He flexed his fingers on my ass. Lifting his head, he locked his heated gaze with mine. “Nova, our first time is not going to be on a jet.”

I rocked my hips, grinding down into his hardness. “It would be fun, though.”

“Come here,” he grumped with a half smile. “Kiss me again, baby.”

“Fine,” I sighed but brushed my lips over his. “I guess we shouldn’t give poor Oliver a show.”

He thrust his fingers into my hair, pulling my head back slightly. “No, we will not give him one. Because if he or anyone else so much as hears the way you moan for me, I will have to end their lives then and there. Those are for my ears only, Nova.”

The way he pulled my hair mixed with the aggression in his voice only turned me on more. “Wh-what if I’m very, very quiet?”

He sank his teeth into my neck, nipping just hard enough to sting before licking the tender spot. “You have already proven to me that you can’t be quiet when I touch you, my heart. Now be a good girl and kiss me.”

I barely took two steps up onto the porch of my house when the front door opened and Mom walked out. Her gaze went straight to the way Ryan was holding my hand, making her beautiful blue eyes brighten even more before they traveled to my left hand.

“Damn it!” she grumbled under her breath, her shoulders drooping comically in disappointment.

“What?” I asked with a laugh.

She sighed. “We had a little bet going. Raven and I both thought you would come home with a ring on your finger.”

I lifted my hand and turned it left and right to emphasize the lack of a ring. “Sorry, Mom, but—”

“No ring!” Dad whooped as he came out onto the porch. “I’ll be taking that payment tonight, thank you very much.”

“Gross,” I muttered to Ryan under my breath. I could only imagine what the prize for winning the bet was, and I didn’t want those images in my head. Especially when pink filled my mom’s cheeks, and she slapped at Dad’s chest, telling him to shush.

Ryan laughed quietly as he pulled me against him, tucking me under his arm and letting his hand slide down to my hip. It was a bold move to make in front of my father, but Dad had always been laid-back when it came to anything to do with my best friend and me. When I glanced his way to garner his reaction to Ryan holding me so possessively, it was to see something close to approval in his green eyes—and maybe a little relief too.

“Mom.” I pulled her attention back to me. “I don’t have a ring—”

“Yet,” Ryan stressed.

“Yet,” I agreed to soothe him, stroking my fingers up his back underneath his coat and T-shirt. “But Ryan and I are getting married in November.”

“Really?” Mom squealed, bouncing from one foot to the other.