Shit…
Neither Kenzie nor Brooke looks at all surprised that I’m cozy with the brunette. The latter has a smug smile on her lips that quickly turns to a sneer.
I can’t say the same for Ange. She frowns at me, and then looks at the brunette at my side. She even mouths the word, “Really?” I’m still mortified I’d thought of her during sex. What the hell. Why would I think of the ice queen?
I walk toward my friends and the entire time Ange’s gaze is shifting between my new friend and me.
“Hey,” Brooke says. “We’ve been looking for you.”
I glance at the brunette, whose gaze never wavers from Brooke.
“Sorry, I went outside and got some air.”
“Isn’t that the door to the janitor’s closet?” Curtis says innocently enough.
Everyone laughs…except for Ange, who looks at me in disgust.
I glance back and shrug. “I have no idea.”
“We ready to head out?” Deklan says, and he’s staring into my eyes like he’s piercing my fucking soul. There’s no way he’ll know I took a half of a pill.
I give him a pat on the back and he seems to relax. “Yeah. You alright, buddy?” I ask before he can drill me.
“Yeah. I’m ready when you are.”
The brunette pouts. “You’re leaving already?”
“Give me your phone number,” I say, taking out my phone.
She gives me her number twice. I repeat it back to her for good measure.
“My name’s Amber, by the way.”
“Seriously?” Ange says. She shakes her head and runs a hand down her face. “Wow.”
The band leaves Amber and me alone for a second.
“You have any more of what you gave me?” I ask, brushing back her raven-colored hair with one hand. My thumb lingers on her cheek.
She leans into me and sighs. “Yes.”
I give her a soft kiss before she reaches into her purse. She slides the pills into my pocket, her hand coming close to my cock. She flashes a coy smile as she fondles me for a quick second. “Call me, okay?”
“I definitely will.”
She clings to me, and for a second I’m tempted to stay…until I think of how shitty I played tonight and how good my bed sounds right about now.
“You sure I can’t come by tonight?” She bites her bottom lip and tries her best to look innocent. She’s not. I’ve known her kind before. She’ll be back in the third row jumping up and down and flashing her assets to the bassist in the next band.
“I’m exhausted or I would.”
When I look up, her friends are waiting for her, their eyes wide with surprise. She flashes them a triumphant smile.
Seeing them, she gives me one more kiss and whispers in my ear. “You’re amazing. I can’t wait to feel you inside me.”
I swallow hard and try not to let the words swell my ego.
As I walk away from her, I hear her friends ask her about me. They gasp and giggle as I turn left. My friends are waiting by the door. They’re laughing at something Curtis says, and I smile to myself.
I find the nearest bathroom and once I’m in a stall I check my pocket. I’m almost disappointed to see the familiar oval pills. Hydrocodone.
I need to take all four to get an effect out of them at all.
For a split second, I feel a sense of disappointment in myself. Disappointment that I had played so shitty, and disappointed that I had fucked up twelve days of sobriety.
SEVEN
Ange
Ryder makes me sick to my stomach. He’s disgusting.
I so badly want to tell him what I think of him.
The smug look on his face as he walked out of that janitor’s closet with his slut on his arm is too much. I’d watched him during the concert and could see the girl give him the eye all night. I was disgraced by my own sex knowing that she’d given it up so easily, and she’d never even told him her name beforehand. I mean, what kind of girl does that?
Curtis asks Ryder the brunette’s name and when he gives a lopsided smile, I look away and out at the passing landscape.
Thank God I’m not stuck in the backseat with him.
Ryder becomes all chatty as we drive back into Vancouver, and even the sound of his voice is getting on my nerves.
Deklan is smiling at Ryder like everything that comes out of his mouth is sunshine. I didn’t get the connection or why they were even friends. Aside from the band and their mutual love of music, it didn’t seem like they had all that much in common. Deklan actually had a talent and a real job. He supported himself and Kenzie had told me he’d already saved up over thirty thousand dollars toward buying his own house one day.
Impressive.
Ryder was just dead weight.
I want to be as far away from him as I can get, and I’m honestly relieved when Kenzie told Deklan that we can only stay for an hour before we have to go home.
An hour is about all I can stomach anyway. Plus, I’m anxious to see what Cole is up to.
Curtis and Brooke are already at the house when we arrive, and Brooke is wearing pajama pants and a hoodie, with her face bare of the makeup she used earlier.
She doesn’t look anything like the girl I saw perform on stage in front of two hundred people.
“Hey Ryder, can I talk to you for a second?” she says, motioning for him to follow her into the kitchen where Curtis was standing, holding a mug between his hands.
“If you want to tell me I played like shit, I openly admit it to everyone.”
This silences her immediately and she nods. “You did play like shit, and I don’t understand, because at practice last night you lit it up.”
“Sorry, I just had an off night.”
I force a smile I didn’t feel. “It happens.”
“The brunette with the huge tits didn’t help,” Curtis says, walking out of the kitchen. Brooke shoots him a look that promised death.
“Sorry babe, but it’s the truth,” Curtis says with a shrug.
