by KB Winters
“Are you hungry? Or, did they feed you on the flight?” Ryker asked as he led the way back up to the house. He had his arm wrapped around me, one hand tucked casually into the back pocket of my jeans. He hadn’t let go of me since we crashed together at the airport gate. It was like he thought if that connection was broken, I’d vanish or something.
“I’m starving!” I laughed at my own enthusiastic answer. I’d been too nervous to eat anything that morning, and after the long flight, with nothing but water and peanuts to sustain me, I was long overdue for a proper meal. “I really would like to shower first though…”
“Oh, right,” Ryker said, his tone tinged with frustration at himself for forgetting. “I have towels and stuff unpacked in the master bath.”
He led me to the largest bedroom that had an attached bathroom, and when I turned away to open my suitcase, I heard his jean unzip. I spun around again, unable to conceal my panic, as I found him half naked, and working on tearing off his jeans. “Ryker, wait, I—” He stopped undressing and gave me a confused look. “I’m sorry—I’m just not ready for all that.”
He opened his mouth and I could sense the protest brewing, but after a moment, he nodded. “Got it. Of course. I’ll clear out. Uhm…towels are on the shelf over the toilet.” He looked down, finished zipping his fly, then turned to grab the shirt he’d discarded on the large, four poster bed and left the room without looking at me.
The bedroom door shut behind him and I cringed at the sound. He hadn’t slammed it, but his frustration was evident. I grabbed the soap and went into the bathroom with a sigh. For the second time, I had no idea what he was thinking. I hadn’t meant to anger him, but I needed some time and space to figure out what I wanted. Which—as he had said—was the reason for my trip to the ranch in the first place.
He’d have to understand.
After my shower, I hurried to get dress, and went out to find Ryker. He was in the backyard, standing with his back to the house, scanning out over the large, empty fields. “Ryker?” I said, taking tentative steps down the back porch to meet him.
He turned and smiled at me, but there was something masked about it. “Hey. How was the shower?”
“It was fine, thanks. Listen, can we…talk?”
He held up a hand. “It’s okay, Ev. You don’t need to explain. I shouldn’t have assumed anything. It’s not like we discussed it over the phone or anything.”
He was right—in part. We’d exchanged some flirtatious messages, especially in the day or two before my departure, but nothing had been explicit. My dreams about being with him wandered into a very risqué place, but I hadn’t shared those with Ryker.
“I think, right now, it would just confuse me,” I replied, forcing myself to look up and meet his eyes.
Ryker nodded, his face set in a way that told me there was more going on behind his stare than he was letting on. “Like I said, it’s not a problem.”
My eyes lingered on his another moment, silently pleading for him to let down his guard, but broke away after a moment, when it was clear there was nothing left he was going to share. I looked out over the land and crossed my arms against the slight breeze. “It’s so peaceful out here,” I commented.
“Yeah,” Ryker said, his tone releasing the tightness. “I think I’ll build a patio out here. Maybe add a fire pit. I want to bring in some tall trees on that side,” he swept his hand over to the right. “It would block the wind a little. If Bennett comes out to visit, he’s gonna insist on setting up a BBQ grill.” Ryker grinned at the idea and I was almost surprised by the mention of Bennett. He hadn’t talked about him since we were in Vegas, not even over the phone calls we’d had the past week. I hadn’t asked, assuming it was a closed topic.
“How is he?” I cut a sideways glance to see how to prodding question was received.
Ryker shrugged, not looking at me. “He’s all right. We haven’t talked in a little while.”
“Hmm. Do you miss him?”
Ryker shifted his gaze to me. “Being here…it reminds me of him a lot. Bennett didn’t have a normal family situation. His mom was a junkie, and his two older sisters took turns playing mom, which drove him nuts. They were always trying to boss him around. Anyways, he liked to hang out with my family, and in the summers, he tagged along with me out here to the ranch. My grandparents were like his surrogate grandparents during those visits. We always made plans to run the ranch together someday, when we got out of the service…Obviously, that’s not happening, at least, not now. But it’s all right.”
