by T. S. Joyce
He was a charmer, so why was she losing her heart so hard to him right now? Had she learned nothing from Blake?
But then Ryder would lift her knuckles to his lips right in the middle of saying something to his crew, kiss her, and rest her palm back on his thigh, as though he didn’t even notice he was doing it. That meant something, right? It sure meant a helluva lot to her. And then he’d gone and unstrapped Sprinkles from her cart when she’d worn down, lifted her against his chest, and with little effort at all, put her to sleep like a teeny baby.
And now Lexi’s lady bits pulsed once at the sight of Ryder stroking Sprinkles little body with his thumb while he rested his other hand on Lexi’s and rubbed gentle little circles on her knuckles.
Was this really happening right now?
Sprinkles snored loudly. Nope, definitely not a dream.
“Kane!” Wyatt called, his hands cupped around his mouth.
The black-haired man climbing into an old Bronco across the street paused and looked their way.
Wyatt waved him over.
“He won’t do it,” murmured Wes.
“Five bucks says he will,” Ryder said.
“You’re on,” the Novak Raven said.
“I think I’m gonna call it a night,” Kane called out.
“Told you,” Wes said with a sneer.
“I bet Wes five bucks you would hang out!” Ryder yelled. “Don’t let my faith in you go to waste.”
“Cheater,” Wes muttered.
Lexi was human, but even she could hear Kane’s gritted out “mother fucker” from here. He looked pissed as he crossed the street. He flipped his dark hair, longer on top, to the other side in an irritated gesture. Dark sunglasses covered his face as usual. He liked to hide his dragon eyes from the town, but Lexi had seen them once at Drat’s Boozehouse when he was arm wrestling one of the locals.
“Pay up, suckaaah,” Ryder crowed at Weston. Sprinkles twitched in the cradle of his arm but didn’t wake.
Kane looked uncomfortable as hell as he looked around at all the full seats, but he needn’t worry. “Take mine,” Lexi offered.
Ryder was already pulling her into his lap anyway, the snuggler. But as his erection poked her butt cheek, she thought maybe it wasn’t so much snuggling on his mind as other intimacies. His waggling red eyebrows backed that theory.
She laughed and relaxed against him as the chatter of the crew picked up again. Kane was quiet like he always was, but after a few minutes, Lexi spied his first smile. How many times had she seen him around town, or at the bar when she’d gone to cut loose after bad days at work? A dozen? Fifteen? She’d maybe seen him smile a handful of times, but tonight, the longer he spent with the crew, the more his lips curved up.
“Lexi, you’ll like this one. We used to call him Karate Ryder,” Wyatt said with a laugh as he pointed the neck of his beer bottle at Ryder.
“Because I was awesome at karate,” Ryder said confidently.
“No, you were terrible,” Wes said. He arched his eyebrows at Lexi. “From age twelve to fourteen, he was the most annoying kid you could ever meet. Every sleepover, Karate Kid movies. Every day after school, karate moves in the woods. Every dinner conversation—”
“Let me guess, karate?” Lexi asked.
“Exactly. And he sucked at it.”
“False,” Ryder said. “I surpassed my master in under a year.”
Harper snorted. “You got kicked out of class because you refused to take direction.”
With a chuckle, Ryder argued, “That’s because I knew everything.”
He was trying to hide a smile again, and Lexi rolled her eyes.
The others launched into a discussion about how a Boarlander bear shifter named Bash used to make them pizza rolls after school and tutor them in math. Ryder had gone quiet, though, and pulled the hairband gently out of Lexi’s ponytail, loosing her long hair. His fingers were firm as he massaged the back of her neck. He watched her face with a slight frown. “You feel different.”
“What do you mean?” she murmured, relaxing into his massage.
He was quiet for a minute before he answered, “Forget it. I don’t know what I mean.”
