Chapter 11 We’re Even
We're Even
Ivy
Between the vodka and discovering new things about Ryan at every turn, I found myself letting my guard down more and more with him. I needed to protect my heart here.
I’d had two long-term relationships, and both had wrenched my heart in different ways.
William left me on the hook for an apartment lease, which was why I hadn’t bought any property.
My credit seriously needed to improve. The other ex-boyfriend, Austin, had been more controlling than I liked, but the worst thing was when he brought another woman home with him – out of the clear-ass blue – and wanted to experiment.
I liked to think I was open-minded, but that sort of thing should have been discussed before hand. The two of us.
Ryan didn’t give me those kinds of vibes, but he also wasn’t willing to go to the law about the crimes committed against us… which basically made us criminals, too.
That should have put the ultimate damper on my attraction to him, but he’d made a good point. It wouldn’t look like self-defense – especially since we’d moved one of the bodies.
He downed the last of his cocktail and poured himself another.
My snark couldn’t be denied. “That’s it for you, too, right, Nickel? Or is it a one-way street here?”
He glanced over his shoulder at me with a cynical smirk. “This is it. Thanks for the reminder, smarty.”
I set my glass on the nightstand while shaking my head. “I’m just saying…double standards suck.”
“That they do,” he muttered, moving to the other side of the bed.
The clinking sound of his belt buckle stole my attention and I glanced his way in time to see him drop his jeans to the floor. He wore shiny royal-blue boxer briefs that appeared to be made of nylon.
I fought all of my reactions to seeing him in his skivvies.
“You all right?” he asked, pulling the comforter out from under the pillow on his side.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice higher than normal. I cleared my throat. “I’m going to brush my teeth.”
I stood, bent to my bag to dig out my toothbrush and heard Ryan groan. My eyes darted to him. “What’s wrong? You sound like you’re in pain or something.”
“You could say that. It’s not every day there’s a gorgeous woman in my room wearing my shirt and bent over like that and I can’t do something about the pain she’s putting me in.”
With my toothbrush and toothpaste in hand, I quickly straightened. “To be fair, seeing you in your boxer briefs leaves a woman in a certain state, too. So I’d say we’re even.”
His eyes widened. “We’re far from even, Ives.”
I shook my head and went to the bathroom. To get my mind off Ryan and how insanely attracted I was to him, I brushed my teeth with vigor.
Earlier, I’d noticed the bathroom had been remodeled and I’d meant to ask him what company they’d used because even at a glance I could tell it was excellent workmanship.
I kept a small database of general contractors, plumbers, electricians, and other companies that could help my clients spruce up their homes to get the most bang for their buck when their property was listed.
Nothing about the tile work or the flooring appeared to be done half-way.
Thoughts of my database made me think about my schedule for tomorrow and my back straightened. If I wasn’t mistaken, I had a closing tomorrow… and I didn’t have my car.
Shit! Why had I let him talk me into riding on his bike?
I set my toothbrush in a counter-top holder, rinsed and spit, took care of other business in the bathroom and went back into the bedroom.
Ryan sat with his back against the headboard and a paperback in his lap. I didn’t know why that took me aback, but it did.
“Whatcha reading?” I asked.
“Now you’re back to being cute.”
I pulled the comforter and sheets down on my side, and climbed into the bed. “No, I’m not. I’m curious to a fault, especially about books.”
“Re-reading a police procedural.”
I shoved my legs under the covers and my foot grazed the side of his leg. The unexpected thrill that gave me couldn’t be ignored.
He set the paperback aside, tossed the covers off, and left the bed.
The torture continued as I watched him saunter to the bathroom. Something about him in the white tank was more mesmerizing than him being shirtless and in a towel. Like the clingy material better defined his muscles.
This was going to be a long night.
I heard the water running in the sink. I settled further into the bed and turned out the lamp.
The best way to avoid the temptation of watching Ryan move around the room was for me to rest my eyes. As soon as I closed them, my exhaustion washed over me. Seemed being kidnapped took it out of a girl.
I pulled the covers up and turned onto my side.
Ryan climbed into bed a couple minutes later and killed his light. Then I noticed a faint light behind my eyelids, and I figured he was checking his phone.
“You sleeping?” he asked.
“Not yet,” I said, cracking an eye open. This man was hot even in the dim light of a freaking cell phone.
“I set an alarm for an hour. Figure it’ll take us both ten minutes to get to sleep. Either way, we’re gonna have to wake up every so often for a few hours.”
“Great,” I muttered. “In the morning, my boss isn’t going to like hearing I didn’t get a full eight hours.”
“You aren’t going to work tomorrow.”
I pushed up to an elbow and stared at him. “I’ve got a closing tomorrow, Ryan. I have to be there. You have no idea how hard it is to get all the parties at the same place at the same time to get a deal done. It’s non-negotiable.”
Suddenly, Ryan pushed into me, and I was on my back with his forearms framing my head.
“Woman, your health and your safety are more important than a closing no matter how difficult it is to coordinate. Pretty sure your boss will feel the same way, and if he doesn’t, fuck ‘im, he isn’t worth working for. ”
“She,” I said on autopilot.
“Whatever. She ought to be understanding in this fucked up sitch, and what I said still stands. If she doesn’t get it, it’s not worth working for a bitch like that.”
The phone cast a dim light into the room allowing me to see the intensity in his blue eyes. I loved how fierce he was about my health and safety, but feeling his body heat and having him hovering over me like this turned me on in a big way.
I kept staring at him willing myself to keep a stoic facial expression because otherwise, I’d give away how much I wanted him to kiss me.
His face came closer. “Do you get me?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, pressing my lips together at the end.
“What time’s your closing?”
“Eleven,” I murmured.