“Oh really?” Brooke says, planting her hands on her tiny hips.
Curtis gathers her up in a hug and she gives him a shove. “No, you want a chick with big tits and no brains.”
“We don’t know that Amber doesn’t have any brains.” This comes from Ryder, who is quick to defend his groupie.
“Tell me you used a condom?” Curtis remarks.
Ryder’s lips quirk.
I’m uncomfortable with the discussion and excuse myself to go to the bathroom.
When I come out, Brooke and Curtis are on the couch watching TV, and Kenzie is waiting for me by the doorway that leads down the stairs to Deklan and Ryder’s part of the house.
I’m reminded of a dungeon every time I walk into the place. The only light that ever comes in is by way of a half a dozen windows that I’d be lucky to fit through. I wonder what would happen if there was a fire.
The thought gives me the creeps.
Deklan turns on the television and joins us on the couch. He slides his arm around Kenzie and she snuggles up against him. He immediately starts playing with her hair.
Ryder goes to the bathroom and actually leaves the door open as he pees.
Wow. Seriously, what is this guy’s problem?
Kenzie and Deklan are completely unaffected by his lack of modesty.
When he emerges, he sprawls into a recliner.
For some reason my mind is flashing images of what he and that brunette had done in the janitor’s closet. Granted, I have never had sex before, but I’ve heard people talk about it. Plus, I’ve seen enough movies to imagine how it feels.
I shift and focus my attention on the TV.
He’s two feet from me. I glance at him beneath lowered lashes.
Tonight I watched the women in the audience watch him. He knew what he did to the fairer sex, and he oozed with confidence. If he’d played like shit, like Brooke had repeatedly said from the second she’d stepped off stage, I hadn’t heard it…but then again, I’m not a musician. I thought they had all done an amazing job. When Kenzie originally told me about The Frozen, I imagined a mediocre garage band.
I’d been wrong.
Ryder’s place in the band was probably cemented because of his looks and his ability to literally charm the panties off the women in the audience.
He keeps nodding off—no doubt exhausted from his liaison in the closet.
As his eyelids lower, I notice that his eyelashes are obnoxiously long. The boy is entirely too gorgeous for his own good.
I must have sighed because he turns and glances right at me. For ten seconds, he says nothing. He just stares at me.
My heartbeat is pounding in my ears.
The corners of his mouth lift the slightest bit. “You want to sit on my lap, Ange?”
Did he honestly just say that?
I have to seriously be careful around him. He constantly baits me and was always looking for a way to get under my skin.
I scratch my chin with my middle finger and turn my attention back to the TV.
He laughs under his breath and continues to watch me.
My cheeks burn. He’s still staring at me, and I can’t pretend to act like I don’t know he’s staring and doing what he can to make me squirm.
And yes, he loves to make me squirm. He’s made that obvious from the first day we met.
I resist the urge to tell him to kiss my ass, because I’m sure he’d say gladly … even after doing that girl in the closet at the concert.
I turn to Kenzie, ready to tell her I wanted to go home, but now her head is on Deklan’s lap and he’s playing with her hair.
Oh my God. Shoot me…
“I’ll braid your hair for you.” Ryder’s brow is lifted high and I see a challenge in those blue eyes.
My gaze shifts to him. His lips are quirked now. He is mocking me. Could he tell in a glance that I envied my friend for having an incredible boyfriend who wasn’t at all embarrassed to be playing with her hair? A man who made her feel like the most desirable woman on the planet?
“Okay,” I say, and I think everyone in the room is shocked when I stand up and proceed to sit down in front of Ryder’s spread thighs before removing the elastic from my hair.
His legs tighten around me, and his fingers slide through the strands before immediately getting caught up in a knot. “I’ll go get a brush,” he whispers in my ear, his lips brushing against my lobe.
The hairs on my arms stand on end.
What the hell am I doing? I’m playing with fire. Ryder is dangerous and I know it. He’s an asshole who uses women. If my best friend’s own words hadn’t been warning enough, I had now seen the proof with my own eyes.
Womanizer.
Over-confident egomaniac.
“I have a brush in my purse,” Kenzie says, reaching beside the couch. She tosses a brush on Ryder’s lap, doing her best to hide her smile.
She fails miserably. Deklan does, too, as they both watch us.
“Scoot back,” Ryder says, one hand on my shoulder, pulling me against him as he sits forward in the chair.
My upper back and lower neck is wedged against his junk, and he makes no effort to shift or change position.
Every nerve in my body is on edge.
To my enormous relief, he moves back.
I expect him to have the skills of a five year-old and am stunned when instead he slowly and meticulously brushes out the knots from my hair for five of the longest minutes of my life.
I won’t lie. It feels amazing. My eyes are feeling heavy. Even as a kid, I loved it when my mom brushed my hair. It was one sure way for her to get me to settle down and get ready for bed.
His long fingers separate my hair into three sections.
He’s actually going to braid my hair. I unconsciously hold my breath.
Does he intentionally keep touching my neck? Was it on purpose?
Ryder starts braiding my hair, and I can tell he’s done this before. He moves slowly, one hand stopping to hold the braid in one hand while he slides the fingers of his left hand over the side of my head.
