Ryker: Choking on your mind? I know how much you loved swallowing my cock, but I think I’d rather have you drown me in that sweet pussy.
Friendship obliterated.
If I’m honest with myself, I don’t think I’d be capable of resuming our old relationship at this point. His touch is emblazoned on my bones, seared into the deepest parts of me. I’ve never had anyone read my body the way he does, knowingexactly what I need—the pressure, the rhythm, the praise. It’s eviscerating because I crave him. I’ve spent far too many hours fantasizing about what his piercing might feel like inside me.
And that kind of makes me hate him. Another trap.
Me: Are you drunk-dialing me? You should try this on Martina. That inflated ego might be a quick route to send her packing.
Ryker: And why would I do that when it’s so amusing to see how she brings out your inner viper?
I won’t dignify that with a response. The truth is, I’d like to poke Martina’s eyes out after how rude she was to Ryker, bringing up Dalton. I might have if Emma hadn’t shown up.
Martina is too entrenched in this community to be unaware of what Dalton was accused of doing to me. There was no evidence regarding me presented in Hailey’s trial because Ryker had handled things his own way, but it was still out there. What kind of horrible human being slings that as a retort at a dueling piano bar?
I loathe that she probably thinks I’m weak. And regardless of how angry I am, I will never let her speak to him like that again.
“Go ahead and eat something.” Amy gestures toward the table with some urgency.
Even though I have no appetite, I plop down with my coffee, some fruit, and a pastry beside Tessa and Remy, scooping some blueberries onto his plate.
Amy truly fits her stylist position. She’s a hopeless romantic. Or maybe it’s simply the fascination of a Noire settling down that has that dreamy expression on her face. “I know you two have been together for a while, but the beginning of a relationship is so full of mystery.”
“Unfolding the mystery is the best.” My feigned agreement spurs the desire to share a detail with Ryker, mainly because it’s an example of me cashing in on a perk of his bullshit contract.
Me: The case with Everett is scheduled for next week.
“I don’t know,” Tessa muses. “I think, sometimes, you’re better off not knowing.”
Amy tilts her head, pondering that. “You can’t have intimacy without getting to know someone.”
“The kind of intimacy I’m after works best with a blindfold.” Tessa pulls some of her silver hair across her face, making Remy laugh and masking theadultnature of her response.
My phone pings, saving me from replying in coded sex speak.
Ryker: I know.
“Oh”—Amy shoos that nonsense—“blindfolds are always welcome and can help them learn their way around.” She flutters her lashes, alluding to the kinks she and Vander must enjoy. “But half the fun of a relationship is how them mastering all the little things leads to more developed feelings.”
Ryker: It’s with Judge Nicholson.
I’m seconds away from screaming. How does he know that before me? That’s Martina’s father. Is that why he knows? I will bury her.
Me: Is there anything you don’t freaking know?
“Deeper feelings, for sure,” I mutter, which pleases Amy.
“I don’t do feelings.” Tessa states that so matter-of-factly, brooking no room for argument.
But Amy is stuck in delulu land, where relationships are normal with an element of mystery that doesn’t involve a cabal. “When someone knows how you take your coffee, what your sleeping habits are, your taste in jewelry, and your favorite show, there’s nothing like it.”
Ryker has known those things about me for years, which is another reason this is all so complicated. There’s no dating or getting to know each other in this situation. No taking it slow. It’s zero to sixty, and my whole being is flattened by the force, aside from the fact that he withheld vital truths from me.
Ryker: There is something I don’t know: why you refuse to eat that beignet or the star fruit. It’s your favorite. I had it shipped in from Hawaii. Remember the time we got it at the fruit market downtown? You loved it.
I stare at my dish, which holds a beignet and star fruit and berries.
He’s watching me. I knew he monitored the eye-in-the-sky cameras in the resort, but in a suite? I guess he did arrange this and pick the room.
