“Hey,” she said. She stood up on her knees on the bed and pulled her top off. Next she unhooked her bra and tossed it on the floor.
Ryder perked up as he sat up. His eyes glazed over her body and her perfect, round breasts. He reached out and caressed them as he put his wet mouth on each of her nipples. His hands gripped her waist and pulled her back down on top of him.
She reached down and unzipped his jeans, sliding them down. She could feel the outline of his hard bulge as she straddled him. She wanted him now more than ever. She couldn’t wait any longer. After the kind of night they’d had, she needed a release too. And putting Jett’s killer to justice was a great reason to celebrate.
“I just can’t control myself around you,” he said, his mouth all over her body. “And knowing I shouldn’t have you makes me want you even more.”
His words echoed more true than any other words he’d ever said to her. They resonated deep inside her as she laid next to him and thought about Jett once again.
She ignored her feelings of guilt and the remorse she was sure to feel the next morning, and continued giving herself to Ryder. She slipped off her jeans and panties and laid on the bed, ready for the taking. She was going to give herself, all of herself, to him.
He climbed over top of her, his triceps steadying his muscular upper body, and lowered his hips to hers. He reached down, grabbing his thick cock, and wasted no time pressing it inside of her waiting lady kingdom.
“Ah,” she called out as it went in. “Oh, my god.”
He exhaled slowly as he plunged himself deep inside her.
“Yeah,” he said. “This is what I needed.”
She grabbed his shoulders with her delicate hands and dug her fingernails into his thick skin. She loved watching the motion of his body and muscles as he moved and thrusted inside of her. She felt safe with him. And wanted. And almost loved. And in the darkness of his bedroom, she could have sworn she was making love to Jett again.
She closed her eyes and swayed her hips into his, meeting him thrust for thrust. She forced her body to relax and enjoy the sweet release that was about to come over each of them. Screwing Ryder was intense, and she needed the distraction.
CHAPTER 21
The condo was quiet and still Saturday morning as Stormy laid in bed and listened to the thumping of her heart in her chest. She and Ryder had fallen asleep naked and on top of the covers the moment after their tryst happened. As she predicted, she instantly felt guilty about it. They had had too much to drink that night, she was sure of it, and with everything that happened with Zander, they weren’t in their right state of mind. She chalked it up to that.
She forgot, for a moment, that Brooklyn was there, and she couldn’t wait to talk to her and make sure she was still okay. The last time she saw her, she was passed out on the couch after pretty much crying herself to sleep.
Stormy carefully crawled out of bed, trying not to wake Ryder, and tiptoed down the hall where she expected to see Brooklyn passed out on the couch. She decided not to wake her quite yet. She needed as much sleep as she could get.
“What are you doing up so early?” Ryder asked as he walked down the hall. His voice was groggy, and he was evidently a little hung over. He was in nothing but a pair of red plaid boxers.
“Good morning,” Stormy cooed as she slipped her arms around his waist. “How you feeling?”
He shook his head no and buried it on her shoulder as he moaned in pain. “My head is pounding.”
“Go and sit down,” Stormy said. “I’ll make you breakfast.”
“Where’s Brooklyn?” he asked as he noticed her snoring away on the couch. “Oh.”
“Rough night,” Stormy said. “Shh.”
Ryder shook his head and buried it in the palms of his hands. “Definitely.”
“Where do you keep the ibuprofen?” Stormy asked as she opened cupboard after cupboard. “Never mind. Found it.”
She poured him a glass of water and gave him a few pills and got down to business making breakfast.
“The smell ought to lure them out of there,” she said. “Who can resist the smell of bacon frying in a pan?”
Ryder laid curled into a ball on the love seat while Stormy made breakfast and sure enough, Brooklyn came to after a little bit.
“Look who’s up,” Stormy said. “Sleep okay last night?”
Brooklyn shot her a dirty look as she climbed up onto the bar stool and sat with her head in her hands.
“Just making sure you’re okay,” Stormy disclaimed.
Brooklyn shrugged and groaned.
She plated the food and gave everyone their plate and a small glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. They all sat in silence as they scarfed down the greasy breakfast and washed it down with the sweet, sugary orange juice.
“What’s the plan today?” Stormy asked. Seeing how she was the only non-hung over person out of the three of them, she didn’t have a lot of expectations.
“I really want to go back to Coleville,” Brooklyn whined. “I don’t think I can stay here another day.”
Stormy’s face fell. She felt horrible that Brooklyn wanted to leave right away.
“You just got here yesterday,” she said.
“Too much excitement for one day,” Brooklyn said. “I can’t stay here anymore.”
“I’ll call the airline and see if we can get you on a flight out of here today,” Ryder offered.
“Are you sure you have to leave?” Stormy pleaded. “You won’t let us make it up to you?”
“I don’t feel safe here,” she said.
“I don’t blame you,” Ryder said. “I mean, you are safe, but if you’re not used to this lifestyle, I can see how you’d feel that way. I’ll make a call here shortly.”
Ryder took his dish to the sink, rinsed, it and put it in the dishwasher before heading back down to his bedroom and shutting the door.
