22. Ryker
Ryker
Five Years Ago
“He’s so hot, so delicious. I want to melt into his arms.” Mila was sitting on the couch, talking on the phone as I walked out of the kitchen with two beers.
I stood in the hallway watching her as she lay back and rested her head on one of the bright yellow throw pillows that Mrs. Brookstone adorned her bright green couch with.
Mrs. B. certainly didn’t have the muted tastes of a Pottery Barn lover like my mother had.
“No, he does not want to do that.” She rolled her eyes as she spoke, a huge grin on her face.
“Lara, stop.” She laughed, and I wondered what and who they were talking about.
A smirk graced my face as I wondered if they were talking about me.
I clanged the bottles together by mistake and tensed as Mila realized there was someone in the room with her.
“What are you grinning at, Ryker?” Mila’s face darted to mine, her big brown eyes murderous when she saw me standing there.
“Nothing.” I shook my head and held up my beer. “Just getting some cold brews for Parker and me.”
“You’d better not be eavesdropping on me,” she said, her voice weaker this time and her beautiful face red with embarrassment. So, maybe she had been talking about me.
“I don’t eavesdrop.” I walked toward her. Her long blond hair was tied up in a ponytail, and she was wearing gym shorts and a white T-shirt—typical attire for a high school girl.
“Sure you don’t,” she said. “Hey, Lara, let me call you back in a minute.” She put the phone down on the couch and stood up. “What do you want, Ryker Walker?”
“To know how hot and delicious you think I am?” I asked with a smile and winked at her.
“Ugh, you’re a brute.” Her eyes widened, and she walked toward me with her hand out and punched me in the arm. “For your information, I wasn’t talking about you.”
“Really?” I asked, my lips curling up as I stared at her heaving chest. I smiled at her again, my eyes teasing her, and she got all hot and flustered.
“No, I was talking about my boyfriend.” She glared at me, and I nodded.
“Sure.”
“I was.” She blushed, and it was then that the doorbell rang.
She hurried away from me to open the door, and I saw some young punk standing there, reach in, and hug her.
The smile fell from my face as she hugged the guy back.
Maybe she hadn’t been talking about me after all.
Maybe she’d been talking about this guy.
I turned away without a second glance and walked back to Parker’s room.
There were two reasons why I wasn’t even going to let it bother me.
One reason was that she was too young. I didn’t date or do high school girls.
The second reason was that she was Parker’s sister.
He’d flip a switch if I did any of the things I’d like to do with her.
I opened the door to his room, walked in, and handed him his beer, my mind still on Mila, wondering what she was thinking about letting that punk do. I took a swig of beer and tried to get her off my mind. One day, I’d have my chance, and then she’d know just how scorching hot I really was.
Current Day
“Mila, I’m back.” I walked toward her and smiled as she turned her head to look at me, her eyes wide and anxious. “Why do you look so shocked to see me? Did you think I was going to leave you here?”
“I didn’t know what to think,” she said as she released her grip from the building’s ledge.
“Don’t move.” I put a hand up to stop her and shook my head. “We’re not done yet.”
“Where did you go?” she asked while she stood up.
I had to smile at her disobedience, even though it annoyed me.
To be fair, my annoyance was more born of fear.
What if Mila had followed me downstairs and seen Barbie and my dad in his office?
What would she have thought and said? The sinking feeling in my stomach told me that I knew exactly what would have happened next if she’d seen them.
“I went to get this.” I held up the vibrator in front of her. She looked at the object in my hands curiously, and then she blushed when she realized what it was.
“Really, Ryker?” she said, and bit her lower lip as she looked into my eyes. “Being on a rooftop wasn’t enough?”
“No.” I shook my head and stared at her beautiful, enchanting face as she gazed at me excitedly, though I could tell she was trying to hide it.
“Ryker, this seems dangerous.”
“What’s danger, really?” I asked, my question completely serious, though I didn’t think she knew that. She didn’t know that I was walking on a tightrope, and that I was scared that my equilibrium was going to give at any moment.
“Danger is being perched on the side of a roof, practically naked. Danger is falling off said roof, naked. Danger is feeling like you’re flying when you’re perched on the edge of the world and you don’t have wings. I’m not Icarus.” She looked at me pointedly.
