The Unexpected Series (Books 1-3)

by Amy Marie

  I lock myself in a stall, throwing my head against the metal door as tears prick the sides of my eyes, threatening to spill over. Seeing him here, again, unexpectedly brings the bad memories of the last time I saw him to the surface. The reason why I couldn’t trust any man becomes fresh in my mind. I wipe a rogue tear away and straighten my back.

  If I was looking for a sign that I needed to try to work through my issues with Braden, I found it clear as day at The Cubby Bear North.

  Braden would never break my heart the way Ryder did. It’s secure. He is nothing like Ryder, and that is exactly why I should stay with him.

  It’s been a long time and Hadley still looks just as beautiful as I remember. Her soft skin glows even under the flashing lights of the bar. Her hair, darker and much longer than I remember, falls down over the breasts that I’ve never forgotten the feeling of underneath my fingertips. Her passionate stare still pierces through me, but I could see the lust behind them...she remembers too. No woman has had this effect on me. Not since Hadley walked, no disappeared, out of my life.

  One day, seven years ago, I am getting ready to let my asshole parents know that I’m in love with their nemesis’ daughter and the next she is gone. Vanished. Her mom and dad even refused to look my way when I went to her house after my numerous texts went unanswered and Emie, her best friend, didn’t have a clue where she went.

  I searched for her. I did. I was in love with her. I wanted to spend my life with her. Go to the same college as Hadley and build a foundation with her. She took that from me without as much as a Dear John letter. Never responded to my emails. I spent a long time trying to figure out why she did it. What I did. No one could give me the answers I was looking for.

  Maybe she never did love me.

  It took me four years before a girl ever got more than sex from me and even that didn’t last long. At the frat house, I took each opportunity I had to get laid but never once was my heart in it. Not like it was with Hadley. I’d just use them to mourn the loss of her. I knew that and I made sure they did too.

  Yea, I sound like a pussy, but when someone as fascinating as Hadley Chase comes into your world, loves you unconditionally, knows you better than anyone else, and then takes off nothing is ever the same.

  Ever.

  I should be pissed at the sight of her but all I feel is relief at finally seeing her again.

  I excuse myself from the table and head in the direction of where Hadley squeezed her way through the throngs of people. I find a long hallway that leads to the bathrooms. Assuming she is in there I stop and I lean my head back against the wall and close my eyes.

  The image of my first glance at her in almost a decade flashes across the darkness created by the back of my eyelids. How utterly stunning she looked staring off into the distance. That was until Jace introduced me. I watched her body go rigid and her teeth clench. Her green irises dilated in disbelief as they met mine.

  All the hurt I felt from her leaving me without a word dissipated and I just needed to touch her. To feel that she was real.

  My palms are slick with sweat and my heart is beating so fast that it’s creating a thumping that reverberates through my body and pounds in my ears. I feel like that high school kid again, nervous to ask her out or kiss her for the first time. My dick twitches mentally recalling the memory of my hands touching her body. The first time she trusted me fully. The night she gave herself to me.

  Her satin skin feels incredible underneath my touch. My hands glide up her smooth legs as she wiggles beneath me, daring my fingers to climb higher. When they do, they’re met with warmth. Her hips rise begging for my digits to enter her. I’d give her anything she asks for, silent or aloud. They slip in easily. It’s amazing how ready for me she can be with just a few strokes.

  Her soft voice whimpers at the invasion and my eyes flick up to hers. They’re open. They love to watch what I can do to her body. I up the pace earning myself a loud call of my name.

  “Shhh,” I tell her quietly. “You need to be quiet. You don’t want your parents to catch us.”

  I’ve snuck into her room a few times a week all summer. My parents are too busy to notice I’m gone most of the time and I use it to my advantage to spend every moment I can with Hadley.

  She silently nods biting her bottom lip...something that turns me on more than her whimpers of pleasure.

  “Ryder,” she breathlessly whispers my name. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Had,” I declare, pushing my fingers deeper and faster inside of her.

