Chapter 67 Rosalie
SIXTY-SEVEN
ROSALIE
“What the fuck, man?” Trent muttered as he stared down at a clump of spaghetti noodles hardened together.
“You have to make sure to mix them, dumb ass,” Ryder chortled, peering over his shoulder into the pot on the stove.
This was going into the second week in a row of me being with them at Anson’s in the evenings. Anson usually returned home around eleven, leaving me with one or the other, sometimes both, while he was gone.
Since Ryder worked, I usually spent time with Trent. Or didn’t, since I kept to myself in Anson’s bedroom.
But it hadn’t slipped past me that Trent was definitely not a cook.
“It’s fine,” I said weakly. “I-I’m not hungry—”
“Bullshit, Red,” Ryder said, turning off the stove and slapping Trent on the arm. “Come on. Get changed. I’m taking you to dinner.”
“What about me?” Trent demanded.
“You can stay here and think about what you did,” Ryder retorted. “Be here if Anson comes back early.”
“Text him, dick.” Trent flopped onto a chair in the living room as I stood from the seat I’d been in at the kitchen island.
“Order takeout. Red needs to go out and breathe.” Ryder looked at me. “Dress nice. It’s a fancy restaurant.”
I sighed, and Ryder raised his brows at me. Knowing he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, I went back to Anson’s room and put on the only dress I’d grabbed. A black number I’d picked out with Fox on one of our few outings we got to do.
I put it on and winced at how I looked. I didn’t know what I was thinking when I bought the damn thing. It was severely low cut and short. I suppose I liked the look on Fox’s face when I’d grabbed it.
Since it was all I had, I’d run with it, but made a mental note to go shopping in case there were any other impromptu dinner outings.
I’d showered earlier, so I quickly put on some makeup and dotted on lip gloss before sliding my feet into a pair of black heels and walking out to find Ryder poking Trent and Trent slapping at him.
They seemed to thrive on annoying one another. It was funny, and it did make me smile, which was a nice change from my grimace.
“Holy fucking shit,” Ryder said, pausing mid-poke.
“Whoa,” Trent added, sitting forward.
“You said to dress nice.” I twisted my fingers nervously in front of me. “I-I have maybe some leggings that are nice and a sweater—,”
“Fuck no. Hold on a second. I can’t wear this.” Ryder moved past me and went into Anson’s room. They were pretty much the same size, so I assumed he was going to borrow something from Anson’s closet.
“Don’t let my brother see you wearing that,” Trent said, his blue eyes skirting up my body.
I frowned. “Why?”
Trent scoffed. “Seriously? Rosalie, he’ll die. The guy lives and breathes for you.”
“He’s getting married, Trent.” I sat on the couch.
“So? Married doesn’t mean dead.”
“It does if you’re Anson.” I smiled, appreciating his loyalty. Bianca was lucky. Her kings were good guys, too. She had it all, even a growing family. In a way, I was a little jealous of her.
Trent rolled his eyes. “Listen. Go out and have some fun.”
“Why don’t you come with us?” I asked.
He smiled. “I think I’ll hang back. I have a feeling this is going to take a fun turn. And to be honest, I like a little chaos.”
“Do you want me to bring you back something to eat?”
“Cheesecake,” he said immediately. “I love cheesecake.”
“Me too.” I gave him a genuine smile.
“Birds of a feather.” He laughed as Ryder came out dressed in a pair of dress pants and a black button-down.
“You look good,” I said, standing.
He grinned. “Thanks. I didn’t want to look like a bum standing next to you.”
I chuckled at that and shook my head.
“Come on.” Ryder gestured for me to follow him.
“Wait!” Trent shot out of his seat with his phone in his hand. “Picture.” He gestured for us to stand next to each other.
“Um, OK.” I shuffled over to Ryder, who put his arm around my waist and put me against his body.
“Make it look real. I’m putting this on your social media,” Ryder said.