“I’m thinkin’ we can get you eight hours between then and now. Just won’t be uninterrupted.”
The light from the phone went out, and in the darkness I felt bolder. I reached up and stroked the side of his bicep. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”
He sighed and I felt his nose graze along side mine. “You don’t need to appreciate that. Let’s get some sleep, though at this point it’s gonna be hard as hell to sleep next to you.”
“As if,” I whispered.
He rolled away on a chuckle. “Woman, you griped about seeing me in my underwear, but you’re over there in my shirt without a bra, and I’m doin’ my damnedest to keep my hands off you.”
“What if I said you didn’t have to?”
“You deserve better than that.”
“That makes no sense. We’re both drawn to each other. We could scratch the itch and make out before sleeping.”
“That will make shit worse, woman. I won’t be able to stop, and if I did, I’d have blue balls instead of fighting a painful hard-on.”
He was probably right. Rather than argue with him, I twisted away from him and murmured, “Good night… for now.”
I heard him exhale hard, and I knew he found a sliver of humor in my words. Crazy as it made me, I felt better for that.
The most bizarre trilling sound woke me from a dead sleep.
It kept going and I shifted. I made out the sound of Ryan not exactly snoring, but definitely making the same sounds as Darth Vader, if the Sith Lord ever slept.
More forcefully than necessary I rolled toward him.
He still didn’t wake, and I began to worry that he’d suffered more of a concussion than I had.
I reached out and nudged his arm. “Nickel. Ryan, wake up.”
He snorted in a breath and his body jolted. “Whas goin’ on?” he asked in an almost boyish voice that made me bite back a smile.
“Your alarm’s going off, big guy. We both need to be awakened every so often, remember?”
The way he took in a deep breath couldn’t be missed, and then he sat up, twisted to the nightstand and grabbed his phone. He disabled the alarm, put the phone down with a clatter, and flopped back to the bed on his back.
I couldn’t help but laugh, and even though it was silent, my body shook with it.
“Are you fucking laughing at me, Ives?”
My smile widened, my lips parted and I laughed out loud. “Yeah. You’re the one who insisted on waking up on a schedule and yet, you’re the one who can’t stick to the plan. Add to that, you sound almost – don’t take this the wrong way – boyish when you first wake up, and it’s funny to me.”
He sighed and groaned at the same time. “Glad I’m entertaining to you. How are you feeling? Still got a massive headache?”
“No, but more importantly, do you?”
“No. Not unless I count you giving me shit for how I sound when I first wake up.”
“That wasn’t shit. I thought it was cute,” I said, then wished I hadn’t. Seeing as I couldn’t take it back, I tossed the covers off me. “I’m hitting the bathroom, while you reset our ridiculous alarm.”
“Not ridiculous, woman,” he muttered.
I wandered into the bathroom shaking my head, but didn’t respond.
When I returned to the bedroom, Ryan rolled out of bed.
“Aren’t there other side-effects associated with a concussion?” I asked just before he hit the doorway to the bathroom.
He paused, but didn’t look at me. “Yeah, but neither one of us had those. Don’t know about you, but I’d rather wake up every so often, than find myself in the hospital because my brain swelled in my sleep.”
Mental note: someone didn’t like having their sleep interrupted. Then again, neither did I.
I rolled to my side, and realized I was facing Ryan’s side of the bed. It wasn’t ideal, but I figured I’d switch when he came back to bed.
The next time I woke up, it wasn’t because of an alarm. It was because I was burning up and a heavy arm rested along my waist. I opened my eyes and in the dim moonlight coming into the room, I saw the outline of Ryan’s white tank top against his skin.
How was I pressed up against him like this? No, why was I held tight to him like this?
As gentle and slow as I could, I tried to pull free of his hold without waking him. That was no easy task, let me tell you.
I had eased his arm off me, and managed to pull away from him by an inch when his breathing shifted.
“Ivy,” he said, his voice almost questioning.
“Yeah,” I whispered, trying not to wake him up fully.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m… giving you space.”
“Alarm go off?” he asked in a husky voice.
“No.”
Light from his cell phone filled the room, then I saw him fiddling with the screen for a bit before he put it back on the night stand.
“Everything all right?” I asked.
“Will be once you get back over here.”
I did a long blink, not that he could see it in the darkness. “Pardon me?”
“You were out cold earlier, and the only way for me to get some sheets was to pull you closer to me. I’m not fighting for sheets with you, so get your ass over here and let’s go back to sleep, Ives.”
Nobody called me that. Scratch that, Ed had called me ‘Ives’ when I was little.
He was long gone once Mom learned what a jackass he was to me.
As much as I wanted to tell Ryan to stop calling me that, there was something downright therapeutic about the way he did it.
In fact, I almost liked it – but my jury was still out.
How weird was that?
I curled up on my side of the bed. “Um, I’ll just be right over here, on my side of the bed. I mean, it’s a queen so everything is nice and cozy.”
Ryan slid his arm under my neck, along my shoulders, and pulled me toward him. “Don’t fuck with me, tonight, woman. We’re both too tired for that. See you in another hour.”
“Thought it was every forty-five minutes?” I asked like an idiot.
He chuckled. “I’ve been stretching it out. My guess is we don’t have real concussions. Those pussies didn’t have what it takes to give either of us concussions.”
I rested my arm along his abdomen telling myself not to enjoy this. But that was like trying not to enjoy ice cream. One of my favorite things about being with a man was this – snuggling up to him and falling asleep made me feel safe and like I belonged with him.
It had been nearly a year since my last serious relationship, and I’d forgotten how much I missed this. Which was the very reason I couldn’t relish this. Later tomorrow, we would go our separate ways when the threat had passed. I had to remember that.