Surrendering Series Box Set

He made a face that told me he didn’t think that phrase was very good.

“Well fine, you come up with something,” I said.

“Can’t we just . . . be?”

“Be what?”

“Be Sloane and Ryder.”

“You’re not making any sense,” I said. “Are you thinking we should combine our names like a celebrity couple or something? How would you combine our names anyway?”

“Slyder?” he said.

“That’s actually kind of awesome,” I said. “Okay, we’ll be Slyder. And what is involved in Slydering? Yeah, I turned it into a verb.”

He looked up at me and smiled so big I thought he was going to injure his facial muscles.

“I love this. Can we just do this for the rest of our lives? I don’t just mean the sex, because that’s spectacular, but just this. The talking and the staring and the everything.”

“The Slydering,” I said.

“Yeah. The Slydering. We’ll turn it into a thing.”

“It will sweep the nation. Maybe even the world.”

“Undoubtedly,” he said, his expression going serious. “We’ll probably be nominated to rule the world. That’s going to be a lot of work.”

“Meh, we got this. Together.” I held my hand up, and he clasped it in his and kissed the back of my hand.

“Together,” he said.

Thirty-One

Ryder went back to Lucah and Rory’s to get ready for our Slyder, known to everyone else as a date. But we were calling it a Slyder because that was how we rolled.

I searched through my closet, wondering what I should wear and had come back to the gown I’d worn the night of the ball. It was one of my absolute favorites dresses I’d ever made for myself. And it had a not so good memory associated with it. I wanted to change that.

So I put it on and twisted my hair up in the back and made sure Ryder’s mother’s earrings were safely in my ears. They really were gorgeous. They weren’t my style, but maybe they could be. I used to believe that people didn’t change, or they only changed a little and pretty much stayed the same from the time they were young. But now I was revising that. People could change. Not everyone, of course.

Ryder had changed. I had changed. We were changing together and turning into new people. I liked these new people and couldn’t wait to see more of them.

There was a knock at my door, and I grabbed my coat and bag. I swung the door open and started laughing. Ryder was wearing the same suit he’d worn at the ball.

“Twinsies,” I said, motioning to the dress. “Guess we both had the same idea.”

He was stunning. He’d slicked back his hair and trimmed his beard, and in that suit he was good enough to eat.

“Yeah,” he said, staring at me. “What did you say?” He blinked a few times, and I laughed.

“I said that we had the same idea to wear the outfits from the ball. Figured we should make some new memories in them.” I did a little twirl, and Ryder clapped.

“That is some dress, Sloane.”

I swung the skirt.

“And what about the girl inside it?”

He leaned forward and gave me a kiss on my cheek. “She’s even more spectacular.”