I didn’t answer, trying to resist the way he looked at me. The warmth had returned to his gaze the morning before, but he acted like nothing happened.
Like he hadn’t made me feel like less and kept secrets from me.
“I’m sorry I shut you out. I didn’t mean to upset you. I didn’t have an easy start to life and sometimes it comes up in my dreams,” he said, and I felt my body soften in response to the vulnerable look in his eyes.
“You want me to believe in this relationship, or whatever you want to call it. But I have to know you to do that, and I don’t. I know absolutely nothing about you aside from your criminal life. You have no family. You never talk about what you were before you joined the Bellandis. I need to know you, Ryker,” I whispered. “Whenever I ask, you shut down. I understand not wanting to get into specifics, but I need something.” My arms wrapped around the back of his neck, toying with the bottom of his hair between my fingers. “I want to know you,” I admitted, even if it pained me. I knew with every layer of himself that Ryker unwrapped, I fell harder and harder.
Bit by bit. Even when I tried to ignore it and hated myself for it.
He smiled up at me, hearing the admission for what it was. A verbal acknowledgement of my growing feelings for him. “I’ll tell you at some point, but for now,” he reached up with a hand, supporting my weight with just the one wrapped around the back of my thigh. When he touched my cheek, I melted into that touch. “I want you to know that I give you everything that matters. You know me, Tesoro. My childhood contributed to the man I became, but not in a good way. The only thing that matters to you is the man I show you every day.”
When he tugged my head down to his, I let
him coax a kiss from me. Soft and sweet, he showed me who he was. He showed me I mattered, contrasting with the way he’d made me feel two nights prior.
“Gross! Not again!” Axel laughed. When I pulled back, Ryker turned to level Axel with a narrow-eyed stare that I had a feeling would have made most grown men cower. But my son wasn’t fazed, content knowing Ryker would never hurt him.
“Are you ever going to let me kiss your mother in peace, Little Man?” he asked, setting me to my feet as my phone rang in my back pocket. He didn’t let me answer, wrapping an arm around my waist and dragging me so that my feet dragged along the ground as he raced toward Axel.
“No,” Axel laughed, running in the other direction when Ryker chased after him. My feet dragging undoubtedly slowed him down, but he still caught up to my boy’s shorter legs quickly. Grabbing Axel around the waist, he swung him upside down as he lost his mind in a fit of giggles.
“Why am I involved in this?” I asked, laughter bubbling in my chest as Ryker moved toward Ines. She giggled, hurrying around the field as Ryker chased her. He had to amble along like a swamp creature with both of us hindering his legs, but it only made Ines laugh harder. “Hulk! Put me down!” I laughed, wincing when he dropped me on my ass in the grass.
He’d done it delicately enough that it didn’t hurt by any means, but I glared at him no less as I took my phone out of my pocket as it rang again.
When Jason’s name popped up on my screen, I contemplated not answering. I didn’t imagine there was a world in which Ryker would relish me talking to a man on the phone, not given all his grunty alpha bullshit with James’s father.
But in the spirit of not keeping secrets when I tried to demand full truth from him, I hit the answer button. “Hey,” I said.
“Calla,” Jason called on the other end of the line. He sounded so uninterested, and I realized that he always did. I’d just never known the difference. My eyes automatically went to Ryker, watching him twirl the kids around in his arms like he was a carnival ride. “The kids sound like they’re having the time of their lives,” Jason laughed, undoubtedly listening to the peals of laughter.
“They’re having a blast. What’s up?”
“Is your Dad there? He’s the only one who can make them laugh like that,” Jason chuckled, thoroughly amused with his inner knowledge of our lives. I bristled, the insinuation that I couldn’t make my kids laugh not lost on me. Given that he’d made similar comments in the past, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
“No. I met someone and the kids adore him,” I snapped, not bothering to hide the bite in my tone. “They were playing soccer, but it appears to have evolved into goofing around.” I didn’t know what it was, but since Ryker’s insertion into my life, everything Jason texted me or said felt invasive. Perhaps it was the knowledge that he wouldn’t approve of Ryker.
Or maybe it was just the fact that he expected me to be loyal to Chad until I died.
“You met someone? And you already introduced him to Chad’s kids?” Jason said, his voice full of warning.
“My kids, and yup!” I popped the end of the word, feeling more and more aggravated when Ryker turned to watch me suddenly, staring at me with narrowed eyes and the humor suddenly gone from his expression.
No longer amused. The kids picked up on his disinterest immediately, the smile drifting off Axel’s face.
Instantly, I grew more and more annoyed. Between Ryker’s crappy jealousy and Axel’s fun ending, I wanted to blame Jason for ruining what had been a pleasant moment.
One of those moments where I felt myself falling deeper and deeper in love with my stalker.
“I don’t think that’s smart,” Jason said. “You might confuse them—”
“Not your place, Jason,” I snapped, and instantly my body tightened when Ryker’s energy shifted from annoyance to pure fury. I knew he couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation, but just the fact that I was on the phone with Jason seemed to be enough to bring out the beast.
He sighed on the other end, continuing on with a change of topic like he knew what was good for him. “I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. I’m working a case and might not be able to get away tomorrow. I don’t want to get too wrapped up and forget to call.
It said everything that he even could forget in the first place. We hadn’t talked about it, but somehow I knew Ryker wouldn’t forget my birthday.
There was no doubt he knew about it, at any rate. Not with the way he’d stalked my ass.