“You’re not going to need that,” he told her and pulled the shirt away, tossing it over his shoulder as he bent down to lift her into his arms. Carly squeaked, but quickly wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her up the stairs. There were only two bedrooms and he accurately chose the right one, laying her down in the middle of the bed.
“How about if we do that all over again, but slower this time?” he suggested.
Carly beamed, her heart melting as he pressed between her knees and came down to cover her with his strong, hard, male body. “I think that would be absolutely lovely,” she whispered as her fingers dove into his hair.
Chapter 8
Carly groaned when her alarm went off the following morning. “Too early,” she muttered sleepily, pulling her pillow over her head. Memories of the night before flashed through her mind and she gasped, sitting up to look around.
The sun hadn’t quite made it over the horizon, filling the room with hazy light. There was an indentation on the other side of the bed, but Ryker wasn’t there. The pillow was slightly warm, but it still felt as if he’d been gone a while.
Falling back against the pillows, she stared up at the ceiling, wishing that he was still there.
Last night, he’d held her in his arms after making love to her a second time, kissing her, his hands caressing her skin as if he considered her one of the most beautiful women in the world.
At least, that’s how she’d felt when he touched her.
With a sigh, she flung an arm over her eyes and fought back the tears. At least she’d had one night with him. Carly had to be content with that. One night was better than…
She couldn’t finish that thought. Instead, she flipped the covers off and pulled on her running clothes. She wouldn’t think about him, Carly vowed. Running shoes, check. Warm clothes, check. Watch, check.
“See ya later, Lucifer,” she called to the feline who was sitting on her dresser, looking completely put out for having been pushed off the bed. Lucifer preferred sleeping in the middle of the bed, delegating the outer edges to Carly. But Ryker hadn’t made room for her cat and she’d laughed when Lucifer had jumped on the bed only to bounce off again when he’d realized that there was another man in his space.
With grim determination, she set out on her favorite run. It wasn’t a difficult run, but she loved the relaxation she felt whenever she finished the five mile route. Unfortunately, today she couldn’t find her Zen mindset. Instead of the run clearing her mind, she kept wondering why Ryker hadn’t been with her this morning. Had he not enjoyed last night as much as she had? Had she somehow disappointed him?
Or was it something else? Had he just needed a release and she was closest and available?
The idea that she’d just been convenient hurt more than she’d thought possible. When she rounded the final corner of her route and headed back home, she told herself that she didn’t care. It had been a one night stand. That’s it. Ryker didn’t want or need an emotional connection to anyone. He was one of those tough, hard core men who liked women, but not the commitment that came along with an intimate sexual relationship that included emotions.
And that was fine. Perfectly fine! Carly sped up, ignoring the pain in her lungs as she thought about last night, the way he’d touched her and looked at her. It had felt as if he were memorizing her figure. And yet, this morning, he’d been gone.
That was fine. She’d meant to keep things casual and him being gone this morning put them back on the right track. She could do casual. Carly had never had a one night stand before, and even if last night’s sex was mind blowing and incredible, she’d just have to accept that Ryker wanted casual and nothing more.
Casual. One night stand. She could deal with it.
Casual was good. She was perfectly fine with a one night stand. She had a lot of work to do, and not enough time to get it all finished. So, she was fine.
Showering, she pulled on a pretty, red dress, one that she’d bought months ago, but hadn’t worn yet because…well, she hadn’t had the confidence. But today, she had the confidence. Or if not the confidence, she had the determination. No way would she walk into the office and see Ryker and not look like a million bucks!
Black spike heels, several gold chains, and gold hoop earrings. She looked good, Carly thought as she stared in the mirror at her reflection.
Lucifer jumped up onto her dresser as well, staring at her with his yellow, unblinking eyes. “What do you think?” she asked.
In response, Lucifer lifted his back leg and started cleaning himself.
Carly cringed. “That bad, huh?”
She ignored Lucifer’s opinion and left her bedroom. Grabbing her purse, she walked out of her house, determined to get to work early and hide in her office. Just because she was mentally prepared to accept a one night stand with Ryker, that didn’t mean she wanted to confront him about it today! Nope, she could do the whole ostrich thing and just hide a bit until she was more mentally prepared to accept a one night stand with Ryker.
And in order to help herself mentally prepare, she stopped by Jane’s bakery. “Hi there!” she called out to the friendly baker.
“Carly! You’re never in this early!” Jane called, waddling up to the counter.
Carly mentally groaned, having forgotten that Jane was pregnant, her handsome husband one of the trauma surgeons at the main Louisville hospital. They’d had a turbulent relationship that had started in high school, continued through college, only to have something happen after that. Carly wasn’t aware of the details, but knew that Jane was madly in love with her husband, although how they’d found each other again after so many years was a mystery.
“What can I get you?” she asked cheerily.
“I’m in desperate need of a chocolate scone,” Carly told the beautiful blond woman.
Jane grinned and grabbed a box. “Just one?”
Carly shook her head. “No, if you have a dozen, that would be better.” And if she could hand them out to everyone before Ryker came into the office, even better!