Stormy walked over to the living room, pulled the curtains back on the giant windows and stepped outside to the balcony where she looked down on the bustling traffic below. The sun warmed her face as the breeze blew the leaves on the plants in the planters around her. She felt a sense of peace knowing that Jett’s killer had been brought to justice. She could only imagine what the men had done to him the night before. Knowing how the big city MCs operate, she was sure he’d been tortured, killed, and left out in a desert to rot somewhere.
She was beginning to make her mind up about living out there and trying to make things work with Ryder. She’d had a million reservations, but after just one week, it was beginning to feel like home to her already. She wasn’t quite ready to be on her own yet, but she knew she’d get there eventually. And she could tell Ryder liked her a lot. She felt safe and protected with him. He reminded her so much of Jett.
“Hey,” she heard a man’s voice say behind her as the door slid open. It was Ryder.
“Oh, hi,” she said. She was happy to see him. “I was just thinking about you.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, you, us, living out here,” she said. “Everything.”
“And?”
“I think it’s worth a fair chance,” she said. “As long as you promise to get out of the MC gang.”
“I’m working on it,” he said. “Believe me. It’s not something that can happen overnight. Could take years.”
Stormy’s face fell. She didn’t want to wait that long.
“I was able to change Brooklyn’s flight. She’s leaving this afternoon,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“She’s inside packing right now. We have to leave in an hour or so.”
“Okay.”
“Sorry her trip didn’t turn out the way you planned,” he said.
“It’s fine,” she replied. “It was more important get justice for Jett anyway.”
Stormy and Ryder dropped Brooklyn off at LAX Saturday afternoon and headed back to the condo. It had been a long, action-packed couple of days with Brooklyn and they were r
eady to relax.
“So what did you think of Brooklyn overall?” Stormy asked as they merged onto the freeway.
“She’s pretty cool,” he said. “I can see why you two are friends. You kind of complement each other.”
“I wish she’d move out here,” Stormy replied. “She was kind of open to the idea of it before, but after everything that went down, I think it just solidified her plans to stay in Coleville for the rest of her life.”
“I’m sure you’ll make new friends out here,” he said.
“I need to focus on getting a job first,” she said. “Then I can worry about making new friends.”
“What if you can’t find a job?” he asked.
Stormy looked at him as if his question was out of line, but she knew competition was fierce in bigger cities. She was only less than a year fresh out of nursing school with no real nursing job under her belt. She tried not to be too naïve about it, but she also didn’t want to feel hopeless.
“I hadn’t thought about that,” she said.
“You know you can stay with me as long as you need to,” he reminded her. “In fact, I prefer you stay with me so I can keep you safe.”
“Thank you,” she said as she reached over and grabbed his hand. “You’re too good to me.”
He pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed it.
“Let’s cross our fingers that I get the job though. I don’t want to be dependent on you forever,” she said. “It feels wrong. I want to start making my own money.”
Ryder laughed. “I don’t mind. It’s okay. I like taking care of you. It’s what Jett would’ve wanted.”
The car ride grew quiet after the mention of Jett. He was constantly in both of their thoughts, even if he wasn’t always mentioned, but the mention of him always drew silence from each of them and reminded them of the turn of events that had brought them together.
As soon as they returned to the condo, Stormy retreated to Ryder’s room to relax and try to take a quick nap. She wanted to prepare for her interview that next afternoon and had a lot of research to do on interview etiquette. She was determined to get that job and wanted it to be absolutely perfect.
Ryder decided to hang out in the living room and get some work done while she napped, only Stormy found herself tossing and turning the entire time. She was hot and then she was cold. She was sweaty and then she was freezing. Her mind was racing, and she didn’t know why. She wondered if maybe she just hadn’t had time to process all the life changes that were happening so quickly. She wondered if Jett really would’ve wanted this life for her. She wondered if she was doing the right thing. She chalked it up to pre-interview jitters. She was looking for something to stress out about, she told herself. She shut her eyes and tried to relax.
The moment her eyes closed, her mind began to replay the night before like some kind of movie. She saw the images of Zander and the gun and Ryder’s threats and Brooklyn being pushed and Zander making sexual remarks about her and him trying to leave and being knocked out by all the men dressed in matching leather jackets.
She thought about how Ryder jumped her bones the night before, hardly taking no for an answer. Then she thought about Jett, lying dead in the cold, hard ground. He was too good to her. He would’ve wanted her to move on and live a safer life, not get wrapped back up into all the MC drama.
“It could take years,” she remembered Ryder saying.
She didn’t know if she could wait that long to get out of that lifestyle. What if she fell in love with him? What if he changed his mind? She’d be his old lady forever, always living on the edge, always living in fear.
For the first time all week, she felt like she had made a mistake. A huge, gaping, enormous mistake. She wanted to get out of there. To go back to Coleville, to forget any of this ever happened and to move on.
She heard his bedroom door open softly and shut, and she felt the weight of his body shift around on the opposite side of the bed as he crawled under the covers next to her. He slipped his arm around her waist and curled in close. Stormy wanted to throw up. Everything that had felt so good the night before, suddenly felt like poison.
