“Ryker.”
“Hmm?” he whispers near my ear.
“Don’t you think this is a little too much with kids around?”
“You’re my girl. It’s expected. And the bikini you’re wearing?” His hum of approval reverberates against the shell of my ear.
“Technically, I’m wearing a bikini top and boy shorts for the bottom.” Letting him know I’m not that affected by the heat from his sinfully hot body, I turn my head to get a better look at the kids going up and then coming down the water slide.
He takes advantage and drags his nose down the column of my neck. “The shorts don’t take away from how sexy you are.”
His breath coasts over my skin. He buries his face in the crook of my neck. The soft and coarse hair of his beard, the pressure from his nose, his intoxicating masculine scent . . . Heat licks up and down my spine.
“Why’d you cancel on me?” I ask, concentrating on slowing the crescendo beats of my heart.
“I texted.”
He continues his torment, his mouth warm on my flesh. Where he licks, my skin tingles with awareness. His mouth clamps on my shoulder, and his tongue twirls patterns on my flesh. Biting down on my moan, I back my butt closer to the heat from his groin.
“We had an arrangement.”
“How do I make up for lost time?” His fingers coast over my stomach. Soft, feather-light caresses. I tremble.
“For starters, where were you? I didn’t have a good answer for the kids other than you were busy.”
The disappointment on their faces, most of all Esther’s . . .
“Is it going to be like that, Harper?” He nips and tugs on my earlobe with his teeth. His fingers toy with the waistband of my boy shorts.
“Like what?” I rasp, afraid my eyes will roll in the back of my head at how good he’s making me feel with his fingers and his palms as he splays them on my midriff.
His hands are so big, they engulf my stomach.
“You in my business. Does that give me the privilege to dig into yours?”
“What’s that mean?”
“Answer my question first.”
In my peripheral vision, he’s tracking the kids with his eyes. He’s making sure they’re safe.
“No, it won’t be like that. I’m sorry. We’re not together.”
“Let’s be clear exactly what ‘together’ means. You as my girl, and I’m your guy?”
“Yes. What we started for the wrong reasons. We should tell the kids and their parents the truth. Your friends too.”
“Fuck my friends. It’s none of their business.”
Most of all Brett, is what I’m hearing in his tone.
“Let’s make what’s happening between us real, Harper. Give me that, and I’ll tell you my business but let you keep yours private.”
“If you’re doing this to get in my pants faster, I’m not in.”
“I would never pressure you for sex. Your free will is yours to own and never give away. Don’t use it as a bargaining chip for anything either.”
“Including love?”
“Most of all love.”
“And if free will is already compromised?”
“Are you asking me a hypothetical question or asking for a friend?” Resting his chin on my shoulder, he leans into me. I have this insane urge to reach back, angle my palm over the back of his head, and bring him closer. His hair, of dark chocolate and copper, would be soft beneath my fingers.
“For a friend,” I say.
Catching his smile in the corner of my eye, I bite down on my bottom lip. He’s so darn adorable and sexy, a contradiction of boyish charm and sexy hunk, though I know he’s all man under his swim shorts.
“Then I’d ask how much is that free will worth to your friend? Is it worth ending a friendship? A codependent relationship?”
Is that what he thinks Shephard and I have? Codependency? I blow out a breath. God, he’s not wrong.
“Why the big sigh, sprout? Did I hit on a truth?”
I sputter laughter. “Please don’t call me that. I’m not a baby plant.”
“Okay, squirt.”
“That’s worse!”
“Squirt, squirt, squirt,” he says near my ear, the thickness in his shorts rubbing along my ass crack with every uttered, heated word.
Needing to be near him, I recline full on him and bring him closer with my palm on the back of his head.
“How’d you get so wise about relationships?” I ask, my lips grazing his beard. God, I love this part of him. I bury my face fully in his glorious beard. Rub. Inhale. Coarse, but soft too. And he smells divine. A mix of sweat, salt, and man.
“I can so eat you up right now,” I murmur.
“Harper.”
His groan rumbles against my back. Hot need grabs at my core.
“Answer the question.” I throw his earlier words back at him.
“My parents. They’re role models for true love.”
“Yet you turned out to be . . .” I wave my hand in the air.
“A douche?”
“A nonbeliever of love. Why?”
“Why act the way I do?”
“You’re skirting my question,” I point out.
“I’d like to someday stick my head under your skirt. Make you come on my face.”
This guy. He’s so dirty, and I like it! I continue my train of thought before more dirty words spill from his mouth and I’m nothing but a puddle of need and want at his feet.
“You’re focusing on the part you show to the world, but it’s not the real you.”
“And what, may I ask, is my real self, Harper?”
He turns into me. Trails his fingers down my arm that’s stretched above my head, my palm firmly on the back of his head. He caresses low. Lower. Over the curve of my breast. Down my side. Along my outer thigh. My breaths come out in spurts. The room spins. Molten heat sweeps over my body.
“Ryker.” I’m panting.
“Babe?” A knowing lilt in his voice.
“We gotta stop.”
“Stop what?” He rubs his beard along my face. The hair tickles and teases, stroking my already heightened nerves. “Stop what, baby?” he repeats, the seduction and heat in his voice driving me insane with longing.