“You got it,” Jane replied, grabbed a pair of tongs to grab each of the chocolate scones. “These are fresh out of the oven, your timing was perfect.”
“Oh, that might be dangerous,” Carly forced a laugh.
A few minutes later, Jane had tied the box with string and given Carly her change. Carly walked out and stepped back into her car. If she glanced down Main Street one more time in the direction of Ryker’s house…well, that was just because she was stupid! Ryker’s massive Georgian house was a few miles out of town and nestled in the woods. The beautiful house was on the National Historic Register and Ryker had done a lot of work to restore the building to its original beauty.
Was he there? Was he back at his house or had he gone out for one of his crazy runs?
Turning away, she headed back to her car, determined to get to work and hide out in her office until…until she could mentally handle seeing Ryker again. Because her mind kept going back to last night and she wanted…more.
“Are you okay, Carly?” Sheriff Jensing asked, stopping right in front of her.
Carly blinked, she hadn’t seen him appear. “Yes! Oh yeah!” she waved dismissively. “Everything is great.”
His eyes narrowed as he nodded slowly, obviously not believing her. “Ryker okay? I heard he was out of town for a while.”
Carly didn’t stop to wonder how Sheriff Jensing knew. He just…knew. The man knew everything that went on in his town and the surrounding areas. Good grief, the man even seemed to sense when Ms. Scarlett, the adorable octogenarian, was out to stir up some mischief.
“Ryker’s fine. He came back early on Saturday. He’s…” she paused, more memories from last night flashing behind her eyes and she swallowed the pain. “He’s good.” She lifted the box of chocolate scones up slightly. “I’d better get these over to the office.” She paused, looking at him with a smile. “Would you like one? Jane said that they are still warm from the oven.”
He shook his head. “I just had one of her muffins, but thank you.”
“Okay, well, I’d better get in to work. Tell Marilee I said hi.” And then she hurried down the sidewalk to her car, wondering how the sheriff could read people so easily. It was almost as if the guy were psychic or something. Good grief! She certainly hoped he wasn’t because if he’d read her thoughts…wow! That would be embarrassing!
It took her only ten minutes to drive to the office and she hurried through the lobby, barely stopping to say hello to Mike, who had just arrived. Brushing past the other offices, she dropped the scones into the kitchen, plucked one for herself and then headed into her office, closing the door for privacy.
Did her files need reorganizing? Maybe she should make a list of…
Carly sat down behind her desk, surveying the files that were already neatly stacked on the corner of her desk, color coded by task and team. She liked that system, but could it be improved? Her fingers hesitated over the stack, but before she could pull them closer, her door burst open and Jayce rushed in.
“Good morning, baby brother,” she greeted him with irritation. “Come in, please! I’m so glad that you didn’t knock because I definitely don’t need privacy. I keep the door closed for…”
“Darcy Pruitt is ready to sign,” Jayce interrupted.
At the mention of the woman’s name, Carly froze. When her mind snapped into gear, she sat back in her chair. “Darcy Pruitt?” she asked, needing confirmation. “But…I thought you didn’t want to do business with her any longer.”
“I don’t. Which is why I’m here.”
Carly smiled. “She’s the head of the special ops groups, Jayce. If she’s calling, she needs something.”
“I know. And she promised to double our fee if we’ll take on a few more projects with her.”
Carly laughed, delighted with that news. “I can double her fee. No problem.”
“I don’t want to meet with her. But she’s over in western Kentucky, touring the ATF building over there.”
Ah, this was starting to make sense. “You don’t like her patting your butt.” Carly’s eyes smiled as she watched her brother squirm. “Don’t worry, Jayce. I hate it when men do it to me, so I get it.”
His eyes narrowed sharply. “Did someone pat your butt, Carly?” he asked, his voice shifting from irritated to lethal.
“Not recently. In college, yeah, the guys tried. But then I’d just twist their fingers like you taught me. They never tried it a second time.”
Some of the tension seemed to leave him with her assurance and he nodded. “Good. What’s going on with that self-defense class you thought up? Jessa said that it was discussed at your book club?”
Carly shifted slightly, but then stilled because she knew that body language revealed too much of a person’s inner thoughts and discomforts. Jayce was an excellent body language reader and would interpret fidgeting as hiding a secret. Which she was!
“Yeah. Well, about that…”
“Ryker was drawing up plans yesterday for the obstacle course. He said he was going to show them to you.”
“He did.” Carly swallowed.
“What did you think? I took a look at them and they looked amazing. But then again, Ryker really understands the psychology behind those kinds of courses.”
She nodded, desperate to change the subject. If Jayce found out that Ryker had spent the night at her house, in her bed, Jayce and Oz would pummel him. And no matter how hurt she was that he’d only wanted one night…and not even the whole night since he’d left at some point…she didn’t want Ryker hurt.
Hmm…maybe just a little bit.
No! That was wrong. Just because she hadn’t understood the terms of their night together, violence was not the answer.
“Carly?”
“What?” she snapped, irritated that he was pulling her out of her contemplation of Ryker tied to her bed in handcuffs, completely at her mercy. A very nice fantasy!
