Ryker
RYKER
The next few weeks pass too quickly. It’s not that I’m not excited about September and the start of the season, but it’ll also mean I get to see Lake less. This whole summer, we’ve been practically glued to each other. I think we both needed it after spending last year as we did—only seeing each other once a week, and that was if we got lucky.
We do a lot of the things most normal couples do. We go grocery shopping and paint the bedroom. We sleep in almost every day and go running. We have sex on every piece of furniture we own. We do a lot of touristy stuff and just hang around the city and go out for lunch or dinner.
It’s all very normal. Normal in the most perfect way.
This is what I want.
This is the kind of life I want to have with Lake.
Lake, who’s currently going through my clothes to find something to wear while I’m lounging on our bed. Watching somebody get dressed is not something I ever figured I’d find hot, but oh, I do. I find it extremely hot. Maybe because I know I’m the only person who gets to peel him out of those clothes.
“Blue or black?” Lake holds up two shirts.
“Either. They both look good.”
He tilts his head to the side. “What a nicely useless comment.”
“Shirtless would be my first choice.”
He rolls his eyes and tosses one of the shirts at my face. “I doubt they’ll let me into the restaurant without a shirt.”
“I’m sure we can find the kind of place where nobody minds.”
He sends me an amused look. “A buffet at a strip club?”
“See, I like that you’re solution oriented.”
He just laughs, throws the black shirt on, and starts buttoning it. “Are you planning to get dressed?”
“As soon as the show’s over.”
“The show?”
“That reverse striptease you’re performing for me.”
Lake’s cheeks flush. He sometimes blushes about the strangest things. It always turns me on.
“Fuck off,” he grumbles.
I laugh and get up. “When are we supposed to meet them, again?”
Rachel, Sawyer, and Kelly are in town. Lake’s starting med school on Monday, so we’re going to go out, grab some dinner, hit a bar, have a few drinks, and have some fun before school and the season starts.
“Thirty minutes. Rachel picked some kind of fancy burger bar she wanted to try.”
My stomach’s already rumbling.
Lake finishes getting dressed and leans his shoulder against the wall, watching me while I go through my clothes. I eye him via the mirror on the wall, and my heart jumps in my chest at the sight of him.
My husband is fucking hot, which is most likely why I can’t seem to keep my eyes off him. Or my hands, if we’re being honest.
“Don’t,” Lake says.
I blink at him. “Don’t what?”
He glances up from where he’s adjusting the strap of his watch. “Don’t get that horny look on your face.”
“I can almost guarantee trying to get rid of it is a lost cause. Although, if it bothers you, you can easily make it go away.”
He tilts his head to the side, mirth dancing in his eyes. “By giving it a stern look?”
“By sucking my dick.”
“I really fucking like it when you ask for what you want directly.”
“In that case, I have a direct proposition for you.”
He steps closer. “I’m listening.”
“Suck my dick,” I say, “and then I’ll eat you out after.”
He’s in front of me now, and his hand goes to the front of my slacks, cupping my already hard cock. He slides his palm up and down my length a few times.
“I like where this is going.”
He chuckles, hand still moving up and down in an enticing rhythm. “No, you don’t. We don’t have time, so unless you can get off in thirty seconds with me doing just this, you’re going to come to that dinner hard and unhappy.”
I rock my hips forward, pushing more firmly against his hand.
“I wouldn’t put it past myself, to be fair,” I gasp.
He keeps rubbing me through my pants, and I close my eyes to enjoy the feeling just as he abruptly pulls his hand away.
My eyes fly open. Lake’s already put a few feet between us.
“That was cruel,” I say.
“No. That was just a taste. Let’s go out with our friends, and then after you can tell me in exact detail what you want me to do, and I promise I will follow every single order.”
“That’s very compliant of you.”
He frowns, and then that frown deepens. “Why do you sound so surprised? I’m nice.”
“Nice? Yes. Compliant… No.”
“Slander,” he says, but his lips are twitching.
“Come on.” I throw on a clean shirt. “Let’s go eat.”
Lake is relaxed on our way to the restaurant, laughing and chatting to the Uber driver. It’s weird. And out of character. I love Lake, but he’s definitely not somebody who chats.
I lean back in my seat and smile while Lake and the driver talk about traffic and the weather.
The car drops us off at the burger place Rachel picked out, and we make our way in. It’s surprisingly roomy and nice inside, and the smell makes my mouth water.
“I’m gonna have one of everything,” I say.
Lake laughs, and we weave through the tables toward the corner where Kelly, Sawyer, and Rachel are sitting.
