“I was worried,” he said as she walked in the front door.
“Ha, why?” Stormy laughed. “I was at Brooklyn’s for one hour. You knew where I was.”
His possessiveness was really starting to get old.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Never mind. I’m just glad you’re home.”
“I’m going to go to bed if that’s okay,” Stormy said as she stared at the couch he was sitting on. “It’s almost midnight.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Hayden said. He stood up, lingered for a bit, then made his way back to his bedroom and shut the door.
Stormy dreaded telling him the next morning that she was moving out. He’d been so good to her the last couple weeks, but she didn’t want to get his hopes up. She couldn’t live with him any longer. She didn’t like how almost greedy he was becoming about her. It was almost bizarre and it freaked her out.
CHAPTER 24
Sunday morning was a breath of fresh air. Stormy had broken the news to Hayden as gently as she could, but she still knew she had dashed his hopes of getting back together anytime soon. He took it exactly the way she thought he would and closed himself off as she grabbed her things and left. He didn’t even so much as tell her goodbye.
She loaded her bags up into her rusty, red car and drove across town to Brooklyn’s place. She clutched onto her phone as she thought about calling Ryder. It seemed insane and she was sure Brooklyn would flip out if she knew, but she wanted to hear his voice again. She missed him. She missed him so much it hurt, but she knew it was over between them.
It was for the better, she told herself a million times. It was simply how it had to be.
“Hey, roomie!” she said as she let herself in to Brooklyn’s place. “Happy moving in day. Sorry I don’t have a lot of stuff.”
Stormy dropped her things by the door as she attempted to catch her breath. Climbing three flights of stairs with three pieces of luggage was no easy feat.
“Let me help you,” Brooklyn said as she grabbed one of the bags and threw it on the bed in the spare room. “We need to decorate this room.”
Stormy stared at the pale, off-white walls that surrounded them. She collapsed on the bed and rubbed her hand along the comforter. This was going to be her new home for the time being.
“What’s wrong?” Brooklyn asked. “We can get you new bedding.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Stormy said as she fought back a couple rogue tears. “Just thinking about stuff.”
“Did you hear that?” Brooklyn asked. “I think someone just knocked on the door. Who the hell would come over at nine on a Sunday morning?”
Stormy stayed in the room as she unzipped her bags and began hanging her things up in the closet. She heard Brooklyn shriek, so she ran out to see what the fuss was about.
Standing in the doorway was Ryder, bag over his shoulder,
“Stormy, I had no idea he was coming,” Brooklyn mumbled with a big frown on her face.
“I see that,” Stormy replied.
Her heart dropped to her stomach and she lost her breath. He took the wind right out of her. She backed up and braced herself against the wall as he reluctantly stepped towards her.
“Stormy,” he said. “I-I…”
He couldn’t bring himself to finish whatever it was he was trying to say. She couldn’t bring herself to say a word to him. She didn’t know if she was happy or appalled that he had just shown up in Coleville uninvited and unannounced.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Can I talk to you?” he asked. He took no more steps towards her as he cemented himself firmly just inside the doorway with his hands in his pockets.
“I guess,” Stormy said. He had traveled all that way, and the least she could’ve done was hear him out. “Since you’re here.”
Ryder looked around the small apartment.
“Where should we go?” he asked.
She thought about taking a drive with him, but she wanted him to be on her turf. She didn’t want to be behind the wheel with him in case he tried anything. He had a bit of a crazy, desperate, lonely look in his eyes. She’d never seen anything like it before, not even in poor, pathetic Hayden.
“We can go into my room,” she said.
He followed her down the hallway to the last door on the right, where they sat down on the edge of the bed. He looked around at the empty, white walls and at her suitcases which were half unpacked and lying open-faced on the bed.
“I just moved in this morning. Like five minutes ago,” Stormy dead-panned. “So, you had something you wanted to say?”
Ryder took a deep breath. “I want to know what happened.”
“Nothing. Everything.”
“Okay, um, I just wanted an explanation from you,” he continued. “I can’t move forward with my life and give up on you until I know what I did wrong.”
Stormy crossed her arms and scooted a little away from him as she looked him square in his gorgeous, hazel eyes. “You did nothing wrong. The issues are with me, not you.”
“I miss you, Stormy,” he said. “Every day when I wake up and you’re not there, it’s so hard. I’m not me anymore. I’m not me without you. There’s this huge, gaping void in my life where you used to be.”
Stormy rolled her eyes.
“Sweet talk me all you want,” she said. “It doesn’t change the facts.”
“What facts?”
“The club life,” she said. “I can’t do it anymore.”
“So here’s the deal,” he said as he looked her in the eyes. He reached for her hand and then quickly withdrew his, realizing it probably wasn’t the best time. “Everything I’ve told you has been the truth. I’m getting out. I’m trying.”