“Do my actions matter?” he asks, bringing us back to the original question, the one he’s been avoiding.
“You know it does.”
He caresses up and down my leg. I bite back my moan.
“I couldn’t care less what people think, Harper. I’m only accountable to my team. I bring my A-game every time I step onto the field. Anything less is a disservice to my teammates’ and my coach’s belief in me. I’ve also never mistreated my family or my friends.”
“Those girls you slept with, have you ever considered that maybe you broke a few hearts with your actions?”
“Don’t care too much what happened to those coeds’ hearts.”
Wow, he’s brutal, and I’m not liking this part of him. But I give him a chance to explain rather than shove him away.
“They fully understood what they were getting. A no-strings hookup. An open relationship. Nothing permanent but everything to do with temporary. I can’t help it if they’re disgruntled when they want something more. I’d want more from me too.”
Humble some?
“And us? Will you ditch me after your goodwill of easing my burden is over?”
His body stills, and my insides knot for poking at him with words I know he doesn’t like.
“Or will you wait until after we have sex before you dump me? But if you don’t, will you demand I agree to an open relationship?”
I untangle from his hold and take a seat on the lounge chair, removing myself from his intoxicating heat and the bulge between his thick thighs.
“You see, here is my one condition and my one deal breaker. Lucky for you, they go hand in hand.” I’m fuming. Hurting. Skeptical even that he has a heart at all. “My one condition is exclusivity. My o
ne deal breaker? Cheat on me and we are done.”
“I take it that’s a no for an open relationship?”
A low growl in the back of my throat. I want so badly to sock him in the arm. Seeming to read my mind, his gaze drops to my hands.
“How long you been boxing with your boyfriend?”
“Since I was eighteen.”
“How old was he back then?”
“Twenty-five.”
“Why was a grown-ass man hanging around an innocent doe-eyed eighteen-year-old girl?”
“I wasn’t innocent, and why do you think?” I sit straight and raise my chin.
Big mistake. My chest thrusts forward. My abs pull to my core. He looks my body up and down. Heat flares in his green eyes.
“I see. He has great taste.”
I cross my arms over my boobs. Chuckling, Ryker stretches out on the lounge chair. I stare. Dark hair on his legs. Black swim trunks riding up on his thick thighs. Noticeable outline of his erection. I yank the towel from under me and toss it at him.
The towel hits its mark. Ryker tosses it back to me. I resist the urge to wipe the sexy smirk off his face, and recline in the lounge chair. He pulls to a sitting position and straddles the chair.
Hunched over, he steeples his hands over his mouth and watches the children. He’s making sure they’re safe. Soft laughter from him when they start a water fight using the cannons. But his forward stare is also contemplative.
“I can’t go outside our exclusive arrangement, but am I expected to share you with him?” His voice is low, affording us a private conversation. “Is this how the three of us living in the same city will make what you and I have work?”
“I belong with Shephard, but that isn’t the expectation. If I sleep with you, it will only be with you.”
“You belong with him or to him?”
While I think over my answer—it’s not a simple one—I take the chance to look my fill. Clothed, Ryker Conway is sexy as sin. Half-naked? He’s magnificent, a warrior, a fighter, though he doesn’t know it yet.
His shoulders are round and muscular. His back too. Everything about him is dark and muscular. From his full and sexy beard to the smattering of hair over his pectorals.
And that sinful strip transecting down his taut abs to disappear below the band of his shorts? I’m breathless just thinking of trailing my fingers and my mouth down, down, down.
But can I take his length and thickness in my mouth without feeling intense revulsion?
He faces me. Dark and brooding is replaced with intense and searching. He has such beautiful eyes and thick, long lashes.
In the game of life and death, Ryker can be something more. He can be my chance for normalcy.
“What the fuck am I getting myself into, Harper?”
“If you’re not in, you’re out. That’s all I can say. I’m sorry.”
Sighing, he takes my small hands in his big ones. “Don’t be. Just . . . just don’t break my heart, okay?”
His voice is soft, and his tone, pleading. I slip my hand out of his. I want to go to him, but I don’t. When I do, it’ll be on my terms and not because he’s begging me with his eyes and his words not to break his heart.
“Never. But break mine, and Shephard will crush every bone in your body.”
He doesn’t blink. His gaze is unwavering. His body, unflinching. He’s not fazed by my threat. Smirking, he pulls me back into his arms.
“Fair warning, sweetheart. I’m in.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and nestle into his warmth and the strength of his body. I’m right. Ryker is the one who will make me normal again.
14
Harper
“Sunday was sooo fun. He won’t ditch us this week, will he?”
April shrugs off her backpack and sets it on the table. She’s on her second week of school, sixth grade already, and wants help with her science homework.
“Ryker texted me he’d be here.”
“You’re so lucky he’s your boyfriend. He is hot.”
She sits with this blissful expression.
“Looks aren’t everything.” I slide into the booth and take a sip of water from the plastic cup.
I had time to box with Shephard and shower before I picked April up at school. She had volleyball practice.
