Chapter 12 Charlie
Charlie
“Ryder, wait!” I follow him out of the studio and down the hall to the elevator.
The door conveniently opens just as we arrive, and we enter.
He refuses to look at me, and his jaw is a perma-knot as his dark eyes sling knives at the walls.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I shouldn’t have kept this from you.
Even though I was hurt by you and your family, I had no right to keep your son from you.
I was just so broken and lost after what happened. ”
Ryder smirks, hovering over me, my back pressing against the wall. His gaze forces itself into mine before it drops to my lips. “I should have never let you out of my sight,” he says in the small space as we descend.
“Well, you did.” I tremble.
“That was my biggest mistake.”
The bell rings, and the door opens.
“You’re coming with me,” Ryder says, grabbing my hand. He leads me through the luxury foyer with its glass walls, chandeliers, and framed black and white aerials of Vancouver.
“After what you just said out there?” I squint, standing my ground in front of the black car waiting on the street.
“Get in the car, Charlie.”
Ryder grits his teeth, yanking open the door for me. And I get in so we don’t cause a scene.
He’s upset as we weave through traffic and the glass towers of downtown Vancouver, but my blood is burning too.
His large hands press against his thighs, and as I look at him, my breath is labored.
He isn’t speaking, and I suppose I should humor him when he’s in pain, but I’m too upset.
Seeing him in pain makes my heart break, but he hurt me first. And he just went way off script out there.
I’m about to call him on it when his wounded, dark eyes flick to mine.
There was a time I thought all I wanted was to return the pain he caused me.
Seeing the real thing, I wonder how I could have ever let this happen.
“What happened out there?” I ask.
“That’s what you’re worried about?” He scowls.
“Well, you did just publicly commit me to a job that I rather die than take.”
“When did you plan on telling me?” His pointed gaze never leaves mine in the back seat.
I sigh. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
“But you were…” his voice cracks, “… eventually?”
I shake my head. My eyes stinging, I stare at my clasped hands on my lap.
“I don’t know. I think so. Maybe I thought once I was over hating you and got my life together, I would work on healing all the things that went wrong.
Like when I had the time and the money.” My eyes are hot when I struggle to look at him.
“Fuck, Charlie, do you know how much fucking money I have? It didn’t need to be like this. I would have taken care of you. I would have spent millions on therapy if needed. I would have done anything for you.”
Regret stabs me in the chest when we hit another red light.
“That wasn’t the impression I had.” It’s cold but true.
Until recently, I didn’t know Ryder wanted kids.
From what I knew of him through Lee and the media, all Ryder wanted was attention and to live boldly with as little responsibility as possible.
It’s not like he fought hard for me when he left me for France—the opposite.
Now that I know more about why he did that, my heart aches.
He nods angrily, not speaking for the rest of the ride.
“Where are we going?” I ask, pulled back into reality, though I have a hunch.
“My place.”
I nod. Maybe he wants to talk, and it should be somewhere private.
Though my impulse is to run for the hills, I can’t.
Not now. Not when I’m the one who’s caused this volcanic emotion, but I didn’t know he’d care this much.
And he’s not exactly innocent. We approach his building, the car stops, he opens the door, and I follow him out.
“Hello, Mr. Alexander.” The concierge nods at us as he swings open the glass front door.
The ride to the penthouse level is silent, and when Ryder opens his front door for me, I walk through.
His dark gaze slits, breath fuming as we walk into his luxury home.
Its devastating view of Vancouver and cool, clean lines are a salve to my boiling insides.
It’s a palette of sophisticated grays and rich browns with nautical-inspired artwork, which reminds me of the days we spent on the sea together in our youth.
It reminds me of who we were under all the pain and bitterness.
If only there were a way to heal everything that went wrong between us?
“Ryder.”
I’m about to apologize for what I did. Even though he was out of line out there and has caused his share of my pain, he didn’t deserve what I did.
But he cups my cheeks. Walking me back, his soulful eyes pin me against the wall next to a sailboat painting.
He gazes at me with ravenous hunger. My lips part in a breath, and his mouth crashes to mine.
I’d like to pretend I have the strength to resist, and want to fight it, but I don’t. Can’t. This desire has been bottled up inside me forever, igniting every thread of my being.
“You should have told me.” His mouth consumes mine with a passion that could destroy. Our lips brush, bite, and crash as one before they pull apart. “You should have been my wife. You know that, right?” He lifts me under the rear, and my legs wrap around his hips, my skirt riding up my thighs.
