Chapter Thirteen

Ryle: Are you at home or still at work?

Me: Work. Should be done in about an hour.

Ryle: Can I come see you?

Me: You know how people say there is no such thing as a stupid question?

They’re wrong. That was a stupid question.

Ryle: :)

Half an hour later, he’s knocking at the front door of the floral shop.

I closed the shop almost three hours ago, but I’m still here, trying to

get caught up on the chaos that was the first month. The store is still

too new to get an accurate projection of how well or how bad it’s

doing. Some days are great and some are so slow I send Allysa home.

But overall, I’m happy with how it’s gone so far.

And happy with how things are going with Ryle.

I unlock the door to let him in. He’s in light blue scrubs again, and

he still has a stethoscope around his neck. Fresh from work. Very nice

touch. I swear, every time I see him straight off a shift, I have to hide

the stupid grin on my face. I give him a quick kiss and then turn back

toward my office. “I have a few things to finish up and then we can go

back to my place.”

He follows me into my office and closes the door. “You got a

couch?” he asks, looking around my office.

I’ve spent some of this week putting the finishing touches on it. I

bought a couple of lamps so I don’t have to turn on the overpowering

fluorescent lights. The lamps give the room a soft glow. I also bought

a few plants to keep here permanently. It’s no garden, but it’s as close

as it gets. It’s come a long way since this room was being used as

storage for vegetable crates.

Ryle walks over to the couch and falls down onto it, face-first. “Take

your time,” he mumbles into the pillow. “I’ll just nap until you’re

finished.”I sometimes worry about how hard he pushes himself with work,

but I don’t say anything. I’ve been sitting in my office going on twelve

hours now, so I don’t have much room to talk when it comes to being

too ambitious.

I spend the next fifteen or so minutes finalizing orders. When I’m

finished, I close my laptop and look over at Ryle.

I thought he’d be asleep, but instead he’s on his side with his head

propped up on his hand. He’s been watching me this whole time, and

seeing the smile on his face makes me blush. I push my chair back

and stand up.

“Lily, I think I like you too much,” he says as I make my way over to

him.

I scrunch up my nose as he sits up on the couch and pulls me onto

his lap. “Too much? That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”

“That’s because I don’t know if it is,” he says. He adjusts my legs on

either side of him and then wraps his arms around my waist. “This is

my first real relationship. I don’t know if I’m supposed to like you this

much yet. I don’t want to scare you away.”

I laugh. “Like that could ever happen. You work way too much to

smother me.”

He rubs his hands up my back. “Does it bother you that I work too

much?”

I shake my head. “No. I worry about you sometimes because I don’t

want you to burn yourself out. But I don’t mind that I have to share

you with your passion. I actually really like how ambitious you are. It’s

kind of sexy. It might even be my favorite thing about you.”

“You know what I like the most about you?”

“I already know this answer,” I say, smiling. “My mouth.”

He leans his head back against the couch. “Oh yeah. That does

come first. But do you know what my second favorite thing about you

is?”

I shake my head.

“You don’t put pressure on me to be something I’m incapable of

being. You accept me exactly how I am.”

I smile. “Well, in all fairness, you’re a little different from when I

first met you. You aren’t so anti-girlfriend anymore.” "That’s because you make it easy,” he says, sliding a hand inside the

back of my shirt. “It’s easy being with you. I can still have the career

I’ve always wanted, but you make it ten times better with the way you

support me. When I’m with you, I feel like I get to have my cake and

eat it, too.”

Now both of his hands are beneath my shirt, pressed against my

back. He pulls me toward him and kisses me. I grin against his mouth

and whisper, “Is it the best cake you’ve ever tasted?”

One of his hands moves to the back of my bra and he unfastens it

with ease. “I’m pretty sure, but maybe I need another taste of it to be

positive.” He pulls my shirt and bra over my head. I begin to push

myself off of him so I can pull off my jeans, but he pulls me back onto

his lap. He grabs his stethoscope and puts it in his ears, then presses

the diaphragm against my chest, right over my heart.

“What’s got your heart so worked up, Lily?”

I shrug innocently. “It might have a little to do with you, Dr.

Kincaid.”

He drops the end of the stethoscope and then lifts me off of him,

pushing me back onto the couch. He spreads my legs and kneels

down on the couch between them, placing the stethoscope against my

chest again. He uses his other hand to hold himself up as he

continues listening to my heart.

“I’d say you’re at about ninety beats per minute,” he says.

“Is that good or bad?”

He grins and lowers himself on top of me. “I’ll be satisfied when it

reaches one forty.”

Yeah. If it reaches 140, I’m thinking I’ll be satisfied, too.

He lowers his mouth to my chest and my eyes fall shut when I feel

his tongue slide across my ******. He takes me in his mouth, keeping

the stethoscope pressed against my chest the entire time. “You’re at

about one hundred now,” he says. He wraps the stethoscope around

his neck again and then pulls back, unbuttoning my jeans. Once he

slides them off of me, he turns me over until I’m on my stomach, my

arms draped over the arm of the couch.

“Get on your knees,” he says.

I do what he says and before I’m even adjusted, I feel the cold

metal of the stethoscope meet my chest again, this time with his arm snaked around me from behind. I remain still as he listens to my

heartbeat. His other hand slowly begins to find its way between my

legs and then inside my panties and then inside of me. I grip the

couch but try to keep the noises to a minimum while he listens to my

heart.

“One hundred and ten,” he says, still unsatisfied.

He pulls my hips back to meet him and then I can feel him freeing

himself from his scrubs. He grips my hip with one hand while shoving

my panties aside with the other. Then he pushes forward until he’s all

the way inside of me.

