35. Ryan Fairview
E veryone in the cafe was staring, and I was getting that strange feeling in my chest again.
I fucking hated being observed. However, I was beginning to find that Cal commanded attention everywhere he fucking went. If there was attention to be had, he always seemed to be in the center of it.
“Cal, there’s no need to?—”
Cal pointed his finger in Joanna’s face, his lip curled in an angry snarl.
“You listen to me, blondie. You’re done using Ryan as your fucked up arm candy. If you come anywhere near him again, I’ll send you to meet that God you have such a lady boner for.”
Joanna’s face was paper white, but to her credit, understanding seemed to dawn as she glanced back and forth from Cal to me.
She held up shaking hands in surrender and nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry. I never meant to use him. I thought we had a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“Yeah, well, the arrangement is over. Now get the fuck out of here before I do you like they did Jesus.”
I slapped my palm into my face and groaned, sliding down in my seat.
“Holy fuck, Cal. Tone it down,” I grumbled, feeling like the entire world was closing in on me.
Joanna’s chair scraped back, and I heard her scurry away. I couldn’t look up. I knew everyone in the cafe would be whispering and staring at us. This was, like, my worst fucking nightmare.
Cal grabbed my wrist and pried my hand away from my face. I met his hard, angry gaze, and he jerked his head at the door.
“Get in the car.”
“Cal—”
“Get. In. The. Fucking. Car,” he growled, and I saw how serious he was. If I didn’t get in, he was going to make even more of a scene.
I nodded minutely and stood up, leaving my barely-touched coffee on the table. Cal stalked out behind me. He stayed so close to my back that I could feel the heat radiating off of him.
With surprising gentleness, he steered me toward the crazy black SUV he had been driving lately.
Soft nudges on my hips and a feather-light glide of fingers up my arm made me shiver involuntarily.
When we reached the vehicle, he reached around me and opened my door, jerking his head again in a silent order to get in.
I scowled at him. “I don’t need you to open the door for me.”
“Shut the fuck up, Ryan,” he snapped and slammed the door shut before I could respond. He jogged around the car and hopped up into the driver’s seat before punching the ignition.
His insanely loud robot music started blasting out of the speakers, and I noticed he had two small monitors installed on his dashboard that looked like a customized build. They flickered on and showed a GPS map and the rearview camera.
This SUV was super high-tech… How much money did Cal fucking have?
I glanced over at the angry mercenary in question as he pulled up his hood and slid on his Ray-Bans. He peeled out of the parking lot without saying a word, his tattooed fingers tapping on the steering wheel in… agitation?
I wasn’t used to seeing him on edge like this. He was always flippant about everything and constantly making jokes.
I couldn’t tell if I was upset that he was angry or somewhat thrilled that I had the power to make him feel this way at all.
That was fucked up, right? Definitely toxic… I just… it meant something to me that he was this upset over seeing me with someone else. I couldn’t fathom why he was so obsessed with me, but for someone who had spent most of their life trying to be invisible, it was strangely validating to feel like someone cared enough to want me so badly.
“Cal, I—” I reached forward to turn down the horrible robotic noise coming out of his speaker, but he snatched my wrist and nearly snarled at me.
“I said shut the fuck up, Ryan. And don’t touch my fucking stereo.” He had to yell to be heard over the racket, but there was a weird muscle twitching in his jaw, so I let it go.
Settling back into my seat, I resolved to give him a few minutes to calm down as he drove me home. However, it didn’t take long for me to realize he wasn’t taking me home. He hopped on the highway and took an exit that led us away from Fairview Funerals.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, feeling slightly panicked.
He didn’t answer, and soon, the houses and shops around us became fewer and farther between.
After roughly twenty minutes, he pulled off the two-way country road he had navigated to and parked in what seemed to be an abandoned farmer’s field. There was a dilapidated split rail fence a few yards away that marched around the perimeter of a grassy expanse of land that was likely used to house cows or horses. There was no one for miles, and I hadn’t seen another car in ages.
He turned off the music and leaned back in his seat. Removing his shades, he ran the palm of his hand down his face and sighed. It was the most un-Cal thing I had ever seen, and I suddenly felt a bolt of fear shooting through me.
