Page 84 of Playboy For Hire


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“I’ll be right back,” he said after a moment, pulling his boxers on and slipping out the door.

He was back soon, bearing a single glass of water and a clean towel. He handed the towel to me and took a long drink of water. I patted myself dry, then gulped from the water glass when he handed it to me.

“That,” he said with a grin, “was amazing.”

He fell back into bed, then rolled onto his side so he could fling an arm around me. He burrowed his face into my neck and pressed a kiss there.

“Yeah.” A lazy smile spread across my face. “Yeah, it was.”

I was still breathing hard, but it was wonderful just to lie there with Ryder in the dim, lamplit room. I knew I should make some comment about getting dressed, at least show I was willing to head home. But I was so comfortable with him pressed up against my back, the covers snuggled around us. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this safe with somebody.

Do I love him?

The thought flitted across my mind. It seemed too soon. Too far, too fast. But the words felt right in my chest. I thought of everything Ryder had said tonight. How tender he was, how sweet. Surely those weren’t the words and actions of someone who just saw me as a friend.

I was breaking my own rule, getting attached to Ryder. But I didn’t think I was crazy. He had to feel something too. I was sure of it.

I’m not certain when I fell asleep, but I woke up a few hours later, Ryder still lying beside me, his body curled protectively around mine. I reached over and turned off the bedside lamp, then wriggled deeper under the covers. Everything felt so right.

The next time I woke up, sunlight was trickling through the blinds in Ryder’s bedroom. We’d rolled over in our sleep, and I was the big spoon now. My nose brushed the back of Ryder’s neck. His hair needed a trim. I inhaled deeply, the scent of him filling my nose.

My cock was also aware of his closeness, and it throbbed, thinking about the night before. I’d let Ryder fuck me, and it had been incredible. I wanted to find some way to show him how much I appreciated that. How much I’dneededit.

I contemplated a wake-up blow job, but we hadn’t talked about that ahead of time, and I didn’t want to make any assumptions about what he’d like.

But he did drink coffee, I knew that much. And there was a little coffee shop just around the corner on Georgia Avenue. With a smile, I slipped out of bed and looked for my clothes. This would be just the start of showing him how much last night had meant to me.

Out in the upstairs hallway, I paused for a moment, listening for any other signs of people being awake. One of his housemates’ bedroom doors was closed. The other was wide open, but there was no sound coming from there, or anywhere else in the house.

I walked downstairs and checked the kitchen and living room to see if anyone else was up. But the lower floor was empty, so I grabbed Ryder’s keys from the rack by the door and headed out, locking the door behind me.

The morning was bright and fresh, and I couldn’t stop smiling as I walked to the coffee shop. It just seemed right—everything in the world felt right, right now. I grinned at the barista as I ordered an iced oat milk almond mocha for myself and black coffee for Ryder, then tipped sixty percent.

I grabbed some biscotti too, because who didn’t like biscotti? Well, maybe Ryder didn’t, but then I’d have them all to myself, which I wouldn’t complain about. Unless that made me seem thoughtless, getting biscotti for myself and nothing for him.

No. I shook my head. I was being silly. Ryder wasn’t going to get mad. We’d never had a chance to talk about it before, but we’d have plenty of time for biscotti discourse in the future.

I hurried back to his house, stacking the coffee cups in my left hand and holding the plastic-wrapped biscotti in my mouth as I slipped the keys into the front door. I pushed it open, then stopped in surprise. Ryder was standing on the other side, like he was just about to leave the house.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, looking shocked.

“Mmm jstgf kva fss,” I said, then realized I still had the biscotti in my mouth. I removed it and tried again. “I got some coffee for us,” I said, holding the top cup out to him. “Here, this one’s yours.”

Ryder stared at the cup but didn’t take it. Then his eyes flashed back to mine. His expression was full of regret.

“When I didn’t see you this morning, I thought you’d left.” He winced, looking all most apologetic. “I wish you had.”

15

RYDER

Ilay with Quinn in my bed, listening to his breathing get slower and steadier. My arm was draped across him, and I could feel his chest rise and fall, feel his heart beating under his ribs. Quinn was falling asleep, but me? My mind was racing.

I kept thinking about what he’d said earlier that night, about not really doing random hookups. I wondered if he considered what we were doing just a hookup. And I wondered when it had stopped being that, for me.

My feelings had developed so slowly, I’d barely noticed. Or maybe they’d happened suddenly, but all the way back in the beginning, when I wasn’t on my guard. Had I fallen for him that first night? Had it been so fast, I hadn’t had achanceto notice? Maybe I’d been kidding myself this whole time.

All I knew was that I was so scared, I wanted to vomit. I wanted to run and hide, or maybe crawl out of my skin and cease to exist. It was all too much.