Well, that was a copout if she’d ever heard one. He ran his fingertips up the back of her head, through her hair, and massaged until she curled her legs in his lap around Sprinkles and sighed happily.
The early spring wind kicked up, and even though Ryder was warm as a furnace against her, she’d only worn a T-shirt with her job logo on it, and gooseflesh rose across her arms.
“You cold?”
“A little.” Oh, he made her so mushy with how much he cared.
“Sad, little human with your pathetically thin skin,” Ryder said with a shake of his head.
Lexi swatted his chest. “I’m super tough, I’ll have you know.”
“Oh, I can tell from your shivering. Crew, I’m gonna see this one off.” Ryder rocked them up out of the chair and settled her on her feet.
“Neeeew,” Alana drawled. “It’s still early.”
“Ha, early for you party animals,” Lexi teased. “Get it?”
“Party. Animals,” Ryder said, finishing her joke with a snicker.
Wes, Aaron, and Wyatt shook their heads in mock disappointment.
“But really,” Lexi said. “I have to make breakfast for a couple up at the cabins in the morning, and that five a.m. alarm comes quick.”
“You said comes quick,” Ryder repeated through a smirk.
She giggled and leaned over to pat Kane on the leg as she passed. Quick as a strike of lightning, he grabbed her hand just before she touched his knee. His face had gone stone hard, and his grip was too tight.
“If you want to keep those fuckin’ dragon eyes in your face, I suggest you let her go,” Ryder said blandly.
Kane relaxed his grip and murmured a hasty apology. Then without another word, he stood and limped past Harper and Wyatt’s chairs and across the street to his ride.
Lexi watched him blast out of his parking space as she rubbed her sore hand gingerly. “Is that a rule? No touching?” she asked. “I didn’t mean to chase him off.”
“Nah,” Ryder said. “That’s just Kane’s rules. Most shifters thrive on affection, especially from their crew and mates. Kane never had a crew, though. He didn’t learn.” Ryder had said it lightly, but when Lexi looked up at him, a slight frown marred his striking red eyebrows, and he was staring at Kane’s taillights.
Her distress evaporated when she saw Sprinkles. Ryder had her on her back, cradled to his chest like a little baby, and she was looking up at him adoringly, her back legs limp against his arm. How fucking cute to see a strapping, musclebound, filthy-mouthed behemoth carrying her little hairy baby so gently.
Lexi picked up Sprinkles’s cart and made to leave. Harper and Alana hugged her farewell, and as she passed, Wes grabbed her hand suddenly. He held her there, locking her in his gaze as his bright green eyes tightened at the corners. And after the span of a couple of heartbeats, he released her grip and relaxed back into his chair. “Nothing,” he murmured in a satisfied tone.
“What was that about?” Lexi murmured as she and Ryder walked toward her Wrangler.
“Wes has some kind of fucked-up future teller sight. I guess he thought if he molested your hand, he would see something about you.”
“Wait, he can see the future?”
“He could before Alana was Turned. He had visions bad, but he hasn’t had any in the last few months. I guess that was the test. I guess he can’t see you.”
Ryder’s tone had darkened on that last part, so she studied his face in the illumination of the street lights that lined the road. He was suddenly very busy looking at Sprinkles.
“I feel like you only like me for my dog,” she teased.
“Not true. I fell for your tits first.”
Her surprised laugh echoed down the street, and before she could change her mind, Lexi wrapped her arms around his waist and fell into step
beside him. After a moment of hesitation, he draped his empty arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly against his side, pressed his lips against her hairline.
She felt like she was glowing under his affection. If she could see herself in this moment, there would be a soft, happy aura clinging to her like a second skin. She was falling hard for Ryder, and it left her a bit breathless.
“Do all owl shifters like affection?” she asked softly as they reached her jacked-up Jeep.
“Uuuh, I’m not sure. There aren’t many snowy owls.”
“How many are there?” she asked curiously, resting her back against the door as Ryder settled Sprinkles in the back.