“Hey!” Rachel jumps up from her seat and hugs us both. “You made it.” She inhales deeply and looks around with an excited smile. “Isn’t this place cool? They do gourmet burgers and pair them with fancy cocktails.”
“Sounds good,” I say, and Rachel smiles at me.
We take our seats and say our hellos to Sawyer and Kelly. Lake has been friends with all three of them since middle school. For me, they’ve been more like acquaintances, but over these past two years, I’ve been included in this friend group too.
“Cool place.” Lake looks around.
This restaurant is a weird mix of classy and mismatched. None of the plates, utensils, or glasses seem to have come from the same set, and none of the chairs or tablecloths match, but it somehow manages to feel cozy instead of chaotic.
“How was the trip?” Lake asks after the waitress has taken our orders.
“Uneventful as hell,” Kelly says, nodding at Rachel and Sawyer. “Did you hear? These two sold the house.”
“Congrats,” Lake says. Rachel and Sawyer have been slowly renovating a house that belonged to Rachel’s grandmother. “So? What’s the plan now?”
“Gonna buy tickets to somewhere warm for the winter,” Sawyer says, throwing his arm over the back of Rachel’s chair.
“Lucky bastards,” Kelly says. “It’s fine. I don’t like sun anyway.”
Rachel grins and sticks her tongue out at him. “I’ll think about you when I’m lying on a beach in Bali.”
“You’re a true friend.”
Lake laughs. The food arrives shortly after that, and we all settle into a comfortable conversation where we all catch up with each other.
At one point, I sit back in my chair and smile.
Lake meets my gaze and raises his brows at me. He leans closer to me. “You look comfortable,” he says, lowering his voice.
I shrug. “Life’s good. Things are going well. What more could I want?”
He makes a face. “Oh, good. You’ve jinxed it.”
“Idiot,” I say with affection.
He just laughs and goes back to his conversation.
By the time we leave the burger place, we all have a few cocktails in us, so even Kelly has loosened up a bit. We walk down the street that’s, by now, crowded with people who are also out, enjoying their Saturday night.
When we pass an open doorway that has loud music coming out of it, Rachel’s eyes light up.
“We should go there.” She grabs Sawyer’s hand and starts tugging him toward the door. “It sounds like fun.”
Sawyer just smiles and follows her without arguing.
I quirk my brow at Lake, and he rolls his eyes. “Yeah, fine. Let’s go.”
Rachel leads us all into a small, crowded bar. The place is jammed with bodies, but Sawyer takes the lead and pushes through the crowd until we find a table. The music from earlier turns out to be karaoke, which makes Kelly look around with clear horror on his face.
“Jesus, no,” he says. “I did not sign up for this.”
“Don’t be a baby,” Rachel says, pushing Kelly to sit down before she looks at Sawyer. “Can you get us some drinks, babe?”
“Coming right up,” Sawyer says.
Lake gets up too. “I’ll help.”
They disappear into the crowd, and when I turn my eyes away from where Lake vanished, I find Rachel grinning at me, while somebody’s singing a pretty decent version of “Island in the Sun” on the stage.
“Sawyer doesn’t sing, so I need somebody to be my duet partner,” Rachel says.
“Neither do I,” Kelly says, “so good luck with that.”
“Come on. You did the last time.”
“The last time I was drunk.”
“That’s the easiest problem to solve,” Rachel says.
They start to bicker, and I glance around the room, searching for Lake. There’s a bit of a gap between the bodies, so I find him standing at the bar with the drinks on the counter in front of him. Sawyer’s nowhere to be found, and next to Lake is a guy.
The dude stands with his elbow on the bar, leaning against it casually. He’s very close to Lake.
Lake says something, and the guy laughs. He leans closer and says something to Lake, and my husband tilts his head to the side, lips twitching.
Objectively speaking, the guy is good-looking. Dressed in a pair of faded dark blue jeans, boots, and a black V-neck T-shirt, he looks casual and relaxed.
And clearly interested, judging by the way he keeps checking Lake out.
Something twists in my gut.
For a moment, I think it’s jealousy. It’s the logical conclusion, I think. But then, I’m dead certain Lake’s not interested.
It’s stupid.
But the sour twist still remains.
Fuck it.
I get up so abruptly Rachel and Kelly jerk around to look at me in unison.
“I’ll go see about those drinks.” I stride toward the bar without waiting for a reply.
A voice in the back of my head says I shouldn’t, but I’m not really in the mood to listen to reason. Instead, I stop next to Lake, and he turns his head to look at me.
His brows knit into a puzzled frown for a moment.
“Need any help with those?” I nod toward the drinks on the bar.
The frown smooths out, replaced by a curious look.