He pushes my panties to the side and rubs his knuckle over my aching sex. “Tell me you know you belonged to me, and you should have been mine.” He slides a finger inside me and then another. I nod, my body craving him like a drug and my core hungry for more of his scorching touch.
“Say it.” His fingers plunge inside me as my hips pump into the pleasure. My jaw goes slack, and moans slip from my lips. “Say you should have been my wife.” His voice is raw with emotion as his hand caresses my cheek, and his thumb strokes me.
I swallow, my voice momentarily lost before it chokes. “I… should have been your...” I have a hard time saying the word. It’s something I’ve wanted forever but would never admit.
“My what?”
His hot breath is a whisper. He slides his fingers out of me, unbuttons his pants, and they drop to the floor. As his other hand holds my wrists, I gasp for air. “Your wife.”
“You gonna ask me for a rubber when you’re mine?” His shaft grazes my core, making my hips beg. I shake my head because all I want is for him to be inside me, not caring about the consequences.
“No.”
“Good, because you belong to me.” He keeps teasing my seam with his strokes as I reach for him. I want him so badly.
“Please,” I moan, and he growls.
“Please, what?” He lines his cock at my entrance, and I feel the first delicious push of it into me as his lips brush my neck.
I cry. “Please, I want all of you.”
The pleasure is so intense as he pushes deep inside me, and my eyes roll back in my head. My voice is a weak breath when I remember, “I forgot my birth control in LA,” I say in a panic. “I didn’t take the pill this morning.”
He slowly retreats into my channel and then shoves back into me. “Then give me another child. One I can raise.”
“Ryder…” Tears leak from my eyes as he cups my chin with his hand, lifting my thighs with his hands to plunge into me harder.
My hips meet his every thrust, begging for more, as my hands drop to his rear and my back bangs against the wall.
My fingers sink into his firm cheeks, pulling him into me for more.
I can’t get enough. “Oh God, yes.” I hold him close.
“You think I’d let you take what’s mine?” he speaks into my ear.
“Ryder,” I beg, tugging him into me as his thrusts push me higher and higher.
I am delirious with pleasure as my sex clings to his massive invasion.
I know I shouldn’t take what I want. I know it’s reckless.
As reckless as when we were young, but I don’t want to stop.
Not when every part of me is begging for more and aching for release.
“That’s it, Charlie. You knew you were mine. Is that why you fled?” His lips trace my jaw as he pumps in and out of me in delicious strokes. He pushes me to the point of no return—higher and higher—until I’m breaking open.
“I… oh God, Ryder.” My fingers claw into his flesh as my eyelids slam shut in fierce sensation.
The release comes crashing down over me as I rise.
Panting and hips begging, my thighs and core shake violently.
Ryder’s eyes flutter shut. His hot seed spurts inside me as I spasm, milking his dick between my legs.
“You’ve always been mine.” He gasps, breathing hot breath down my neck. I’m still panting when he pulls out of me, his seed dribbling down my leg. He sets me down and strokes my bottom lip. “But that wasn’t enough, was it?”
His words are like a slap to the face, and I gasp, “That’s not fair. You know what you and your family did to mine. It is so much worse than what I did!”
“Was it? Is there anything worse than being deprived of your son?”
“How was I to know you wanted me or a child?” Hot tears stream down my face as his glassy eyes turn to their darkest shade.
“Besides, you have no idea what it’s like to lose everything.
To see your parents forced from their home, your father stripped of his vitality.
You’ve always lived an easy and privileged life.
How dare you pretend to know what it’s like to walk a day in my shoes. ”
His eyes slit. “All I know is you will take my job offer. And I will be a part of my son’s life.”
“What if I don’t want your job?”
“I’ve already told the public, and they’re counting on a public relations hotshot from LA named Charlie Gibbons assisting Miles to run our company. You wouldn’t want your son’s future shares to dwindle when we tell them she declined, would you?”
“Fuck you, Ryder. I’m not taking your job.”
“Then you give me no choice. I’ll retain every family lawyer worth their salt on the West Coast just to make sure you don’t have one. Then you’ll have to move back to Vancouver whether you take my job or not.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“You really want to test me again, Charlie? Take the job. Publicists in Vancouver don’t make nearly as much as in LA.” He straightens the lapel of his suit.
“You’re a prick, just like your father! No wonder I kept your son from you.” I tug down my skirt and slam the door in his face.