“Me and my mom that I know of. There has to be more, but they’re in hiding or maybe dead. None but me and my mom have registered.”
“Oh.” That sounded lonely.
“Well, don’t pity me, woman. I have my mom, and my dad is a shifter, too.”
“What kind?”
“A boar.”
“Wait, the boar shifter?” There was only one registered as far as she knew, and the only reason she remembered was because he had a very specific, very intimidating name. “Your dad is the Beast Boar?”
“Yep. He took me in as his own when my real dad bailed. And I was brought up in a good crew. Well, my crew was bat-shit crazy, but they were family. I had good role models. But yeah.” He leaned his back on her Jeep beside her. “I think owl shifters are affectionate. I grew up watching my mom just melt against my dad when she saw him after a long day. They would stand in the kitchen for half an hour, not saying anything, just hugging each other.” Ryder swallowed hard. “I want that—being able to make someone’s day better just by holding them.”
“You’re a romantic.”
“No, I’m not. I’m very manly and unromantic. Cock, dick, finger-bang, tit-suck—”
“Okay.” She bit her lip against a smile. Ryder could deny it all he wanted, but he was straight from one of the romantic movies she liked to watch—but with a filthy mouth, a dirty mind, and a chronic boner.
“So, as far as first friend-dates go…”
“Yeah?” she asked.
“How would you rate this one?”
Lexi puffed air out her cheeks and felt like she was floating. He cared what she thought of today. “Ten out of ten for me. You?” she asked, trying to hide the hope from her voice.
Ryder gave her a sideways glance, and that sexy smile that took the corner of his lips was back. “Same.”
Gently, he pulled her in front of him between his splayed legs and dragged her hips close.
Lexi ran her hands up his muscular chest and settled her palms just under his collar bones. “How are you so warm?” she whispered in awe.
“Snowy owl,” he murmured. “I’m made for the cold.”
“I’m always cold. It’s hard for me to get warm.”
He angled his head, his eyes turning a muddier color, from blue to light brown. “We fit.”
She rested her forehead against his chest and shook her head in disbelief that just a couple of words from his lips could affect her heartrate like this. Her chest was pounding like a drum, and as she stilled against him, his was doing the same thing, as if their hearts were racing each other. Oh, she was in trouble with this one.
“Bark!”
Lexi checked on her dog around Ryder’s wide shoulders, and the little Chihuahua had pulled her body right next to the door and was looking up at them with her tongue lolled out.
“Jealous,” Lexi accused. “He’s mine right now.”
The grin slipped from Ryder’s face in an instant. “Say that again,” he murmured.
“She’s jealous.”
“No, the other part.”
Lexi hesitated until she knew her voice would come out steady. Then she ran her hands down his chest and linked their hands. “You’re mine right now.”
Ryder looked down the street and blew out a long breath. “Woman, you’re making this real hard to take our friendship slow.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said innocently.
“No, you know exactly what you’re doin’.” He gripped her waist tighter in his big, strong hands. “Everything in me wants to drive you to a back road, pull over, and flip you over in that backseat.”
“And do what?” she asked on a shocked breath.
“You know what.”
And oh, she could see it—her ass in the air, tits brushing the seat fabric, getting pounded from behind by Ryder, his powerful body flexing against hers as he drove her to release. The warmth in her middle turned to magma, and her breath trembled on every exhale.
Ryder lifted his chin but kept his now-gold eyes on hers. “You smell sexy as fuck, Lexi.” He pulled her harder against his long, thick erection and murmured, “I’m about to start making real bad decisions if I don’t say goodnight to you now.”
Did she want that? Did she want to say goodnight and get her head back on straight, or did she want to give two flying middle fingers to caution and get herself taken by the Air Ryder?
“Woman, stop lookin’ at me like you want my dick buried inside of you, or it’ll happen. I’m trying to do this right.”
