Chapter Seventeen
Ryder
I t’s like all the shit hits the fan and for once I’ve done nothing wrong.
Because I haven’t done anything except go to get some drinks from the bar. It’s not my fault the grabby blonde took one look at me and latched on with her fake nails.
I expect her to slink away, but she doesn’t and Elliot taps her fingers against her arm. “Well?”
I offer Elliot my best smile, but I might well have not for all it did me. Nothing melted in her. Not even a hint.
Damn, but I like her, and the worst part is I can hear the disappointment when she speaks. She’s the last person I want to disappoint. After all, we’re friends. At least, I think we’re friends.
Even if she’s harboring murderous thoughts.
“I’m just talking, Elliot,” I say, “you know how it is.”
“No, I don’t, but I’m beginning to. Are you going to introduce me to your friend, Ryder?”
“Oh.” Shit. I desperately try to remember the name of the very hot, octopus-like woman who, for some reason, is still there, still a little too close, but I can’t. “We were just chatting.”
The fire in Elliot’s gaze is fierce and the woman slides in closer to me and I realize with horror I have my hand on her.
I’d put it there to stop her getting closer, and rebuffing women is a skill I seem to have lost, apparently. I used to be able to do it with ease, without thinking, but I’m trying to be someone I’m not, and that skill goes hand in hand with picking up the woman of the moment.
Not that I’d have picked up this blonde. But under normal circumstances, I’d have shut it all down so smoothly I wouldn’t be in this situation. Trying to be noble is utter shit, if you ask me. So is being sincerely nice. Or trying to be sincerely nice. It gets you into trouble with certain tall redheads and means you can’t smoothly repel cheap, hot blondes.
Elliot is glaring like this thing with us is real and there’s something about that. It gets to me, winds down deep against my bones.
“Really?”
“Back off, bitch.” The woman’s hotness points drop way down to the single digit area with this. “I think he’s done with you.”
“I think you should watch your mouth,” Elliot says before I can say a word as I start to rise from the bar stool I took waiting to be served.
The woman tosses her hair and it almost hits me in the face. “I think you should find something your own level.”
“That’s no way to talk to her,” I say quietly as I disentangle the woman who’s now below the single digit line and into the negative.
“You’ve got me now,” the woman says, fluttering eyelashes up at me.
Elliot rolls her eyes. “Yes, you’ve got her now. Lucky you.”
“We were just talking, that’s it.”
“Really?”
“Stop saying really.” I decide to push it a little more. I don’t like looking like an ass if I’m turning someone down and this blonde is making me be one. I didn’t come looking for her, and I didn’t encourage her—so I use the opportunity for myself. “Thing is, I just came to get us some drinks, but…” I swing my gaze from Elliot to the woman. “After your lovely insults, I think my fiancée and I are going to head home.”
The woman doesn’t look bothered at all by what I said to her.
“If you change your mind, here’s my card.” And the blonde hands me an actual card, embossed with the logo of a prestigious law firm I immediately make a priority not to work with.
Elliot takes the card. “Come on, lover-boy, time to get out of here.”
I pay up and when I turn, Elliot’s nowhere to be seen. The blonde’s sidling up again, but I excuse myself and make my way out of the bar and to the pavement, where Elliot’s standing, wrapped in her coat, impatience all over her.
“Really?”
I stare at her, guilt swamping me for something I didn’t do. “Are we going to have our first fight as a happy couple?”
“No.” She snaps the word, that rich voice low. “We’ve fought before.”
“For the show.”
Elliot stalks up to me, ignoring the people around us and grabs me by my suit jacket. She pulls me in close and I go. “You keep fucking up.”
“Oh, do tell.”
“You were all over a blonde, for one.”
“I think you’ll find she was all over me.”
Elliot nods and looks up at me, eyes glittering. “Story of your life, huh?”
“A bit. But I went to get us another round and she started talking.”
“You are pathetic,” she says.
“Jealous?”
Her eyes are now slits. “Of that? No. If you want her, go get her. Go get the other and have round three or four or whatever.”
“You sure sound jealous.”
“I don’t think your ego needs any inflating. I’m working for you. And I can quit, Ryder. Ever think of that?”
That sends a cold shard of ice through me. “You wouldn’t.”
“I will if you keep screwing around, if you keep causing waves.”
“And what the fuck did I cause? I went to get us drinks. The server was busy, so I thought I’d be nice—”
“And hit on a woman?”
“Fuck, Elliot. What is it you want from me? I can’t stop people talking to me. And I’m not going to. That’s weird. It would be nice for once to have you in my corner.”
“I am.”
“And believe me.”
She breathes out.
