We both say our goodnights to her and I open my water and find Ryker looking at me as he takes a drink of his. “I think I like you calling me that,” I tell him as I turn to head up to bed.
“Good,” he says as he follows me. “You liked today, didn’t you?”
“I have to admit that I did. I liked it very much. I never said I didn’t like to work or use my head, Ryker.”
“You just didn’t do it,” he says as he moves up the stairs one step behind me. “I’d like to make sure you know that you have a place at my company, Gia. If, for some reason, you decided not to go back to Russia, I could advance you your first month’s salary. Our human resources department could help you find an apartment, there are several really nice complexes that give our workers discounts on the rent. And you would be issued a company car, as a traveling consultant.”
“That’s a lot to think about. But I will think about it, Ryker,” I tell him as I stop at my bedroom door. “This is me.”
He smiles as he looks at my old bedroom door. “Did they leave it just how it was?”
I nod. “Would you care to see how teen me lived?”
“Would I?” he chuckles as I push the door open, revealing lavender walls with pink accents.
“Don’t touch my collection of my little ponies, Ryker, they’re priceless to me,” I tell him as I laugh and we walk into my old bedroom.
“There’s a lot of fluffy pink material on that bed, Gia. One could get lost in there,” he says then goes to sit on the bed and looks surprised when he is enveloped in the goose feather mattress. “Whoa! You really could get lost in here.”
“The winter nights can get cold,” I explain about the mattress. “That helps you stay warm. And in the warmer months, it does the opposite, making the bed cooler.” I watch him as he tries to escape the thing and reach out to help him out of it. “One rolls out of this kind of bed.”
Once I have him up, we stand toe to toe and I find myself wanting to kiss him, so I back up and walk to where the suitcase is. “Are there even pajamas in here?” I ask him to help me think about other things.
“There are. Apollo PJ’s.” He comes up behind me as I find the top and pull it out.
“Rust colored again and little planets all over it. Sweet,” I say as I hold it up to me. “And it’ll fit too.”
“Just like everything else. We run a pretty tight ship. How do you like everyone?” he asks me and I find a grin taking over my mouth.
“I really like everyone. I’m going to miss them when I have to leave.” I toss the top on my old dresser and find the bottoms that are black. “Why black?”
“To represent space,” he says as he takes them out of my hands and places them on the dresser too, then I freeze as he pulls me into his arms. “Gia, I want nothing more than to treat you like I do everyone else but I’m finding that impossible, now that we’re all alone.”
My heart pumps and bumps and sputters as he holds me close then rests his forehead on mine. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”
“It was,” he says then lets me out of his arms. “I shouldn’t have come in here. I wouldn’t do that with any of the others. Goodnight, Miss Flynn. I will see you bright and early. Put on your sleeping cap and in the morning trade it out for your thinking cap. We have much work to accomplish.”
I wave as he leaves me. “Night, Mr. Crawford.” He smiles at me just before he closes the door behind him and I find my body aching for him while my mind is forming a new kind of respect for the man.
As I strip out of my Apollo uniform and put on my Apollo pajamas, I can’t stop humming with happiness. It’s fantastic to know Ryker still wants me. Even after our horrible fight and all we said to each other, he still likes me and the man respects me now. A thing I know he didn’t before.
But then again, I’m not so sure I respected myself the way I should’ve. Climbing into my old bed, I feel at home. My eyes close without a problem and I find sleep is close by and I feel better, more secure, and happier than I have been. Since I made a life with Damien, that is.
RYKER
“I don’t know what any of you guys think but that damn rooster is an idiot and he’s mentally living in another time zone, it seems. He went off way before dawn,” I say as I sit down at the breakfast table.
Gia laughs then says, “That kind of sound is what you will most likely wake up to in the mornings on Mars, you know.” She moves around behind me, placing a cup of piping hot coffee in front of me. Her breast barely grazes my shoulder as she does and it sends heat all through me.
I want to grab her and pull her onto my lap and give her a good morning kiss but the uniform she has on reminds me of why she’s here and I give her a nod, instead. “Thanks for the coffee, Miss Flynn.”
“You are welcome, sir. My mother said to tell you all the eggs are nearly done then breakfast will be served,” she takes the seat next to mine and I can smell her clean, fresh scent wafting into my nostrils and making me have a hard time thinking.
“Miss Flynn, since you grew up here, do you know how to drive any of those big machines we saw in that barn out back?” one of the men asks her.
She smiles and nods. “I can probably get my father to show you how to drive them if you guys want.”
A couple of the younger guys nod enthusiastically and I look back to see Gia grinning like crazy. Again, I am reminded just how in her element she is with all of this.
As her sisters come in, bringing platters of food with them, I watch Gia as she starts to get up to help. I touch her arm as I say, “You’re with us.”
She nods and looks down and smooths out the skirt of her uniform. “I keep forgetting.”
“You’ll get used to it,” I tell her and then I realize my hand is still on her thigh and I move it.
