“Are you telling me Colarusso bid on an ice cream parlor in Pennsylvania?”
She frowned. “Yes.”
Tony muttered a curse. “I’ll take care of it.”
It was weird. Kind of sounded like her brother had no clue.
“Now?”
“Yes, now. Bye, Sophia.” He hung up.
She slipped her phone into her back pocket, and hadn’t even come close to digesting what just happened when a knock sounded at the door. “Yeah?”
Ryder walked in. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” She smiled, secure in the knowledge that when Tony Nardovino said he was going to do something, he did it. So Ryder should definitely get that ice cream parlor job. “Is everyone gone?”
“Yep.” He stepped close brush her cheek with his knuckles. “Sure you’re okay? I’m sorry about that call. I got angry. I didn’t mean t—”
“It’s okay,” she said, covering his hand on her face with her own. “No need to apologize. Honest.” She used her free hand to palm his chest. “So, are you ready to go?”
He dipped down to kiss her softly on the lips. “Now I’m ready.”
“Good.” She patted his chest. “Because I have a special project we can work on at your place. Are you game?”
Need flickered in his eyes. “I’m all in.”
God, she hoped so. Because he hadn’t sounded playful. No. He’d sounded serious, like he was talking about them—as a couple, an actual relationship—not just no-strings-attached sex.
Butterflies were still fluttering in her stomach on the drive to his house. He didn’t have the truck today. Instead, he drove a gorgeous sports car. The confines were closer. Intimate. It was strange, but she swore she could almost feel him breathing.
“I’d like to show you something,” he said, and turned onto a long, secluded, dirt road that dead-ended near a cliff. “I come out here to think sometimes.” He cut the engine and faced her. “Thought maybe you might like it.”
Like it? “I love it,” she said, and got out to lean against the car and look out over the whole valley. “This is breathtaking.” It was as if they were nearly as high as the clouds.
For several minutes, she stood next to him, leaning against the car, gazing at the view as the sun slowly started to set. Peace settled over her. A contentment too strong to name. She did her best to catalogue the feeling, in order to draw on it when life was less than harmonious.
Which, okay, could be every day. Unless she was with Ryder. He was her anchor. Even when he took her out of herself. He was always there, right beside her.
She turned to him and placed her hand on his thigh. “Thanks for bringing me here. I’ll never forget it.”
He had one hand on the hood of the car, and the other on his leg, as he leaned in to lightly brush his lips to hers. It was the briefest of connections, and yet, by far the strongest they’d ever shared. Heat skittered through her body, spreading out both north and south, zinging straight to her core.
“Ryder…” she breathed, scared by the depth of emotion and excited at the same time.
He lifted a hand to skim his finger down her cheek. “I know,” he said, lips brushing hers as he spoke.
Then he was kissing her again, longer, deeper, and the current intensified, steeling her breath while he zapped her strength. No one kissed like Ryder. It was like heaven on earth.
When they drew apart for air, he kissed her forehead, her nose, his mouth hovering above her. “I want you, Sophia.”
A tremor shook through her body. “I want you, too, Ryder.”
He brushed his lips over hers briefly again. “Let’s go.”
With a hand on the small of her back, he helped her into the car, before climbing into the driver’s seat. After they began to head down the road, he set his hand on her leg, his thumb brushing her knee as if he needed the connection. Needed to touch her.
They didn’t say a word on the drive to his house. Didn’t need to, because as Elle had once pointed out, their bodies spoke their own language.
