“She might not like all of your Ms. Today’s,” Ryder said pointedly.
“Then there’s that.” Sy shook his head with mock shame.
“I imagine there are a number of beach-volleyball babes that are hotties just waiting for you to show up,” I offered, grinning. Between his good looks and charm, I imagined he was devastating the local female population and knew it. Falling like bees to honey.
Sy chuckled. “I like her, Ryder. She gets me.”
“Yeah, well, don’t like her too much, and we’ll be just fine,” he grumbled, and it didn’t make sense to me. He was sounding possessive, but I’d seen his face when he realized who I was this morning. Shit. I was going to start crying if I thought about that moment anymore. My badass self turned my tenderhearted self around in my mind, so I stopped seeing his disdainful look. While I was distracted by my dopey thoughts, Sy sped on.
He pulled across the finish line first, and I came across, pitifully, in fourth place. He gave another hoot for winning, which prompted me to throw one of the pillows at him, causing him to chuckle.
“That sucked.” I shook my head. “I want a rematch. I think you cheated.”
“How can I cheat? It’s a car race on a video game!” He threw the pillow back at me.
“I don’t know, but I think you did.”
“Play again?”
“Let’s do it.”
But as I started to make my sports car go, I was suddenly airborne. The control pad fell harmlessly onto the couch, and Ryder was holding me in his arms, striding to his bedroom.
“What the hell? What are you doing?” I sputtered, catching sight of Sy’s look of triumph over Ryder’s shoulder. One would think he’d been trying to engage Ryder’s anger deliberately.
“We need to talk.”
“Okay, fine. But most people in polite society don’t just grab you and haul you off.”
“I never said I was part of polite society.” He kicked his door shut behind us and tossed me down on the bed.
“What’s with all the he-man antics?” I sputtered, making my way in an entirely ungainly fashion to the other side of the bed.
“Stay away from Sy.” Ryder’s deep voice had a steel edge, and his eyes were like granite.
Chapter Eighteen
“What?”
I actually needed a moment to comprehend what he was saying, and when the full import of his words hit, I wanted to throw him out the window. If I wanted to be treated like shit, I could just call my aunt. She’d be delighted to tell me what a horrible individual I was.
“I’m just warning you not to get your hopes up for him. I know he’s good looking, and he’s a helluva lot nicer than I am, but he’s not serious when it comes to women.”
“You’re warning me not to flirt with him?” I was offended on so many levels! Anger started simmering as my blood pressure rose.
He must have had a sense of my impending wrath, because he got this stubborn look on his face, and in his growly voice, he said, “I’m just saying, don’t let his charm fool you. He likes to fuck around.”
“So you think that even though I was with you last night, when I’ve only ever had one other partner, like, once, I’m likely to get together with your friend tonight? In your house?”
“Taylor—”
“I can’t even imagine what you must think of me, and I don’t want to know. You are impossible. This is just not going to work.” I stormed off through the bathroom into the guest room I had taken over earlier, feeling wholly justified in my anger.
“Don’t walk away from me,” he snarled, following me into the guest room and pushing through the door I was about to whip closed.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I snapped, backpedaling away from him as he stalked me across the room. The wall halted my progress, and I held a hand out to stop him from coming any closer. “Just leave me alone! I’ve had to put up with nastiness from my relatives all my life, but I’m not going to stand around and be insulted by you.”
“I wasn’t trying to be insulting,” he said darkly, grasping my arms and pulling me close to his chest. “Would you just listen?”
“That was you not trying to be insulting?” I yanked free of him and took a few steps away. I didn’t want to be touched by someone looking down on me. “You just do it well naturally? Nice talent to have. And by the way, your good friend was actually taking time to tell me what a swell guy you are. Don’t you find it absolutely ironic that you think just the opposite of him? What I didn’t tell him was that you’re probably counting your blessings that you found out who I was before anything got too serious.”
“He does know who you are,” he stated quietly. “I told him. I don’t care about that.”
There was remorse in his voice, but I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted to vent my pent-up anger over all the bullshit that had gone down that was not my goddamn fault. “Don’t lie to me! I saw your face. It’s etched into my mind. I was disgusting to you!”
“That’s not how I feel. We were all surprised!”
“Yes, we were. But I became the nonhuman in the room.”
“I didn’t say that!”
“I’m the animal!”
“Taylor!”
“You wouldn’t even listen to me!” I was surprised to find tears filling my eyes again as the memory arose. “I was practically begging you—” They spilled over, but I slashed them away with the back of my hand impatiently.
“I heard you, Taylor. I heard you. I can’t even tell you how sorry I am. In the moment, I felt like my world was crashing around me.” He looked into my eyes steadily. “I didn’t know how to handle the situation. It felt crazy, and then there was Asily...” He shook his head, as though he didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah, well, you weren’t the only one having a moment. I found out who my dad was for the first time.” I rubbed a hand over my eyes, still unable to process the information. Part of me felt like I’d just found out my dad was a loyal Nazi Party member or something.
“There was so much going on, and I lost the ability to think clearly.”
“I get it,” I said in a quiet voice, though I didn’t really. I couldn’t be mad. Everything he’d just said was reasonable, but it still didn’t fix anything, which brought me back to the original point. “You don’t want me jumping in bed with Sy. I’m your sex buddy, and you don’t share. You obviously think I’m a trailer-park skank, but I’m not such a skank that I’d go for your friend after being with you.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Why are you saying this?”
“Because you aren’t saying anything, so I’m left guessing about what you think and feel. And now you’re accusing me of something, and I don’t deserve it. I’d rather just go home and take care of myself. I don’t need anyone.” I jerked the door of the closet open and grabbed my empty bag out of it. “I don’t know how you guys do this on your planet, but ...”
“On my planet?”
“Relationships.” I dumped the bag on the bed and turned to him. “I’m probably considered evil for sleeping with you when we’re not married, or something like that.”
“No, you’re not. If you lived on my planet, I would ask your family for permission to court you.”
“You need permission from the woman’s family?” I asked with some snarkiness.
“Yes.” He tried to hold my gaze. “To show respect for both the woman and her family. It’s a promise that you’re going to protect her and care for her while she is with you, away from the safety of her family.”
“And then what?” I asked curiously, crossing my arms. It sounded a lot like what he was doing with me.
“And then I’d be allowed to be around you, take you places...like what you would do on Earth with a boyfriend, but more formal.”