I reached out and set my hand on Ryker’s forearm. “He’ll come around. He seems like one of those guys who always lands on his feet.”
Ryker smiled at my assessment but didn’t say anything in reply. After another long moment of silence, he started, and turned to me. “Let’s go for a drive. I’ll show you the town and we can stop at Josie’s Diner. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s good, and it’ll fill you up.”
“And here I thought Mr. Gourmet would be preparing a three course meal for my first night here,” I teased, a smile playing at the corners of my lips.
Ryker laughed out loud and my heart warmed, melting away the tension that had settled between us. He grabbed my hand, locking our fingers together in a simple, but intimate gesture, and tugged on my arm to pull me up the porch steps. “Perhaps tomorrow. For tonight, you’re stuck with whatever the special of the day is over at the diner. Personally, I’m hoping Josie made her famous garlic cheese biscuits.”
“Well, in that case, you’re off the hook,” I replied, laughing as Ryker led me around the house and down the driveway to his truck.
His wish was granted as soon as we were seated at Josie’s Diner. Josie herself—a seventy something year old woman—came over to greet him as though she was his own grandmother. As we sat waiting for our meals, a rush of people came in, and nearly all of them knew Ryker and made a point to stop by our table to say hello and thank him for his service. He was gracious and kind to everyone, never making them feel like an interruption or unwelcome, even when someone called Uncle Joey—who had no relation to Ryker at all, as it turned out—sat down next to me at the table and tried to get a little too close. Josie’s daughter served our meal, complete with fresh biscuits, and I ate everything until I was certain my jeans were going to pop open from the strain of my full stomach. When she came back with dessert, I had to ask for a doggy bag.
After we pulled away from the friendly crowd at the diner, Ryker took me on a walking tour of the small town. It was nice to get out and stretch my legs after spending most of the day in an airplane seat—and helped to digest my overstuffed stomach. As we walked, Ryker pointed out each building, telling me story after story from his childhood summers spent with his grandfather. His eyes lit up with what felt like magic, glowing brighter with each new tale. He was intoxicating and I was hanging on his every word.
“What about this place?” I asked as we passed a boarded up building. The town was small, but every shop on the strip had occupants, making the boarded up shop stick out like a sore thumb.
Ryker stopped walking and looked up at the old, faded sign. The light bulbs that had once illuminated the sign had burned out, making it hard to read. “Oh, wow. This is Ms. Darcy’s old dance academy.”
“A dance academy? How ironic!” I said, going to peer through the dark and dusty windows. I could just make out a long barre along one wall. Other than that, the place was abandoned.
“Yeah. I forgot all about this place. Obviously, I wasn’t very interested in dance lessons back then,” Ryker added, smirking at me. “Ms. Darcy was an ex-dancer who went through a nasty divorce. She kept the academy, but once her husband wasn’t involved, the business suffered and she had to shut it down. God, that was ages ago. I wonder why no one else has taken it over.”
I was still listening, but it was hard to breathe as I thought back to my own dance studio where I taught my students. I hadn’t fully processed my resignation, and the last
time I’d seen my students was really the last time. It was impossible not to draw comparisons to my studio and the abandoned one before me. I thought about this Ms. Darcy and how hard it must’ve been for her to close her doors for good. I wondered if she still lived there. If she passed by the empty studio every day and regretted losing it.
I turned away and started down the street, unable to stand there anymore and pour through the sad thoughts that had filled my mind. Ryker jogged three steps to catch up to me. “You okay, Ev?” He linked our hands back together.
I nodded and stared ahead at the sidewalk through blurry, tear filled eyes.
“You’re thinking about your studio, aren’t you?”
“You sure you’re a rancher and not a detective?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood and drive away my melancholy.
Ryker laughed a little. “I’m sorry, Everlie. For what it’s worth, I think you’ll teach again. This next chapter is going to be full of excitement and new opportunities, but it doesn’t have to be what you do forever. Maybe when you’re ready to hang up your performance shoes for good, you could retire and open your own studio.”