“Did you bring me here to kill me?” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. But when Cal looked at me, the smile dropped off my face.
Oh.
There was an agonizingly long beat of silence where the tension around us built, and I realized I may have made a grave mistake getting into the car with him.
I knew he was a fucking murderer… Why had I trusted him not to kill me?
“Killing you would be easier. Trust me.” His voice was quiet and tired.
I didn’t like the way his brown eyes darkened. His pupils were much too large for how bright it was out, and he had that dead look on his face again.
I swallowed, and my dick hardened with the increasing rate of my heartbeat. He was so fucking scary when he was like this.
What was wrong with me that it turned me on?
“Cal, listen—” I tried to speak again. I wanted to tell him that I had been planning to tell Joanna no before he interrupted. As much as it didn’t make any sense, I couldn’t deny he made me feel things. However, he didn’t let me get a word out.
“No, Ryan. You’re going to listen.” His voice was low and dangerous. I swallowed again before nodding.
“I tried to do this the nice way. I tried to bullshit that we could be friends, but we’re not friends.”
“We’re not?” I asked, feeling strangely vulnerable at hearing him say those words out loud.
“No, Ryan. We’re not.” Without warning, his hand was cuffed around my throat, and he had me pressed back against the passenger window. “I can’t get you out of my fucking head. I know it’s wrong to force you, but I can’t help it. Fuck you for making me obsessed with you.” He growled. His lips were so close to mine that I could taste the peppermint on his breath.
“Whether either of us wants this or not, my screwed-up brain has decided that you’re mine, and I don’t fucking share, Ryan. Do you understand me?”
Completely enraptured and terrified at the same time, I nodded, but he gently squeezed his fingers tighter around my throat.
“I don’t know that you do.” He rumbled. He traced his lips against mine, and my mouth parted on reflex, but he didn’t kiss me. “Starting now, there will be rules, and I expect you to follow them.”
Suddenly, the spell I seemed to be under shattered.
Rules? Fuck that!
I was a grown-ass man. I ran a business. I made the fucking rules. Not some out-of-control, irresponsible punk!
Out loud, I scoffed. “If anyone should be making rules, it should be me,” I snapped, and Cal’s hand tightened even more around my throat. He released a dark chuckle, though there was no humor in his eyes.
“You want to make the rules, baby?”
“I think out of the two of us, I’m clearly more qualified to be in charge. I’m much more level-headed,” I shot back.
He let out another dry laugh. “Sure, Ryan. You want a chance to be in charge? You’re going to have to fight me for it.”
“Fine. But you have to fight fair. No pulling guns this time or taking me by surprise.” Nearly every time we fought up until this point, I lost, but Cal almost always played dirty. I was used to boxing, where there were hard and fast terms of engagement. I knew I could beat him on an even playing field.
A spark of fire ignited in his scary, dead eyes, and a tightness I hadn’t noticed in my chest loosened.
As much as I had this strange, twisted desire to get Cal all riled up, I didn’t like it when the rage crossed into that unnerving dead zone he sometimes slipped into.
He stroked his thumb possessively across my jaw and nodded.
“Alright. I’ll play fair. But when I win, there’s no fucking safe word, Ryan. This is your last chance to willingly submit. If I have to force you to submit, you will need to take whatever it is I give you. Consent now.”
Something about him forcing me to submit sent a fucking thrill through my body, and blood rushed to my cock at an alarming rate.
What would he do to me if he won?
Why did I low-key want him to win?
No, no. I wouldn’t let him win. This was bigger than just this one fight. Whatever happened in the next few minutes was going to set the tone for the rest of our relationship. I knew it in my bones.
I nodded once.
“Sure. I consent. It doesn’t matter anyway. You’re not going to win, Callum Walker.” I used his full name and switched my voice to the tone I used at work when delegating tasks to contractors.
The corner of his mouth twitched at my shift in demeanor.
“Get out of the car,” he ordered, releasing his grip on my neck.
I didn’t waste any time scrambling out of the passenger seat. Once I was out, he popped open the glove compartment and grabbed a small bottle of something I couldn’t make out. He shoved it in his back pocket and followed me out into the field.