by Ivy Smoak
“Is it okay to eat in here?” I asked. Eating on the couch in my apartment was my jam, but doing it on his super expensive couch felt like an accident waiting to happen.
“Why wouldn’t it be?” He sat down next to me.
“I dunno. Some people have rules against that sorta thing. When I was little my parents had a rule that I couldn’t eat in the family room. So I used to just ball up a slice of bread and put the whole thing in my mouth so that I could slowly eat it while I watched TV.”
“That’s actually the rule here too.”
I sized up the gyro. I had already eaten about half of it on the way over here, so there wasn’t that much left. If I really balled it up good I could probably fit it. I unwrapped it and was about to roll it up when Ryder started laughing.
“I was kidding,” he said. “I do plan to see how much meat you can fit in your mouth, but it’s not going to be the gyro.” His eyes dropped to my lips.
I swallowed hard and my throat made a weird squeaking noise. Ah, stop it! Ashley Cooper got nervous around handsome men. Raven Black did not. “You are, are you? You know, I’m starting to think you’re all talk. First you said you’d punish me for the blueberry pie incident, and now you’re threatening to put your meat in my mouth. But when you were an inch away from my lips in that stairwell, you didn’t have the balls to kiss me.” Damn, Raven Black, you saucy mistress.
“Like I said, I wanted to get to know you first.” It was like his eyes were boring into mine. Like he could somehow read my mind.
“Well what do you want to know exactly?”
“Why are you here?”
“Because some asshole kidnapped me.”
He laughed. “I meant why did you join the Society?”
“Are we allowed to talk about that? I thought the first rule of the Society was that you don’t talk about the Society.”
“That’s fight club. Which happens to be an excellent movie.”
“I know, right? So good.”
“Top three movies of all time: go.”
“Uh…” I hated trying to rank movies. I spent about half my time watching Netflix, so I had a lot to choose from. “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, Across the Universe. Geez, um. Frozen. No! Tangled. Or maybe Wedding Crashers. That movie is freaking epic.”
“Wedding Crashers is the best. Maybe for our next date we can crash a wedding.”
“Who said there’s going to be a second date?” But if it were up to me, there definitely would be. Because he was so yummy. I didn’t even care that he had almost killed me with that zipline thing.
“There will be.” He sounded so sure of himself. It was kind of annoying how cocky he was, but also super hot. I remember when I had first started dating Joe back in college. It was all games and uncertainty. But with Ryder? He knew I wanted him, and he was making it clear he wanted me too.
“We’ll see,” I said and pulled my feet up onto the couch. It depends on what your three favorite movies are.”
“Recent or all-time favorites?”
“Recent.” Honestly I barely remembered what I’d eaten for breakfast. I wanted to make sure I knew what he was talking about so we could have good banter. Good banter was very important for a relationship. Not that we were in a relationship. Yet.
“The Thief of Bagdad, Shoulder Arms, and The Mark of Zorro.”
“Um…what?” I’d never heard of any of those. Wait, maybe I’d heard of the Zorro one. But that couldn’t be right. Because the one I was thinking of came out in the 1920s. “Those all came out recently?”
“Oh.” He laughed. “It depends on your version of recent. In the grand scheme of things, aren’t all movies recent? Since it’s a fairly recent technological development?”
I’d consider recent anything after the year 2000. But that was just me.
“But what I meant to say was…uh…Old School, A Knight’s Tale, and Billy Madison. Boom. Easy.”
“I’ve never seen Billy Madison.” But at least I recognized the name. Really…what were those other movies? I’d have to google them later.
“You’re a bad person,” he said completely seriously.
I started laughing.
“But don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll fix that. You never answered my question, though. What made you join the Society?”
“Are you sure I’m allowed to answer that?”
“Technically, no. But I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. It can be our little secret.” He gave me a wink.
I liked having a secret with him. Not that my answer was very exciting. “I got an invitation.”
“Well yeah, that’s generally how things work in an invitation-only club. Why did you accept?”
To meet you. Because you’re stalking me. I shrugged. “My friend made me.”
“So you told your friend about it? Now I definitely have to report you.” He pulled out his phone.
“Wait! No!” Shit!
Chapter 20 - “True Love”
Tuesday
Ryder laughed and put his phone away. “You’re adorable when you’re angry.”
“Shut up.” I punched his arm again, but his bicep was so hard that it kind of hurt my hand. “Ow.”
“See. Adorable.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t be rude, Mr. Biceps of Steel.” I hated being called adorable. I wanted him to think I was sexy and alluring and…not cute.
“Let’s take a selfie.”
“Okay…” This guy was not good at segues.
He handed me his phone.
“What, you don’t know how to take a selfie?” I asked. I tried to hand his phone back to him.
“Girls usually have a certain angle they want to take it at.”
Girls? Jealousy shot through me. I pictured him doing this with a thousand girls before me. Frankie’s warning rang through my head. It's all just a façade. Bad wiring, rusty pipes. And FBI lies, apparently. I pushed the thoughts away and held the phone out.
