THE PROMISE EXCERPT - RATED X

“We can move if you like. It’s no bother, really.”

Ryan glanced at his bed, visualizing her lying there, hair spread out around her. Only she wasn’t alone. He was there with her, they were naked, and making love. Twisting like wild animals among the sheets. Damn! The tingle in his cock warned him he was getting a hard on. How many times in the last five years had he turned hard just thinking about Shannon? How many times had he fantasized about sliding into her soft body and screwing the hell out of her?

Without warning, a burning spasm raced down his injured leg, paralyzing him with intense pain. He dropped his bag and reached for the doorjamb to keep from falling, and grit his teeth to hold back a groan. The doctors said in time the spasms would go away but in the meantime he was at their mercy, never knowing when one was going to hit. Praying that it was one he would be able to handle like a man.

“Ryan!”

He could hear the alarm in her sharp whisper. She rushed towards him as she’d done in the kitchen. This time she ignored him when he motioned her back. She pried him away from the doorjamb, draped his arm across the back of her naked shoulders and led him toward the bed to sit down. She thought she was helping. But as she started to lower him another stab of blinding pain jerked him out of control and he fell back with a savage groan, dragging Shannon down with him.

“Oh hell!” he said sharply, sucking in his breath as the pain became almost too much to bear. He tried to recall what the therapist had said. He closed his eyes and sucked in slow, deep breaths, releasing them slowly. It didn’t seem to help. He clenched his hands into the bed.

“Ryan?” Shannon whispered with obvious concern in her tone soft tone. “Tell me what’s wrong, what I can do to help. It’s obvious you’re in terrible pain.”

He was surprised and thankful she wasn’t angry for her current situation. The last thing he needed was to have a squirming, indignant woman on top of him. “Just don’t move,” he ground out between his teeth, terrified she’d jar his throbbing thigh. It felt as though someone was pushing a hot poker through his flesh.

She complied, barely breathing against him. After a few seconds, the spasm gradually let up and he was able to relax beneath her. Ryan quickly became aware of other things. Like what it finally felt like to have the woman he wanted sprawled on top of him, in nothing but a towel.

“Do you need something?” she asked innocently.

Yeah, but he’d bite off his tongue before telling her he wanted to fuck her until neither of them could walk. Ryan was aware of every inch of Shannon. The weight of her full curves, the sensuous scent the enveloped her freshly washed body, the softness of her skin where he gripped her upper arms. And God help him he could feel her sweet breath against his neck as it warmly caressed his flesh. He inhaled deeply, praying for strength.

Everything about Shannon sharpened his arousal into a painful knot of desire. He had to get her off him soon or she was going to find out what she was doing to him.

“Ryan?”

He opened his eyes. Was it his imagination or had her pupils dilated? “I’m sorry if I hurt you, Shannon.”

“You didn’t, and I think you’re the one who’s suffering,” she whispered with compassion. “What happened?”

There was no way he was going to continue lying there with Shannon splayed out on top of him and try to hold a normal conversation with her. It wasn’t humanly possible.

“Do you think we can have this conversation later?”

“Of course. How can I get off you without causing you further pain?”

TORY RICHARDS