Taming Ryder (Souls of the Knight 2)

I’d been travelling for five days, hitching various rides from strangers and sneaking onto different buses, praying I wouldn’t be noticed. I had fifty dollars to my name, and that had to last me until I got my first check from Ivan. I still didn’t know when that would be because I was too busy trying to sell myself to remember to ask.

Physically and mentally exhausted, my body was unable to resist the temptation of the mattress. I’d slept upright, against windows, shoulders and walls for the best part of a week, and so as I lay down on the bed, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep before I’d even pulled the blankets over myself.

I’d been staying with Ryder for just over a week now. I knew when I came here it would be difficult to find a place that didn’t require a deposit, I didn’t, however, expect it to be impossible. Seriously, this week had been surreal. I hadn’t shot any more scenes yet but I’d modeled with some of the other guys, taking promo shots Ivan planned to use to introduce me as their new exclusive. I’d made an unexpected friend in Ryder – he was crazy, wild, hyper, his confidence was off the freakin’ charts and of course he was fucking gorgeous. He damn well knew it too... and I suspected so did every other guy whose naked ass I’d seen stumbling from Ryder’s room every morning this week.

But when we were alone he could be so different. So calm. So mysterious. Sometimes I saw a look in his eye that told me he hid a lot of stuff about himself. I knew that look because it was the same one I forced into my own eyes when facing the mirror every morning.

The most unreal part of this week though had been hanging out with Sawyer. Not only Sawyer, but Kip Benson too. It was like I’d been living under a rock the past few years, because I had no idea Ryder was one of the stylists on the Souls of the Knight tour last year, or that he was best friends with Elle Wilson, or that Elle and Kip were now a couple. The band was one of my favorites until life went to shit, so I guess I stopped keeping up with the latest gossip columns.

Everyone had been amazing. I didn’t expect to make friends so quickly - if at all. I didn’t actually believe the guys at Back Door were a ‘family’, and I literally didn’t think I’d ever know what it felt like to laugh so hard my stomach ached again.

“Right, tiger,” Ryder said, literally jumping onto the couch next to me and propping his feet up on my legs. “I’m bored. Entertain me.”

“Maybe later,” I replied, shifting his feet over on my lap so I could continue to circle potential apartments in today’s paper.

“We’ve talked about this,” he grumbled, kicking the newspaper off my knee. “You don’t need to live in some shit hole out of town when you can stay here.”

“I’m not staying here for nothing, Ry. And right now I can’t aff-”

“Then owe me. Whatever, mate, just stop being a boring old twat and amuse me.”

“Fine,” I said, relinquishing. “What do you wanna do?”

“If I knew that I’d be doing it. You decide.”

“You can be so demanding. You know that right?”

“It’s been mentioned on occasion.”

“I’m voting stay in, movie, pizza, and enough peanut M&M’s to make us sick for two days. You in?”

“What movie?”

“Fast & Furious?”

“Beaches.”

“Beaches? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Bette Midler’s a legend! What kind of gay are you?”

“One with taste. I’m not watching that shit, dude.”

“Well I’ve seen all the Fast & Furious movies.”

“Man of Steel.”

“Superman? That’s for kids.”

“You’re never too old for Superman. Besides, it’s got Henry Cavill in it,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows.

“He’s probably old enough to be my dad.”

“Didn’t think you were the type to discriminate. Usually if it moves, it’s fair game.”

“Hey, I’m not saying I wouldn’t fuck him. Just stating a fact.”

“So Man of Steel it is?”

“How about Iron Man 3. You get your comic hero and I get Robert Downey Jr.”

“Man, you can be such a pain the ass.”

“I’ll be a pain in your ass any time you want me to, tiger.”

I forced a smile but inside my stomach rolled with nerves. Fuck knows why I was being such a wimp about this. I didn’t even know what exactly was bothering me. I wasn’t a wuss about pain, I wasn’t shy about my body… maybe it was just because the likelihood was I’d be giving up my bottoming V card in front of a camera.

“I’ll order the movie and you order the pizza.”

“Ugh, my phone’s over there,” Ryder grumbled, nodding towards the kitchen work surface. “You sort the pizza and I’ll do the movie.”