Ryder slid his arm around my shoulder. “Put it a little higher.”
I did, even though I wasn’t sure why he no longer trusted my expertise.
“Higher.”
“My arm isn’t that long. If you’re gonna be a diva about the angle, maybe you should take it.”
“No, that’s fine. Go ahead.”
“Three, two, one…” I snapped the photo. And then I realized that my nipple had slipped out of my dress. Because I had reached so far. Shit! I dropped the phone and pulled my dress back into place.
Ryder grabbed the phone. “Looks like I’ve found my new background picture.”
“Don’t you dare.” I tried to snatch the phone out of his hand, but he held it over his head. Which meant it was way out of my reach.
“Or maybe it would make some nice wall art. I’ve been looking for something new over the fireplace.”
“Delete it.” I barely knew him. He wasn’t allowed to have pictures of my left breast on his phone. Yet.
“No way. I’m not going to delete our first photo together.”
I jumped to try to get the phone, but all that did was make my boob pop out again. Damn dress. “It’s going to be our last photo too if you don’t hand it over this second.”
“You’re a bad liar. But you’re welcome to keep trying to get it from me. I’m rather enjoying this.”
Instead of jumping for it and flashing him again, I took a different approach. A tickle attack. And I wasn’t messing around. I went straight for the armpit of his outstretched arm.
But it didn’t work. He just stood there like a brick wall.
“Now we’re doing a tickle war, huh? It’s on.” His free hand shot out and he started to tickle me real good. Like he was some sort of expert tickler.
“No!” I screamed, wiggling away and running for the stairs.
He pocketed the phone and chased after me. It didn’t take long for him to catch me. He effortlessly picked me up and flung me over his shoulder.
“Put me down!” I pu
nched his shoulder, injuring my hand again. “Damn it. Why is your body so hard?”
He tossed me on the couch and was on me in an instant. My heart felt like it stopped beating. I was sure he was going to kiss me. But…nope. He just tickled me until I could barely breathe. “Give up?”
“I give up! I give up,” I gasped. “You win.” But I kind of won too. Because I loved the way we were cuddled up on his couch. His blueberry sweat smell filled my lungs. I stared into his eyes. His face was only a few inches away from mine. This is it! I’m going to kiss my stalker! I started to lean in, but he cleared his throat.
“So you were telling me about why you accepted the invitation,” he said.
What was up with this guy? One minute he looked freaked out and was fleeing from fake FBI agents. The next he was tickling me and looking like he wanted to devour every inch of me. And the next he was asking about the Society? He was so freaking weird. I smiled to myself. He was just as weird as me. And there was something very comforting about being with someone as weird as you. For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel like I needed to double think everything I said before I said it.
“Right.” I pulled back. “I may have accidentally gotten drunk and signed the contract. And then I was worried that I’d be in trouble if I backed out.” And I might get a million dollars when I leave.
“You made the right choice. The Society definitely would have sued you.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely. I’m sure there’s strong legal precedent for a secret sex club forcing their members to participate.”
I laughed. “You’re messing with me again.”
“You catch on fast.”
“Asshole,” I said with a smile.
“So adorable.”
He kept saying that like it was a good thing. I tried to strike a sexier pose on the couch. “Why’d you join?”
“Because I believe in true love.”
“Of course. I’m sure every guy in the Society does. They couldn’t possibly have some other reason to join a club where they can bang models with no strings attached.”
“Who said anything about no strings attached?”
“It’s a sex club.” Did he really not realize that? Men could be so dense sometimes.
“It’s not actually a sex club. It’s an organization to help people find true love.”
“Ew.” I frowned at him.
“Ew? Why is that gross?”
“Because it’s not true. If you want to bang hot girls, just be upfront about it. But don’t go around pretending to be some hopeless romantic.” I shifted back a bit on the couch to put more space between us.
“What’d he do to you?” He suddenly looked sad.
“Who?”
“Your ex-husband.”
What did Joe have to do with this conversation? And more importantly… “How’d you know I had a husband?”
“Um. Uh…” He pointed at my ring finger. “Your tan lines.”
Psssh. My pasty ginger skin didn’t have any tan lines. He was lying. I knew he was a dirty stalker! And now I had my proof.
“You don’t have to tell me if you’re not ready to talk about it,” said Ryder.
“Oh, I’ll talk about it. I walked in on my husband fucking some instamodel that he’d known for two seconds.”
“He’s an asshole.”
“He’s a man,” I said.
Ryder shook his head. “Not all men are assholes.”
“Prove it.”
He flashed me his cocky smile. “I will. And now that we’re on the topic of things that people shouldn’t be doing…are you stalking me?”
“What?! No.” That sounded way guiltier than I’d meant for it to. But he’d caught me completely off guard. With both the question and how such an accusatory question could sound so sexy. It sounded like he’d just said “get naked so I can fuck you” instead. And he was still super bad at segues! “You’re stalking me!”
“Stalking you?” he asked.
“Yes. Stalking me. That’s how you knew I had a husband. And I see you staring at me every Tuesday and Thursday at 8 o’clock when you leave One57. And what are you doing there twice a week anyway if you live here?”