I glanced up at him and nodded. It was the closest we’d come to talking about the future since I’d arrived, other than his plans for the ranch, and I didn’t want to let it slip away unexplored. “Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”
“What do you mean?” We walked to the end of the block and stopped at the corner to wait for a passing car before crossing. “By taking the ballet job?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I think it’s what you want. It’s what you moved to Vegas for, from what you’ve told me. So, yeah. It’s the right thing.”
“I just thought I’d feel more at peace about the whole thing,” I replied, my voice soft. We started down the other side of the street and headed back to the truck parked a few blocks down from the diner. “It is what I want, or maybe, wanted. I don’t know. It’s so confusing. I can’t even explain how terrible I felt the last day of teaching. It was all I could do to keep from bawling like a baby through every class. Each one a new set of tears, hugs and goodbyes. I couldn’t—I still can’t, really—imagine not being a teacher, seeing my students every week, and going to their performances and cheering them on from backstage. It was my whole life, and now it’s over. And then, there’s you—” I paused, unsure of how to follow up that thought. Ryker was a complicated topic. “I don’t know what to do with you.”
“I think we both know that’s not true,” Ryker cracked, grinning down at me. I shot him a dark look and he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me against his side. “All right, all right. I know you’re being serious. So, I will be too. And if you seriously want to know what I think, here goes…I think it sucks that you’re going to be in Vegas and I’m going to be here. I hate that we can’t be together. I hate that it took me so long to get my shit together and prove to you that I’m a good guy. I wasted so much time fucking around and making mistakes, and now, I worry I’m going to lose you for good. You’re going to be so busy with your show and making new friends and traveling. I wish I could say it’s going to be easy and we can find a way to make it work—but I can’t. But, at the same time, it’s your dream and I’d never ask you to give that up to be with me. I wouldn’t let you.”
A somber silence enveloped us as we finished the short walk to the truck. I was stunned by his honesty, in all its brutality. He was right. The situation we were in was bleak. There was no way to promise the next few months to one another, let alone anything longer than that. And it sucked. A lot.
Ryker helped me up into the passenger seat and gave me a slow, lingering kiss that curled my toes and told me, without words, everything he felt about me. I knew he loved me and he wished I could stay in Oklahoma forever. But, I also knew he loved me too much to ask me to leave my life in Vegas behind.
When he pulled away, a tear fell from my eye and he brushed it away with his thumb, before closing the door and crossing around the bumper to climb into the driver’s seat. He kept his hand on my thigh the whole ride back to the ranch. I stopped any further tears from falling, but my heart was breaking into tiny little pieces inside my chest as I tried to keep it together. If not for my own sake, then for Ryker’s.
Chapter Five
Everlie
We got back to the ranch and Ryker came around to let me out of the truck. Before he even closed the door, I popped up on my toes and kissed him. Everything else was mixed up and crazy in my head, but the one thing our conversation in town had shown me, was how much I cared about him, and all I could think about was showing him what I was feeling. I kissed him but he took control of the kiss, his hand tilting my face to the perfect angle. His lips parted mine and the tip of his tongue ran over my lips, searing them like hot lava as I melted into his arms. I braced myself against his chest and a moan bubbled up in the back of my throat, turning into a soft purr as Ryker’s tongue stroked and tangled with my own. He pulled me with him a few steps, kicked the truck door closed, and backed me up the driveway. When we reached the bottom of the steps to the front porch, he broke away from the kiss just long enough to sweep me up into his arms. I curled my arms around his neck and lay my head on his shoulder.
Ryker carried me inside, and didn’t set me down until we were back in his bedroom. He laid me down on the bed but hesitated before joining me. “Everlie, is this what you want?”
I nodded and licked my lips. “Mmhmm. You don’t have to be such a gentleman, you know. We’ve done this before, remember?”
He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Believe me, I haven’t stopped thinking about it. But, I’m serious, Ev. Earlier you—”
“I was confused, Ryker. But, I’m not anymore. I know what I want.”