Jayce eyed her curiously. “Did Ryker show you his plans?”
She sat up straighter in her chair and pulled the stack of files closer. “Yes. He showed me and they are great. I was going to talk to a few other people about the program, definitely get Charlotte involved.”
“That sounds good. So, about Ms. Pruitt. Would you talk with her?”
She smothered a smile. Sexual harassment was a real thing, even for men, apparently. “Yes. I’ll definitely take over there. If she wants our teams to get things done, she can go through me from now on,” she said firmly.
“Excellent!” he clapped his hands together as if that solidified the agreement. “So you and Ryker can drive out this afternoon. You can get her signature on the contracts. He can go through the interviews and you will both be home by midnight. I’ll let Ryker know.”
With that information dump, Jayce left Carly’s office, leaving the door open and leaving a stunned, horrified Carly in his wake.
“Go with Ryker? In a car?!”
She took a deep breath, her fingers smoothing over the color coded files.
Oz stepped into her office next, a chocolate scone half eaten in his hand. “Hey, Ryker said he wanted to leave in about a half hour. You’re going to set Pruitt straight? I don’t think we can even take on her missions right now. Not unless we get more teams established.”
Carly laughed. “That’s the excuse you want me to go with?”
Oz shrugged. “Sounds better than my brother doesn’t like his ass groped.”
She tilted her head slightly, acknowledging that he had a point. “Okay but…” then his first words hit her. “A half hour?”
“Yeah. Jayce said that you were going to handle Pruitt from now on. And since you and Ryker are heading in the same direction, to the same building, at the same time, it makes more sense for you to drive together. Is there any reason you don’t want to go with him?”
Carly knew that look. Oz was thinking and when her oldest brother started thinking, it was pretty dangerous.
She held her hands up in the air, trying to stop his thought process. “Nope! I’m fine. I just…I don’t have anything packed.”
Oz’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You don’t need to pack anything. It’s a three hour drive to the ATF building. You find out what Pruitt needs from us, get the papers signed, and send the information back to the computer guys. They’ll work up a mission plan and I’ll get the teams together while you are on your way back. Ryker interviews the three agents while you’re in with Pruitt, and you two are back on the road by two o’clock and home in time for dinner tonight.”
Darn it! Carly hated it when her brothers were more logical than she was!
“Right. I just…I need to get some files put together.”
Ryker stepped into her office at that point, having heard the end of her comment.
“I can wait.”
Oz looked behind him at Ryker, then at Carly. Then nodded with a slight smile to his handsome features. “Okay, my work here is done. I’ll leave you both to it.” Then he was gone.
Ryker closed the door, his eyes never leaving Carly’s face and she picked up a pencil, standing up because she didn’t want to be shorter than he was. Well, she didn’t want to be that much shorter than him. He was already significantly taller, even when she was standing. She didn’t need the additional disadvantage.
“Good morning,” she greeted, swallowing even as her hands nervously slid down over her hips.
“Good morning. How are you?”
She blushed. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “And last night…I understand.”
His eyes narrowed and she shivered as the dark heat poured over her. “You understand what?” he asked, moving closer, her desk between them.
“I understand that last night was just…” she flung her hand in the air, trying to appear casual even though her heart was pounding so hard and her heart ached. “It was just a casual, one night thing.”
Did his lips thin? Was he angry?
“And you’re okay with just a one night stand?”
Oh, how she hated those words! Was she okay with it? Not in any way. But…she had to pretend to be okay so that the tension in the office wouldn’t be uncomfortable. She didn’t want his pity.
“I’m fine with a one night stand.” She looked up at him. “Because, that’s all it was, right?” Her eyes begged him to say it wasn’t a one night stand. That it had been so much more. Because that’s how she felt.
“One night,” he repeated, his dark eyes moving over her features slowly. “Is that really what you want?”
She shrugged and picked up the stack of files. She was no longer sure what information was in the files, but she needed something between her and Ryker. “We should get back to work.”
“Work. I thought we were driving to the ATF building today. Did Oz talk to you about Pruitt?”
“Yes,” Carly replied, cursing for already forgetting that she’d agreed to take over that woman’s interactions. “Right. But, we don’t need to drive together. I can…”
“We’ll leave in ten minutes,” he interrupted. “And during the drive, you can tell me why you’re okay with one night stands and how many other men you’ve had one night stands with.”
With that, he turned and walked out of her office. Carly frowned worriedly. Ryker seemed angry. But…was he angry or was that just her hope that he didn’t like the idea of last night being a casual thing?
Chapter 9
Ryker waited in his car, his thumb tapping against the steering wheel. The tapping was the only external indication of his anger but inside, he was seething! How dare she call last night a one night stand! It had been so much more to him than just scratching an itch! Hell, he’d left early just so that he could work out what he was going to say to Oz and Jayce about being with their sister! His friends were going to be furious, but Ryker didn’t care. After last night, he knew what he wanted. Meanwhile, Carly was trying to convince herself, and him apparently, that their night together had been just a one-time thing.
Forbidden Lover (The Diamond Club Book 7) Page 8