“Hmmm…sounds like you’re the one stalking me.”
I yawned. Running around all night had been exhausting. “No way. You, sir, are the stalker.” I adjusted the pillow behind me to get more comfortable.
“You watch me with binoculars.”
“That was one time!”
He narrowed his eyes at me.
Fine. It wasn’t the only time I’d watched him with binoculars. I just hadn’t thought he’d noticed. But the fact that he had noticed proved that he was stalking me. “You’re definitely stalking me, buddy.”
“Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night. Speaking of sleep…I’m going to go slip into something a little more comfortable.”
“Ow ow,” I called as he took the stairs two at a time. What was he going to do? I was torn between him putting whipped cream on his junk or just coming back fully nude. Either way, something sexy was definitely about to go down. Finally. He had been teasing me all night. Didn’t he know that was no way to treat a girl who hadn’t had sex in months? I tried to get into a sexy pose, but nothing felt right. Whatever. I eventually gave up and just pushed my boobs together.
Don’t rape him, don’t rape him, I repeated to myself as his footsteps came closer. I did not need a repeat of the Dr. Lyons incident. And that incident reminded me of the original incident. I looked around for any lit candles. Luckily the coast was clear. I wouldn’t be setting my stalker on fire tonight. And yes, despite what he said, he was stalking me.
I looked over my shoulder. Above the railing I could see his bare chest. Yes! God, he was so hot. But he wasn’t naked like I expected. He was wearing gray sweatpants. Yum. What was it about guys in gray sweatpants? I wanted to devour him. And yet…I also wanted him to take them off. I held out hope for a striptease until he sat down next to me on the couch.
“Ah, that’s so much better. Anyway, where were we? I think you were confessing to stalking me?”
“In your dreams.”
His Adam’s apple rose and then fell as his eyes lingered on my lips again.
Had he been dreaming of me too? I wondered if his dreams were as sexy as mine always were. Or if they were just murdery.
“You’re stalking me so hard that I bet you even know the license plate number of my red Rolls Royce.”
“Huh? I thought it was black?” I immediately clapped my hand over my mouth.
“That was entirely too easy.”
“It’s been a long day,” I protested.
“It has. Want some wine?”
Another weird segue. I kind of liked that my stalker was a little awkward like me. My first instinct was yes, because wine also loosened me up. But then I realized I didn’t even need it. Looking into my stalker’s brown eyes put me at ease. Or maybe it was his pecs. Or his abs. Yum. And I didn’t want anything to dull my senses tonight. I wanted to remember every minute of this night perfectly. I shook my head.
“Want to watch Billy Madison?”
I shook my head again and scooched towards him. “I told you how and why I joined the Society. Now it’s your turn.”
“I told you. True love.”
“That answers the why, even if I’m still 90% sure it’s bullshit. But how’d you get invited?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.” I scooched even closer and before I could chicken out, I rested my head on his chest. His pecs were as hard as his biceps. I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t drool on him. I really liked being Raven Black. She was freaking fearless.
He put his arm around me and squeezed my shoulders. “It was years ago.”
“Then why haven’t you found anyone yet, Mr. True Love?”
His fingers gently brushed through my hair. “Just because I believe in true love do
esn’t mean I’m destined to find it.”
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
“Hear what?”
“I think it’s the world’s smallest violin playing.”
He laughed. God, I really liked his laugh. And the way his chest rumbled beneath me.
“What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the Society?” I asked. “Does all that stuff in the agreement really happen?”
“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell.”
I guess Single Boy Rules were different than Single Girl Rules. Because that directly violated Single Girl Rule #6: Always kiss and tell. I reluctantly lifted my head from his chest so I could see him. “Then why aren’t you telling me?” I was such a sass queen tonight!
“Because I’m a gentleman. A lady, on the other hand, can kiss and tell all she wants. So what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?”
Oh, so he does know the Single Girl Rules. And his question was easy. Made a solo sex tape for Joe. “Well, this one time I went on a date with a huge jerk. He lied about everything. And even though I had only just met him, I went back to his apartment. I’m pretty sure he was stalking me.”
“You’re telling me this date is the craziest thing you’ve ever done?” He eyed me skeptically.
“I mean…we did zipline across six lanes of traffic with no safety harness.” Was this not the wildest night of his life too?
“Fair point. What’s the craziest thing you want to do?”
A million different things came to mind, none of which were appropriate for a lady to say to a half-naked man on their first date. Even if he was decidedly not a gentleman. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“I would.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “That’s why I asked it.”
“Maybe I’ll tell you someday. But I don’t even know your last name.”
“Storm. Ryder Storm.”
Storm. Of course it was something super sexy.
“And yours?”
Oh, right. Ryder Storm is just his Society name. Maybe. Unless he was confident enough to use his real name. He certainly seemed like he was. But for now…I’d just stick with my sassy alter ego. I needed my Superman powers. “Raven Black.”
“So…Raven Black.” He lay back on the couch and pulled me with him.