  Her teeth unfasten her lip and she asks, “You’ll never hurt me?”

  I can see the vulnerability in her eyes silently begging me to give her the answer she wants...needs.

  “Never,” I promise. “I’d walk through fire before I ever hurt you.”

  A tear rolls down her cheek and I wipe it away. “Hadley, what’s wrong?”

  Her hand comes down from my shoulder and stops mine, delaying her impending orgasm. “I want you,” she says. “I’m ready.”

  My body freezes, halting all movement. “Are you sure? We don’t have to. I know you want to wait.”

  She nods as her small hands pull at the button on my jeans, the popping sound filling the night. My zipper follows and she pushes my pants down enough so that my erection is free.

  “I want this, Ryder.” Her hands wrap around me. “I want my first to be with you and I believe that you’ll never hurt me. I know you’ll take care of me.”

  Hadley won’t be my first, but I’ll be hers, and hopefully her only. “I promise.”

  I stand up and pull my jeans and boxers all the way down and reach into the pocket, pulling out the condom from my wallet and securing it on me. She slips off her dress and her legs open in anticipation, no reluctance in sight on her face.

  I nestle myself between her thighs, placing the head of my dick at her entrance. She tenses for a brief moment before determination takes over. Her hands grab my sides pulling me gently towards her. Her tension returns when I push into her and I still at the now scared look on her face.

  “We can stop. We don’t have to do this,” I plead. “I’ll wait...years if I have to.”

  She smiles up at me. “I want to. Please, Ryder. I want to be yours. Keep going.”

  Her words fuel me and I do what she asks, stopping every so often so her body gets accustomed to mine. It’s nothing like I have ever felt before. I’ve been with one other girl and she never wrapped around me this tight.

  I thrust the rest of the way inside her and tears prick the sides of her eyelids.

  “Did I hurt you?” I worry.

  “No.” She shakes her head side to side. Her beautiful hair spread across the pillow. The strands of pink mixed with the auburn show the personality of a girl who lives her life to the fullest despite her upbringing. “Just uncomfortable. Keep moving.”

  So I do. I move inside her slowly until she relaxes. I’ve had my fingers inside her more times than I can count and I can tell when she is close. Her body’s response to mine is electric. Even at eighteen, I know this is different. This isn’t sex. This is making love. I love her.

  Her voice speaks softly into the night. Sounds of pleasure and love. My name, God’s name and a few quiet prayers. I’m holding off so I can give her the pleasure she deserves. Most girls don’t come their first time. Hadley will. I’ll make sure of that.

  She clenches around me, her grip on my arms tightening so hard her nails dig into me.

  “I can feel it, Ryder. I’m going to come,” she whispers. “My God, this feels incredible. Don’t stop.”

  “I won’t,” I promise her. “I love you.”

  She falls over the edge at my words. Promising her love to me too. When she is sated and pleasured, I plunge into her a few more times before I come.

  I fall on my side, dragging my finger along the curves of her unmoving body.

  “Are you okay?” I ask.

  Her head turns towards me, her smile lig
hting up the room. “Never been better.”

  We lay there trying not to fall asleep. A few minutes later she starts to giggle softly.

  “What’s so funny?” I ask hoping she isn’t laughing at what we’ve just done.

  She jumps up and straddles me. “We need to do that again,” she says laughing again and securing my wrists above my head.

  I drag my hands out of her grasp and grab her hips, grinding her against me and wink. “If I have to,” I joke.

  “Why are you just standing there?” Hadley’s harsh voice, very much different than in my memory, startles me.

  An embarrassing tug of my jeans alerts me to my rock hard cock and an annoyed huff from across the hallway lets me know she can see it.

  “Looks like nothing has changed.” Hadley’s sharp tongue states but her voice falters giving her vulnerability away.

  I reach down and adjust myself as I watch her walk past me, wanting nothing more than to spank her tight ass. I grab her arm and whip her around so we are face to face.

