He yanked off his shirt and then hers, stopping only long enough to run his fingers over the engagement ring hanging on the chain between her br**sts. Her leggings were gone a second later and then he snapped open the clasp at the back of her bra and it fell, too. All that remained was for him to push his thumbs into the sides of her panties and shove them down over her hips and thighs.

Her hands were wet and covered with clay, but Ryan clearly didn’t care as he threaded his fingers into hers and backed them up against the nearest wall. He lifted her hands up over her head and lowered his mouth to her br**sts, roughly rubbing the stubble on his chin over her, making her flesh even more sensitive by the time he laved first one and then the other with his tongue.

Even lost in the sweet shock of arousal, Vicki realized she was surrounded by all of her favorite things.

Clay. Sculptures. Ryan.

Full to bursting with a joy she hadn’t ever let herself believe could be real, the next thing she knew, Ryan was kissing her again and letting her hands go to press his now clay-covered palms over her br**sts.

Every inch of skin he touched came alive beneath his fingers, marking her with clay, claiming her as his even more with every caress.

Wanting to mark him, too, desperate to feel his heat and strength beneath her fingertips, she laid her hands over his shoulders and slowly slid a path of clay down over his chest and then his abdomen.

He pushed himself between her naked thighs so that the zipper of his jeans—and the huge bulge behind it—was a deliciously hard press of heat into the vee between her legs, making her gasp as he hit just the right spot. Always incredibly in tune with her body, he reached for one thigh and slid his hand down to grasp her beneath her knee and pull her leg up and around his waist.

Vicki was entirely sensation now, a bundle of nerves ready to spring apart at any moment. But she didn’t want to go there alone.

Suddenly clumsy with desire, her hands shook, fumbling at the button and zipper on his jeans. He moved his hands from her br**sts just long enough to pull a condom out before his jeans fell to the ground. She was the one yanking off his underwear now and thank God his hands were clean enough from brushing over her skin again and again to slide on the condom.

So strong, he lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist just as he lowered her down onto him. Both of them breathed out hard at the sweet moment of connection, her body a perfect fit around his, and then he was cupping her hips hard in his hands and riding her against the wall while she kissed him with more than just her mouth. Her entire heart and soul were there in every slick of her tongue against his, in every gasp of ecstasy...and especially in the explosion of pleasure that soon took them both over in the middle of her studio.

They clung to each other for several long moments, working to catch their breath. She loved the way Ryan kept holding onto her as if it didn’t even occur to him to ever let her go.

“I like dating you,” he said into the curve of her shoulder.

She laughed before losing her breath all over again at the aftershocks that her body made jostling over his in laughter. Thirty minutes later, when they’d pulled their clothes back on over their clay-covered bodies and were sitting on the floor devouring the slices of pizza that had just been delivered, with Ryan’s fake-engagement ring lying between her br**sts, she realized it was the craziest second date she’d ever had.

Crazy...and so right.

Chapter Twenty-three

Vicki snuggled in closer to Ryan. He had a bad habit of kicking off the covers while they were sleeping, but as long as he was there to keep her warm, she didn’t mind.

A few minutes later, alarms started to sound from around the room. “Time to wake up, sleepyhead. You have a plane to catch.” She softened her words with a soft flick of her tongue across his earlobe.

He groaned and tried to pull her closer, but as much as she wanted to let him drag her beneath him to make their morning even more perfect, first she needed to wiggle out from beneath his arm to find his various alarms and turn each of them off.

By the time she clicked off the last one, he was sitting up in bed giving her a very appreciative—and smoldering—look.

“You look so good naked, you’ve just given me a new idea.”

She raised an eyebrow even as she moved toward his outstretched arm. “Are you sure it’s a new idea?”

He pulled her over him so that she was straddling him over the covers. “I think we should make this a clothes-free room.”

She laughed and kissed him. “Okay.”

His large, extremely talented hands cupped her br**sts and as he lowered his mouth to them, he said, “If I’d known it was going to be that easy to convince you, I would have said the whole house should be a naked zone.”

Her laughter stopped the second his tongue slicked over her. She threaded her fingers through his hair and held him against her as he feasted on her.

She was panting as she said, “Maybe.”

He lifted her head. “Say that again?”

She gave him a wicked smile. He needed to get on the road soon, but if they worked fast, they could squeeze in a little fun, couldn’t they? “Make me say it.”

Just that fast, her wrists were in his hand, her gentle morning lover turning deliciously dominant in a split-second change-up.

Ryan’s free hand moved between her legs and his mouth covered hers as his fingers played over her aroused flesh.

“You ready to talk yet?”

Talk? She could barely breathe.

“Okay, then. You’ve left me no choice but to get serious with you.” He moved his hand down to the top of her abdomen and stopped right there—such a good tease.

Already overflowing with wanting, Vicki gasped out the word, “One.”

“One what?” His fingers went a little lower, just brushing against her curls, but no matter how she tried to move against his hand, he held firm.

“You can have me naked for one day.”

“Where? Just in the bedroom?” He nipped at her earlobe with a possessive growl. “Or the whole house?”

He moved his hand even lower, but still not low enough.

She all but moaned the words, “The whole house.”

He grinned down at her, but his eyes were dark with desire. “Only once?”

She couldn’t believe what she was about to promise him. But no one had ever made her feel so desired—or safe—that she could even consider agreeing to stay naked for one full day with him.

“At least once.”

“Every month.” His words were a seductive flicker of warm breath and stubble over her br**sts and stomach as he kissed his way down her body until his mouth was hovering right over his teasing hand. “Promise me a naked day every month and I’ll give you what you want.”