by S. K Munt
‘This is your bedroom, isn’t it?’ she asked quietly, not trusting her voice to be able to exit her with any more volume without cracking. She wet her lips. ‘I’m welcome to spend every second in your bedroom… is that what you just said?’
Ryan smiled that sexy smile at her. ‘I’ll go get your suitcases and put them in your room,’ he swaggered back towards the door. ‘And don’t worry, honey, we’ll start with a little fire…’ he rapped his fingertips on the doorjamb. ‘You kiss, right?’
‘You’ll start- and finish- with coals, thank you very much!’ Leigh snapped, annoyed with him for just assuming that she was going to fall into his arms, even while she was almost breathless at the idea of his lips on hers. ‘God, Ryan, who do you think you are? And how easy do you think I am?’ She felt tears of frustration sting at her eyes. ‘You were with-’
‘I didn’t sleep with her,’ Ryan rested his head against the door and returned her gaze with steady, earnest eyes. ‘I couldn’t.’
Leigh’s heart twisted towards hope without warming up first. ‘What…?’
‘I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and yeah, it felt cheap to try and pretend otherwise with her so…’ he bit his lip and smiled bashfully. ‘I left before I’d even set foot in her room. Oh and by the way, I told Bruce that you weren’t my type because he was pissed enough at us as it was. To stop him from charging you extra for sterilising the room or whatever else, I led him to believe that fucking you was the last thing on my mind-’ Ryan rubbed his chin ‘even though it’s the only thing on it.’ He grinned at her. ‘He didn’t believe it for a second, and it amazes me that a girl as smart as you did.’ Ryan looked her up and down and then grinned at her. ‘Seriously, have you not seen yourself? I don’t have to be into polka dot dresses to want to play twister all over that body.’
Ohhhhh….
Leigh didn’t know what to say to that, but her eyes must have said it because he grinned and added: ‘Don’t worry- I know I can’t have you in the biblical sense, so I’ll settle for having whatever part of you I can get, even if it is just that pretty mouth, and I’ll give you time to get comfortable before I make my move.’
Myyyyy….
Ryan cocked his head. ‘Do you like bacon and eggs? I definitely need to eat and shower before I attempt any kind of seduction here...’ Leigh blinked, Ryan grinned. ‘Yeah, you look hungry. Ravenous, even?’ And then he left her alone in his bedroom and chuckled his way down the hallway.
Leigh told herself to follow him- to grab her suitcase and run out the door and to keep running until she reached the airport, but she couldn’t have moved if she’d tried. He had her right where he wanted her, and there was nowhere else that she’d rather be.
Leigh sank to the floor and rested her face between her knees, trying to breathe, but it felt as though every breath she drew was laced with flames from the fire that had not yet been lit.
Godddd….
Seventeen
Ryan didn’t know why he’d told Leigh that he wanted to kiss her, instead of just kissing her like he’d wanted to when she’d looked at him like that from beside the cold fireplace, but he was definitely glad that he had because from that moment on, the air between them had been twice as charged as it had been before.
After he’d declared his intentions, Ryan left Leigh alone in his room and went to the bathroom to have a shower and scrub the seediness of the night before off his skin, humming to himself and brushing his teeth three times, before shaving his face carefully around his ear to ear grin. He was so glad that Bruce had chucked the tantrum that had gotten Leigh over his threshold that he could have high-fived his new rival in gratitude!
After months of feeling flat, Leigh’s presence had revived something in Ryan, something he couldn’t be certain that he’d ever had before because the lightness around his heart and the energy flowing freely through his neck, spine and limbs certainly felt new. He knew that he had a book to read, and the connection between he and it was undeniably obvious and important… but all of that fell away when Leigh smiled at him, as though she wasn’t just the one on vacation- rather she was HIS vacation from his own anonymity.
By the time Ryan got out of the shower and trotted downstairs to cook their breakfast, his face actually ached from smiling. Fantasies of making out with his pretty little friend kept playing out in his mind, making him feel young and excited. Maybe kissing her to see how their chemistry would pan out was a reckless plan, but if he only had a few days to bask in her summery warmth, he’d rub on the coconut oil and burn.