I stare at the TV but I see nothing.
I’m a bundle of emotions and feelings as his fingers brush my neck time and again.
This was such a bad idea…
Why am I suddenly so aware of everything about him? Of his scent, of the way his feet are tucked up right against my sides. The scent of him that is both an earthy smell and a sporty scent that makes my pulse quicken.
“Let me see that hair tie,” he finally says and I hand him the elastic band, nearly jumping when his hand lingers on mine.
It’s in those few pulse pounding moments that I recall where those hands have been and I nearly drop the elastic band before he can grab it.
I will definitely be showering and scrubbing my hair when I get back to Kenzie’s.
“Done,” he says, sounding far too pleased with himself.
I reach back and feel the tight braid.
“Wow, who knew you had such skills, Ryder?” Kenzie remarks, and she and Deklan share a laugh.
“What can I say? My babysitter used to ask me to braid her hair.”
Kenzie’s brows lift and I can tell her mind has gone the same place mine has. I can’t quite see Ryder braiding a babysitter’s hair.
I stand and walk to the bathroom, secretly wondering if he’s done something that makes me look like an idiot.
I check the braid out in the mirror.
Not bad. In fact, I’m actually really impressed. I debate taking the braid out, but decide he made the effort…and I have a point to prove, right?
I take a few minutes and when I walk out, Ryder is snoring in the chair.
“Maybe we should go so he can crash,” I say, never so ready to leave a place in my life.
Kenzie agrees. “Yeah, it’s late and I don’t need mom on my ass.”
Deklan looks disappointed, and once again I feel a little awkward for being the proverbial third wheel. Now I realize how Ryder must have felt all this time.
“Come on,” Deklan says to Ryder, nudging his shoulder.
Ryder looks over at him through slitted eyes.
“Dude, just leave me here.”
Deklan is vacillating whether to leave him alone or to bring him. I actually feel kind of sorry for the guy. He’s so devoted to keeping his best friend off drugs. He shouldn’t have to play babysitter twenty-four seven.
Kenzie threads her fingers through Deklan’s. “He’s tired. Let him sleep.”
“You want us to help pull the bed out for you?” Deklan asks, already moving to do it for him.
“Dude,” Ryder says. “I can manage. Quit acting like my dad.”
Deklan actually looks likes he has been smacked across the face.
I’m hiding a smile as Kenzie meets my gaze.
Ryder gives me a salute. “See you later, ladies.”
I mutter a goodbye and soon we’re in Deklan’s truck heading for Kenzie’s house.
“He’ll be fine,” Kenzie says, doing her best to reassure him. “He just had an off night. Everyone does. He’s human.”
“It’s not that,” Deklan says, brushing a hand over his jaw. “I mean, we all have nights where we’re not feeling it. He managed. It’s Terry. He doesn’t like me leaving Ryder alone at the house. He’s mentioned it to me a few times, so the last thing I need is him getting on my case about it.”
I knew Terry was Curtis’s older brother and the owner of the house.
/> “Ryder is probably already asleep anyway. It’s not like he’s roaming the house. Plus, Brooke and Curtis are there.”
Deklan glances at me. “Yeah, that’s true. And we’re moving out anyway.”
“Moving?” It’s clear by Kenzie’s reaction and the tone of her voice that she’s surprised by the news.
“Uncle Steve said I could rent the apartment above the shop. It seemed like the right thing to do, especially given the fact that Terry is getting burned out with the band. He wants his basement back, and I don’t blame him. I would too.
“I thought Ryder was staying with you temporarily.” Kenzie sits up straighter. “You said that once he had a few drug-free weeks under his belt that he’d be going home soon.”
Deklan runs a hand through his dark hair, his long bangs hanging over his left eye. “His mom doesn’t want him home. His dad has tried to sway her, but she’s not having it. He doesn’t need her judgment right now when he’s doing so well.”
Kenzie had told me about Ryder’s mom throwing him out. At the time I hadn’t felt bad for him, but now I sort of did.
“I want my own place anyway. It’s been nice living with Curtis and Terry, and I’ve saved a lot these past years, but I’m ready. Plus, Steve’s giving us a great break on the price in exchange for keeping an eye on the place. You know, security.”
“And you just have to walk downstairs to go to work,” I add. I get a sidelong glance and an elbow in the ribs from Kenzie for my trouble.
She’s pissed, and I know all about her concerns. She’d told me what she thinks about most of the girls who hang out at Branded. Deklan has created his own following during the years, and his easygoing manner seems to draw people in even more. He’s easy to talk to, easy to be around, and let’s face it—extremely easy on the eyes.
Deklan grins at me. “Exactly. See, babe…your best friend thinks it’s a good idea, so it can’t be too bad.”
I’m sure the thought of having Ryder constantly underfoot is far from appealing to Kenzie, especially in the foreseeable future. I don’t blame her, and yet I respect Deklan and his love for the man he considers a brother. He’s devoted to taking care of him.
“When will you be moving?”
Ryder's Redemption (Badboy Rockers #2) Page 5
