Chapter 19
ELLIE
“Keep your hands to yourself!” I laughed. “I’m never gonna get out of here if you keep doing that!”
His lips ran along the column of my neck as he ground his hips into my ass. “You mean this?”
I sighed as he cupped my breasts, pinching my nipples through my shirt. God, what this man could do to me. It wasn’t fair that he so easily twisted me around his finger, and yet, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I was having too much fun right now.
“Stay here,” he groaned, rubbing his dick against me.
“Food,” I said, tearing myself from his body. “We need food, and I will not be swayed by sex. You can last one hour.”
Groaning, he flopped back on the couch. “You’re so mean.”
“I’ll keep that in mind when I strip out of my clothes when I get back,” I smirked.
“And how do I know you’ll be back in time? What if you wander off just to keep me waiting?”
“Yes,” I rolled my eyes. “That’s precisely what I’m doing. I’m avoiding you so I can keep you in misery while I grocery shop.”
He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at me. “Well, just to be on the safe side, I’d better go with you.”
“You really don’t need to.”
“That might be true, but it’s just better if I can keep an eye on you.”
Whatever. I wasn’t going to argue with the man. If he wanted to follow me around the grocery store, there wasn’t much I could do about it. Besides, at least now he could carry the groceries in for me.
I stepped outside, but didn’t make it more than three steps before he swung me around and pushed me up against the door, kissing me hard.
“Fuck, I should be getting lawyer shit done.”
“Then go do lawyer shit and I’ll get food.”
“Uh-uh. You’re not getting out of it that easily.”
With a final peck on the lips, he tugged me toward the driveway, only to come to a sudden stop. When I peeked around his massive shoulder to see what was stopping him, I stood there in stunned silence.
WHORE.
SLUT.
SKANK.
All spray-painted onto various parts of my Jeep in bright colors.
Tears pricked my eyes as I read the capitalized letters over and over again. My Jeep was ruined, and now, everyone who drove past would see this.
“Who the fuck would do this?” Ryder exploded, marching toward the vehicle.
When I didn’t answer, he turned to me, his voice getting louder. “Ellie, who the fuck would do this?”
My mouth opened, but the words wouldn’t come out. Not because I didn’t want to tell him, but because it could have been anyone. Most of the town still hated me. Most of them still had these ideas that I had broken up the golden couple, and that I was still fawning over Liam.
A horrible, animalistic cry left my lips, but I quickly covered it, burying my face in my hands as tears wracked my body.
“Hey, Ellie,” Ryder whispered, his voice just a scant inch from my ear. “Tell me who would do this.”
I shook my head, not wanting to tell him the story and ruin what we had. But it would come out anyway. Frankly, it was shocking that he hadn’t heard the story by now.
“Why would someone write this on your Jeep?” he asked.
Through blurry eyes, I looked up at him, trying to hold it together. “Because…because they all think I slept with Liam.”
His jaw hardened the longer he stared at me. “You’re gonna have to explain that one.”
Sniffling, I wiped my nose on my cardigan, not even caring how disgusting it was. “When Liam was dating Bailey, Austin Callahan was threatening her. He was trying to get her killed.”
“Why?” he asked, his voice gentle with a hint of anger.
“Because he hates the Parkers, and he’ll do whatever it takes to ruin them. And that included taking Bailey away from Liam.”
“How the hell do you fit into this?” he snapped.
With his fists clenched at his sides, it was like it was taking everything possible for him to remain cool. I just hoped that after he heard the truth, he wouldn’t get pissed at me.
“Liam came to me. He asked if I would put on a show with him. He needed to break things off with Bailey, and he needed it to be convincing. He was trying to save her life. I didn’t want to because—”
I stopped short of confessing to him that I had been in love with Liam most of my life. That was one part of the story I didn’t need getting out.
“But he was desperate. So, I went to the bar and hung all over him. I kissed him and sat on his lap, and at the end of the night, I took him home.”
“You did what?” he snapped.
“It’s not what you think. He was drunk, and I had to drive him home. He passed out as soon as I got him in the house. But he threw up all over me, and I had to wash my clothes. Bailey showed up the next morning, certain it was all a lie, but what she found was me in his shirt.”
Ryder spun away from me, his anger growing by the second. “Why the fuck would you do that?” he shouted. “Why would you put yourself in that position?”