‘… Really can’t talk too long, this is an expensive phone call, after all. But I just wanted to let you know that I’ve moved from the hotel to a bed and breakfast- a Victorian, can you believe it? It’s so beautiful and the innkeeper is giving me such a great rate that I won’t have to worry about money until I get home, even with the new iPad.’ Leigh stopped talking and Ryan softened his footfalls as he descended the final three stairs, head cocked in curiosity. ‘I’ll e-mail and explain it all, but I just wanted to call you from the land line here, so you’d have the number, and to let you know that the address is…’ Leigh rattled off the address and Ryan smiled, rolling his eyes as he entered the kitchen.
Is she just trying to be the dutiful daughter, or is this her In Case Of Emergency Call, for use in the event that I turn out to be a sexual predator?
‘No mum I swear everything is fine okay. N-no mum you don’t have to put dad on I swear- MUM! No, look, I love you and I have to go, okay? This is something like four dollars a minute- do you - no you don’t have to pay for it, everything’s FINE. I’ll e-mail you in a few hours-love you, bye!’ Leigh hung up Ryan’s phone rested her head in her hands so that she almost head-butted one of the cactuses, and made a long-suffering sound. The phone rang again in the ten seconds it took Ryan to cross the floor, and Leigh snatched it up and answered:
‘Thank you for calling the Weaver Inn,’ in a flat, Canadian monotone that had Ryan clapping a hand over his mouth in laughter. ‘Our staff are unable to take calls right now, but please call back between nine a.m. and eleven a.m., and four p.m. and six, when the reception is manned. Thank you.’
Leigh hung up the phone, and Ryan began to smack his hands together. She spun around on her chair with wide eyes and a red face. ‘You scared me!’
‘You impressed the hell out of me,’ Ryan admitted, pulling her ponytail as he waltzed past. She’d had it in a bun earlier, but the length had uncurled and now fell in a golden twist down her back which demanded touching. Leigh turned with him, and he waited until he’d rounded the pantry and was out of sight to smirk- he hadn’t missed the way that her eyes had trotted up and down the length of him as he’d passed her by, or the way her shoulders had squared rigidly when he’d made contact. She was waiting for it, not hiding from it, and he took that as a very good sign indeed. As he appeared on the other side of the bench, he composed his face and asked her: ‘Ever considered giving acting a go? Your Canadian accent was spot on.’
‘I did classes a few years ago,’ Leigh admitted, resting her chin in her palms and staring down at the cactuses. Was she trying not to look at him, or bummed out over the phone call with what had seemed like a very paranoid mother?
‘And singing lessons too?’ He opened the refrigerator and pulled out the bacon and eggs, grateful for the fact that he’d popped down to the grocery store for a few essentials the other day and yet had not been home enough to consume them. ‘Do you tap as well?’
Leigh smiled softly. ‘Yep. I can also twirl a baton, swing from a trapeze, jump a horse over a very low barrier, file like no one’s business and I have a mean backhand.’ She slipped a twenty-dollar bill under the phone and gave him a pointed look, daring him to tell her to keep it. Ryan laughed and rolled his eyes, knowing he’d stuff it back into her purse at the first chance he got and deciding that not making a big deal out of it was the safest way to go about it.
‘One I’m sure I’ll be on the receiving end
of at some point, yeah?’
Leigh’s eyes sparkled with a genuine smile behind her thick lenses, making him wonder what that smile would be like with no obstructions. ‘I meant with a tennis racket but yeah… I’ve done Judo as well, so forewarned is forearmed.’
She had his interest. ‘Why all the hobbies?’ he asked, putting the bacon and eggs down on the counter in front of her then turning to crank up the front most spider burners. ‘Is that just part of your whole desire to live freely?’
‘Sort of- that’s why I’ve tried so many, I guess, trying to keep it interesting. But the main reason I started to begin with is because, well… let’s just say that my mother wants grandchildren, and so she nags me to get ‘out there’ at every chance she gets. When I have a new hobby, she thinks that’s what I’m doing, and it keeps her quiet for a while.’
Ryan raised his eyebrows as he turned back to her. ‘Ohkayyy…’
‘You’re allowed to think it’s weird,’ Leigh admitted, ‘so long as you know that the desperate man-chasing bit is her, not me. I’m just playing along.’
‘Because you’re in love with someone else?’ he prompted, remembering what she’d said to him the evening before.
