"No, he's not gay. We're just friends."
Ryan snickered, pulling me in even closer to him so that we were practically pressing our chests together. "I don't see how any man besides Josh can just be friends with you, beautiful."
"Shut your mouth," I giggled in response. "You sound like my dad."
"I'm dead serious. Your dad knows what he's talking about. Why aren't you together?"
I debated for a moment whether or not to tell Ryan about Tristan's Robby Lingus half but I didn't. I knew Tristan, not Robby. "I think he's been with a lot of girls," I tried to explain.
His eyebrows went up in understanding. "Most guys nowadays have been with a lot of girls, Kat."
I knew what he was saying was the truth. I knew it was also the same reason I hadn't immediately decided that I wasn't against being with Tristan in the future if there was no Robby. I remembered that one of my exes had admitted to me that he'd slept with at least eighty women before me. Did it make me upset? A little. I mean it was gross to think that he'd willingly been with so many other females before me, and it was also the reason why I always forced him to wrap his peen up. I appreciated his honesty, and for that year we were together he'd been a nice and attentive boyfriend. Ultimately, we both just wanted different things and split up. Last I heard, he'd gone back to his man-whore ways.
"How many girls have you been with?" I jokingly asked.
Ryan opened and closed his lips in quick succession, frowning for a moment before grinning. "A lot?"
"Really? You aren't a virgin?" I teased.
He chuckled deep in his throat, leaning forward to plant a kiss on my cheek. "I don't want to tell you. It's a lot."
"Just tell me," I insisted. The curiosity killed me. It was a well-known fact that Ryan slept around quite a bit, but something inside of me needed to know the vague details.
Ryan sighed while pressing his cheek against the top of my head. He smelled wonderful. "Maybe like... a girl a week for three years... plus more?"
Now, I didn't follow through with my plans to study aeronautical engineering because I sucked at math, but I could easily deduce that Ryan had been with close to two hundred women. Two hundred!Shit. I wished I knew how many Tristan had been with but at the same time, I didn't. I was secretly scared that the number was more than my stomach could handle.
"Please don't tell Zo," he pleaded against my skin. Zoey would eat him alive for sleeping around that much especially with the amount of shit he'd given her when he found out about her career. He was kind of a hypocrite and he knew it.
I pressed my palm against his chest to push him just a couple inches away. "I won't, I swear."
His handsome face dropped into a sad smile. "I ruined any chance I had of getting you into my bed tonight though, didn't I?" he asked smoothly, kissing my cheek again.
I snorted against him, burying my face into the lapels of his jacket. "It wasn't going to happen even if you didn't tell me."
Ryan stroked the skin on my shoulders softly. "Then you owe me some sugar at least."
Hours later, he was walking me up to my apartment, his smooth hand trailed laps across my shoulder blades. I was a little buzzed from all the wine I'd drank at the wedding, and I knew for a fact that Ryan was sober. He drank a single beer while we ate, and that had been the only thing he had apart from water. It was a little after midnight by the time he was dropping me off, telling me funny stories about things that had happened at the hospital. He was such a nice, goofy guy just like his beloved sister.
"Want to come in?" I asked while unlocking the front door. I felt comfortable enough asking him inside because I knew he was aware of the fact that nothing would go on between us that could ruin our friendship. He had rubbed his boner against me countless times in the past so even if we kissed, it wouldn't be any worse than that. To be honest, I really wouldn't mind those pink lips on me. I liked kissing and had missed the feeling you shared when you kissed someone right on the mouth.
He gave me a silly smile almost like he thought I was an idiot. "You know the answer to that... but I should be getting home, I have an early shift tomorrow." He stepped forward, holding my face between my hands. "Thank you for coming with me."
Ryan leaned in searching my eyes to make sure I was not going to kick him in the balls before he brushed those thin, light pink lips against mine. He kissed the corners of my mouth and it just felt nice. I kissed him back after the second, his hand trailed up to cup the back of my neck while the other rested on my hip. We kissed more; long, sweet kisses with our mouths closed until my phone started ringing from its spot in my purse. He pulled away giving me a sheepish smile.
"I'm so sorry," I mumbled, digging into my clutch to silence my phone.
Ryan grinned at me, shrugging. "Don't worry about it. I really should get going."
"Okay," I managed to respond with a sigh.
He leaned into me again and pressed his lips against mine one last time briefly. "Goodnight, beautiful." Ryan smiled and headed back down to his car.
I couldn't help but smile as I went into my apartment and stripped out of my clothes to get ready for bed. Ryan was a good friend in a completely different league than any of my other friends including Tristan, and I was lucky to have him. There weren't any expectations with him or any hope of heartbreak; he'd kiss me as many times as I'd let him and we'd still be fine. I finally crawled into bed with the lingering feeling of warm lips on mine.
Chapter 40
I felt like the worst friend in the world the next morning when I unlocked my phone to see the missed call in my log.