“Hah,” Stormy laughed. “Right. That’s what you say because you know I want to hear it. I know how hard it is to walk away from the only life you’ve known, from all that power and money and influence.”
“No, I’m serious,” he said. His eyes were desperate. “I’m the reason my brother died. If I had never gotten mixed up in Hellfire, he would still be here. I want to change my life. I need to. I can’t do it alone.”
“Why can’t you do it alone? You’ve done everything else alone,” she said.
“Everything changed when I met you. That’s when I knew for sure I wanted out.” He folded his hands nervously in his lap and stared at the ground. “I didn’t expect to fall for you. I didn’t expect to find some sweet, naïve, innocent, genuine young woman. Girls like you don’t usually get mixed up with guys like me or Jett.”
Stormy looked at his face again, which was now twisted painfully. She could tell he was hurting emotionally.
“When I started falling in love with you and asked you to move out west to be with me, I meant it,” he said.
“You were falling in love with me?” Stormy asked. They had never used the L-word before.
“Yeah, couldn’t you tell?” he asked. “I thought it was so obvious.”
Stormy bit her lip as she wanted to inch closer to him, but she held back.
“My brother died and you have nothing,” he said. “If you don’t want to be with me, at least let me take care of you. I can support you. I have to make it up to you somehow. I know he didn’t have a life insurance policy or anything.”
Stormy thought about the four hundred thousand dollars sitting in a bank account. She refused to let him know she knew about it.
“Thanks for the offer,” she said. She stood up and placed her hands on her hips as she looked towards the door way. “I don’t need you to take care of me, Ryder. That’s for coming out here to talk to me though.”
It pained her to turn him away like that, but a small part of her wanted to just move on without him while another small part of her wanted him to fight harder for her.
“S-so, that’s it?” he stammered.
“What did you expect?” Stormy asked, wild-eyed.
“I don’t know, I thought maybe we could start getting back on track,” he said.
“I hoped anyway.”
“Ryder, I want to be with you so bad that it hurts!” Stormy screamed at him. “You have no idea what you’ve put me through by loving me. I want to be with you. I want to be with you. I want to pick up exactly where we left off. I just can’t. Not while you’re with Hellfire.”
Ryder hung his head and rubbed his eyes as he fought off tears. Stormy felt crushed. She hated seeing him so hurt, but she couldn’t give in to him.
“Do you know how confusing this is for me?” she asked him. “I was falling so hard for you, and in the blink of an eye I realized it wasn’t fair to Jett, and I couldn’t be put in that kind of danger ever again. Jett never put me in any kind of danger.”
“You did know me, Stormy,” he said. “I never would have jeopardized your safety. That night with Zander was perfectly planned out. I knew the guys were right outside the door the entire time. Zander’s too much of a pussy to do anything to you in front of me anyway. I had you. I was right there.”
“You should go,” she said as she fought back tears as she remembered the trauma of that night. “I’m sorry, Ryder.”
He stood up slowly and rubbed his hands along his strong jawline as he tilted his head back and took a deep breath. He said nothing as he walked out.
She heard Ryder and Zander exchange a few words out in the living room and then she listened as the front door opened and closed. She peeked out her third floor window as she watched him walk to a rental car in the parking lot and drive off. He was gone. Just like that. And Stormy immediately regretted it.
She slammed her bedroom door and threw herself onto her bed, sobbing her heart out into a stack of pillows.
If she made the right decision, she wondered, why did it hurt so bad?
CHAPTER 25
Stormy had made up her mind. She was going to give Ryder another shot. She couldn’t spend the rest of her life wondering what would have happened if she would have believed him.
He didn’t have to take care of her. He didn’t have to confess his love to her. He didn’t have to fly out to check on her or to beg for her forgiveness, but he did. He did all of those things not knowing how she would react, and she reacted in the worst way possible. He didn’t deserve that.
She still had his condo key on her keychain. She could easily fly out there and surprise him. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach at the thought of seeing the expression on his face when she would show up at his place. She imagined the big bear hug she would receive and the endless, tender Ryder kisses coming her way.
She packed her bags and found a flight for the following day. She wouldn’t land until late Monday, but that was okay. She was positive he’d be at home doing nothing on a Monday night anyway.
Stormy dolled herself up Monday afternoon. She air dried her thick, curly, brown hair and took her time applying makeup. She shaved her legs and spritzed on some perfume, even though it was going to be many, long hours before she’d see him again. She was obsessed about reuniting with him. She thought about nothing else.
As she traveled down the interstate towards the airport an hour later, she rolled her windows down and blasted her favorite mixed C.D. She couldn’t have wiped the smile off her face if she tried.
She checked in at the airport, made it through security, and found her gate. She boarded the plane with the other passengers and let several people go ahead of her simply because she was in an amazing mood that nothing on earth could shatter. She hadn’t felt so happy in weeks.
