Page 56 of Blue Moon

“I love performing here, but at the same time, I can’t wait for it to be over.”

Ryder drew me in for a toe-curling kiss. “Everything will be okay, moon. I promise.”

16

LUNA

“The surprise is that we’re going to your office?”

Huh.

We’d RSVP’d to Shani’s quiz invite, but that didn’t start until six in the evening. It was nine a.m. And I didn’t have a hangover. Ryder had ended up carrying Venus out of the Peppermill last night, and Aisha hadn’t been walking too straight either, but I’d skipped through the door arm in arm with Luis while Paul brought up the rear. At least today’s internet pictures were relatively tame.

“Briefly,” Ryder said.

“So where else are we going?”

He put a finger to his lips. “Shhh. It’s a secret.”

Grrr.

He took my hand as we walked through the front door, and Donna narrowed her eyes at me, no doubt ready to pounce if I dared to walk past her desk again without collecting a visitor badge. I forced a smile.

“Good morning.”

Her smile was more of a grimace. “Welcome to Blackwood. Stand on the blue spot, please.”

Welcome? Yeah, right. At least I knew Mark A would never get to me here. Donna would breathe fire over him before he made it to the elevator. But we didn’t get as far as the elevator. Ryder cut left through a door marked “STAIRS,” then pushed me up against that wall and kissed me thoroughly.

Hmm. “Okay, so the surprise is that we’re going to make out in a stairwell?”

“No, but when we take two steps to the left, we’ll be in range of the camera, and I don’t want to give the jackasses in the control room anything more to talk about. Come on.”

The kiss sent my heart racing and set my mind at ease. Things had been a little awkward between us when we woke this morning, and I knew why. We hadn’t cleared the air after Ryder mistook my hesitancy over having a tricky conversation for doubts about our future. I still didn’t know where to start with explaining things, but I couldn’t let him think I didn’t want him.

“Ryder…” I started as we neared the top of the stairs, but he opened the door that led to the roof and there was a freaking helicopter sitting there, black metallic paint gleaming in the sun.

“We’re going in that?”

He grinned. “It’s harder to run down the paparazzi if we’re in the air.”

Wasn’t that a shame?

“Where’s the pilot?”

“Right here.”

“Where?” Then it dawned on me what he was saying. “Wait. You know how to fly?”

His grin grew wider. “Sure, moon.”

Holy heck, I’d fallen in love with Superman. And he was my kryptonite.

I’d ridden in helicopters plenty of times, but never in the front beside the pilot. Ryder strapped me in securely and placed a headset over my ears, then took his place in the pilot’s seat.

“The turbines need a minute to warm up,” he said, his voice sounding tinny in my ears.

“What you said yesterday… What you thought I meant… It was wrong. I do want a future with you, honestly.”

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