And I have to get used to treating her with the same respect I treat everyone else who works for me in a professional sense. Nancy gives me a pat on the back after she places the platter she carried, on the table. “Morning, Ryker. How’d you sleep?”
“Like a baby, Nancy,” I say and find Gia gasping. I turn to look at her. “What’s that for?”
“It’s just that you knew that one was Nancy. Not many people can tell my twin sisters apart,” she says as she looks a little stunned.
“I’m not most people,” I remind her.
She nods and Nancy says, “Damien has never been able to tell us apart.”
With a nod, I get her reaction now and am not surprised to hear that at all. Leaning over I whisper, “Has he called you?”
Shaking her head, she whispers, “I told him not to while I’d be working. He distracts me.”
“That he does,” I agree. “Smart of you, Miss Flynn.”
“I thought so,” she says then she ventures further as she looks around the long table at the other members of the team. “How do you all put your relationships out of your mind to do your work?”
“I don’t have one,” one of the younger guys says as he laughs. “That’s my secret.”
“I don’t put mine out of my mind,” Tabitha says as she looks at Tony who is sitting across the table from her. She gives him a wink. “But while we’re working, I treat him like the coworker he is.”
Tony smiles at her and winks back. “Vice-versa.”
“I had no idea about you two,” Gia says and I find her eyes going to me. Then she looks away.
I caught that look. The one that says, maybe that could be us someday. And I think it could be if she’d ditch the man who’s keeping her for his own selfish reasons.
“There are quite a few couples in our industry who are in working relationships with their better halves. They all maintain professionalism while at work,” Sandra tells Gia.
“I see that now,” Gia says.
Nancy chimes in, “Gia’s boyfriend doesn’t think that way. He’s kept her cooped up.”
Gia blushes and looks angrily at the table in front of her, I’m sure she’s furious at her sister for revealing too mu
ch about her personal situation. But Sandra saves her by saying, “Well, she’s out of the coop now. Miss Flynn is going nowhere near that coop anymore, we won’t let her.”
Gia’s blush disappears as she realizes her coworkers like her and like working with her. A smile moves over her face as she says, “You guys are great. I have no want to go back to the coop. And I won’t be.”
My heart does a bit of a dance as I wonder what that really means. Is she done with him?
Everyone begins to make their plates, passing around the platters but all I can think about it what Gia is talking about. If she’s dumping him, I’m going to throw a party!
“So, are we going to that co-op after breakfast?” Sandra asks Gia.
“If you want to, we can,” she says then turns to look at me. “I’m sorry, unless you have other things you want us to do, Mr. Crawford.”
“No, that’ll be fine. Find your niche and explore it. That’s what we’re here to do. Figure out things then go back into the office on Monday and share our ideas and how we can put them all into action,” I say then take a bite of bacon.
“Monday?” she asks and I nod. “I’ll just make sure the other women have my notes. I have to leave for Russia on Monday morning.”
I nearly choke on the bacon as I thought she just said she wouldn’t be cooped up anymore. She pats me on the back as I cough then she picks up my juice glass and hands it to me. “You should drink this.”
Taking the glass from her, I take a sip to calm myself. “That bacon went down the wrong way.”
She smiles, clueless as to why I had the choking fit. “You should chew more,” she says then turns her attention back to her plate.
I’m not sure how to ask her without sounding whiny. With her, I can’t always trust my voice to come out with authority the way I can with everyone else. So, I keep my question to myself, for now.
With breakfast finished, we all go our separate ways but not before I tell everyone to meet right back at this table for lunch at noon to discuss what we’ve accomplished.
As we all walk toward the front door, I find Gia walking next to me at the back of the pack and place my hand on her arm. “Can we talk sometime today? Alone?”
She looks at me with a bit of worry in her expression. “You sure that’s a good idea?”
“Not really,” I say. “But I need to talk to you.”
“After lunch?” she asks me.
I nod and we get out the door, parting ways as she and two of the women go with her on their fact-finding mission. I follow her father with the rest of the team to check out the soil.
Her head is held high, her confident demeanor is radiant, and she is still going to leave this all behind her and go back to Russia with the man who took this all away from her in the first place.
The thought goes flitting through my head that I could easily stop that. She told me she thought I was going to tell the media what I know about Damien’s son to have a power over her. Which I know I could do.
But should I do that to get her to make the right decisions? Or would that make me just as bad as Damien is?
“Ryker,” her father calls out to me. “Come here, son. You’re the only man I trust with something this precious of mine.”
He’s talking about one of his many tractors but his words bring back into my mind that Gia is also a thing he holds precious to him and I decide to let her make her own choices without my interference.
If this is meant to be then Gia will come to her senses and decide to stay. Maybe I need to commend her more to make her see just how essential she really is to us.
Maybe I need to let her know that she has me in more ways than one.
GIA
The day was so full and busy that Ryker and I never had a free moment to talk about whatever it was he wanted to talk about. And even though I know this is most likely going to test my self-discipline, I’m heading to his bedroom to see if he still wants to talk to me.
With a quick tap on his door, I whisper, “Ryker?”
