by Soraya Lane
Chloe’s hands were starting to burn from being pressed to the takeout coffee cup, but it was preferable to the burning embarrassment inside of her. She had no idea what Ryder was thinking, what he might have said back to her if she hadn’t left his room in such a hurry. All she knew was that her timing sucked.
“You okay?” Chase asked. “You seem kind of rattled.”
She nodded and fell into step beside him. “It’s just been a long day.” It wasn’t a lie, she was exhausted.
“Where were you staying?”
“Where was I staying?” she asked back. “Just some little motel off the main drag.”
“We’ll go grab your things, then head back to the Bellagio.”
The Bellagio? The last thing she needed was to go back to a place so full of memories, the hotel where she’d first been intimate with Ryder. “It’s fine. I can just meet you guys here in the morning.”
Chase slung his arms across her shoulders as they walked, like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to do. “Not a chance. You’re staying with us now and you can argue all you like, but that’s a fact. You can take Ryder’s suite.”
She guessed Ryder’s attitude ran in the family. Chase had no intention of taking no for an answer, and if he was anywhere near as stubborn as Ryder was, there was no point in even starting to protest.
“Why the Bellagio?” she asked. It was a stupid question—the Bellagio was the best hotel in Vegas, and they had a lot of cash to burn.
Chase chuckled, taking his arm away and reaching into his pocket for the car keys as they stopped at the elevator.
“Ryder was already booked in there and we just tagged along. Why?”
“No reason,” she lied.
“Bullshit,” he said with a laugh, turning to face her. His dark brown eyes were almost impossible to look away from, his stare intense. “We asked him the same question, ’cause he never usually stays anywhere like that when he’s riding.”
Chloe squirmed on the spot, looking up to see what floor the elevator was on, then checking her wristwatch.
“Chloe?” Chase’s grin was infectious and she burst out laughing.
“All right, all right,” she muttered, shaking her head and wishing she didn’t find the King brothers so impossible to resist. It was Ryder she was in love with, but Chase was so damn charming that she just couldn’t blow him off. “It was where we stayed together.”
Chase was silent, then a slow smile broke out across his face. “Oh, I get it. He wanted a reminder of your filthy dirty weekend away.”
She could feel her cheeks heating up, the burn slowly crawling up her neck and to her face, but she refused to look away. She raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “It was actually a midweek getaway, not a weekend. And it was purely for research purposes.”
Chase burst out laughing and gestured for her to step into the elevator ahead of him. “I can see why my brother’s so besotted with you.”
Now it was Chloe’s turn to laugh. “Besotted? Give me a break,” she snorted. “He’s probably had a different woman in his bed every night since I left.”
“No, sweetheart, you’re wrong,” Chase said, his tone suddenly a whole lot more serious. “And that’s why you’re staying with us until he’s out of here. You’re one hell of a girl, and he’d kill us if you weren’t safe and pampered while he isn’t here to take care of you.”
“You make it sound like I’m a child in need of a minder.” She was flattered, but the attention made her uncomfortable.
“Look, we’ll dote on you for as long as we need to. Your every wish is our command.” Chloe laughed at the same time he did. “Okay, so not quite. But seriously, just let us look after you. We can drink, eat, gamble, take in the sights…”
“Did you say gamble?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest as she watched Chase.
The elevator dinged and he gestured for her to step out ahead of him.
“Is that a trick question?” Chase asked.
“No, it’s my first wish. Let’s get my things and go play us some poker.”
“I thought you didn’t play anymore?” Chase asked as they walked.
Chloe linked her arm through his. If Chase and Nate wanted to play brotherly protectors to her, then so be it. She was going to enjoy being in the company of Ryder’s two gorgeous brothers until she could be back in his arms. Or at least in the same room as him to see what he had to say about her grand statement of love.
“Desperate time, desperate measures,” she told him.
“And just like that, we’re gonna see the pro play in Vegas.”
Hell yeah. If there was ever a time to play poker to take her mind off things, it was now.
“You and Nate play?” she asked.
“A little. We used to have boys’ poker nights at home.”
“Maybe you should start them up again, and invite me.”
“What? So you can fleece us all out of every penny on the table? We’d lose all our card-game buddies pretty damn quick.”
She thought about Ryder lying upstairs on the hospital bed as they walked farther away from the building, stopping beside the rental car that she’d traveled in with Nate earlier. Here she was joking, and Ryder was up there being poked and prodded by doctors.
“If Ryder lets me back in the house, I’ll host your poker nights. Give you boys some pointers.”
Chase jumped behind the wheel and started the engine at the same time she slipped into the back seat, leaving the front for Nate since there was more room.
“Sweetheart, either you have rocks in your head or we’ve been giving you the wrong impression.” He turned in his seat to face her, his left arm resting on the staring wheel. “If you didn’t mean a hell of a lot to Ryder, we wouldn’t be looking after you like you’re our long-lost sister already, okay? Of course he’s gonna let you back in the damn house.”
Chloe looked away, staring out the window and biting the inside of her mouth to stop from smiling. Maybe today wasn’t the worst day of her life after all.