I’m grasping the couch with two desperate fists when he pauses to

listen to my heart again. “Lily,” he says with mock disappointment.

“One twenty. Not quite where I want you.”

The stethoscope disappears again and his arm curls around my

waist. His hand slides down my stomach and settles between my legs. I

can no longer keep up with his rhythm. I can barely even stay on my

knees. He’s somehow holding me up with one hand and destroying

me in the best possible way with his other hand. Right when I start to

tremble, he pulls me upright until my back meets his chest. He’s still

inside me, but now he’s focused on my heart again as he moves his

stethoscope around to the front of my chest.

I let out a **** and he presses his lips to my ear. “Shh. No noises.”

I have no idea how I make it through the next thirty seconds

without making another sound. One of his arms is wrapped around

me with the stethoscope pressed to my chest. His other arm is tight

against my stomach as his hand continues its magic between my legs.

He’s still somehow deep inside me and I’m trying to move against

him, but he’s rock solid as the tremors begin to rush through me. My

legs are shaking and my hands are at my sides, gripping the tops of his

thighs as it takes every ounce of my strength not to scream out his

name.

I’m still shaking when he lifts my hand and places the diaphragm

against my wrist. After several seconds, he pulls the stethoscope away

and tosses it to the floor. “One fifty,” he says with satisfaction. He pulls

out of me and flips me onto my back and then his mouth is on mine

and he’s inside me again.My body is too weak to move and I can’t even open my eyes and

watch him. He thrusts against me several times and then holds still,

groaning into my mouth. He drops on top of me, tense, yet shaking.

He kisses my neck and then his lips meet the tattoo of the heart on

my collarbone. He finally settles against my neck and sighs.

“Have I already mentioned tonight how much I like you?” he asks.

I laugh. “Once or twice.”

“Consider this the third time,” he says. “I like you. Everything

about you, Lily. Being inside of you. Being outside of you. Being near

you. I like it all.”

I smile, loving how his words feel against my skin. Inside my heart.

I open my mouth to tell him I like him, too, but my voice is cut off by

the sound of his phone.

He groans against my neck and then pulls out of me and reaches

for his phone. He pulls his scrubs back into place and laughs as he

looks at his caller ID.

“It’s my mother,” he says, leaning over and kissing the top of my

knee that’s resting against the back of the couch. He tosses the phone

aside and then stands and walks over to my desk, grabbing a box of

tissues.

This is always awkward, having to clean up after sex. But I can’t say

it’s ever been this awkward before, knowing his mother is on the other

end of that ring.

Once all my clothes are back in place, he pulls me against him on

the couch and I lie down on top of him, resting my head on his chest.

It’s after ten now and I’m so comfortable I debate just sleeping

here for the night. Ryle’s phone makes another noise, alerting him to

a new voice mail. The thought of seeing him interact with his mother

makes me smile. Allysa talks about their parents some, but I’ve never

really talked to Ryle about them before.

“Do you get along with your parents?”

His arm is stroking mine gently. “Yeah, I do. They’re good people.

We hit a rough patch when I was a teenager, but we worked through

it. I talk to my mother almost daily now.”

I fold my arms over his chest and rest my chin on them, looking up

at him. “Will you tell me more about your mother? Allysa told me they moved to England a few years ago. And that they were in Australia on

vacation, but that was like a month ago.”

He laughs. “My mother? Well . . . my mother is very overbearing.

Very judgmental, especially of the people she loves the most. She’s

never missed a single church service. And I have never heard her

refer to my father as anything other than Dr. Kincaid.”

Despite the warnings, he smiles the whole time he talks about her.

“Your father is a doctor, too?”

He nods. “Psychiatrist. He chose a field that also allowed him to

have a normal life. Smart man.”

“Do they ever visit you in Boston?”

“Not really. My mother hates flying, so Allysa and I fly to England a

couple of times a year. She does want to meet you, though, so you

might be going with us on the next trip.”

I grin. “You’ve told your mother about me?”

“Of course,” he says. “This is kind of a monumental thing, you

know. Me having a girlfriend. She calls me every day to make sure I

haven’t screwed it up somehow.”

I laugh, which makes him reach for his phone. “You think I’m

kidding? I guarantee she somehow brought you up in the voice mail

she just left.” He presses a few keys and then begins to play the voice

mail.

“Hey, sweetheart! It’s your mom. Haven’t spoken to you since yesterday.

Miss you. Give Lily a hug for me. You do still see her, right? Allysa says you

can’t stop talking about her. She is still your girlfriend, right? Okay. Gretchen’s

here, we’re having high tea. Love you. Kiss kiss.”

I press my face against his chest and laugh. “We’ve only been

dating a few months. How much do you talk about me?”

He pulls my hand up between us and kisses it. “Too much, Lily.

Way too much.”

I smile. “I can’t wait to meet them. Not only did they raise an

incredible daughter, but they made you. That’s pretty impressive.”

His arms tighten around me and he kisses the top of my head.

“What was your brother’s name?” I ask him.

I can feel a slight stiffness in him after I ask that. I regret bringing

it up, but it’s too late to take it back.

“Emerson.”

I can tell by his voice that it’s not something he wants to talk about

right now. Instead of pressing it further, I lift my head and scoot

forward, pressing my mouth to his.

I should know better. Kisses can’t seem to stop at just kisses when it

comes to me and Ryle. In a matter of minutes, he’s inside of me

again, but this time it’s everything the other time wasn’t.

This time we **** ****.

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