She felt uncomfortable with his touch, so she tried to nonchalantly wriggle away.
“You up?” he whispered.
“Yeah, now,” she lied. She didn’t want him to know she’d been lying there having second thoughts. “Done working?”
“Yeah, couldn’t get much done for some reason,” he said. He scooted in closer to her and nuzzled her neck before reaching up and turning her face towards his. He kissed her mouth, and Stormy felt sick again.
“I-I think I’m getting sick,” she said as she flung the covers off of her sweaty body. “You probably shouldn’t get close to me.”
Ryder looked crushed as he leaned away and rolled himself back onto his side of the bed.
“Do you want me to run to the store and get you something?” he offered.
Stormy immediately saw her chance to leave and jumped on it.
“That would be so nice if you would?” she gave him her best, most innocent doe eyes. “I’ll text you what I need so you have a list when you go to the pharmacy.”
Ryder climbed out of bed and grabbed his wallet and phone, shoving them in his pockets.
“I’m sorry you’re sick,” he said. “I hope you’re not sick for your job interview tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t miss that for the world,” she lied.
She waited on pins and needles for him to leave and watched out the window for him to pull out of the parking garage. The moment she saw him rumbling away on his bike, she called a cab and high-tailed it out of there. Her heart raced as she pulled her luggage to the curb and waited for the yellow taxi to pull up.
As soon as the cab pulled up and the driver heaved her bags into the trunk, she looked both ways to make sure no one was around and climbed in the back. She slipped on her big, oversized sunglasses and held her head low. As soon as the driver rounded the next corner, she saw Ryder in his car on his way back to the condo.
Her heart broke as she realized exactly what she was doing. She knew it was never good to make decisions when you were emotional or angry, but she couldn’t spend another night lying next to someone she didn’t feel right being with. She needed to get far away from that lifestyle.
As the taxi drove towards the airport, Stormy clutched her phone in her hand. She knew any minute now Ryder would be calling. He would probably walk in first, see the empty bed, and look around for her. When he wouldn’t find her on the balcony, he’d probably run to the closet and see all of her clothes that were once hung so neatly on wooden hangers were all gone. He’d see her toothbrush was missing and her perfume bottles all gone. He would know.
Her fingers shook as she looked up plane tickets on her phone and attempted to book something. She was prepared to stay the night at the airport if she had to. She just couldn’t stay another night near Ryder.
She found a flight that left at six in the evening. It would put her back home around nine that night. She so badly wanted to text Brooklyn and ask her to wait for her, since she was just a couple hours behind her, but she knew Brooklyn was already mid-air. Besides, she didn’t want to hear Brooklyn say “I told you so”.
She knew there wasn’t much in her bank account, but she had just enough to get home. She booked the ticket as fast as her fingers would allow her and then immediately dialed the only person she could think of that would be thrilled to see her: Hayden.
“Hey, Hayden,” she said. She tried to keep her composure, but she was sure he could hear the tears in her voice. “I need a favor.”
“Anything, Stormy, what is it?” he said on the other end. He was being so sweet to her, and it only made her feel worse about the way she left things with him.
“I need you to pick me up from the Kansas City airport tonight,” she said. “At ten.”
“Of course,” he said. “Everything okay?”
Stormy tried her best to sta
y strong, but it all seemed to come out at once.
“No,” she said as she sobbed into the phone. “Please, just pick me up at ten. That’s all I need.”
“I’ll be there,” he said before hanging up.
CHAPTER 22
For the first time in weeks, seeing Hayden’s face was like a breath of fresh air to Stormy. She never thought she’d be so happy to see him again. She thought for sure that chapter had been buried and gone for good, but she was wrong. Hayden was from a good family and lived a crime-free life. She knew with him, she wouldn’t have to worry about thugs knocking on the door in the middle of the night or someone trying to gun him down for some reason. He felt like a safe place for her to run to in that moment.
She threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight the moment she saw him.
“Hey, hey,” he said to her as he held her. She was sure he was elated to have her back in his arms, let alone his life.
He placed his arm around her as they walked to the baggage claim, and he grabbed her overflowing luggage off the carousel and wheeled it towards his black Jeep, which was waiting outside.
It felt weird to be back in the Midwest. After only a week, L.A. was starting to feel like home. She missed the palm trees already, but she would never admit that.
She climbed into his car and slid onto the familiar, smooth leather seats and buckled up.
“So you going to tell me what happened?” Hayden asked. “Did that asshole do anything to you? Did he hurt you?”
Stormy loved that Hayden was being so protective of her, but she didn’t really want to get into it with him. If he only knew the things Ryder was capable of if he felt like Hayden was a threat.
“I don’t feel like talking about it right now,” she said.
“I want to know if he hurt you. Did he lay a finger on you?” Hayden demanded. He kept looking over at her as if he was trying to read her face.
“No, not like that,” she said. “It’s over between us. Let’s just leave it at that. I want nothing to do with him ever again. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Resisting Ryder Page 16