Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
RYDER
My heart skipped a beat when Penny kissed me, her lips warm and sweet on mine.
I held still, wanting her to decide where to take this, because I already knew where I wanted it to go.
Hell, I’d always known. Had I wanted to go out with her?
Yes, but not because Nell had asked me to do so.
Now that Penny had turned me down, I was off the hook.
And we had a fresh start, just her and me.
When she was ready, that was.
Her mouth hovering over mine, she hesitated, and just before she pulled back, she very gently nipped my bottom lip, tugging a groan from deep in my chest.
When her eyes fluttered open, I stared at her while my thumb slid lightly over her lips, wondering if they tingled like mine, wondering if she had any idea what she’d just done to me with that one kiss.
The memory of those three falling stars flashed in my head. It was just a silly legend, and yet… When was the last time I felt like I was dying from a single barely there kiss? Never.
“Sometimes I look at you and I can’t breathe,” I murmured. Shit. Clearly, I’d hit my head instead of filleting my side?—
“You probably just need an allergy pill.”
Such a beautiful smart-ass. I chuckled, loving her irreverence, how she challenged me so effortlessly, reminding me that beneath all the hats I wore, all the balls I juggled, I was just a man.
A man who hadn’t opened up to anyone since Auggie had died.
Hell, I’d barely let my own siblings in, not really.
And yet somehow, in a shockingly short amount of time, this woman had slid beneath all my brick walls, bringing me out of my own head, dragging me back to the land of the living.
Being with her was easy and…fun. And if anything was missing from my life right now, it was that.
I had the feeling that Penny might feel the same. That maybe I could be the one to bring some fun to her life as well. Maybe even more than fun. The thought gave me something I hadn’t felt in a while.
Hope.
And with that thought, I caught her hand and tugged her close again, my mouth aiming for hers just as Caleb stuck his head into the kitchen. “Ry?”
I considered banging the back of my head against the island some more. “Go away.”
Did he? Of course not. He rounded the corner as if I hadn’t spoken, eyes locked on the tablet in his hands. “The meeting’s sitting around waiting for you, man. Since when are you ever late?—”
He finally caught sight of me on the floor and Penny on her knees at my side, our hands still on each other.
She straightened and clasped her hands together, like “nothing to see here.”
A slow smile crossed Caleb’s face. “Interesting.”
“Goodbye,” I said.
His smile turned pure trouble, the level of trouble I’d been bailing him out of all his life—only at the moment, I didn’t feel like bailing him out at all. I felt like punching him in his big, fat mouth.
“The last time I dared to be late,” my dumbass brother said to Penny, “I had to wash all the trucks in the yard. And Tucker had just thrown up in his, due to a hangover he wouldn’t admit to.”
I gave him the keep talking and die look, which he merrily ignored.
“I can only assume you accept your punishment for the tardiness. Oh, and Daniella had a vagrant climb into her truck earlier to take a nap, and let’s just say you might have to wash that one twice .
” Then, with a wink at Penny, he left, sauntering down the hall whistling, the ass.
“I think I just ruined your reputation,” Penny said.
I didn’t tell her that she’d only enhanced it. I also didn’t tell her that we seemed to be dancing to a song that didn’t exist, playing a game that had only two rules. Hers. And mine.
And neither of us had a clue what those rules were.