“If he were ugly, you’d still go out with him? Is he your first boyfriend? You’ve never brought a guy skating before.”
“Who’s ugly? What’s the name of the guy you’ve been skating with?” Ryker saunters over and plops down next to me.
His thick thigh and massive shoulder rubs against my leg and arm, reminding me of what I’d been missing out on when I let him know I wouldn’t be seeing him in person again until Wednesday.
He had hemmed and hawed, declaring that three days was too long not to see one another. Then when he saw me and Shephard running by him and his teammates, he did something utterly adorable that had me falling harder for him. He sent me a short playlist, two songs to be exact. Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” and Oliva Newton John’s “Physical.”
Ha-ha.
This guy . . . He’s great. Did he miss me as much as I missed him? He covers my knee with his warm and large paw. Butterflies stir in my stomach. Collide when he squeezes my knee. Goodness, he did miss me. I cover his hand with mine and lace our fingers.
“You didn’t hear correctly.” April rolls her eyes and crosses her arms on the table. “Serves you right for eavesdropping.”
“You weren’t quiet, little girl.”
She sits back with a satisfied grin. My, my, April likes when Ryker calls her that. Yet she finds it annoying when her crush, Parker, says the same. I smile. This girl of mine . . .
“Care to share the interesting conversation you were having with Harper?” He leans in and bumps his head on mine.
April looks at me. I give her a slight shake of my head. She opens her mouth. I glare and stare pointedly at her backpack. Her chin tips up. I narrow my eyes. That troublemaker. My hand still intertwined with Ryker’s, I cross my legs, lean back, and wait to hear what April has to say.
“I asked Harper if she’d still go out with you if you weren’t so hot.”
Next to me, Ryker squirms in discomfort at being told he’s sexy from a twelve-year-old. I hold back my smile.
“I also asked if you’re her first boyfriend. She’s never spoken of a guy before.”
“Is that so?”
The side of my face tingles. His stare is intense, his words full of curiosity. Shit, April’s opening up a can of worms.
“How long have you known Harper?”
“Four years.”
“She’s never mentioned a guy, not even a guy who is”—Ryker tips forward—“a friend?”
April’s brows tug low. “No.”
Ryker rests back against the booth. “Huh.”
One word said in disbelief and more curiosity. He rubs his thumb over mine. Up. Down. Up. Down. I can hear the gears cranking in his head. He’s wondering why I’ve never spoken of Shephard to April.
“My dad wants to meet you.”
“Will it make what I have with Harper official?”
“Hey, I’m right here. I get a say and my say is a firm no.”
“Harper.”
“No, April. Pete’s not my father. He’s yours. There’s no need for him to meet my guy friend.”
“Ryker’s your boyfriend. He’s your first, right?”
A flush heats my cheeks. April’s eyes widen.
“I don’t mean your first in that way. You’re twenty-two, so it’d be weird if you were a virgin.”
My body stiffens. God, I hope Ryker didn’t notice. If he did, he’s not giving anything away with his body language. And two, April and her mouth. She gets her bluntness from her father. Pete doesn’t always tone down his adult language around his young daughter.
“I’ve had other boyfriends,” I say.
“When?”
Can I point out my young frien
d is persistent?
“When I lived in Chicago.”
“What were their names?”
“Samuel and Giovanni.” I give her Shephard’s middle name.
“Those are awesome names. How old were you?”
“Why do you need to know, little miss?”
“Dad says I can date when I’m eighteen. I can’t wait that long, Harper. If I tell him you had a boyfriend before eighteen, he’ll agree to Parker seeing me outside of the rink.”
“Sorry, April, but I’m with your dad on this one.”
“How old, Harper?” Ryker asks.
“Not you too?”
“It’s a harmless question.”
If only he knew the extent of the harm I caused and that Sam had inflicted in return.
“Yeah.” April leans forward. “How old? I want to tell my dad.”
“I was—” I clear my throat. God, I’m a horrible role model. “I was fifteen when I met my first crush. And I had my first boyfriend when I was seventeen.”
“The same boy? That’d be dreamy if you got with your first crush.”
“Different boys. Giovanni was my crush. He was older.”
“By how much?”
I sigh. “Seven years.”
She adds the years using her fingers. Her eyes widen. “You crushed on a twenty-two-year-old? Holy shit!”
“April!”
“I-I’m sorry, Harper.” She ducks her head. Her face is a shade of flamingo red.
I’m an insensitive jerk for chastising her in front of Ryker. I understand what it’s like to want to be cool or have this need to show off to get a hot guy’s attention.
“It’s okay, sweetie. He was in the army. That and our age difference made it impossible for something to happen. So, I went out with a different boy.”
“Sam?”
“Yes,” I say, my voice soft.
Ryker is quiet. He’s taking everything I’ve said in. If he sticks around, I’ll have to tell him of my messed-up relationship with Samuel and Shephard Taylor.
“I take it Harper didn’t answer the ugly question?” Ryker’s voice is equally soft.
“I’d date you no matter your looks,” I reply.
He untangles our fingers and slides his hand behind my back. The gentle pressure of his fingers on my hip is sheer torture.
Wicked (Dangerous Liaisons Book 1) Page 7