by KB Winters
Tori pulled up twenty minutes later and I ran for the car like I was dodging the cops, and prayed Bennett wasn’t visible from the route we’d take back to our apartment. I had no idea what Tori would do if she saw Bennett—but I knew whatever it was, it wouldn’t be pretty.
“Well…” Tori said, shifting her eyes in my direction when we pulled away from the curb.
I ignored her, and kept my eyes peeled, looking out the passenger window. If I saw Bennett first, I had a better chance of distracting Tori’s attention until we passed by him. Part of me wondered if she would even recognize him, but something told me she would. His body was the same, and I had a hunch those were the details Tori would have memorized in their short relationship.
“Everlie?” Tori said, her voice sharper this time.
I turned to look at her. “Well what?”
She sighed and flicked on her blinker. “What happened?”
I scowled at her. “Tori, please, let’s not do this, okay?”
“Do what? I just asked how your night was, that’s all.”
I sighed and rested my head back on the headrest as we rounded the corner, taking us off the main street. I had no idea where Bennett had gone, but it was highly unlikely he was out here. The farther we got away, the more relaxed I was, until Tori started in on me again. “Everlie, God! I know we argued, but we’re still friends! Fuck…”
“Tor, listen, I know we’re friends. I’m just not like you. I don’t kiss and tell…” The words echoed, hollow sounding between us, and as soon as they left my mouth, I knew they were the wrong ones. “I just mean—”
“—I know what you mean, Everlie. You don’t have to explain it. I’m a whore. Whatever.” She steeled her eyes out ahead of her, effectively ending the conversation. If she had the power to blast me with lasers from her stare, she probably would have.
She stewed until we got home, ignored me when I thanked her for the ride, and huffed up the stairs ahead of me, not bothering to hold the front door open for me when she went inside. I went to her bedroom door and knocked softly. “Tor? Tori, please? I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it, I swear! All I meant was…we’re different in what we share.” Silence. “Also, I didn’t know what you would say because you thought going out with Ryker was a bad idea in the first place…To be totally honest, Tori, you hurt my feelings because it’s like you don’t think I know what I’m doing.”
The door cracked open and Tori poked her head out, her curls appearing before her face. She sighed. “All right, Ev. I’m sorry. Obviously, I was wrong. I know you wouldn’t have stayed the night with him if you weren’t sure, so, for my side of all this judgy-shit, I’m sorry.”
“Thanks Tori. That means a lot. I’m sorry, too. I don’t think you’re a slut, or a whore, and I don’t want you to think that. You’re my best friend, and all I want is for us to both be happy.”
She smiled and opened the door the rest of the way. Before I could take another breath, she had me in a rib-crushing hug. For a petite thing, she had a bear like grip. When she released me, she smiled, her lips curled in a wicked smirk. “Soooooo? When are you seeing him again?”
“I don’t know. Hopefully soon,” I answered, unable to hold back a beaming smile.
“Yay!” Tori jumped up and down and grabbed me for another hug.
Chapter Ten
Everlie
Turns out, I didn’t have to wait long to get a firm answer to Tori’s question. Ryker called a few hours later, and asked if he could pick me up and take me out to a nice dinner to make up for his early morning vanishing act. I, of course, agreed, and spent the rest of the day pacing the apartment impatiently, unable to think about anything else for longer than two minutes at a time.
Ryker picked me up that evening, and we both endured Tori’s catcalls and hollering from the stoop, as we went down the stairs out to his rental car.
“What happened to the truck?” I asked, as he opened my door.
“It was a one-time thing. You know how hard it is getting around here with one of those things?” He smiled and I sank down into the seat.
“I’ll try not to be too disappointed, but the truck thing was totally working for me,” I said, flashing him a secret smile as he slid into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine.
“I noticed,” he growled into my ear, nipping the lobe, before turning his attention to getting out of the apartment complex parking lot. My body flashed with heat, and I couldn’t stop squirming, wondering what he would say if I asked if we could skip dinner. I’d never felt so…aroused, but it was as if he’d opened a door I couldn’t shut anymore. Ryker made me feel like some kind of forbidden temptress, and while he’d controlled every motion, and seemingly every sensation, the night before, I knew that really, I held the power, because he wouldn’t ravish me until I told him to.
The idea of leaning over the center console, pressing my body into his, and purring into his ear that I wanted him to take me straight to the hotel, was so brazen, and bold, that I wriggled even more, excitement buzzing in waves over my skin. At that moment, Ryker shot me a glance, and a jolt of panic flooded my heart at the knowing look in his eyes. I knew he couldn’t read my thoughts, but the wicked grin he threw to me as we waited underneath a stop light, told me we were thinking the exact same thing.
