Page 45 of Ryder

I’m also not a hundred percent sure the club is legit. Jimmy told me they were, but some of the guys in the MC are shady as fuck.

It nags at me that I ran into a biker's arms because of my pining for Ryder. Why couldn’t I have picked a less complicated dynamic?

I have a brain in my head, yet I don’t seem to use it very often when it comes to matters of the heart.

Me

Stop taking my words out of context. I’m happy see

Ryder

Like I said, when I really believe that, I’ll stop annoying you

Me

Who died and made you ruler?

Ryder

Since Luca asked me to look out for you, I guess it’s him

Me

Go away or I’ll change my number

Ryder

You don’t really mean that

I don’t. I really don’t. But I also want to slap him silly at the same time I want to kiss him. And I really shouldn’t be thinking about kissing him. I have a boyfriend.

Me

Test me and find out

I don’t wait for his reply. I peel off my clothes, hanging my nice blouse up before it can be wrinkled, and step into the shower.Damn asswipe. Who the heck is he to question me?Then I think about all the things I could’ve thrown back at him.

Like:Are you happy, Ryder?Or:Is all that matters to you your precious club and your dumb job?Okay, his job isn’t dumb, but he works eighty hours a week. The man is a machine, and despite the fact I’m annoyed with him, I still worry. He tells Luca this club is his family, the family he never had, and somehow that makes me feel sad. At one point, Luca and I were his family, too.

I’m so distracted by my thoughts that I shampoo my hair twice, then forget to condition. I’m a fucking mess, which is exactly what happens whenever me and Ryder get together. It’s a monumental disaster unless we’re in bed together.

I look at my phone. Not one single text from Jimmy. He knew I was going out with Luca. I watch TV for a while, unable to settle, but when my eyelids start closing, I turn the thing off and head to bed. It’s past one o’clock and Jimmy still isn’t?—

I hear the straight pipes. I frown. Jimmy shouldn’t be driving if he’s been at the club all night, so I peek through the window. My building only has five stories, and I’m on the second floor. Plus, you can hear straight pipes from five neighborhoods away. My eyes must be deceiving me, because it isn't Jimmy who’s idling at the curb right outside my building. It’s fucking Ryder.

My mouth opens as I watch him. He’s looking up at the window. Right at me.

How does he know where I live? Luca must have told him. Then again, I wouldn’t put it past Ryder to do some unnecessary stalking of his own. If it suited his interests.

A thrill runs through me, even though I should be mad.

Of all the nerve!

I dread to think what would happen if Jimmy were here and he heard that. He’d have a few things to say about it alright. I’m sure once I explain who Ryder is — leaving out the part where we slept together — he’d be okay with it. It’s not like I have anything to do with his MC, or any of the members. Jimmy may not see it that way, which is why I haven’t said anything. He knows I was pining for someone else when we met, but he made it his mission in life to make me smile again. I’ll never forget that.

Maybe that’s why I’ve stuck with him. He isn’t all bad.

Ryder revs the engine as I watch him, then he takes off like a bat out of Hell. I drop the curtain back in place. What was that? A show of alpha authority?Oooh, he knows where I live.Jerk.

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