Surrendering Series Box Set

“That’s good,” I said, and the air filled with the scent of fresh coffee. I filled the cups and Ryder helped carry the tray over to the coffee table. I followed with creamer and a plate of little cookies I’d made a few days ago. I’d been in a baking mood for some reason lately.

Lucah handed out the cards and we started playing. Soon enough we were all laughing and having a raucous time. The game went long into the night, and by the time Rory was declared the winner, I was ready to fall into bed.

“Well, we should get going,” Rory said, poking Lucah, who gave her a look.

“One more round?” he asked hopefully.

“Christ, you can leave us alone together. For fucks sake,” Ryder said, tossing his cards in the box.

Lucah just sighed and got up. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Thank you for dinner, Sloane. If you want a break tomorrow, I’d be happy to order out.” I didn’t want a break from cooking, but I was craving sushi from my favorite place.

“That would be great,” I said.

Rory followed Lucah out the door. “’Night, guys,” I said. The door closed, and then it was just me and Ryder. I expected him to get up, but he pulled out some of the cards and started shuffling them, doing fancy tricks.

“Where did you learn to do that?” I asked, watching the cards fly from one of his hands to the other.

“Here and there.” He held one card up then moved his hand and made it disappear, then it reappeared with a snap of his fingers.

“Bravo!” I said, clapping my hands.

Ryder shrugged and put the cards back. “It’s no big deal. Something I used to do when I was a kid.”

I got up and took the empty cups to the kitchen, putting them in the dishwasher.

“Sloane?” Ryder said, and I nearly banged my head on the counter in surprise.

“Yeah?” I straightened up to find him watching me with a weird look on his face. I had no idea how to read that.

He opened his mouth to say something and then changed his mind. “Nothing. Have a good night. I’m going to head home. I have to work in the morning.”

I nodded. “Sure, yeah. Me too.” This was a strange way to end the evening, but I didn’t know what else to say.

“Okay, yeah. Well, goodnight,” he said again. This was awkward.

“Bye,” I said, and he headed out the door.

Weirdness.

Five

I woke in the middle of the night thinking about Ryder. Well, specifically thinking about Ryder’s bod and how much I wanted to see all of it again. And touch it too. I hadn’t really gotten to do that last time.

Getting up, I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. My body was hot and I was sweating. I turned the heat down and went back to bed, hoping to wipe the memory of naked Ryder from my brain, at least for the next few hours so I could get some sleep.

It didn’t work.

~*~*~

Despite being tired, my brain was awake and alert most of the night and wouldn’t stop thinking about Ryder. I’d try to think about something else, something soothing, and it would inevitably lead to him. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like that he occupied so much of my brain space. I needed that space for other things. Non-naked things.

In the morning I was not a happy camper. I almost felt bad for the people who had to work with me. I had two cups of coffee before going in, just to get myself functioning normally. Apparently the coffee wasn’t a miracle working because Inari immediately noticed.

“Whoa, are you okay?” Way to sugarcoat it, Inari. Thanks a lot. I glared at her. “I’m sorry! But you don’t look like your usual self,” she said.

I’d tried to put on extra under-eye concealer and had done a bold red lip to take the attention away from my tired eyes, but apparently it hadn’t worked as well as I’d hoped. I even had my favorite flippy black skirt on that made my legs look like they went on forever and that hadn’t even helped.

“I just had a bad night. Couldn’t sleep.”