“Where are we going?” I asked when I got my thoughts back together again.
“I’ve been meaning to go to this little Italian place I read about. It’s an off the grid place, like that cafe you showed me the other night. You game?”
I nodded and licked my lips. It was now or never. I gave Ryker a sideways glance, studied his profile, and then sucked in a steady breath. “What would you say if I told you I wasn’t hungry…?” I said, letting the question linger in the thick air between us. Ryker’s eyes shot straight to mine, dark and wide. “What if we were to skip dinner?” I asked, leaning over, my mouth close to his ear.
Without another word, he pulled a u-turn at the next light, and sent us off racing back to downtown where his hotel was located. “I’d say it never hurts to start with dessert.”
I giggled as he stomped down on the accelerator, pushing the speed limit more and more with each mile. His hand went to my knee and started working its way up my thigh, in a slow, torturous progression that had my insides screaming for him to break not only the speed limit—but the sound barrier.
We pushed through Ryker’s hotel suite door in a tangled mess of pants, moans, and loud, voracious kisses. We stripped at each other’s clothes in a haphazard, urgent, tug-o-war, pushing and pulling, always crashing back together again, as though we’d gone too long without oxygen.
And the frenzied dance, didn’t stop until we were breathless, exhausted, and covered with sweat.
Afterward, Ryker ordered a smorgasbord of food from the room service menu, along with a bottle of pinot, and we lounged in his bed, still nude, until there was a knock at the door and Ryker threw on a hotel robe to answer it. As he stepped out, I sighed happily and brushed my wild bed head hair out of my face, slicking it back behind my ears.
The decision to skip on dinner had been a very, very good one.
We ate dinner in bed and flipped through the channels. Neither of us had much time to watch TV and it was nice to enjoy the simple luxury together. Of course, we didn’t make it halfway through the chocolate mousse Ryker had ordered before he found other uses for it…painting it all over my body, and licking it off with slow, meandering strokes.
A hot shower was all it took to push me over the edge of exhaustion, and I fell asleep as soon as I collapsed into bed, lying beside Ryker, my head on his chest, lulled by the rise and fall. When my eyes fluttered open again, the room was pitch black, and after a few groggy seconds, I realized what it was that had stirred me. First off, I was alone. The bed beside me was warm, but vacant of Ryker’s solid body. And second, there was a muted voice filtering through the bedroom door that was open a tiny crack. I perked an ear, for
cing my brain to pick out what was being said. Was someone in the hotel room?
“—I hear you…it’s not a good time…that’s not…business.”
I wrapped the sheet around me and crept to the door, prying it open another inch. Ryker was standing in the living room, his silhouette illuminated by the glow of the light from below, filtered in through the large picture windows. His hand was up to his face, holding a phone.
“No, Bennett isn’t here. I don’t know where the fuck he is. It’s not my job to babysit him. He’s probably out fucking some girl.”
I cringed, thinking of Tori. I hadn’t told her about my run in with Bennett on the street. I’d known it would only bring her heartache to know he was still in Vegas and avoiding her. Apparently favoring strippers, if Ryker was to be believed.
“Like I said, it’s not a good time. You called me out last night for this bullshit. Can’t you send someone else to look for him?” Ryker went rigid at whatever the reply was. “I’ll be right there.”
He cursed under his breath as he pocketed the phone. I tiptoed back to the bed, and molded my body just as it had been moments before. Ryker pushed the door open the rest of the way, but didn’t say a word as he slipped into the clothing I’d stripped off him.
When he left, I sat up, my mind at war between staying put and following him. I had no idea what was going on. Who he was talking to. Or where he was going? But, I knew I needed answers. In the unguarded truth of my heart, I knew I was falling for Ryker, and if I was going to be able to keep those walls down, I had to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I slipped from the covers, hurried back into my skirt and top, and stepped into my slip on heels. I took a deep breath before pushing out into the hallway, and caught a flash of Ryker as he stepped onto the elevator. I waited until the doors slid closed before racing to hit the button to call my own elevator. I tapped my fingers on my thighs as I waited, knowing my window was shrinking rapidly, if I had any hopes of catching him before he got out of the hotel.
It was well after midnight, but Vegas was the city that never slept, and there would be hordes of people out on the street to contend with. Which was good for following Ryker and not getting caught—but bad if I couldn’t get on his trail before he got lost among the other faces.
