Taming Ryder (Souls of the Knight 2)

“Thanks,” I muttered when I reached the table, downing the two pills in one gulp. I collapsed backwards onto the couch, flopping my head back on the cushions. “I feel like shit.”

“I’m not surprised. Do you remember anything about last night?”

“I remember chatting up this old guy with a moustache at one point. But after that, nothing.”

“Nothing at all?”

“Oh fuck, what did I do? I fucked him, didn’t I? The old dude?”

“Well if you did it was before you got home.”

Usually, the idea that I’d done something so stupid would at least bring a smile to Mason’s face. Yet he just stared at me, his eyebrows drawn down and what looked like concern forcing his lips into a frown.

“Wait…did we…”

“No,” he said without hesitation. “We didn’t sleep together.”

“Then what’s with the face? What did I do?”

He delayed his answer for longer than I thought necessary, causing a swarm of nervous butterflies to take up flight in my stomach.

“Nothing. You came in, fell over the table and I put you to bed.” I glanced behind me and noticed the side table by the door was missing. “It was unsalvageable,” he added, as if he knew what I was thinking. “You should go back to bed.”

“Ugh. I can’t move again. I’ll be sick.”

“Then lie down here,” he suggested, standing from the couch. “I have to get to the studio.”

“What for?”

“Ivan wants to take some promo shots of me and Taylor before our scene next week.”

“You’re shooting with Taylor?” I asked. I sounded whiney, almost like a jealous lover.

“Yeah. Look I’ve really gotta go. Catch you later.”

I started to nod, but it wasn’t worth the pain in my head. So instead I lay down on my side and curled myself up into a tight ball. I planned to sleep the rest of the day away, feeling sorry for myself, only getting up to pee.

“Ryder!”

“What the…” I shot up off the couch so fast I almost rocketed through the ceiling. “Jesus, Elle! You trying to kill me?”

“I’ve been trying to call you for hours!”

“I’ve been sleeping. What’s so important? And how the hell did you get in here?”

“You gave me a key,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, I’ve just finished final preps for the fashion week and I got talking with someone.” Her fists were clenched tightly by her side as if she was literally about to combust with excitement. “Would you be mad if I said I’d arranged a photo shoot for you?”

“Um, depends who with I guess.”

“Christian Pacello,” she beamed, clasping her hands together in a praying position.

“Are you fucking with me? When?”

“Next Thursday. Ten AM. I ran it past Ivan because I didn’t know if he held some kind of rights to you. He’s good with it. In fact he’s really happy about it.”

“Well technically he does, but I know he’d support me in anything. Oh my God, Elle, this is fantastic!”

Wow. I sank back down onto the couch and dragged in a deep breath. Christian Pacello was my favorite underwear designer of all time and one of the biggest brands in the world. It was a huge name to model for and could really boost my reputation.

“I thought you might be pleased,” Elle said with a wide smile.

“Pleased? I’m fucking ecstatic!”

I took a few moments to let it sink in. This would be my first big modeling shoot and I was suddenly feeling really nervous, which was highly unusual for me. A good five minutes later and my stomach was still rolling with both excitement and apprehension, so I thought maybe a subject change might take my mind off the sickly feeling.

“How’re things going with Kip?”

“Perfect,” she answered on a dreamy sigh. I couldn’t help but smile at her. She’d gone from her smart and bossy usual self to lovesick thirteen year old in a nanosecond. “Sometimes it feels so weird. I mean, I’ve known him forever, yet I never knew just how beautiful he was – inside and out.”

“Did you steal that line from one of those romance novels you read?”

“Piss off,” she spat, thumping me playfully on the shoulder.

“Seriously, babe, don’t do that again unless you want to be wearing eu de vomit for the rest of the day.”

“Aww did my boy have a rough night?”

“I’d tell you if I could remember. What I do know is, Mason was acting really weird this morning. I’m wondering if I came onto him or something and pissed him off.”

“Was he mad at you?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head in confusion. “He looked, I don’t know, worried I guess.”

“Well maybe, like me, he doesn’t like seeing you getting off your face every damn night. I know you’re young, free and single and all that jazz, but surely you can see it’s not cool to not be able to remember what you did the night before? I’m worried about you too. You could get yourself into all kinds of trouble and I don’t want that happening to you again.”