* * *
Ryder’s head was pounding so badly he was struggling to sit up, desperate to succumb to sleep. But the doctor was still reviewing his charts and about to run through a series of tests again.
“Should I feel this tired?” Ryder asked.
“Like the worst fatigue of your life?”
He nodded at the doctor, then winced. Holding Chloe in his arms, concentrating on what she was saying, and trying to sound upbeat had taken it out of him. “Yeah.”
“Mr. King, you suffered a very serious concussion. I’m not going to pretend that you weren’t incredibly lucky to make it through a fall like that without suffering a brain bleed or worse.”
Ryder grunted and carefully lowered himself back down. He’d wanted to be given the facts straight, and now he was.
“At this stage, you’re looking at making a full recovery. But you take a knock to the head again? In rodeo or anything else? You’ll likely die or suffer a serious brain injury. That’s how serious this is. The fact that you didn’t have to go straight in for surgery is nothing short of a miracle.”
Ryder let the doctor prod him and check him over, smiling his thanks at the nurse as she passed him more pain meds and a glass of water in a paper cup.
“So I can go to sleep now?” He stopped short of asking if there was a chance he wouldn’t wake up if he did.
“Get as much sleep as you can, and keep doing that for the next month,” the doctor said. “And stay away from bulls and horses. That’s my advice.”
Ryder made himself comfortable and shut his eyes, willing sleep to find him fast but seeing Chloe behind his closed lids instead of blackness. Chloe. He could think about her all night. The feel of her soft, warm body against his; the smile in her eyes when she gazed up at him; the press of her lips against his. Damn.
And then the words that had tumbled from those pillowy lips as she’d turned to leave. He opened his eyes and groaned. She’d told him
she loved him and all he’d done was stare at her. The truth was he’d never been loved by a woman before, and he’d never loved a woman himself. Until Chloe. He loved Chloe so fucking much it hurt.
Ryder was tempted to dial Nate or Chase and check that they were looking after her, only he had no idea where his phone had ended up and there was no chance he could make it to the one across the room. They were probably getting a pizza somewhere, having an early night, or maybe toasting the fact that he was still alive. Either way he’d see her in the morning, which meant he had time to pull his shit together and figure out how the hell to tell her how he felt, before it was too late.
Chapter 23
Ryder slipped his key card into the slot and pushed the door open. He walked in and stopped when he saw a pair of high heels kicked over in the middle of the room. One glance into the bedroom and it was obvious there was someone in his suite. He pulled off his boots so he didn’t make any noise and made his way in, taking his wallet and his phone out of his pocket and leaving them on a sideboard. Long blond hair was pooled over one of the pillows, the woman’s face obscured, but there was no mistaking who was in his bed. He’d been in the hospital two nights and she’d been keeping his bed warm.
He lowered himself onto the bed, not giving a damn about how sore he was if it meant cradling Chloe in his arms. He pushed the covers down a little, frowning when he saw that she wasn’t naked. Only … He chuckled. His favorite sweatshirt had been missing for weeks and all the searching in the world hadn’t found it. Until now.
Chloe groaned, one arm rising from under the covers, her hand falling over her face. He went to touch her, then hesitated, not wanting to scare the crap out of her.
“Mornin’, gorgeous,” he murmured in a low voice.
The groaning stopped and she flipped her body, facing him in a second.
“Ryder?”
Her eyes were wide, hair all tangled around her face and mascara smudged under her eyes. She was tousled from bed but still sexy as hell.
“I’m guessing you had a big night?”
She groaned again and fell back into the pillows. “My head feels like it’s about to split open. What time is it?”
“Nine thirty,” he told her.
“Shit!” She sat up, one hand pressed to her forehead. “I’m so sorry, I promised to come see you first thing and…”
“You’re forgiven. You know why?” Ryder reached out to brush some tangled locks from her face, resting on one elbow so he could watch her.
“Why?” she mumbled, her gaze hooded as she half shut her eyes when he stroked her face.
“Because I’m guessing my brothers are to blame.”
“They’re evil,” she said, dropping back down and wriggling closer to him, snuggling her face into his chest. “They need to be punished. Severely punished.”
He laughed, but it wasn’t his brothers he wanted to talk about right now. “They got you drunk?”
“Worse. I beat them at every card game we played, so they decided I needed a handicap.” Chloe’s groan turned into a moan as he brushed her hair back to reveal her neck, nuzzling her soft skin. He kissed her gently, lips moving softly across her skin, inhaling the scent of her perfume. Even mixed with a hint of alcohol from the night before she smelled good enough to eat.
“Just tell me they didn’t talk you into strip poker,” he asked, talking straight into her ear before nipping her lobe. “I don’t want either of them seeing my girl naked.”
Chloe laughed and shook her head. “Don’t worry. I still beat them, so even if it had been strip it would have been me seeing them naked, not the other way around.”
Ryder watched as she nestled back into the pillows, her eyes on his, flickering to his mouth and back again. He lowered himself half over her, resting on his elbows so she didn’t have to take his weight.
“And that’s one of the reasons I love you,” he told her, the words coming easier than he’d expected.
