Page 56 of The Last Promise You Made

Ryder was already in the kitchen. He had on tight jeans and a Henley pushed up at the sleeves, baring corded forearms. The shirt stretched over his wide shoulders, accentuating muscles that came from hard work rather than weights and machines. The entire look was appealing in a way that was dangerous, in a way that reminded me of high school heartbreak.

My first real crush had been the summer after my sophomore year. It was for a boy who’d lived next door and spent all his free time at the rodeo or listening to country music. I’d begged Holden to take line-dancing lessons with me so I could catch the boy’s eye come fall. I’d spent the summer learning how to impress him with my dance moves only to have Dad restationed just as the school year had started. I’d had to leave the boy and my moves behind.

“Coffee?” I asked.

Ryder tilted his head toward the old-school pot in the corner. No Keurig here. I’d had to figure it out the morning before, when I’d made myself at home in his kitchen. It should have felt weird, and I’d expected a snarky comment from him when he’d come out of his room, but instead, he’d taken it in stride, as if he’d seen me there a million times before. I hadn’t known what to make of it.

“I’d like Addy’s help this morning in creating the image of the guy she saw,” I told him as I poured a cup.

“I need to get over to the ranch, keep going on the new cabins. Otherwise, they won’t be done in time for the guests we already have booked.”

“You can go this morning, and I’ll bring her over when we’re done.”

His brows were hunched together, a scowl replacing the calm that had been on his face. I was tempted to smooth the wrinkles between his eyes with my fingers before the bite in his voice raised my hackles.

“I’m not letting her go through that alone.”

“She won’t be alone. I’ll be with her.”

“You’re not her family.”

The words sliced into me even though they were the truth. The shock of how much it hurt was almost as painful as the words themselves. As soon as I got what I needed from Addy and could ensure she was safe, I’d have to move on. I wouldn’t stay. I never did. I didn’t want to stay. Certainly not here, in the middle of Nowhere, Tennessee.

“Don’t act like you’ve been at her side her entire life, Ryder. You’re no more family to her than I am at the moment.”

“She’s never going to be without a family again. That was true the moment you walked her into my brother’s office. It’s why you brought her here, isn’t it? So you could get what you needed and walk away? I imagine you’re really good at it.”

“Excuse me?” Why did this man always put me on the defensive? Why did every truth feel like a barb instead of a salve? As if it were a knock to my character instead of what made me excellent at my job.

“Why are you taking offense?” He seemed legitimately puzzled. “That’s what your job entails, right? One case closed, and you go on to the next in a new location.”

“Yes. But you make it sound like, just because I’m good at my job, it means I don’t give a shit about the people involved. As if I simply use them before I disappear.”

“Don’t you?”

I put down the coffee cup and stepped into his space, poking at his solid chest with my finger. “I care about the people I work with and the individuals impacted by the criminal networks I help unravel, asshole. Hell, I even hired the last person whose world was turned upside down by the Lovatos. I don’t use people. I protect them. That’s my job.”

His eyes narrowed, and he grabbed my wrist, pulling it away so my finger no longer dug into him like an arrow finding its target. The heat of his hands snaked up my arm, over my collarbone, landing in my chest like a spark. The desire I felt when we were like this only irritated me more. I didn’t want these feelings. I didn’t want him. But just because I didn’t want a boyfriend or, God forbid, a husband, it didn’t mean I didn’t care about people. That I didn’t love the people in my life. I might not be able to stick around and shower Addy with the attention she deserved, but I wasn’t going to wash my hands of her either.

“You didn’t protect us,” he growled, and instead of pushing me away, he tugged so I had to step even closer. “In fact, all you did was leave more wreckage in your wake without ever looking back. You gave your reservation to your brother, who traumatized my family all over again with a shoot-out in our front yard, destroying our fence, and our field, and sending Maddox on a wild-goose chase.”

“That’s hardly my fault. It isn’t like I knew the people Holden was running from would find them here. He might have ruined a fence or two, but he was doing everything he could to protect the vice president’s daughter. That was mission number one.”

I jerked my wrist, trying to step back, but he squeezed tighter, pulling in the opposite direction, and the motion brought me colliding with his body. Hips against hips. Heaving chest against heaving chest. Fire rained through me. Embers threatening to combust.

“You’re still the one who sent him to us, knowing it could put us in danger. And after it all went down, we didn’t hear a peep from you. Not an ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘Is everyone okay?’ So don’t give me a line about caring about the people impacted by the criminals you and your brother chase.”

His blue eyes sparked, fury and lust combining. The look made me nervous in a way I never was—not when facing a gun or sneaking into a facility to install listening devices. This look…the passion…it threatened to knock open the secret door in my heart I’d kept safely under lock and key ever since it had been brutally stomped on the one time I’d really given it away in college.

I licked my lips, biting down, and his eyes tracked every movement. The punishing kiss he’d given me last summer seemed to bloom between us, and in that moment, I knew the truth. He wasn’t pissed at what had gone down with Holden. He was pissed his body reacted to me the way mine did to his. He was furious I’d left and not come back, which made no fucking sense when I knew for a fact he didn’t keep women around.

“What are you really upset about, Ryder? That I left or that I didn’t show back up? You can’t have it both ways.”

He looked like I’d hit him. He let go of me, stepping away, and the heat that had threatened to consume us crested and drifted away. For some awful reason I knew I’d regret, I didn’t want it to disappear, so instead of letting him escape, I stepped closer, chasing the heat and the spark and backing him into the counter just like he’d done to me in his office.

I fisted his shirt and rose onto my toes so I could bring our mouths closer together. “Is it because you didn’t get what you needed from me? You didn’t get to finish what you started?”

His gaze dropped to my mouth, and his hands went to my waist. I wasn’t sure if he was going to push me away or pull me closer, and I didn’t give him a chance to decide. I pressed my lips to his, the firm hard lines turning silky smooth beneath mine. He tasted like coffee and danger and regret. I wasn’t sure if it was regret for what was happening or what the aftermath would be.

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