“Boring?” I snorted. I never once remembered feeling like Ryder was boring. “Uh, so Hayden, huh?”
She smiled this ridiculously huge grin and I wondered if it was a special talent of Kenna’s to look like she was in love with every one of her boyfriends. “Mmm-hmmm. He’s not nearly the rock star Ryder is, but we get each other, you know?”
“Sure, I know,” I nodded slowly. I didn’t really know, but I could pretend. “Well, um, thanks for intervening. Again.” I smiled at her, hoping to convey my gratitude. But after our weird conversation about her ex and current boyfriend the confrontation with Cassandra felt almost forgotten.
Almost.
“No problem, Ivy. Just maybe…. maybe you should avoid the girls’ bathrooms while you’re at school from now on,” her eyebrows furrowed in concern and I wondered if she had a point.
“You make a good point,” I sighed and then left her in the bathroom.
Weird. That was so weird.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Are you sure you don’t want some company?” Exie called from the driver’s seat. “I could use some caffeine.” She smiled at me knowingly, daring me to turn her down.
“No thanks,” I smiled confidently back, like this was no big deal, like I wasn’t blowing off my friend so I could interrogate Ryder until he turned blue. “I need to get to the bottom of this.”
“I’m sure he wants to get to the bottom of this too,” she winked at me and I rolled my eyes but then slammed her passenger door.
I watched Exie drive away, thankful she was willing to give me rides again now that Chase and I no longer had the carpool thing going on. I pivoted around and marched into Delice full of determination.
Ryder was wiping down the counter with a white rag when the bells over the doorway signaled a customer. He looked up from his task and when his eyes met mine they lit up in that shared secret again. He smiled at me, friendly and casual and I about snapped.
The café was empty now. The workday hadn’t wound down yet for the surrounding businesses and school had been out for a half an hour so either it was too early for kids around here, or they had already been through on their way home.
“Hey, Red,” he called from the counter. I couldn’t see anyone else working with him and wondered if his boss trusted him alone with the store. “Caramel macchiato?”
I paused midstride trying to ignore the shiver that slid down my spine because he knew my drink. Not that he hadn’t ordered it for me a couple times, but it was just so thoughtful…. so- No. This was exactly why we needed to have this little chat.
“We need to talk,” I barked and planted my hands on the counter.
His forehead wrinkled and his eyebrows drew down in concern. “Ok, let’s go,” he walked over and held the gate open that separated behind the counter from the rest of the store. He motioned for me to walk through and a little confused I did. He closed the gate behind me, and then led me along to the door that opened to the kitchen and office.
When the swinging door stopped moving behind us, he turned to face me, putting two gentle hands on my biceps. We were surrounded by stainless steel kitchen appliances and counters, everything was shiny and cold to the touch. Everything except Ryder’s warm, gentle hands searing my skin even through the material of my shirt.
“Why didn’t you tell me you and Kenna broke up?” I demanded out of breath.
His forehead smoothed out for a second and then wrinkled in the opposite way when his eyebrows shot up towards his hairline. And then a smug smile turned the corner of his mouth.
A soft laughed rumbled out of him and he shrugged a careless shoulder. “I didn’t think it mattered.
“It matters,” I argued stubbornly.
Ryder took a step closer, closing some of the space between us. The air around us changed, from casual to intense in just a moment. His breath fanned over my face, a mixture of strong coffee and spearmint. His gray eyes heated to pools of liquid silver and his tongue made a small sweep across his bottom lip.
“Why?” he whispered, his voice coarse and raspy. It coated the sound as it hit my ears and pushed me a step forward, a step into his arms.
“It just does,” I explained without explaining anything.
“Yeah?” he asked, his voice that same sexy growl.
My body heated to a liquid fire. I felt burning hot and tingly and so lost at the moment I didn’t know what to do. My heart hammered in my chest, loud, pounding, furious. My fingertips buzzed with anticipation and my eyesight had narrowed so severely that anything beyond Ryder’s face felt fuzzy and far away.
All of a sudden the space between us was filled, brimming over with emotion and tension. There had been some of that before; the space between us had never been empty. But now it was completely full, atoms and particles and molecules and whatever else occupied the space between zinged around in a wild frenzy, charged with the growing something that enveloped everything separating us.
“So it matters to you that I’m single,” he dropped his head to just a breath away from mine. I shivered, a quick, jerking motion that propelled me the rest of the distance to Ryder’s body.
He caught me, like he was expecting me and in the next moment his mouth was on mine. One hand slipped around my waist pulling me impossibly closer to him, the other sliding up to cradle my neck in his huge hand. His lips pressed against mine so gently, so impossibly careful that I barely felt the soft fullness of them.
I was frozen, hypnotized, I couldn’t have moved for anything, not even to intensify the kiss even though that’s all I wanted. And while he seemed to hesitate in indecision, I struggled to step out of my decision. I screamed every argument at myself I could think of, every truth and lie I had been convincing myself of ever since we met. But the most sincere truth, the most base, primal, real truth I could admit to myself was that I wanted to kiss him; I wanted this more than anything. More than freedom.
And in the same instant I admitted that to myself, Ryder seemed to come to a conclusion of his own because his lips moved against mine. Delicately at first, and then demanding, hungry.
He devoured me.
Possessed me.
And I let him own me. There was no fight against him, no will or resolve left to do anything except give myself up to him.
I opened my mouth and let his tongue in, let it sweep along mine, so sweet at first, so achingly tantalizing that I felt myself moan into his mouth. A blush heated my neck and began creeping its way up my face, but there was no time to be embarrassed because the sound seemed to flip a switch in him and then all of his inhibitions were gone and he pushed me against the cold metal of the refrigerator and consumed every piece of me.
His arms imprisoned me to him, his fingers splayed against my skin, pressing into me as if I would evaporate if he didn’t hold on to me. His mouth was relentless against mine, nipping, licking, sweet then rough, gentle then bruising. I made more sounds, desperate sounds of need that he matched with low groans of satisfaction.
The hand on my back tugged at the hem of my shirt and then slipped under so that the heat of his palm scorched the sensitive skin of my spine. I bucked forward, and my arms tightened around his neck.