“Yeah, thought so,” I say.
“Trust needs to be earned.”
“How have I made you not trust me? I haven’t fucked anyone since all this started. And—”
“Ryder.” Her voice is still low, but now censure has joined in with the snark. “You have something you’re paying me to do and yet here you are, sabotaging. You might not think you aren’t, but you are. You just keep on flirting and doing you. And guess what? That’s not going to get you what you want.”
“I also can’t be someone I’m not.”
“But you have to change. Or seem to.”
“I’m paying you—”
“You have to do the work, Ryder. Do you want to prove you’ve changed? Because even pretend change doesn’t involve you chatting up some blonde babe while out on a date.”
Frustration threatens to swamp me. The girl came up to me, came on to me. I didn’t cause a scandal. I didn’t do anything. And Elliot keeps upping her ante. She keeps making things harder. She keeps pushing.
“I told her I was with someone. And I damn well called you my fiancée.”
“Ryder—”
“You were there. I told her I was with my fiancée.”
She clicks her tongue. “Why would you do that? I don’t understand.”
“I thought it would be a good buffer. I thought—”
“Pity you can’t be your own buffer. Do that yourself. You know, with your mouth and your actions.”
“I was being smooth.”
“No.” She glares at me. “I’ve been insulted by two women tonight in there. One you fucked, the other you would be probably fucking now if I hadn’t come up, and I can’t always be there. You need to be able to keep it under wraps, Ryder.”
What the hell’s she talking about? Two women? The blonde was an idiot, and was rude, but… “What do you mean, two?”
“I was accosted in the bathroom by some woman.”
“How is that my fault? I didn’t set anyone on you.”
She slides a little closer to me and drops her voice a little more and I can’t stop myself from placing my hands on her hips, tugging her closer so she’s flush against me. I’m telling myself it’s for the game, for the show, but she feels good. She’s warm and soft and right and if I keep going along this line of thought, I’m going to end up with a raging hard on.
“You slept with her. That much was obvious.”
“I don’t hand out special markers, Perry, so how is it obvious?”
Elliot lets out a frustrated sound. “Because she’s your type. Like the blonde.”
“Maybe,” I say, “I did sleep with the other woman, but stop with the type thing. I like women. I’ve fucked a lot of them. We both know this. But I can’t stop my past coming up.”
“You can’t stop yourself gathering cards and numbers now, either.”
“That’s not fair.” I’m aware we look like two lovers having a moment right now, but inside the heat that flared has died back to embers and the hard on that threatened has retreated. “I didn’t ask for the number. I talked to her because she talked to me. End of story.”
“And you’re going to tell me if you didn’t have this whole thing you need to prove you wouldn’t fucking her right now?”
“One, I’m not superman. I don’t move that fast.” I have, but I keep it to myself. “And two, no. I wouldn’t have. I’m with you.”
“You wouldn’t be if you hadn’t hired me.”
“Fine,” I say. “I wouldn’t be with you if I didn’t need to show I’m responsible and all the rest, but would I go home with her? Fuck no. She was hot, I won’t lie, but I wasn’t trying to pick her up. I was trying to get out of it.”
“Out of picking her up?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth, Perry. No, I was trying to get out of the flirtation. She came on like cheap perfume. Way too strong and clingy. Not my style.”
“You like class now?”
I stick my face close to hers, so our lips almost touch. “I thought I did. After all, I like you.”
She moves, not letting me go, but her head comes down and she places her forehead against my chest.
“Crap. You drive me crazy, Ryder. Why the hell do you get under my skin like this?”
“You were jealous.” I don’t know why I push that, but I like it when she sparks and spits fire. She’s magnificent that way.
She’s magnificent a lot of ways, but the fire stokes mine and yeah, I’m doubting I can change. Because I want her. Right or wrong, right now I want her.
Elliot lifts her head and looks at me. “I’m not jealous.”
But her cheeks darken and a flush whispers up her throat and I’m fascinated. I’m calling her jealous to get a rise, but what if she actually is?
Oh, yeah, definitely turned on. Shit. I’m a terrible person. Because I want to keep poking until she loses control.
Elliot winds her hands up around my neck then. “Part of this is you knowing how to handle yourself in public, of making situations work for you.”
“What—”
“So this time, I’ll do it for you. We have a story to sell here, let’s sell it.”
“What are we going to do? Have sex here and now?”
“No, Ryder. As thrilling as that sounds, not to mention hot—”
“Sarcasm.”
“—that’s a definite no. So, call a car and take us to your place.”
“You live right here.”
She smiles and toys with a button on my shirt. “True. But we’re going to your place so I can seduce you.”