  “Oh, I’ve changed, Hadley...and I can show you how if you’d like,” I say pushing up against her.

  Her breathing deepens as she attempts to tug her hand out of my grip. “Let. Me. Go,” she says accentuating each word.

  “No. Not when I just found you again.” I intently promise.

  She scoffs. “I don’t belong to you anymore, Ryder.”

  “You know,” I say lifting my hand to caress the side of her cheek. She flinches but doesn’t move. “Since you vanished into thin air we technically never broke up. So, you still belong to me. Have you been cheating on me with this Braden asshole?”

  I’m trying to lighten the mood but her eyes go wide. She’s seething as she swats my hand away. “Oh, yea? And how many girls have you fucked since high school? Go back to them.”

  “I don’t want them. I want you,” I say shocked at my own admission. I’ve just found her and already I want to commit myself to her?

  She looks between my hand wrapped around her arm and my eyes. Resolve shines through. “What’s that you said?” She taps her finger against her lips. “Oh yea. I’ve been there and done that.”

  She pulls out of my grasp, shooting daggers with her eyes, and walks away from me, again.

  I’m confused by her words. I’ve never said that. Stomping my way through the crowd, I’m determined to find her and demand she explain what she just said but I’m stopped by AJ.

  “We gotta go, man.” His hand is over my chest, keeping me from moving any further. I glare at him before he immediately removes it.

  AJ is my best friend. He and Jace lived down the street from me but in another school district, and he is well aware of all the bullshit that Hadley put me through. It took me almost ten months after she left to tell him what happened. After a drunken summer night, I spilled my guts. Told him about our summer together and how much I loved her. He was upset I had hidden it from him but Hadley and I had our reasons and we were working through them.

  “No, I need to find Hadley.” I shove him to the side. “I won’t lose her again.”

  “Well, Jace wants to leave. I guess that fuck stick Trent showed up and his girl went all doe eyed. Plus, I might know where you can find her on most days. I heard Hadley works with Noelle.”

  I raise a brow at him. “You serious? She works as a wedding planner?”

  I don’t see Hadley as the type to plan someone’s wedding. I remember how she loved art and someday wanted to paint murals on the sides of buildings. Her dream was to paint the ocean on a tall brick building in the city. ‘A sea of blue in the middle of the concrete jungle,’ she had said.

  “Yea, man. But we gotta go before he leaves without us.”

  I look behind him into the crowd and see that the table we were sitting at is now completely empty. If she works with Noelle then I don’t need to chase after her. She’ll see me soon enough.

  “I don’t know why you drag me out every Friday morning to run with you. I can’t keep up!” My best friend since high school, Emie, wheezes through the shade of tall trees on our weekly run.

  I stop, placing my hands on my hips and look at the relief written all over her face as I do. “Your personal trainer needs to work you harder,” I chastise.

  The woman has more money than sense, thanks to her parents, and can afford to have a personal trainer. Being rich was passed down to her and it’s evident in her brand new Nike shoes she purchases every month and her matching workout outfits that she never wears more than once. Her hair color doesn’t come from a five dollar box at Wal-Mart like mine but from the skilled hands of a beautician every four weeks. Its blonde curls are wrapped up in a tight ponytail.

  A devious smile crosses her lip glossed lips. “Oh, he works me hard.” Her long eyelashes flutter in a wink. “Morning, noon, and night.”

  I slap her lightly on her arm. “I don’t doubt it. I just don’t understand how he can give you sessions four times a week and you can barely run three miles.”

  The same smirk appears again. “I can’t help it if his sexy blue eyes and black hair distract me and we end up using the work bench for something else.” She giggles.

  I start to jog again, much to her dismay, and try to envision what her trainer must look like. The image that appears looks a lot like the man I was reunited with last night.

  Ryder Blake.