“Because I wanted to help him,” I cried. “Austin was seriously out for blood. He’d already done something to Bailey’s car. He was trying to kill her!”
“That’s none of your business!” he exploded.
“Why are you mad at me?”
“Because you put yourself in the position for this to happen!”
I dropped my eyes, hating that he was right. But still, I didn’t need to be yelled at for it. I was beating myself up enough. And I definitely didn’t need the man I was sleeping with to berate me in such a way.
“Why haven’t you told Liam what’s going on?”
“I have,” I said quietly.
“And he’s done nothing?”
“He tried, but…but they want to believe that I tried to break up Liam and Bailey. It didn’t matter, so I told him to stop trying.”
“Why the hell would you do that?” he exploded.
My tears had long since dried up. Now, I was pissed. “Because it would only make things worse. Everyone around here loves Liam. He can do no wrong. And then there’s me! The chubby girl who always followed him around. Who the hell do you think they’d believe if I said I was only trying to help?”
His jaw clenched hard in anger as he took a single step toward me. His voice came out impossibly low, bordering on a growl. “What the fuck did you just say?”
I stared at him in confusion, shaking my head. “What—”
“The chubby girl? Is that really what you just fucking called yourself?”
“That’s not the point!”
“That is precisely the point!” he exploded. “That’s how you see yourself? How you would label yourself? If you don’t have any fucking self-respect, no one around here will respect you either!”
He spun away from me, shoving his fingers through his hair. He was fucking pissed, but I didn’t understand why he was so angry with me. I didn’t write the damn words on the Jeep. I had tried to help a friend. And most importantly, I was the only one who had the right to be pissed about anything.
When he turned to face me, the lethal expression on his face had me taking a step back. I didn’t think Ryder would hurt me, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified of the way he was eyeing me.
“You are not chubby,” he ground out. “You’re fucking perfect. And it’s assholes like me that have done this to you.”
“How have you—”
“I didn’t know,” he croaked out, his face filling with remorse. “When we were kids, I didn’t know that you—” His head hung as he cursed under his breath. “It was just a stupid nickname.”
“I hardly think my horrible body image has anything to do with a stupid nickname,” I laughed humorlessly.
“If someone tells you something long enough, you start to believe it,” he whispered.
His hand slowly slid up my arm, almost as if he was afraid to touch me. And when his eyes met mine…
“I’ve always seen you as perfect.”
“You dated Krista, who is literally rail-thin,” I retorted.
“It had nothing to do with her size. I was a teenage boy, and she was wild. I thought I wanted that.”
I huffed in irritation. If this was the part where he told me I didn’t need to lose weight or that I was perfect with all my flaws, I was going to poke him in the eye with a stick.
His body moved swiftly against mine, his hands coming up to cup my cheeks, forcing me to look into his pleading eyes.
“That’s why you wore that contraption the night I came back here. To squeeze it all in. To look a certain way.”
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting my body to look smooth,” I snapped.
“Not if that’s all there is to it. But if you’re wearing that thing because you think you need to look a certain size, then you really don’t see yourself the way I see you.”
“Of course I don’t. Look at you! You’re practically sex on a stick!”
“And you don’t see yourself that way?” he asked, sliding his hand through my hair to the nape of my neck. “You don’t see how hard I get when I see those fantastic breasts on display? How much I want to shove my cock between them or bury my face in them?”
He growled low in his throat as he pressed his erection against my belly. “You don’t feel what you do to me when I grab that perfect ass, thinking about filling my hands as you ride me?”
He dipped his lips to my neck, sliding his tongue over my skin. “Fuck, there isn’t a second of the day that I don’t think about seeing you naked. About burying my cock in that sweet pussy or bending you over the couch and fucking you hard and deep.”
“Ryder,” I moaned as he slipped his hand between us, and his fingers brushed against my swollen clit through my jeans.
“Tell me, how could you not see yourself as fucking perfect when all I can think about is how badly I need you?”
His lips slammed over mine in a bruising kiss. For just a moment, I forgot that we were outside. I didn’t think about how people might be watching or what they might be thinking. There was only the two of us.
“Inside,” he barked. “Or your neighbors are about to find out just how much of a slut you can be for me.”