Chapter 26 Under Arrest
Under Arrest
RYDER
Saturday.
Bless the broken road that led me to the weekend. ’Cause damn is life good today.
I can tell it’s past seven by the light that burns through my closed eyelids. Slipping a hand behind my head on the pillow, I stretch out my legs. My calves and hamstrings sing pleasantly, just the tiniest bit tight from last night.
The sheets are warm, soft.
Best of all, they smell like peaches. And sex.
My dick is hard, and I wince when my overly sensitive tip catches on the top sheet.
I always wake up hard when I’m in bed with her.
You’d think after a month of dating that my hunger for my girlfriend would be slightly less ferocious, especially with the holidays approaching.
We’ve had a lot on our plates: making plans for Thanksgiving, making meals for an impromptu Friendsgiving we hosted with my brothers and their significant others, and just making merry in general as my girl and I enjoy our time together.
I’m hungover far too often. But I’m also happy as hell.
Now that my place is basically a construction zone, we’ve been shacking up at Billie’s cute little apartment.
Yeah, I gotta wake up an extra hour early to make it to work on time—there’s the twenty or so minutes I spend making love to Billie every morning, and then the twenty-minute drive back to Lucky River Ranch—but I don’t mind.
Who needs sleep when you’re living in a dream?
Fucking cheeseball. Like I fucking care.
Colt is still not talking to either of us. Won’t even show his face at family dinners or at the Rattler on Friday nights. I only know he’s alive because I’ve been bugging Beck every few days, asking if Colt’s said anything about, well, everything.
Colt and Beck work together at their ranch, so of course Beck sees a lot of his brother. But Beck told me Colt hasn’t mentioned Billie or me. It’s like we no longer exist to him.
My chest feels heavy thinking about it. I miss my friend. I’m falling hard and fast for his sister, and I want to tell him about it. Get his opinion on shit. Celebrate this major win with one of my favorite people on the planet.
I want him to be part of our story, damn it. The fact that my brothers are happy for me and Billie makes everything that much sweeter. They’re participating in our shared life, and that means the world to me.
Colt is missing out. And I’m missing out on his life too. So is Billie. I know she is dying to see Dean more. As things stand right now, she only sees him in passing or if she happens to run into him at her parents’ house.
I also know there’s nothing to do but wait it out and hope for the best, but…
Yeah, the whole thing sucks.
Not gonna let that ruin a perfectly good Saturday morning. I smile when I hear the whirr of Billie’s electric toothbrush. Opening my eyes, I see that the door to the bathroom is closed.
She’d best still be naked. I told her in no uncertain terms that jammies are not allowed at our sleepovers.
Tossing off the covers, I stand and stretch again, this time with my arms over my head. I have a headache from the tequila we sipped last night by the fire, but otherwise, I feel good.
Horny as hell, but good.
I reach down and give myself a lazy, indulgent tug. Thinking about how pretty Billie looked last night on her knees, her eyes watering as she took me deeper, deeper still in her mouth, I grip myself tighter.
Yep, this is a dream.
Turning, I head for the bathroom. I catch a glimpse of myself in the full-length mirror beside the closet and stop, moving back a step. Do I look different?
Peering at my face in the mirror, it hits me that yeah, I do look different. I’m just not sure how.
I touch my scruff, overgrown and in need of a good trim. Billie likes it a little longer, though, so I’m letting it grow out.
I think it’s my eyes that have changed. They’re not bloodshot anymore. Or is it those laugh lines on either side of my mouth that weren’t there a month ago?
I like ’em. I also like the way the crow’s-feet at the edges of my eyes have deepened.
Fuck me, I look happy, don’t I?
“Admirin’ the fine work God did before he sent you to walk among us mere mortals?”
Turning my head, I see Billie standing in the open door of the bathroom. She’s leaning a hip against the jamb, the John Deere shirt she’s wearing hanging off her shoulder.
“That’s my shirt, you brat.”
She bites her lip. “You’d better come take it off me, then.”
Her hair is gathered in a messy knot at the top of her head. Strands hang down the sides of her face and brush her neck.
She looks so pretty, so relaxed and content, that for a second I can’t breathe.
“You all right there, Ry?”
It’s the way she smirks. How she casually strides toward me, the tips of her breasts poking through my shirt, those whiskey eyes never leaving mine.
“No, I’m not all right.”
Her brows pinch together. “Talk to me.”
Really, it’s her fearlessness in the face of how clearly emotional I am right now. She tucks a hand onto my cheek, her fingertips brushing my ear, and looks up at me. All earnestness.
