“I’ll look after him,” Ryden promised.
Jay stared at him wide-eyed.
“At least for tonight. Tomorrow, we’ll talk to King and work everything out. Please, Jay. One night.”
Jay didn’t have the strength to argue. More importantly, he didn’t want to. Who knew what nightmares this would lead to? Literally. “Okay. I’ll stay with you.” His cheeks grew warm at his words, but he was suddenly too tired and too cold to care. “Can we go now?”
“Sure.”
Jay waited while Frank and Ryden whispered to each other on one side. Joshua hugged him, murmuring in his ear.
“Don’t be stubborn. Let him take care of you.”
“You mean, protect me,” Jay murmured.
“That’s what I meant.” The mischief in Joshua’s eyes when he pulled back said he knew exactly what he’d meant.
Joshua left with Frank, and Jay wrapped his arms around himself. He’d spaced out, unaware of when Ryden had stopped in front of him, until Ryden brushed his fingers down Jay’s cheek, snapping him out of it. He lifted his gaze, a lump forming in his throat. He’d never seen that expression on Ryden’s face—a mixture of concern and…something else. Affection? Jay wasn’t sure what to do with that.
“Ready?” Ryden asked softly.
No. Jay wassonot ready, but he nodded anyway.
It was fine—just one night. It wasn’t like they were going to sleep together or anything. Tomorrow, Jay would feel better, and everything would be back to normal—or at least as back to normal as was possible after someone tried to kidnap him. Yep, it was fine. He was going to be fine.
Cue the dumpster fire.
CHAPTER NINE
The surprises just kept coming.
Earlier at work, before Frank called, Ryden had wondered how long it would take Jay to talk to him after what happened at the wedding. That’s when he wasn’t thinking about Jay’s tongue in his mouth. Then Frank’s call sent his thoughts into a tailspin, forcing him to fight images of worst-case scenarios as he hopped into his truck, only to have Jay end up in his arms minutes later. Talk about an emotional rollercoaster.
Jay had clung to Ryden like he had no intention of letting him go, and Ryden still hadn’t wrapped his head around it. He’d even promised Joshua that he’d look after Jay, though he hadn’t thought much about what that might entail. He was on his way tohishouse with Jay and had no idea how things would go. The two of them were rarely alone together, and when they were, like at the wedding, things didn’t turn out so well.
“Thank you,” Jay said, startling Ryden out of his thoughts.
“For what?”
“For letting me stay with you tonight, and for being on your way to help me, especially after...” Jay’s brows drew together, his frown deep. “The way I acted at the wedding.” His bottom lipjutted out slightly. He was adorable when he pouted. “It’s been brought to my attention that I might have overreacted.”
Ryden held back a smile.Might have?That had definitely been Joshua’s doing, though Ryden would bet his next paycheck that there had been no “might-haves” in that conversation. “Do ya wanna talk about it?”
“Not tonight,” Jay replied quietly, his gaze fixed outside his window.
Did that mean Jay planned on talking to him about it at some point? His words confirmed Mason’s suspicions that Jay had been through something painful that Ryden had a bad habit of triggering. An ex-boyfriend, maybe?
“You’re probably wondering how I got away from those guys.”
Ryden shrugged. “I figured you used whatever techniques the Kings taught you.”
This time, Jay moved his gaze away from the window. He studied Ryden. “How do you know they taught me anything?”
“Come on now, Jay. I ain’t just another pretty face,” Ryden teased, making Jay shake his head with a soft laugh. “There’s no way the Kings wouldn’t have insisted on some trainin’ or self-defense. Not with how much they care about you.”
“You’re right. They all helped in their way, but King was the one who insisted.”
Not surprising. It hadn’t taken long for Ryden to see that King and Jay had a special relationship, one that was different from the others, which made sense considering Jay was King’s executive assistant. A rather disturbing thought occurred to him. “You two, um, you’ve never?—”