“Sure. Sawyer went to the bathroom, but I guess there’s a line.”
“He’ll figure out where we went.”
Lake doesn’t stand up, though. He just looks at me and something like understanding dawns in his eyes.
To my surprise, he looks amused more than anything else before he grabs three drinks and turns around.
“Nice meeting you, Wyatt,” he throws over his shoulder. I fumble to get the last two drinks and follow Lake back to our table.
Lake slides the drinks onto the table and straightens up. “It’s hot as hell in here,” he calls over the guy who’s on the stage, butchering Adele. “I’m gonna take a quick breather.”
With those words, he heads to the door. I just stare for a moment before I go after him. I catch him at the door and follow him outside. He keeps walking, heading away from the bar before he glances around, slips around the corner of the building, and stops under an awning. He leans his back against the wall behind him and looks at me.
I feel like an idiot.
I should’ve played it cool and not acted like a caveman trying to… What? Stake my claim? That’s not us. Never has been.
Lake takes my hand and pulls me toward him. The toes of my shoes are against the toes of his shoes.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
I don’t know why I do it, but I try to evade the question.
“Why do you think something’s wrong?”
He presses his thumb against the bridge of my nose. “You’re frowning. You were frowning, too. And you’re still frowning.”
I blow out a breath. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me. Lake was never going to take that guy up on his offer, and I know it, so why the fuck do I feel so off balance about that whole encounter?
“Just tell me,” Lake says.
I drop my head back so it smacks against the wall with a thunk .
“I can’t,” I say. “It’s too stupid, and you’re gonna think I’m an idiot.”
“Try me.”
I stare upward silently, trying to come up with the words and not really succeeding.
“I just…”
Lake moves closer until his shoulder is pressed against mine, and his head is close enough that strand of his hair brush over my cheek
“You just?” There’s a smile in his voice, and it makes me feel a bit lighter. Not really less stupid, though.
“I hated that guy,” I blurt.
Lake eyes me calmly. “Wyatt?”
“Whatever,” I mutter like a sulky kid. Lake’s lips twitch, but he bites back the smile.
“Is this you being jealous?”
“It’s me being an idiot.” I sigh and rub my palm over my face. “I’m not jealous.” I think about it for a second and then say, “Okay, I am jealous. But not about what’s-his-face.”
“About what, then?” Lake asks softly.
I let the side of my head fall against Lake’s. It’s dark enough and the people who pass us by don’t even seem to notice us.
“Am I taking something away from you?” I ask.
Lake is silent for a beat. “Like?”
I shrug helplessly. “Handholding in the middle of the street. Kissing. Calling you my husband. Being a proper couple. Telling that fuckface at the bar to fuck off.”
“Is that what makes a proper couple?” Lake asks mildly.
“It’s a part of the experience, and you don’t get to do any of it with me right now.”
“I do all those things with you, except telling fuckfaces to fuck off. I don’t think that’s happened yet. It might, though.”
“In front of other people,” I say. “You get to do all the proper couple stuff, but only in private.”
It’s hitting me harder than usual right now, this feeling that I’m missing out, that I’m depriving myself of something perfect. I want everything that could be. I want people to know Lake is with me. That he’s mine.
I don’t want to pretend we’re just good friends and nothing else.
I want this to be our life. No hiding or secrets.
Lake pushes himself off the wall. There’s an expression of fierce determination on his face as he takes my face between his hands, and then I find my mouth at the mercy of his brutal kiss.
My thoughts scatter as Lake’s tongue pushes inside my mouth. His knee goes between my thighs as he presses closer. He rubs himself against me, and my dick takes notice.
Lake’s taste is all over my tongue while he kisses me, and I can feel his hard-on rubbing against mine.
The kiss is over as abruptly as it started. Lake pulls his mouth away, and once again, my head falls against the wall.
We’re both breathing harshly. I turn my head to look at him. “What was that for?”
Lake takes a deep breath. “I felt like it.” His gaze finds mine, eyes serious. “You make me insane,” he says in a low voice. “I don’t think it’s healthy to want anybody this much.”
I let out a shuddering breath and rake my fingers through my hair. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels this way.”
Lake laughs, and there’s a slight edge to the sound. “No. We’re in this together.” He blows out a breath, and he wraps his pinkie finger around my pinkie finger and squeezes. “One day you’ll kiss me in the middle of the street.”
My insides jolt. I want that. More than anything.
“Promise?” I ask.
He smiles. “Not just a promise.” He lifts our joined hands. “Pinkie promise.”
I laugh and squeeze his finger again.
“Come on,” he says. “Let’s get back inside and have some fun.”
We walk back into the bar side by side.