“What?” I looked up at him at the same time Trent took the photo.
“Sent it to you,” Trent said to Ryder.
“Let’s go.” Ryder led me out of the apartment and down the stairs. Once we were outside, he held his hand out to me. “Give me your phone.”
Anson had brought me a new phone even though I told him I didn’t want one. He said he needed to be able to reach out to me, so I accepted the gift.
I dug into my clutch and handed him my phone, and watched as he sent me a text of the photo we took, then uploaded it to my Instagram.
“What are you doing?” I asked, as he captioned it ‘date night’ and tagged himself.
“Being a petty little bitch,” he said, handing my phone back. “Don’t delete it, either. It’s helping me out too.”
“I don’t understand,” I said as I followed him down the sidewalk.
“I have this chick who won’t leave me alone. I told her I’m dating someone. She stalks my socials. This helps me.”
“What if she stalks me?”
“You have dudes who watch your ass. I have Trent, and that guy can’t even cook spaghetti.” He paused next to a blacked-out motorcycle. “Of course, might be able to use his clumped-up noodles as a weapon.”
He grabbed a helmet and handed it to me.
“What’s this?”
“It’s to protect your pretty little head.”
“This is your bike? We’re going on a bike?”
“Yeah.” He put his helmet on and turned to help me with mine.
“Ryder, I-I’ve never really been on a motorcycle before. I-I don’t think today is a good time to start. And in this dress?” I shivered.
“Today is the perfect day to start living, Red,” he murmured, pulling the helmet down over my head. “Now get your sexy ass on my bike and hold on.”
I laughed loudly as Ryder tossed a strawberry into the air. He missed catching it with his mouth, and it hit him in the eye. He’d taken another picture of us and posted it on my Instagram and tagged our location once we’d arrived.
“Fuck. Ow,” he grunted as a few of the nearby people at the restaurant shot irritated looks at us.
This place was way too fancy to be laughing loudly, but it felt really good.
Like, really good.
Ryder picked the strawberry up from the table and grinned at me.
“Open,” he instructed.
“I’m not eating something that’s been in your eye,” I said immediately.
He snorted and ate it himself before picking up another from his bowl of fresh fruit.
“Open,” he said again. “Don’t tell me no.”
I leaned in and parted my lips for him. He placed the fruit against it, and I bit. The juices rushed into my mouth, dancing with my taste buds.
“Oh wow.” I covered my mouth. “That’s really good.”
“Better be. Shit is twenty-two dollars a bowl.”
I widened my eyes at that. “We could have gotten several pounds at the store for that price.”
“Well, Red, we have three. Three strawberries. Six blueberries, and…” He counted the remaining fruit. “Four, no, five raspberries.”
“Yikes.”
“Yikes, indeed.” He ate a blueberry, his eyes fixed on something over my head. He stiffened for a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
“Uh, well, this is unexpected.”
I made to look behind me, but he hissed at me.
“Don’t look. Just… follow my lead, OK?”
Bewildered, I watched him move his seat next to mine and drape his arm around my shoulders.
“Um, Ryder?”
“Shh.” He pushed the last strawberry to my lips. “Open.”
I did what he asked and bit into the fruit.
And that’s when I saw what had him acting this way.
Enzo and Cole, with Celeste, had just been seated nearby. They hadn’t noticed us.
“I-I have to go.” I tried to get up, but Ryder held me in place and leaned in, his lips at my ear.
“Do not move,” he whispered. “They’re out here being fucking cocksuckers. Thinking you’re home, crying, mourning them. You’re not, though, Red. You’re here, sexy as fuck, with me. We can put it to them if you want.”
I cast a side-eye at their table. They were getting wine. Enzo was smiling. Cole wasn’t. No Ethan, but I knew he hated Celeste, so at least he wasn’t completely shredding my heart.
I breathed out. “Cole will lose it.”
