The idea put a bad taste in my mouth, but I knew it was a good first step. Now that I was looking back, it did seem odd that my aunt, as much of a pain in my ass as she was, would agree to house me until the very last quarter of college, only to kick me out unexpectedly. Hmm.
“So why didn’t you guys continue with your plans to have Sy befriend me?”
“Because I wanted you for myself, though I didn’t verbalize it at the time. I only knew that you were a beautiful woman with a tender heart, and I didn’t want Sy laying a hand on you. We initially came up with a plan for Sy to start watching you in the morning, looking for ways to legitimately meet you.
“On the day he was supposed to start, he was caught on something that he couldn’t put down, and I decided to watch you instead. You stepped out looking amazingly beautiful with your hair all up, showing this soft, elegant neck.” He feathered his fingers over my skin near my collarbone and ear, giving me goose bumps. “And you were wearing this sort of ’40s-style dress that wrapped around you, and somehow tied in a bow at your side.”
“I know the one. It’s red with a V-neck.” I smiled, unable to stop the joy from spilling out onto my face. He’d remembered a dress I’d worn months ago.
“I remembered it because I wanted to untie the bow and strip it from you. That dress has starred in a few different fantasies I’ve had about you.”
“I’ll have to wear it for you,” I murmured huskily. I was rewarded by a squeeze.
“I would love that.” He ran his hand down my back and over my ass, his fingers nearing my sex, which made my breathing alter. His touch was ambrosia.
“So why didn’t you ever come up to me?” I asked, somewhat breathlessly.
“You were forever busy. You worked all the time, and I didn’t want to just be one of the guys at the bar that you suffered. At the gym, Rico was prowling. Many times I wanted to beat him to a bloody pulp for touching you.”
“Touching me? When did he touch me?” I frowned, trying to think of a time Rico had ever put his hands on me.
“He’d show you a proper stance, squaring your hips the right way for you, or fixing the angle of your leg when you kicked or your glove when you punched.”
“Sheesh, Ryder.” I giggled. “You’re a tough customer.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t say I was proud.” He gave me a chagrined look. “Anyway, there was never a time that I could legitimately meet you, so when the apartment next to yours went vacant, I took advantage.”
“So seeing me in my dress is what did it?” I rested my cheek on his biceps, loving that I had the freedom to be close to him and touch him.
“No. Seeing you in that dress just meant that I was like any other guy who sees you and wants to bend you over anything handy and fuck you until you see stars. What made me stop and look closer was when Mrs. Myrtle came out.”
“My neighbor?”
“You took such care to make sure she got safely to work. You weren’t doing it to make points with anyone. No one was watching you. You just did it because you cared. And you were pissed that her own family was being careless with her.”
“Well, she’s darn near eighty years old and so frail looking.”
“I didn’t want Sy near you after that. All your thoughts and emotions were right on your sleeve, which let me see what a beautiful, strong person you were.”
“All my thoughts and feelings?”
“Also your fears and...fantasies.”
“I bet you were surprised to be drawn into my sex dreams.”
“That’s putting it mildly. I didn’t want to cross any irreversible lines with you, but you were too tempting. I wanted your passion. You were all soft and pink and ready and waiting. I just had to touch you.”
“It was amazing.” I nuzzled his chest and neck, reveling in his spicy scent. He was so gorgeous; it was hard to understand why he’d been single so long.
“Dating anyone on Earth is frowned upon,” he answered my thought. “You can imagine why. Someone would wonder about where I come from, and then things would get weird because I would either have to lie or tell the truth.”
True. That would get weird. “Was there never anyone on your own planet?”
Ryder’s look became solemn. He met my gaze for a few moments. “There was a girl, someone I met during my training years ago. We were close for a couple of years, and I thought she was what I wanted. Then she demonstrated that it wasn’t really me she was interested in, so I ended the relationship.”
A couple of years. Wow. That was a long time. “Why did you break up?”
“She had personal issues. She was found trying to locate files in my mother’s office one day, claiming I’d sent her to do it. As you can imagine, my father had a field day with that. He wanted to banish her to another province and strip her of her credentials. I made a case for her to work in security on Earth, so she could move on with her life and use the training she’d learned.”
“That was thoughtful.” I chewed on my bottom lip, thinking about how I would feel if someone I’d gone out with for two years had betrayed me, even if it was years ago. “So she does what you do down here? Security stuff?”
“Some of that. She monitors visitors of a nearby region, and she’s helped out on teams. She’s a good soldier.”
Okay, now it was my turn to feel some jealousy. Wasn’t that interesting? I still couldn’t stop the questions, even recognizing I was being overly nosy. I was just proud of myself for not asking about a picture of her to see if she was prettier than me. Dopey, right? “Do you still see her around?”
“Sometimes.”
“What’s her name?”
“Jory.”
“Did you love her?”
“No.”
I could now breathe a sigh of relief. I was satisfied.
Chapter Nineteen
When we resurfaced, it was dark, it was late and we were looking for a quick snack before settling in for the rest of the night. We had toaster pastries on the balcony followed by gentle conversation and the very mundane chore of toothbrushing, which was more interesting for once because we actually did this together.
How weird. Like a real couple.
And with work coming up, I had some very everyday kinds of things to do. I got my clothes ready, checked appointments on my phone, double-checked that the alarm was set and crawled into bed beside Ryder, curling up next to him while he looked at some report on his mechanical thingamajiggy.
I wanted to remember to ask him about it later, because it was really cool and maybe girlfriends could be issued these kinds of cool things, but for the first time in a long time, my body was able to so completely relax that I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
The ringing of my cell alarm brought me back to wakefulness too soon, though I did find myself deliciously, protectively spooned by Ryder’s big body. His thick, muscular forearm was anchored across my waist, making me have to stretch to shut off the offending sound in the quiet of the room. I settled back into his warm body once again, wiggling my ass against his cock, as was becoming my custom, and appreciating the growing stiffness I could feel there.
“Stop that,” he groaned against my ear, but he still ground his hips to my backside. “We don’t have time. Or do we?” His arm slid from my waist up to my rib cage, his rough palm caressing and cupping my soft breast.
“We could multitask,” I gasped. Heat shot from the point where he was rolling my nipple between his fingers to my sex, in waves. “Come take a shower with me.”