My heavy breathing fills the silence, and my face tingles from the weight of his silent demand to look at him.
It’s all in my head. He doesn’t care, and I’m overthinking things again.
“I can’t leave if you’re standing in the way,” I whisper.
A second passes, then another, before he straightens and moves aside. I force my gaze forward when it wants to go to him like it’s drawn by a magnet. I open the door and barely feel thecold as it sweeps into the room. Before I can take a step, Ryder slaps his palm in the middle of the door and slams it shut. A scream lodges inside my throat, and I whip my head toward him. His emotionless mask is gone, and his darkening blue eyes pin me in place.
I don’t know what I did to deserve this. It’s not like I can ask him, because he refuses to open up to me.
Ryder leans forward until his nose bumps into mine. Amber and cypress fill my lungs, and I gulp in deep breaths, greedy to have him inside me any way I can. My legs threaten to give out from under me as I consume my stepbrother’s unique smell.
“What?” I squeak.
Ryder holds out his hand. I glance at it, my eyebrows pinching together. His other hand roughly grasps my jaw and forces me to look at him again. A shudder sweeps through me as he holds me in place, his touch burning its memory into my skin.
“What?” I whisper. “Why can’t you just talk to me?”
“Mine,” he growls.
I black out for a moment. Or maybe my soul leaves my body and I transcend into a different realm meant for the gods. There’s no way my brother just laid claim on me. I’m trying to get the hell out of marrying a man who thinks he owns me, not jump into my stepbrother’s bed because he called me his.
“No, I’m not,” I stammer. Blood rushes to my cheeks as Ryder’s eyebrow rises and his head tilts.
His gaze flicks to my hand, which is still pressed to my chest. “The mask. That’s mine.”
Heat crawls up my neck. “Oh.”
With stiff movements, I ease the skull mask into Ryder’s waiting palm. He jerks it away from me and straightens. I suck in a ragged breath as he brushes past me and strides to the end of his bed. The basket of dirty clothes remains in the same spot.It’s too close to him, and any chance I had of grabbing it is now nonexistent. No way in hell will I be dragged back into his orbit and risk another confusing interaction.
“Leave,” Ryder says. His tone holds no room for argument, and he doesn’t have to raise it to let me know I’m not welcome here.
It grates on my already frayed nerves. How can he continue to dismiss me like I’m nothing to him? I’m tired of Ryder holding this grudge against me, whatever the reason is. My former friendship with Mickey can’t be the only reason.
This started long before him.
I leave empty-handed and with my heart lodged in my throat. I duck inside the house and dash all the way to my bedroom to escape the potential onslaught of questions from Carolyn. She’ll ask where Ryder’s dirty clothes are, then scold me for being disobedient.
I lean against the closed bedroom door and close my eyes. Heat floods my veins as I reminisce about the interaction with Ryder.
His growled word repeats in my head like a broken record.
“Mine.”
How could I have been so stupid to think he meant me? Of course I’m not his. He’s my brother, and I’m engaged to a pig who calls me his wife.
“Mine.”
I sink my front teeth into my bottom lip as a shiver skips down my spine.
These sick thoughts about Ryder will get me into a lot of trouble. As happy as I am about him staying the night here, I won’t go against my promises and the desperate need to get out of town.
“DANGEROUS” SLEEP TOKEN
Iwalk out of the humid bathroom with a towel wrapped low around my waist. Squeezing into the small shower stall brought back so many rough memories I spent years drowning. Being in my old bedroom isn’t great for my mental health. It feels like I’ve been thrown into a suffocating box and buried six feet below with no hope of getting out.
I don’t have to be here. It’d be easy to get on my motorcycle and speed back home, where a larger bed calls my name. I wouldn’t have to deal with Jerry breathing down my neck andthreatening me every chance he gets. The only thing stopping me from leaving is his threat against my friends.
I find a clean T-shirt and pants to change into. The hamper full of dirty clothes sits at the end of the bed where Madison left it when I kicked her out. The memory of her wide eyes and the pretty pink shade tinting her cheeks pops into my mind. My cock twitches, and I mutter a curse. I got rid of my erection while in the shower. The last thing I need is to chafe myself by rubbing one out again so soon.