Her eyes widened at the same time a slow smile spread across her face. “You do?” she asked.
Ryder nodded. “Yeah, I do,” he told her. “I love you, Chloe. I was a goddamn fool for not telling you at the hospital, but I’m telling you now.” Ryder dropped his lips to hers, caressing her mouth as gently as he could, wanting her to know that he meant every word. “I love you,” he whispered as her lips moved against his. “I love you.”
A knock echoed, followed by an even louder series of thuds on the door as Chloe kissed him back, her arms wrapped around his neck, tugging him down like she was never going to let him go.
“Chloe? You in there?”
“Go away!” Ryder yelled over his shoulder.
The knocking started again and Chloe pushed him back, one hand to his chest. She was smiling up at him when she shook her head. “Go tell him you’re in here.”
Ryder grunted. “No. He can piss off.”
“Seriously, if the way he ran off a guy who so much as looked at me last night is anything to go by, he’ll probably ram the door down to check on me before he just gives up.”
“Fine,” Ryder mumbled, pushing up and striding across the room and out into the lounge. “But get that sweatshirt off. You stole it and I want to see what’s underneath.”
He yanked open the door to the sound of Chloe’s laughter.
“Hey,” he said to Nate as his brother almost tumbled into the room, his fist midpound when the door swung back.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
Ryder shrugged. “Could say the same to you.”
Nate grabbed him and pulled him in for a brotherly hug, slapping his back, then pushing him away to look him up and down.
“When did they release you?”
“It was more a case of me talking the doctor into letting me go this morning.”
Nate glanced toward the bedroom and Ryder moved in front of him, not giving him a chance to see Chloe. For all he knew she’d stripped off his sweatshirt already, and he had zero intention of letting his brother see so much as a flash of her body.
“I was just coming to check in on Chloe.” Nate blew out a breath. “That girl can keep up with the best of us. Seriously, she knocked back shots like one of the guys and she still managed to take us for every penny we had on the table.”
Ryder placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder to turn him around. “And that’s exactly why it’s time for you to go,” he told him. “I have some time to make up for.”
Nate folded his arms across his chest, his friendly gaze turning into a hard-as-nails stare. “She’s something special, Ryder. Don’t you go fucking this up.”
He scowled, not liking being told what to do. “Or what?”
“Just man the fuck up and tell her you love her,” Nate muttered, turning to go. “You let her go this time, you’re more of an idiot than I thought.”
“This is one thing I’m not gonna fuck up, Nate. Now get the hell out of here and don’t come looking for us again.” He chuckled as he pushed his brother out the door. “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Ryder locked the door and wasted no time heading back to the bedroom.
“Chloe, you…” He paused as he realized she wasn’t in the room. “Chloe?”
“I’m in here,” she said through the closed bathroom door. “Just taking something for my head.”
Ryder stripped off his jeans and shirt and got under the covers. With any luck she’d be coming straight back to bed.
“You must have made quite the impression on my brothers,” he called out. “They’re not exactly known for falling for women, but I think you’re the exception to the rule.”
The door clicked open and he pushed up to watch her emerge. She was wearing a pair of pink and black lace panties with a matching bra, her face scrubbed clean and her hair still falling messy around her shoulders. Ryder looked her up and down, spent extra time admiring her breasts pushed together in the sexy bra, her toned stomach and legs golden from the sun. Damn.
&nbs
p; “They’re pretty cool,” she said, walking to the bed and sitting down beside him.
“Just promise me you’ll never let them see you in your underwear,” Ryder begged. “Please.”
Chloe giggled as he kicked the covers off and grabbed her wrists, pinning her down on her back and straddling her, hard just from seeing her sauntering across the room with her banging body on show.
“Why?” she asked, breathing heavy as he stared down at her.
“Because then I’d have to fight them off, and I don’t want to waste any time.” He groaned when she wiggled her body, raising her pelvis so she was grinding against him. “I want to spend every second,” he swore as she rubbed herself harder against him, “pleasuring you.”
He gripped her wrists tighter, grinning when she struggled to break free. He transferred his hold so both her arms were above her head, only one of his hands holding her as he used the other to stroke down her chest, dipping in between her full breasts then inching his way down her stomach. He kissed her when she gasped, tasting her mouth, and exploring lower, his fingers finding their way inside her underwear.
“Did you mean what you said?” she gasped, raising a knee to force his hand away, her eyes on his as she looked up at him.
Ryder knew what she was talking about. The question in her gaze showed her vulnerability, a softness there that he’d only glimpsed before now. She was always so in control, so confident, and now he could see her vulnerabilities.
“That I love you?” he asked, whispering his question against her mouth.
She nodded, eyes shut as she escaped his hold and pressed both palms to his face, fingers gentle as they caressed his skin.
“I love you, Chloe. I’ve never said those words to another soul,” he admitted. “But I can’t hide from the truth forever.”
He touched his forehead to hers when he saw tears spring into her eyes, wrapping his arms around her and rolling sideways with her pressed tight against him.
“What does it mean? For us?”
“It means that any bullshit agreement we had about our relationship is over,” he told her. “No more running, no more pretending like this is just about sex.”