  My heart rate picks up a little more at just the thought of his name. Last night, despite my anger towards him and what he had done, I could still see through his eyes the same boy I fell in love with all those years ago. I had dreamed of them last night...looking into mine as we made love the first time. I woke up in a puddle of sweat with my chest heaving up and down. Thankfully, Braden slept at his own place or he would have bothered me to tell him why I woke up in such a state.

  I’ve never told Braden about Ryder. Mostly because I know how jealous Braden can get. When we’re out in public he makes it known that I am his. It’s not affection but possession. If a man stares he says something. At first I loved it, feeling as though he wanted the world to know I am his but that soon faded away, like a lot of other things, and now I find it an annoyance.

  If I’m really being honest with myself, though, I would say I haven’t told Braden because I don’t want to relive the hurt I felt from Ryder’s words. How a voice can make your chest feel constricted and the air within your lungs whoosh out with no warning. Even though Emie now knows the whole story I had been reluctant to tell her.

  She was the only confidant I had after I left. Emie was the only one besides my parents who knew where I went so I had to tell her about Ryder and me. She was team Hadley, of course, and never spoke a word about it to anyone...she did make me aware of his dating life after I left and apparently he didn’t wait more than a week to find a new conquest.

  “So,” I nervously start, knowing how mad she is going to be right along with me. “I saw Ryder last night.”

  I close my eyes for a brief moment as I run, waiting for a reaction. When I don’t hear it, I open them to find empty space along side of me. I turn my head back and see her stopped a hundred feet back.

  Her screech fills the forest preserve. “Are you kidding?!” She closes the distance between us faster than I’ve ever seen her run. Her hands grasp my upper arms with a shake. “Where? What did he say? What did you say?”

  She seems to be going into hysterics. I pull from her hold and reach for her face. “Em, stay with me. It’s fine. I didn’t even give him the time of day. Relax.”

  A puff of air blows across my face as she breathes out. “Okay. I just know how much he hurt you and I will personally kick his ass if he so much as looks your way again.”

  This makes me laugh. I can’t imagine little Emie beating up an over six feet tall Ryder. Maybe she would send her trainer.

  “You need to stay away from him, Hadley. Don’t even talk to him,” she commands.

  I just nod my head unsure why she is being so adamant about it.
I think I’ve grown up enough to take care of myself.

  We finish up our jog and jump in the car. She has barely spoken a word since I told her about Ryder and I smile knowing she just wants to protect me from getting hurt again.

  Before we hit the end of the road leading out of the trees, I spot some teenagers splashing in the river. I start to tense, worrying for their safety. They don’t know if they will be swept away. And then I cringe at where my thoughts have taken me. I used to be like them. Carefree, doing what I wanted, taking chances and loving life. I used to want to grab the bull by the horns and do some of the crazy things my parents would have freaked out about. Go skydiving. Bungee jumping. Zip lining from the tree tops. But life changes us. We grow up, we get hurt. We reevaluate, and we lose ourselves. I took a chance on Ryder, allowing myself to fall in love with someone who supposedly accepted me for me and I got hurt so bad that the carefree Hadley back then is no longer.

  Seeing those kids looking so innocent and full of life makes me jealous. I want to be that way again. To live my life not afraid because right now, I’m pretty damn petrified.

  ~~

  “Do you want to tell me what all that was about last night?” Noelle questions the second she walks through the doors of Events Unlimited.

  I peer up from my computer finding her, as usual, flawless. “I could ask you the same thing.”

  She smirks. “Touché.”

  “So,” I start. “What’s up?”

  She sets her stuff down and rifles through her messages. “Hard dicks and airplanes.” She deadpans.

  I push away from my chair smoothing down my casual Friday jean skirt and stand to make her a cup of coffee. I don’t have to. She never asks but I do it because I don’t want to deal with a non-properly-caffeinated Noelle. After last night...her leaving Trent on the dance floor and Jace leaving her at the bar...I’m not sure what kind of Noe I am going to get.

  I make her coffee the way she likes it, placing it on the desk and sit back at my own.

  “Ryder is sexy, huh?” Noelle asks over the top of her computer. “I’d do him.”