Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
“Okay…let’s try it this way. I know you’re awake, Remi,” Ryder said quietly.
“Uh, yeah,” Remi mumbled, trying to make his voice sound sleepy and confused. Maybe he could pull of the where am I act? “Wow. What a night; I slept like a rock and didn’t have any unwanted visitors interrupting me. Just what I needed,” he kept chattering like a school boy trying to make conversation with his first crush. “Is it supposed to rain today? I hate when it rains. It rained every day when I was trying to catch that stupid cat.”
Oh, fuck. He’d just brought up the weather. He was, undoubtedly, a fucking idiot. It was no wonder Ryder didn’t want him as a bed partner.
Ryder chuckled softly. “I don’t know, Remi. I haven’t checked the weather report for the day.”
Humiliated, Remi started to pull away, thinking maybe he could act like he was going to the restroom, but then sprint for the bedroom door, down the hallway, out the front door…never to be seen or heard from again. Yeah, sounded like a solid plan. He’d barely moved when Ryder pulled him back down, causing male flesh to connect with male flesh. Thrills raced through him, making his cock plump even more than the normal morning wood he sported.
“Running from me?” Ryder asked quietly.
“Something like that…trying to save my pride, I guess,” Remi muttered. Pride, his ass! If he had any pride in his body, he wouldn’t be sniffing how delicious Ryder’s chest smelled. Or his eyes wouldn’t be glued to the thin sheet that clearly revealed the outline of Ryder’s cock. Or maybe, just maybe, his own cock wouldn’t already be leaking precum. He could literally smell the scent of his own arousal floating around in the room. There was no way Ryder could miss it.
Remi expected Ryder to either laugh at him or brush him off. Neither of those responses would have surprised him. What Ryder did say nearly stole the oxygen from his lungs.
“I’m sorry I hurt you, Remi. I honestly thought us being together could and would end up being toxic for you. I’m not good at relationships. In fact, I refuse to even consider indulging in anything other than physical pleasure because I know damn well that I’m not relationship material. It hurt when I lost my brother and his wife. Other than Cassie, they were the only family I had left in the world and in one fleeting second, they were ripped away from me. If it hadn’t been for keeping Cassie safe and trying to help hold her together when all she wanted to do was fall apart, I don’t think I would have survived it. I decided right then and there that nobody else would ever have that kind of power over my heart.” Ryder’s fingers played with Remi’s hair as he talked. He would curl it around his finger, test the silky texture, and then release it…only to repeat the act. “When I met you at the club that night, the wounds to my heart were still incredibly fresh, even though years had passed. You were incredibly hot and adorably cute, which was a potent mixture that I couldn’t turn down. Trust me when I say that I know what I’m about to say makes me sound like an asshole, but I’m going for honesty. My plans were to take you back to my apartment, fuck you solid, maybe three or four times, and then send you on your way—no harm, no foul.”
Remi frowned, thinking that was exactly what Ryder had done to him. Yet, he was making it sound like their night together had been something different.
Ryder stopped twirling Remi’s hair and moved lower, to where his fingers painted a path up and down his spine. The touch was seductively slow and could, perhaps, be viewed as an innocent way to comfort someone. Remi’s body was not viewing it that way, though. Nope. Every nerve-ending inside him was tingling with desire. He knew that, where Ryder was concerned, that tingling would quickly morph into raging lust.
“After our night together, though, I felt…different. I couldn’t quite categorize what I was feeling, just knew it was different than anything I’d encountered before. Part of me thought it made you dangerous, but another part craved that danger so badly that I was convinced you were worth crossing over into the danger zone. In my mind, as I put you into my car to drive you home that next morning, I was convinced I could keep you a bit longer…play with you a few more times. I told myself that a few more tosses between the sheets and you’d be out of my system for good.”
Remi frowned. “Uh…thanks, I guess.” Ryder’s words made him want to punch the other man’s jaw. No, maybe a throat punch. Yeah, that would feel much better.