Surrendering Series Box Set

We both laughed at that.

“I don’t think he likes me,” I said, breaking my rule about not telling Lucah about it.

“He doesn’t like anyone, and I’m pretty sure that if he hates anyone, it’s me. I think he hates himself a little bit, too. Lashing out and all that. I did that when I was younger. I think anyone who’s been through trauma does it to a certain extent. Some of us just take it farther than others.”

“I want him to like me, but I don’t know what to do or say to make that happen.”

“You can’t make someone like you, Sunshine. Just keep doing what you’re doing and he’ll come around. He’s just going to be an asshole for a little while. Trust me.”

“I do.” Always.

“Ready to go to bed?” I nodded and he picked me up again.

“My legs work, you know.”

“And what lovely legs they are.” He lay me down, but I had to get up again to undress for bed. Lucah let me do that, which was nice of him.

“It’s weird knowing there’s a third person living here now,” I said, climbing in next to him.

“It’s only temporary,” Lucah reiterated.

“I know. Still weird. But I’ll get used to it.” I curled myself into his chest and tried to make pictures out of his freckles, one of my favorite things to do at night. You couldn’t see the stars in Boston because of all the light pollution, so this was the next best thing.

“And by the time you do, he’ll be gone.”

He gave me a kiss that ended the topic of discussion, but that didn’t stop me from thinking about it.

Eighteen

There was a rush the next morning to get everyone up and ready and breakfast made and so forth. Clearly, getting three people going, two of whom were NOT morning people, was more difficult than just two. Luckily Lucah was up to the challenge.

I was rushing out of the shower and heading to get dressed when I crashed into Ryder coming out of the bathroom. My towel slipped and I held onto it for dear life.

He didn’t say anything, but moved aside so I could get by.

“Sorry,” I said, though I wasn’t sure what I was sorry for.

“Don’t be, I was enjoying the view.”

“Ryder!” Lucah snapped from the kitchen. “No ogling Rory unless you want me to kick your ass. I still know how to do a Full Nelson.” Ryder just cracked his knuckles and I tried to make sure my towel was covering all of my ladybits.

“On that note, I’m going to go put some clothes on.” I scampered away and Lucah and Ryder continued to argue about the ogling policy. I got dressed as fast as I could and dried my hair while Ryder was in the shower.

“Maybe I should just give him a show so he could get it out of his system. It’s bound to happen sooner or later,” I said to Lucah while I was putting on my mascara and he tied his tie.

“Let’s put that off as long as possible, shall we?”

“I’ll do my best.”

Lucah and I parted as we both hailed cabs. Ryder glared as we kissed and reluctantly got in the cab with Lucah. I said goodbye to them both, but only Lucah responded. Ryder’s shell wasn’t cracking anytime soon.

~*~*~

Lucah texted me later saying that he was in the office, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Even though he no longer sat across from me, just knowing he was in the building made me feel better.

And then a million things were dropped on my desk at once and I didn’t have time to think about Lucah or Ryder or family drama for the next few hours. One of our programs crashed, causing an office-wide panic as we struggled to fix it and also assure our clients that we were working on it.

Lilia brought me lunch and I ate at my desk while I was on the phone and typing email after email. I kept getting responses from tech support that everything was fixed, but then it would crash again. This was one of those times when smiling and remaining calm came in handy. No matter how much I wanted to scream and punch the person on the other end of the phone. It wasn’t until midafternoon that the issue got completely resolved, and by then all of the things I’d put aside to work on it were screaming at me.