All willingness and heat and vulnerability.
“Promise me.” I have to clear my throat to keep going. “Whatever I say next, you ain’t gonna run.”
She slowly blinks, running her thumb over my lips. “I promise.”
“You’re a girl who keeps her promises.”
“Learned that from you. And my parents. And my brothers.”
I laugh, even as I know I’m about to cry. “And basically everyone else in Hart County.”
“Dad used to always tell us that ‘our word was our bond,’ and I’d be like, ‘Okay, but what the fuck does that actually mean?’” She’s smiling now too. “Now I get it. So talk to me, damn it.”
I put my hands on her hips and glide them inside my shirt. My pulse jumps when I discover she’s not wearing panties.
“I wanna be around to see you pull off your plans for the animal therapy program, because you’re gonna make it happen.
” I search her eyes. “I wanna go for tractor rides with you every night of the week. And I wanna be that guy at your next race, the one who makes an ass of himself cheering so loud that people clear the area because they’re annoyed. ”
“Can’t promise I won’t fall,” she says, lips twitching.
“I can promise I’ll be there to catch you. Or give you CPR. One of the two.”
Her eyes fill, and she blinks. “Are you about to tell me that you’re in love with me?”
“Jesus Christ, Billie.” I chuckle. “Fuck. Fine. Yes. Yes, baby, I’m in love with you.
Let me be part of your story. Shit sure as hell ain’t perfect right now, but I’m starting to think—” I sniffle.
“As long as we got each other, we can get through anything. If being with you has taught me one thing, it’s that life’s too damn hard to do on your own.
It’s also too damn short to live it only half alive.
So live it with me, darlin’. Pretty please. ”
“With a cherry on top?”
“There’s a dirty joke in there about cherries that I’m not gonna make—”
“Ryder Rivers, don’t you dare hold back on me. Because maybe I’m a tiny bit in love with you too.”
My chest explodes. A full-on blast that has me glancing around the room, looking for blood and pieces of bone.
“‘A tiny bit’?” It’s all I can manage to say. “Are you still waiting on me to grow on you?”
Billie grins, her eyes flicking to my crotch. “Oh, you’ve grown on me, all right.”
I’m profoundly shaken. In all the best ways.
“It was the mouth-to-mouth, wasn’t it?” I ask.
“You’re not supposed to deflect with humor anymore.”
“Told you, I ain’t perfect.”
“Thank God for that, because I’m not perfect either.” She pecks my lips. “I’d like to think that gives us permission to be our perfectly imperfect selves with each other.”
Smiling, I lean in and kiss her. Slip my tongue inside her mouth. “My therapist said something along those lines too.”
She pauses, eyes toggling between mine. “You’re in therapy?”
“Started recently, yeah. I wanna keep thriving the way you taught me to. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to have some help staying on track. You know, so I don’t fall back into old patterns.”
“Wow. Wow, that’s… I’m so proud of you, Ry. That might be the sexiest thing to ever come out of a man’s mouth.”
I grin. “You’re welcome.”
“I love you.” She loops her arms around my neck. “Lemme show you how much.”
I slowly suck on her bottom lip, and she digs her hands into the hair at the nape of my neck, pressing her tits against my chest.
I start to guide her shirt up the soft slopes of her belly. She holds up her arms, and I break the kiss to tug the shirt over her head. I catch a glimpse of her cute little ass in the mirror, and my dick surges.
More of that.
Dragging my lips over Billie’s neck, I gently spin her around so that her back is to my front. We meet eyes in the mirror.
“This okay?” I cup her breasts, then flatten my hands so I can circle my palms over her nipples.
She moans. Her pupils blow out, making her eyes look bottomless. Deep, dark depths for days.
I press my dick to her ass. Can’t. Come. Before she does.
She nods. “This is—it’s more than okay. I like this, Ry.” Reaching behind her, she pushes her tits into my hands again as she plays with my hair.
“You see how pretty you are?” I kiss her neck and knead her breast. I slide my other hand down her stomach and use my fingers to part her pussy.
Her leg gives out when I press my first two fingertips to her clit. She’s not wet enough for my liking, so I pinch her nipple and bite her neck and push those fingertips a little deeper.
I find her entrance. Slip a finger inside and find the moisture I’m looking for.
Glancing in the mirror, I see Billie biting her lip as she watches me finger her. I like how into this she is. Now she’s rolling her hips, and I’m thrusting my finger, and she’s playing with her tits too.
Eyes on herself the whole time.
“See?” I smirk, nipping at her shoulder. “You turn on everyone, yourself included.”