She opened her mouth to tell him she definitely wanted to be bad and do dirty things with him, but Sprinkles barked again. And at that interruption, Ryder was now looking mighty determined to slow them down. Sprinkles was a cock blocker.
Ryder eased her back and opened her door, then waited there, arms locked against the opening as she buckled in.
She didn’t want to leave him. Tonight had been amazing. The whole day had been. She’d settled into something so comfortable and interesting with him in just a few meetings, and today had sealed her heart to him. But she couldn’t be that girl—the one who begged for more time when he was clearly saying goodbye. She’d done that before and had more pride now. She could tell him something else, though, something she felt compelled to share.
“Ryder?” she asked quickly before he could shut her door.
“Yeah?”
She used his words from earlier because she felt them down to her marrow. “You feel different to me, too.”
Ryder’s gold eyes sparked with intensity as he leaned into the front of her jeep. He cupped her neck and pressed his lips to hers. He wasn’t patient like with their first kiss. This time, he plunged his tongue past her lips, demanding she let him in, demanding to taste her.
She slid her hands over his shoulders and gripped the back of his hair, raking her nails against his scalp. Ryder’s reaction was instant, pressing her against the seat, kissing her so hard it stole the breath from her lungs. God, she loved this. Loved the way he tasted, loved the way his lips were moved on hers, loved the way his mouth fit hers so perfectly. She’d never met a man who could kiss her like this. One who could make her forget where she was. Ryder had the uncanny ability to make the rest of the world fade away to nothing.
He pulled her hand from around his neck and pressed her palm against his chest, right over his pounding heartbeat. She smiled against his lips. How could someone make her feel this happy? This okay? This whole? This wanted?
Perhaps Weston had visions of the future, but Air Ryder was magic.
He bit her bottom lip gently and disengaged, gave her a peck, and then another and another, each getting more gentle until he eased away completely.
Without a word, he tugged her cell phone from the cup holder, saved his number into it, then called his phone. She was glad he was handling the number-swap because right now her arms and legs were numb and her fingers probably wouldn’t work on account of him kissing her so thoroughly.
He pulled her hand to his lips, kissed her knuckles, then backed out of the car and shut the door. Right. Now she had to remember how to drive.
And just like he had on the side of the road, Ryder watched her leave. Except this time when Lexi glanced in her rearview mirror, he didn’t look troubled.
He looked hopeful instead.
Chapter Six
Ryder dropped the stack of logs from their resting spot on his shoulder to the ground. They clattered and scattered, but without a single second’s break, he strode back into the woods to grab the others he’d felled.
He and Wes had dreamed of starting a business like this since they were kids, but then they’d grown up, moved out of Damon’s Mountains, and lived in different places. Ryder had become a welder and Wes a logger, and he’d never thought this would be possible—their childhood dream.
But then Harper had called them in to give Wyatt some backup, and the small reunion with old friends had turned into so much more. They’d all landed an unexpected crew, and yeah, sometimes it was hell trying to figure everything out with the Bloodrunners, but this right here—the opportunity to follow through on a dream with his best friend—made Ryder feel like maybe he was supposed to end up here with the Bloodrunners all along.
Then he’d met Lexi. And holy shit, he’d never encountered a more terrifying woman. She had grown the ability, in an overwhelmingly short amount of time, to destroy him completely. Serena had tried and failed to break him, along with the other women he’d tried to bond with, but Lexi had power she didn’t realize yet.
Maybe he should keep it hidden from her. Maybe he should slow them down, or even grind them to a halt until he could wrap his head around how much he liked her. Wes had told him to take it slow, and the fact remained that not only had the Gray Back Crew’s seer, Beaston, not seen Ryder with a mate, but Wes hadn’t seen it either. That bothered Ryder.
When Alana had come along for Aaron, Weston had been pummeled with visions of her with shifter eyes. He’d known she would be Turned, known she would be a Bloodrunner without a shadow of a doubt.