The door opens and he’s standing there in just his PJ bottoms, looking sexy as hell and I turn around to leave. If I stay, I’ll throw myself into his arms! His hand on my shoulder stops me. “What did you want?”
“Um, uh,” My train of thought went right out the window as my libido took over. “Never mind.”
Gently, he pulls me into his room and closes the door. “Gia, what is it?”
“Could you put your shirt on? You’re very distracting,” I say then close my eyes, so I can’t see him anymore as heat courses through my entire body, settling in the intimate area, I’d like to see him be a part of.
He chuckles with a deep sound and moves away from me. “There, you can open your eyes now.”
I sigh as I feel both relief and sadness at the same time as I see he’s put the pajama top on. “Thank you. I’m trying hard to make changes in myself. I don’t want sex to rule me, where you’re concerned.”
“We haven’t had sex,” he reminds me.
“Yeah, I know that. It’s just,” I stop and shake my head. “Let’s talk about something else. What did you want to talk to me about, this morning at breakfast? We never had time to talk.”
He takes my hand and pulls me along with him then sits on the bed and I have to sit next to him. “I’m feeling concerned about you. You seem to be very happy doing this with us, yet you plan on going back to Russia. I told you all the company would do for you and you want to leave, anyway. I know you have your deal with Damien. Here’s the thing. He can’t make you go with him. You have options, where he’s concerned. You can keep your deal with him about his money and you can make appearances in Russia to do that, while still working with us.”
“He’d never go for that,” I say as I know he won’t.
“He would if I told him to. I think you know that,” he says as he takes my chin in his hand. “But I would only play that card if you wanted me to. I’d much rather you take the option of letting him and his money go. You see, your family will have financial security with this project. If we can make fuel out of what your family grows, they will make a ton of money. And so will you. My scientists are some of the top paid people in this industry. Gia, you are qualified to get that huge pay too.”
“His son,” I say and know he doesn’t care about that at all.
“I get it. I do,” he says. “But he really isn’t your concern.”
I nod and know he’s not my concern. “Ryker, you might think I’m crazy but I’m afraid. I’m afraid things might not work out in this industry.”
“Things will work out in this industry. That aside, Gia, there are no promises in any world. There are always gambles. It’s the people who work hard and can accommodate themselves in any situation, who have fruitful lives. And I want you to know that I have more to offer you than just a career. I want you to know that you have me too. If you want me, that is. If you want time alone, I can give you that too.”
“I have you?”
He nods. “You hold my heart in your hands, Gia. I’ll walk through fire for you.”
“You would?” I ask as I’ve never known a man who’d do or say that. As he nods and moves in close, I recall that he’s leaving when he can and I put my finger up to his lips. “But you will leave me.”
He sighs and stops trying to kiss me. “We can see what the future holds. I want to go to Mars and you don’t. But what about our time here? What about we take this time and see what happens?”
“I’ll tell you what will happen. I will never want to leave and you will. End of story. And when you go, there is every chance your company will begin to decline and all who work for it will go broke. Now, I’m not saying I might not change my mind someday about Damien and his money. As a matter of fact, he and I have had a parting of the sexual ways and there may be more parting to come.”
He stops me with his finger on my lips as he asks, “You two aren’t having sex anymore?”
“Thanks to you,” I say an
d give him a smile. “And I’d like to say, thanks, to you for that. I haven’t wanted him at all since I found out he cheated on me this whole time. But he was adamant that we would continue with our physical relationship too. Once you threatened him, his tune changed quick and in a hurry.”
“What does he think?” he asks me. “I mean, what does he really think?”
“He thinks you’re holding his secret over him. He told me I was to make nice with you and do anything you say to.” I watch him go pale and he moves to the floor on his knees and takes my hands.
“Gia, I never want you to think you ever have to do a thing with or for me. I really only meant that threat to get him to let me talk to you. I’d never threaten you with a thing. I swear that to you.”
Taking one of my hands out of his, I run it through his hair. “I know that now. I didn’t ever think you’d do such a thing. I know you’re a better man than that. But you know Damien isn’t a man to be argued with. He told me that he knew you’d want me to have sex with you and he told me I had to do it if you asked for it. Then he said he couldn’t touch me if he knew you did, so he wouldn’t be touching me anymore. Which is great with me.”
“Let him go, Gia,” Ryker says with a tremble to his voice. “Please. I don’t care if you want me or not. Just let that man go. I can’t imagine anyone telling a person they care for to have sex with anyone, to save their own ass.”
“And I am seriously considering it. But I must go back to Russia this time around. I have to see how things are. I have to do this for me. For my sanity.”
“Are you, at the very least, telling me you won’t be having sex with him?” he asks me as he stays on his knees.
“If you don’t mind it,” I say. “I’m thinking I’m going to tell him that we did have sex, just so he’ll stay with that idea of not touching me.”
He laughs and says, “That’s cool with me. Just so you know, though. You and I aren’t going to be doing a thing unless you and he are over.”
Rockstar Untamed: A Single Dad Virgin Romance Page 114