He shook his head in disbelief and grinned at her. “How did you end up with my brother? He hates football. Not big on beer. Nor animals, for that matter.” Pausing, his eyes met hers and she felt that same liquid heat pooling deep in her belly that he seemed to fuel every time he met her gaze. “Or being out on the ice.”
Blushing, she sighed, trying to shake the thrill that shot through her veins. In that impulsive moment, she’d been ready to chase him down and ask him to be her complication. How would tonight have been different if she hadn’t hesitated? Regardless, she wasn’t sure what to do with this second chance. Things were likely to get really awkward, really quickly. Already rapidly migrating in that direction.
“In the way people usually meet. At a party. Some friends set us up. Our apartment leases were about up, and we were both busy with school and work, so we sort of moved in together and started dating on the same day.”
“Love at first sight then.”
Her gaze landed on his long fingers, rapidly tapping against the bar to the tune ofThe Terminator’s iconic theme song. He was an utter mystery, and the complete opposite of his brother. The air in the room was getting thicker and heavier by the moment, filling her lungs with confusion and arousal.
If only he knew just how much she knew what that phrase meant to her now. She’d have laughed her ass off at anyone who had declared that they had experienced love at first sight. Well, that may be the predicament she found herself in now... and it was a hell of a lot more painful than it was rumored to be. Well, Cupid did fire an arrow, delivering a sharp, bloody, excruciating blow as you realized you were a goner. It might be that other L-word, but she’d felt that when she’d met Ryder.
It was an entirely unique sensation she floated on right now.
Her throat swelled as she tried to finish the conversation, reallynotwanting to talk about her relationship with Ryder at the moment, and absolutely not with Grady. “Well, we hit it off right away. I’m sure you know how charming Ryder is.”
Grady raised his eyebrows and let out a slow-burning exhale. “Yeah. I’m familiar with his appeal.”
Claire wasn’t sure what that was all about, but clearly the brothers didn’t get along. She’d been with Ryder for two entire years, and he rarely talked about his brother.
Avoiding the inevitable awkwardness if she pursued that line of questioning, she took her beer and found a spot on the couch in time for the second quarter. Grady safely sat across from her, stealing glances whenever she’d holler at the screen. Or when she’d attempted to study him. Her cheeks would flame and the heat from the stolen look would lick through her veins, both a warning and a temptation. By the time Bill started snoring as the game neared the final minutes, Claire realized she’d lost track of the game entirely, her mind a muddled tangle of confusion.
“Hey Babe, are you in here?” Ryder came whistling around the corner, a mysterious smile pasted onto his face.
Claire cringed, immediately shifting her attention to the game. The moniker, the tone, the look. Would it have bothered her twenty-four hours ago? “Yeah. Two minutes left in the fourth quarter.”
Ryder sat next to her on the couch and slipped his hand into hers.
The game suddenly aggravating, she flailed her hands in the air and shouted at the TV, “What? Offsides? What game are the refs watching?”
He cleared his throat and said, “I didn’t realize you were so passionate about football.”
Claire shrugged. “I didn’t get to watch much the last few seasons. Too busy.”
Ryder shifted his hand to her thigh, his fingers edging along the bottom of her skirt.
Grady stood abruptly and stalked out of the room without a backward glance.
“Are you ok?” Ryder’shair stood on end, crackling from the static electricity of pulling his sweater over his head and setting it neatly on the top of his suitcase. Intolerant of the disarray, he smoothed the unruly spikes that didn’t dare flip back out of place.
“Fine.” She was fine. Totally fine. After dropping her skirt, tights, and t-shirt on the floor by the bed, she crawled into the cool Egyptian cotton sheets and flicked off her bra, forgetting she’d still had it on.
Sliding the rest of his clothes off and stacking the folded discards atop the dresser, Ryder slipped into bed next to her. Reaching his hand over, he grazed smooth fingertips over her abdomen. “You seem distracted.”
She flipped to her side, and his hand pulled away to avoid getting squished. Lungs heavy with pent-up carbon dioxide, she couldn’t squeeze another drop of air in until she let it all out in a sustained huff. Shewasdistracted. And irritable. Realizing your life was not quite where you hoped it would be by this time, turned completely upside down realizing you’d turned down a wrong path, tended to do that to a person. “It’s been a long couple of months. Hard to decompress.”
Ryder rolled onto his back and rubbed his hands over his face. Tan and muscled, his arms were toned from hours at the gym each week. Instead of meeting her on breaks. “For both of us. I’m sorry I’ve been so distant lately.”
Watching his familiar movements, her head swimming on the cloud-like pillow, Claire responded softly, “Me too.”
“I was hoping this trip would help us reconnect and figure out where we’re going.” Ryder’s chest rose and fell with deliberate breaths.
“Yeah. That’s what I’d been hoping.”
“I have a video meeting in the morning. They’re thinking of giving the lead on the vodka campaign to Menard with the timeline moving up, so I won’t be able to join you on the horses like I’d hoped. If I nail this meeting, I’ll be able to buy a little schedule freedom for us, and maybe I can take you out for a nice dinner? There’s an authentic Italian place on the edge of town. We can visit, just the two of us, without my pretentious mother, my self-absorbed stepfather, and certainly without my hopeless brother. And we’ll see where we’re at.”
With a shrug and that damn lip creeping into her teeth, Claire nodded. “Okay. Maybe I can catch the stablemaster to show me around in the morning.”
Ryder flipped to his side to face her and flashed his sexy dimples and smoldering eyes. He reached under the sheet and grazed the back of his hand along the curve of her breast.