Leigh stared down at the cactus again and rotated it slowly, and she looked so downcast that Ryan felt a twinge of jealousy inside his chest. He wanted to know more about her doomed love affair, but it didn’t yet feel right to openly dig for skeletons when he had no confidences to exchange in return.
He’s not cuter than me, right? Just tell me he’s not cuter than me and we cool...
‘Yeah,’ Leigh finally said softly. ‘Pretty much. It’s not real love when it goes one way though, I don’t think. And I don’t suppose it matters... how I feel is how I feel, you know?’
Ryan nodded silently. He understood perfectly because that was how he felt about his dream girl. ‘So then…’ As he tried to think of a way to dig into her life without looking obvious or jealous, Ryan pulled the frying pan out of the dish drainer, tossed it onto the burner, and turned down the heat a little before scooping in a bit of butter and the other ingredients he liked for his favourite kind of mushrooms. ‘Your mum sounded as protective just now as you said she was… has she met this guy before?’
‘They know of him,’ Leigh said, sounding embarrassed. ‘But they don’t… there’s been no full disclosure or anything. They know I want someone I can’t have, so they try to nudge me towards every other single man in Queensland.’ She snorted softly. ‘It hasn’t worked yet but, well, it’s all a process of elimination, huh?’ She looked up. ‘That smells great!’
Ryan could tell she was trying to change the subject, so he decided to be accommodating. ‘I only know how to cook a few things, but bacon and eggs, I own. Are you really hungry, or just a little hungry?’
Leigh bit her lip and cringed a smile through the gap. ‘Honestly? I’m famished!’
Ryan laughed, pulling out a bowl and beginning to crack eggs into it. The aroma of garlic, lemon juice, onion salt and white wine was filling the room and he breathed it in before adding in a splash of olive oil, his mouth watering and reminding him of how famished he was as well. ‘Do you like salmon? I make these scrambled eggs-’
‘I love salmon in my scrambled eggs!’ Leigh declared, almost rising off the chair with excitement. ‘Oh my gosh, are you making that? Wow- yum!’
Ryan wanted to stretch like a contented cat- the woman knew how to react to the simplest pleasures in a way that made him feel like a ten-foot tall hero carrying a damsel over his shoulder. ‘I sure am…’ he winked at her. ‘And it’s good to know how you like your eggs before I-’
‘Wake up alone, frustrated and hungry with an un-violated boarder to feed?’ Leigh asked archly, fixing with a haughty stare.
Ryan laughed. ‘Shot down!’
‘Bang bang.’ She shook a finger at him. ‘I don’t know what’s gotten into you this morning, but if I have to remind you about what won’t be getting into ME too many times over the course of the next few days, I’ll be checking out.’ She frowned slightly. ‘You do understand that, right?’
Ryan smirked at her. ‘You can say no to a post coital breakfast, and I’m going to respect that, because I swore I would.’ He waved the egg flip at her, enjoying the way her complexion shifted through all the shades of a sunset as he ‘went there’. ‘But you’re going to get kissed, and that’s a non-negotiable.’
‘But why?’ Leigh asked, looking worried. ‘Why kiss me when you know that neither of us can take it any further, physically or emotionally? We discussed this last night when we almost…’ she blew out a breath and lowered her head, rubbing her fingers into her scalp. ‘This is so awkward…’
Ryan chuckled, amused by her distress. ‘Leigh you have lovely hair- please don’t pull it out on my account.’ He stirred the eggs. ‘And you don’t have to spend the whole day getting ready to whip out the pepper spray either… I’m not going to force myself onto you or jump out from a closet. When the moment feels right, I’m going to kiss you- you’re going to see it coming, and you’re going to have the chance to stop me.’
Leigh groaned. ‘How can I not obsess? I’m not good with this kind of thing!’
Ryan indicated to the toaster beside him with the egg flip. ‘Why don’t you make yourself useful then, and get some toast going, hmm? The timing of eggs and toast is an art that works better with four hands rather than two- it’ll keep you busy.’
Leigh exhaled heavily. ‘Fine.’ He heard her move across the room. ‘You didn’t answer my ‘why’ question though, you know. Has anyone ever told you that you’re a very frustrating person?’