His eyes grew wide and dark in the low light from the bedside lamp he’d flicked on when we’d first entered the room. “Well, hell, I’ll be a gentleman right up till you tell me not to be.”
My eyes blazed back at him, desire flooded my veins, making my body hot, pulsing with the waves of heat. I squirmed on the bed, desperate for his hard body to be next to mine. On top of mine. I needed him. I wanted him. I’d been craving his touch every day since the first time he’d touched me. And now that we were finally—maybe—on the edge of being together, I couldn’t wait anymore. “Ryker, I want you to fuck me,” I said, remembering the way he’d liked to talk dirty to me. I’d grown up in a society where ladies don’t curse, but with Ryker, all of that fell to the side. He let me be free. More than that, he’d unlocked some new part of me that I didn’t even know existed—until he came into my life—and my bed!
Ryker grinned at me and started unbuckling his belt. “Say that one more time, Missy, and I’m gonna have to show you how this cowboy does it out here in the country.”
I laughed and watched as he continued to strip away his jeans, pausing to peel off his jacket and t-shirt, before pushing his jeans down the thick muscles of his legs. “I thought we already did that, in the back of the truck? If that wasn’t country style, I don’t know what is.” Watching Ryker strip was sexy as hell, but I couldn’t help but giggle at our flirty banter.
“Oh, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” he replied, emphasizing his suddenly thick drawl.
I sucked in my lower lip and waited—all the amusement draining away as Ryker removed his boxer briefs and revealed his rock hard shaft. “I want you, Ryker. Please,” I begged, sitting up and moving to the edge of the bed.
“You make me crazy when you bite your lip like that.,” he said, moving closer to me. He tugged the edge of my shirt and pulled it up and over my head. “Nice.” His fingertips traced the edge of the black lace bra I’d purchased just for the trip. I was usually a basic, cotton kind of girl, but knowing there was a good chance Ryker was going to see my undergarments had spurred a last minute trip to Victoria’s Secret. “Do the panties match?” He dropped his finger, trailing down my stomach, and rested them against the waist of my jeans.
“I guess you’ll have to find out,” I teased, crawling to the edge of the bed, a playful grin tugging at my lips. I swung my legs over the side and stood, my body flush against his.
He flashed another wicked grin and started working on my button and zipper. Within seconds, he had me stripped down to the black bra and matching thong. He set a hand on each hip and spun me around so I was facing the bed. I shivered as his fingertips traced down the thin piece of fabric and then spread over my butt cheeks.
“As enticing as this is, I think it’s gotta go,” he growled into my ear, his fingers toying with the waistband of the skimpy lace. I nodded and arched against him, desperate for his skin to be on mine. He teased me with the tip of his cock before sliding the panties down. His fingertips trailed down the back of my thighs, over my calves, and then finally brushed my ankles as I stepped out of the panties and kicked them away with my shoe. “The heels stay on.” Ryker dragged his fingers up the back of my body until he reached the clasp of the bra and unhooked it, letting the cups fall away. The bra landed on the bed in front of me and I shuddered when the cool air hit my hard nipples. Ryker’s hands wrapped around and cupped a breast in each hand. His chiseled chest and abs pressed against my back, his thick cock tucked in between my ass cheeks. I sighed and rocked my head back as he teased my nipples, letting my long hair fall down around us.
“Ryker…” I moaned, biting my lip again.
“You know the best part of being out here at the ranch with you?” He asked, his breath hot against my ear. “You can scream and moan as loud as you want. You can let loose and be wild. You can scream my name—and you will—and you won’t bother anyone. Tonight I want to hear you enjoy and savor every touch.” He brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed my palm with his lips parted. His tongue drew suggestive circles and I moaned softly. Hot wetness slid down between my thighs and I squeezed them together, desperate for some relief. Ryker’s naked body against mine was more than I could handle, but the slow, seductive teasing of his tongue on my hand was making me completely lose control.