Page 24 of Hellbent
Tall. Polished. Glamorous in a way I’ll never be.
“She look the way you expected?”
The low, rough drawl comes out of fucking nowhere, landing with a startling clatter like a dropped knife.
“JesusChrist!” I jump so hard I nearly smack my head against the window. My heart is a jackhammer in my chest.
How the fuck did a man that huge sneak up on me like that?
I whirl around to find Ryder standing there—half-dressed, with jeans slung low on his hips, and his chest bare. There’s a faint smirk at the edge of his mouth like he’s amused by how easily he startled me.
Asshole.
He crosses to the fridge, pulls out the orange juice, and pours himself a glass. Completely unbothered.
I should leave. I should go back to Jake’s room and pretend I wasn’t just spying on his sex life like some nosy housewife.
Instead, my gaze betrays me.
His long blond hair is loose, falling over his shoulders, and when he turns slightly, I catch a glimpse of the valley of his spine, the ridges of muscle running all the way down.
Jesus.
Of the myriad tattoos on his back, one stands out. Four snakes coiled around a knife on his right shoulder blade. Jake has the same tattoo in the same spot. I saw it last night.
I force myself to look away. Annoyed at myself, and at him. At the fact that I even noticed.
God, stop staring.
“I just—” I clear my throat. “This is the first time I’ve seen any of you have a visitor.”
Ryder doesn’t even glance at me. “Uh-huh.”
He leans back against the counter and downs the entire glass of juice in one go. His throat works with each slow swallow, the movement oddly mesmerizing.
Fucking stop it.
I shift my weight, crossing my arms. “I mean, I don’t care who you sleep with.”
He sets the empty glass in the sink and finally looks at me.
Smirks.
“Neither do I.”
His gaze drags over my body, like he’s assessing me and then dismissing me.
And then, just like that, he pushes off the counter and walks out, leaving me standing there—flushed, frustrated, and hating him a little more than I did five minutes ago. I hate that he caught me off-guard. Hate that my body reacted to everything about him. Hated that he didn’t have any reaction to me at all.
A few hours, one nap, and five chapters ofThe Art of Invisibilitylater, I hear Ryder in the kitchen.
I steel myself. Time to stop hiding.
Intimidating though he may be, I’ve been thinking.
I want a place here. Ineedone. And that means I need to win over Ryder.
The other guys were easy. Jake and Wyatt showed their soft-hearted sweet sides right from the start. Even Damian, who seemed a little intimidating at first, wasn’t hard to warm up, his cool-as-ice exterior hiding a cocky flirt.