‘I believe Bruce has said something along those lines a few times over the past two days…’ Ryan teased as she sashayed past him and reached for the breadbox on the other side of the stove. ‘But Imogen knew me better than him and she seemed to think I was a winner.’
Leigh snorted as she pulled slices of bread out of the box and popped them into the four-slice toaster. ‘Imogen… now she’s a character!’ She depressed the button on the toaster. ‘I keep trying to figure her out, from the furnishings and stuff, but there’s no theme here. And what’s with all the cactuses?’
Ryan was hyper-aware of how close she was to him, and pleased to see how her countenance had relaxed since he’d given her a task. ‘She was told that it was a good idea to have plants in the house, for oxygen and stuff. But she had the opposite of whatever a green thumb is, so she went for the hardiest plant she could find and got lots of them.’
‘I get it,’ Leigh said, pulling a butter knife out of the draw. Her arm brushed his and tingles shot through that limb. ‘But you need to get at least one real plant, I think. The cactuses look great, but I think their hardiness negates the purpose of having them...’ Leigh stretched around him and grabbed the butter, and Ryan’s heart skipped a beat. He felt her halt for a moment, making him wonder if she’d felt that too, but then she was back in place- two feet away from him and watching the toaster. ‘I am awful with plants too, but I saw a movie once that said that you’ll never have good relationships in your life, if you can’t first learn to take care of a plant, then a pet. I’ve had my Hawaiian Honeysuckle for a year now, and it’s making it, so I think I’ll be ready for a pet soon. In fact, I’m thinking about getting myself a dog for Christmas.’ She gestured around the room. ‘Speaking of which, where’s your tree?’
Ryan worried the eggs with the spatula. ‘Um… which question was I answering again?’
Leigh cocked her head. ‘Did I ask more than one?’
Ryan laughed. ‘We took care of the cactus one, and that leaves us with: Why do I want to kiss you, and why don’t I have a Christmas tree?’ He put down the spatula and turned to face her, leaning against the counter and grinning to see the flash of fear behind her eyes, making them that little bit greener and that little bit wider. ‘So… which one should I answer first?’
Leigh stared at him, fully aware that she was the pu
nch line driving his jocular tone. ‘The tree one,’ she said flatly, and Ryan smiled.
‘Had not even occurred to me to get one,’ he answered in an equally direct tone. ‘I’m alone, you know? As in- completely alone. What’s the point of having a Christmas tree, if you won’t be receiving or giving any gifts to put under it?’
Leigh’s lashes lowered. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said softly, and then smiled timidly. ‘But what about Santa?’ Her eyes sparkled. ‘Aren’t you going to ask him for anything? He might just leave something lying around before he heads off to Australia so someone has at least one Christmas gift to un-wrap.’
Ryan grinned, pleased to suspect that Leigh was the kind of person who deep down, probably still believed in Santa a little- and also because she had just played right into his all too eager hands. ‘You’re not going to spin me a tale about the power of wishing and believing, are you?’
‘Why not?’ Leigh asked. ‘Stranger things have happened, and wishes come true for people all the time- so why not for the man who was kind enough to take in a weary traveller from the cold night air?’
Ryan stirred the eggs again, and then put the flip down. ‘That’s a good point, but I’m still sceptical.’ He turned back to her and drummed his fingertips on the countertop. ‘But in the name of Christmas miracles, I’ll humour you and give Santa a request list…’
Leigh grinned. ‘Let’s hear it then!’
Ryan pretended to think it over. ‘Okay- I want my memory back… by Christmas. I’d like to start the New Year feeling like I belong in the world.’ Leigh’s entire face fell and he had to keep a sly grin in check. Clearly, she’d wanted him to rattle off something that she could have picked up from Wal-Mart.
It’s okay honey I’m gonna make this real easy for you...
‘Oh…’ she glanced over at the toaster, then back at him. ‘What else?’
‘I want you to be less nervous around me- until you go.’ He smiled at her. ‘I’ve been nothing but honest with you Leigh, which means you’re officially the person in the world who knows me better than anyone right now.’ He took a step toward her and rubbed his thumb over her cheek. ‘I don’t want you to be afraid that I’m keeping things from you, or that I only brought you back here to see if I can’t break your rules, okay? So some faith in me would be a wish granted.’