“Cole isn’t with you, Rosalie,” he continued softly. “He’s not allowed to lose it. Not here in public. It’ll eat at him all night. Make them hurt if you want to make them hurt. Or maybe they won’t give a shit at all, and if they don’t, at least you had a little fun.”
“You’re a damn menace,” I whisper-hissed back at him.
He let out a soft laugh and ran his lips along my jaw. “Come on. Live a little. We’ll have a story to tell Anson and Trent when we get home.”
I rolled his words over in my head. I did want Cole and Enzo to hurt. I was tired of being the only one who broke.
If this bothered them, good. If it didn’t, then I had some damn fun.
“Cole just noticed you,” Ryder murmured. “Don’t look. Follow my lead.”
I swallowed as his hand rested high on my thigh.
If you weren’t paying close attention, it would just look like he was a guy giving his girl some affection, but I knew Cole.
He was a details person. If he knew I was here, he was watching and knew precisely what was happening as Ryder moved his hand.
“You might enjoy this a little more if you relaxed.”
“What? No,” I hissed back at him. “We should go.”
“I’m not going to do anything.” He moved his hand higher. “It’ll just look like I am. Like we’re together.”
I hesitated for a moment before relaxing and letting out a soft breath. Ryder moved his hand high on my thigh, just beneath my skirt, and gently traced circles on my skin, making goosebumps rush across.
His lips were still at my ear.
“Lean into me,” he said.
I did so, swallowing hard.
“Now just pretend like I’m saying the most insanely sexy as fuck things to you.”
“Are you going to?”
“Do you want me to?” I could hear the smile in his voice.
“No. I-I just wanted to be prepared.”
“Mm, I know how to actually make spaghetti. Would you like that, Red? My spaghetti. In your mouth? Look at me.”
I stared into his eyes. A tiny smirk danced on his lips.
“Close your eyes,” he murmured.
I let my eyelids flutter closed, my pulse roaring in my ears as he continued to draw circles on my thigh.
“Whisper, oh my god, and wrap your hand around my wrist.”
“Oh my god,” I whispered and wrapped my hand around his wrist as he made bigger, faster circles on my thigh.
“Kiss me,” he commanded.
That was the only warning I got until his lips were on mine.
If I thought for one moment Ryder would be gentle and discreet in this, I was so wrong. He tangled his fingers in my hair and kissed me deep, his tongue against mine, his other hand still high on my thigh, making circles.
I heard a crash and a girl cry out before shuffling.
Ryder broke the kiss off, his eyes sparkling, and tugged me to my feet.
“Don’t look,” he commanded. “You’re unbothered, and they don’t matter.” He threw a handful of bills on the table before winding his arm around my waist and leading me out.
I didn’t look back as we went to his bike.
“Oh my god!” I bounced on my feet, adrenaline flooding through me.
Ryder grinned. “Perfect. He was so pissed. The blond. Cole.” He laughed loudly. “He broke his wine glass. Got their bitch wet. Stained that ugly tan fucking dress she was wearing.”
I threw my arms around him, and he held me back.
“Thank you,” I said, hugging him.
“You’re welcome. You’re a damn good kisser, by the way.”
I gave him a tighter squeeze.
“Come on. Let’s go fuck some other shit up,” he said, leaning in and pecking my lips again before pulling away and grabbing my helmet.
For the first time in a long time, I was eager to keep going.
He pulled the helmet over my head and put his on before getting onto the bike.
That was when I noticed Cole standing on the sidewalk, staring at us, his hands balled into fists.
I hesitated for a moment, staring back at him. He knew I was looking at him, too, despite the helmet that hid my face.
Enzo came out and stood at his side, talking quickly. They both stared at me, neither moving.
A sick sense of satisfaction washed over me.
I turned and got onto the back of Ryder’s motorcycle and wrapped my arms around his waist as he revved the engine. I leaned into him and rested my head on his back, holding him tightly.
He patted my hands, and that was it.
We roared off into the night, leaving Cole and Enzo on the sidewalk to watch.