As the engines started up and the plane taxied to the runway, her heart felt warm and full. She knew she was headed in the right direction. She knew she was making the right choice. Every time she listened to her head, it pulled her way from love. Whenever she listened to her heart, it pointed her directly back towards it.
She tried to read some magazines during the flight, but her mind would only focus on Ryder. She imagined his lips, his hair, his eyes, his strong, tatted arms. She wanted him so bad, and she missed him so much it hurt. She checked her watch every ten or fifteen minutes as time seemed to stand still as they flew through the air.
They landed at LAX around ten that night, and she wasted no time hailing a cab and hightailing it to Ryder’s condo. The city lights and swaying palm trees seemed to envelope her, welcoming her back home. She missed the city more than she ever thought possible, but she wondered if it was more because Ryder felt like home to her than anything else.
She decided to trust and believe that he would leave Hellfire as soon as he could. She knew there were repercussions for leaving the club, and he had to be careful about it. She couldn’t expect him just to say he quit and walk away. She was naïve to think it worked that way in the first place.
She thought about what she wanted to tell him when she first saw him. She imagined jumping into his arms. She thought about smothering his gorgeous face with a million kisses and telling him, for the very first time, that she loved him.
The taxi dropped her off in front of Ryder’s building and pulled her luggage from the trunk. She thanked him and paid as she grabbed her keys and made her way inside. Her heart was beating a million beats a minute. She wanted to run as fast as she could, but she didn’t want to be all out of breath or disheveled for their sweet reunion. She walked as fast as her little feet would take her as her suitcase with the loose wheel clicked rhythmically behind her.
Minutes later, she was finally standing in front of Ryder’s door. She sat her things down, fluffed her hair in a mirror in the hallway, and pulled out the cherry Chapstick from her purse and slicked on a fresh coat.
She thought about knocking and letting him come to her, but she decided just to surprise him since she had a key. She slipped the key in the lock and twisted it, and the door swung open. She kicked her shoes off so they wouldn’t make a sound on the spotless, shiny concrete floors, and she tiptoed town the hall towards his bedroom.
It was half past ten o’clock and the condo was pitch black. She was sure she’d find him in bed sleeping. She quietly opened his bedroom door and saw the light forming around his bathroom door. She heard the faint sound of the shower running and realized he was taking a shower.
Perfect, she thought to herself as she decided to climb under the covers and wait for him. It seemed a little creepy, but she was too excited to think straight.
She sauntered over to his bed. The room was dark, but with the glow of light flooding from around the bathroom door, she couldn’t see just enough. She stripped down and climbed under the covers, flicking on the bedside lamp beside her.
Her heart pounded as she waited for him to come out of the bathroom. Each second that went by felt like eternity.
The water from the shower shut off and Ryder emerged two seconds later with a towel wrapped around his waist. He stopped dead in his tracks the moment he saw her sitting in his bed.
“Stormy!” he yelled out as he ran over to her. “Is this real? Are you really here?”
His leaned down and pressed his mouth against hers, hard, and she ran her fingers through his still damp hair.
“I’m here, baby,” she said with a smile while she kissed him back. “I came back for you.”
He dropped his towel and climbed into bed next to her, his hands gripping her bare hips and pulling her body closer into his. He kissed her neck and then worked his way down to her collarbone as his hands traced down her soft arms.
She tossed her head back and he climbed on top of her, dominating her like he did the last time. She loved his alpha male bedside manner.
“I’m never letting you go,” he said. His smooth body pressed against hers, and in that moment they were one.
“I’ll never leave you again,” she replied, breathless, hot, and bothered. She loved his hands and how they travelled up and down her body. She ached for him. It had been too long, and she couldn’t ignore her feelings anymore. She had to do whatever it took to be with him, even if it meant staying in the MC life for a bit longer. She had to trust him to keep her s
afe, and she had to believe him when he said he would leave the club as soon as he could.
He was soon lying on top of her, his face buried in her mess of dark curls, and his arms spreading her legs wide. He pressed his hardened cock deep inside her, ramming her hard and passionately. He was hungry for her. He wanted to be inside her. He wanted to take her and keep her all for his own.
“You’re mine forever,” he said. “I love you, Stormy.”
“I know,” she replied as her nails dug deep into his arms. She leaned up and nibbled on his ear as he thrusted away. “I love you too.”
He continued making love to her the rest of the night. He didn’t want to stop. She didn’t want it to end either. She resolved once and for all that her heart belonged to Ryder Jacks, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Blakeley Wilde is a writer with a passion for gripping story lines that zig and zag and leave you wanting to turn the next page. She lives in a cozy little house with her hot firefighter husband on a lake in the middle of nowhere, and most nights she writes out on the back deck to the sound of the crickets. She loves to get lost in her stories and hopes that you do too!
Lastly, loved the story? Blakeley would be forever grateful if you took time to write a review!
Resisting Ryder Page 18