Page 16 of Bound by Vengeance
“Austyn, how are you?” he asks in his smooth, deep voice, the people around us silenced. More so because they want to know what’s about to happen. The curiosity and all.
Ryker and I haven’t talked in a very long time, and I’ve made no secret of my feelings for him over the years. As stupid as it was, I was out there like a billboard sign, just waiting for him. Since they all know what happened to me a few months ago, this is like a soap opera ready to happen. Drama … go!
“Good,” I lie. “Thanks for asking.” I turn my gaze back to my family at the table. They’re now watching Ryker and not giving me an out. I exhale deeply.
“I’ve been callin’ you.” He sits down on the bench in front of me.
He has … many times. Texts too. I’ve ignored every one of them. There’s no reason now to pretend that we’ll ever be together. He’s made it clear over the years that it isn’t going to happen. It just took JK hurting me twice for it to sink in my head, and now that it has, that dream is a puff of smoke.
“Whelp, I’ve got shit to do,” Cooper says, standing up and pulling Bristyl with him.
“Me, too,” Deke adds in, doing the same with Rylie.
Not moments later, the rest of my family leaves me sitting across from the man I crushed on for years, the man who never knew I was alive. He never saw me and only now seems to. It sucks because it’s too late.
Better to get this out of the way now than wait.
“It’s cool you called to make sure I’m okay. I’m good, Ryker; you don’t need to call anymore.”
He reaches over and grabs my hands, but I pull them away quickly. “Austyn.” My name comes out like a plea.
I rise, needing to get the hell out of there. I’ve waited forever to hear my name on his lips like that. Wanted it more than anything. Dreamed of it since I knew what that tone meant from a man. Hearing it now is a slice to my soul.
“I have to go.”
I move around the table, but don’t get far before he is standing in front of me, blocking me. I have to look up due to his height.
He’s gorgeous. His beard lining those delectable lips. Damn. It’s another reminder of what I will never have.
“Please. Let’s go talk.” His eyes plead with me in only a way Ryker can do. The fun spirit isn’t there, only all this seriousness that is unlike him.
“No. There’s nothing to talk about. I told you I’m fine. Thanks for helping find me. I gotta go.”
He captures my arms, sizzling my skin with his touch. “Baby, don’t do this.”
“Ryker, I’m not your baby,” I whisper as he leans down and captures my lips.
I find myself kissing him back, allowing him entry into my mouth. As his tongue sweeps in, I taste the mix of tobacco and tar on him. It’s not the sweet of a cigar, or the tart of chewing tobacco, but rather the salty, bitter linger of a cigarette. He steals my breath as desire and disgust of him bringing another woman here intertwine.
It’s the best first kiss a woman could ask for, and when he pulls away, it takes everything in me not to burst into tears, knowing it will also be the last.
Without words, I run to my car so I can get the hell out of there.
Sometimes, everything we want isn’t what we need. Facing a new reality isn’t easy.
C H A P T E R S I X
She runs away from me, but not before I see the desire mixed with pain in her eyes. Not wasting a second, I dart after her, through the crowd, taking the same path as her. She reaches her car first, fumbling in her purse for her keys, but I get there before she finds them.
“Austyn,” I call out, but it’s like she’s made it her mission to find the keys and ignores me. Using my index finger, I place it under her chin and lift her head until our eyes connect. Fear radiates in them, yet her shoulders are straight, challenging me.
It’s something I love about Austyn—her strength that oozes out of her. Sometimes, I wonder if she even knows it’s there.
She may have been knocked down, but she’s up and moving. That’s her.
“I can’t do this,” she says softly, looking at me like she can see right through me. Like she can see all the fuck-ups in my life and all the way down to the core of me. It’s how she’s always looked at me, and it scares the shit out of me. No one else has ever been able to do that or make me feel that burn.
She was only nine, I believe, when I joined the club at nineteen, but none of this started then. It wasn’t until around her sixteenth birthday when I, along with every other man on the planet, noticed her.
