.”
Ryan groaned, evidently smart enough to know that the woman was always right. And right Holly was. Two hours passed before they knew it. Then three and four. By the time hour number five ticked by, the waiting room became substantially quiet. Annabelle yawned and stretched her legs out, leaning closer to Ryan. In the corner of the room, Jane had fallen asleep on Becker’s shoulder and he was absently running his fingers through her hair. Carson was asleep too, head lolled to the side, while his fiancée buried her nose in a paperback novel.
Annabelle jumped when she felt Ryan’s lips brush across her earlobe. “This is so boring,” he whispered in her ear.
She smiled. “It’s hard work pushing out a baby. I doubt Shelby is finding it boring at all.”
“Yeah, well, Will and his wife have the right idea. They’re going to show up in a few hours, all bright-eyed and ready to hold the baby, and they’ll laugh at us for our six-hour wait.”
“It could be worse,” Annabelle pointed out. “My mother was in labor with me for thirty-two hours.”
“That does not surprise me,” Ryan said solemnly. “You went from a difficult infant to a difficult adult.”
“Ha ha.”
He shifted close again, his tongue darting out to lick her ear. “I have an idea,” he rasped.
“Oh really?”
Planting a little kiss on her neck, he met her gaze and said, “Number four.”
She coughed in surprise, instantly catching his drift. “At the
hospital
? No way.”
34
Heat of the Night
“Come on, it’ll be fun.”
“You really need to stop promising me fun.” She gestured around the quiet waiting room. “So far, I’m not having fun.”
“But you will.” Before she could blink, he was on his feet and pulling her up. “Let’s go make some memories, babe.”
At the sound of movement, Holly looked up from her book. “Going to stretch your legs?” she asked, the amusement in her green eyes revealing that she knew precisely what they were about to do.
“Sure are,” Ryan said easily. “Want anything from the vending machine?”
“No, thanks.” Holly winked at Annabelle as Ryan linked his arm loosely through hers as if they were going on a leisurely stroll.
It was past ten, and the hospital corridor was bustling. Nurses in bright pink scrubs hurried by, doctors stood in the hallway studying patient charts, and they passed several family members with either pink or blue balloons going into rooms to visit the new moms. They walked past the nursery, and at the sound of a newborn wailing, Annabelle glared at Ryan. “I refuse to have sex near babies.”
He seemed to mull that over, then sighed. “Me too. Let’s go downstairs.”
This was crazy. Annabelle wanted to object as she followed Ryan to the stairwell, where they climbed the stairs up to the next floor. When she’d written that list, she hadn’t planned on actually doing any of the things on it. Fantasized about them, sure, but doing them? Again, crazy.
Yet her heart was pounding wildly as Ryan dragged her down the fluorescent-lit corridor of the respiratory ward, and her knees shook when he discovered an empty closet and ushered her inside.
Darkness instantly engulfed them, but she could make out a metal rack stacked with boxes of…she squinted…latex gloves. Ryan followed her gaze and laughed. “Can I please, please fuck you while wearing latex gloves?”
“You are a sick man.”
He encircled her waist with hands and bent down to nip at her neck. “Think about how cold and slimy it would feel.”
“I am a firm believer that sex should
not
be cold and slimy.”
Ryan’s mouth moved from her neck to her jaw. He kissed his way to her mouth, his morning stubble tickling her chin. They both froze at the sound of muffled footsteps, but whoever it was walked right past the closet. “Are we really going to do this?” she whispered.
He took one of her hands and placed it directly over his crotch, which sported a thick ridge of arousal.
“Hell yeah.”
Annabelle sighed. “Fine, do your worst.”
“My best, you mean,” he murmured as he slid his hand between her legs.
35
Elle Kennedy
He stroked her gently, as if he had all the time in the world, but Annabelle was very much aware of their surroundings. “If we do this, we do it fast,” she murmured back.
“If you say so.”
Before she could blink, he spun her around so that she was facing the wall, as he ground his lower body against her ass. She moaned, the delicious friction causing a ribbon of pleasure to uncurl through her body and settle in her aching core.
Ryan reached around to cup her breasts, his breath warm against her neck. “Hey, I just thought of something,” he said, sounding delighted.
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“We can cross off numbers two, four and eight, all at once. It’s the trifecta…the perfect storm, if you will.”
It was hard to concentrate on his words when his hands were fondling her breasts. He meant the list, obviously. She strained to remember the items. Sex in public, sex standing up, and…her face heated up. Oh right. From behind.
“I’ve gotta tell you, babe, I’m loving this list of yours,” he rasped, sliding his hands down her belly to unbutton her jeans.