I released a sigh of relief when an elevator popped open moments later. I scurried on and hit the lobby button half a dozen times in succession. When the elevator reached the lobby, I stepped out and hung back a moment, scanning the expansive space, my heart racing and then falling, as I realized Ryker had gotten out of my sight.
I didn’t have my phone or my purse. My car was back at my apartment. And I also didn’t have a hotel room key to get back upstairs before Ryker returned. I was mentally scolding myself for being so careless, when I saw Ryker leaving the hotel. I had no idea how I’d missed him on my first scan, but I stuffed away the question and the panic that had been bubbling up inside me, and sprinted across the lobby to follow him.
As predicted, the sidewalk was clogged with drunk people and obnoxious tourists, either leaving or going into the various clubs, casinos and restaurants along the Strip. I pushed my way through as politely as possible, keeping a good twenty feet between Ryker and myself. He turned into a casino and I waited a minute before going inside. The casino was packed, and it took a moment to orient myself among the chaos of people, loud noises, and flashing lights. When I spotted Ryker again, he was standing by a bank of slot machines. I crept closer, using other machines for cover, as he swiveled a quick glance at his surroundings. When I dared to duck back out, he was no longer alone.
My heart stopped, and then fell through my stomach, straight to my gut, when a flash of recognition hit me as I stared at the half-dressed woman opposite him.
It was the same hooker I’d seen him with when Tori and I had gone out after his mysterious phone call the night of our date.
Rage boiled inside me, and I no longer cared if he saw me. I peeled away from the slot machine I’d been hovering behind, and made my way to Ryker and his friend. When I got within three feet, I raised my arm, ready to grab his arm, but before I could extend it, the hooker swung around Ryker, grabbed me and pinned my arm behind my back.
“Crystal! No!” Ryker hollered, grabbing for the woman.
“Back off, little girl, this isn’t your business,” the woman—Crystal—growled against my ear. She released me roughly, and it was only thanks to my ballet training that I righted myself and didn’t crash to the floor. “Get out of here.” I followed her gaze as she opened her leather jacket, to reveal a gun strapped around her waist underneath.
My eyes went wide as they shot to Ryker. He was glaring at the woman beside him, but didn’t say a word to stop her display. “Ryker?” I prompted. He refused to look at me.
The woman closed her jacket and grabbed Ryker’s arm. “Let’s go, Knight. We don’t have time for this.”
Only then did his eyes meet mine, and my breath stopped at the dark, anger brewing in them. “I’m sorry, Everlie, but you were right about me…I am a liar.”
Continued in...Knight Moves Vol. 3 releasing on Feb 9th!
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Acknowledgements
Thank you! We so appreciate our readers! Without you, our books wouldn’t need to exist. We truly appreciate each and every one of you.
Thanks to all of our beta readers, street team, ARC readers and Facebook fans. You girls are the best!
And a huge very special thanks to our wonderful PA, Shannon Hunt and Once Upon an Alpha. Without you, we’d all be a hot mess! Thank you!
And a very special thanks to our editor, Tina. Thank you for making our words make sense.
Copyright © 2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
About The Authors
KB Winters has an addiction to caffeine, tattoos and hard-bodied alpha males. The men in her books are very sexy, protective and sometimes bossy, her ladies are…well…bossier!
Living in sunny Southern California, the embarrassingly hopeless romantic writes every chance she gets!
Evie Monroe also lives in Southern California and when KB asked her to co-author her next books, Evie was ecstatic! Together, they’ve penned their first collaboration, Temporary Assignment, and have other exciting titles on the way!
They hope their stories take you away to a hot Alpha-land where you can relax and enjoy!
You can connect with KB on Facebook and Twitter! Say Hi! to Evie on Facebook! And stop by at KBWinters.com!
Knight Moves
A Navy SEAL Romance
Vol. 3
By
KB Winters and Evie Monroe
Copyright © 2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Published By: BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
Copyright and Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©2016 BookBoyfriends Publishing LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
More from KB Winters
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Chapter One
Ryker
My life was the job and the job was my life. When I’d first agreed to follow Bennett into this new, post-military life, I’d been under the impression that it would be no different than being a SEAL. I was used to that lifestyle. The way my whole life was wrapped up in my job. I’d never had a problem with that aspect of being in the military. In fact, I preferred it that way. It was cleaner, simpler. Life was easier to manage when there were fences. And I’d always been able to do what I wanted within those fences—thanks to my high ranking position and the respect of my fellow officers.