“Practically naked and naked are two different things,” I said with a grin as I grabbed hold of her hands. They were cold and shaky, and I realized she might be scared of the situation we were in. “Are you scared?” My eyes narrowed on her face. “I don’t want to do this if you’re not comfortable.”
“Who would be comfortable doing this?” she asked me with a raised eyebrow. I stared back at her, and the teasing light in her brown eyes confused me. I wasn’t sure what she wanted from me.
“So, what do you want to do?” I asked, waiting for her answer.
She licked her lips nervously, pulled her hands away from me, smiled at me, and walked back over to the ledge of the roof.
She got down on her knees, and then she looked back at me, her long hair hanging over her shoulder as she gave me a sensual smile.
“I’m waiting,” she said. I stood there, debating what to do.
I decided that I was going to make her believe that she had wings.
I was going to make her soar. I wanted her to believe she could fly, yet I was scared.
What if my dad came looking for me? What if Barbie came with him?
What if Mila saw them both? She’d have questions, demand answers I didn’t want to give.
Answers that I couldn’t give. I felt something inside me start to freeze with the position I was in.
What was I really doing here? Why was I playing with this fire?
I could walk away. Forget everything. Tell my dad no.
Tell Mila I’d made a mistake. Tell everyone that everything was off.
I didn’t know how many times I could look into Mila’s warm and hopeful brown eyes without crumbling.
This wasn’t what I’d expected. She was giving herself to me openly, her heart on her arm.
This was something I’d not prepared for.
Could she really be in love with me? I knew that she couldn’t be in love with me, not the real me.
She didn’t know who I was. Not on the inside.
Not even really on the outside either. She only knew the side of me that she’d been shown.
I was her brother’s best friend. I was the handsome older guy who had been the subject of her dreams for many years in high school, possibly while she was in college, and even now, as I discovered recently.
But now—now I knew that Mila had feelings for me or at least thought she did. That was why she found herself on the roof of an office building downtown with me, waiting for me to take her.
My hand gravitated to her ass unconsciously. My fingers ran up her back, enjoying the feel of her shivering skin, so alive and awake to me. I moved my fingers up higher to where her heart beat through a nerve in her neck. Thump, thump, thump. Life that was breathing for me right now.
Her lips trembled as she looked back at me, her expression curious as she waited to see what was going to happen next.
I wanted to take her so badly. I wanted to bend her over, grab hold of her hips, and slide into her so hard that she wouldn’t even remember what it felt like for me to not be inside her.
I could do it so easily. She wanted me as badly as I wanted her. No matter how depraved the situation was, she was still going along with it. She was going to let me fuck her on this rooftop. It excited me and sent such a thrill through my veins that I wasn’t sure how I could resist her.
Her breasts glistened in the light, like a beacon, beckoning me in to touch her—just one touch. My fingers caressed her nipple, and we both stilled. I leaned forward to kiss her, her lips soft and sweet next to mine.
“I’m ready, Ryker,” she said, swallowing down her fear, her eyes open, wide, innocent.
“I know,” I said and licked her lips before stepping back. “I know.”
“What are you doing?” She frowned, looking at me with a perplexed expression. Her brows furrowed, and her lips turned up in an almost petulant expression.
I loved staring at her face. I loved looking at her expressions and trying to guess what she was thinking.
Sometimes, I found myself just looking at her from across the room.
It was something that I’d been doing for many years—watching her.
Sometimes it was when she watched TV, sometimes when she was laughing with her friends, sometimes when she was arguing with Parker, and other times when she was talking to Nonno.
I loved watching her with Nonno. It stirred something in me that I didn’t really understand, but I loved to watch the two of them together; so easy, so relaxed, so loving.
There were still times when she would crawl into his arms, and he would rub her head and sing songs to her in Italian.
She’d stare at him so adoringly, and my heart would pause.
Then I would have to look away. I didn’t want to be a creep, and watching her when she was in such a perfect moment always made me feel that way.
“I think this was a mistake,” I said and pursed my lips at her. “We shouldn’t have come up here.”