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“I never said I wanted to go out with Cheryl. Maddie put us on the spot and we went with it.”
“Maddie must have believed there was some reason the two of you should go out.” She met his eyes.
And here he thought asking her for dinner would be the simplest part of his evening. He sighed. “Yes, I thought about it, but I hadn’t gotten around to it.”
“Ryder?”
“Yes?” His cop instincts went on high alert.
“I don’t think we are a good idea. And you don’t think we are a good idea.” A small smile flirted over her lips, but there was no joy in it. “We’re only playing with danger because we like danger. That’s all it is.”
Was that it? Was that all it was? The adrenaline rush of her clouding his judgment? Because she was right, he kept saying he didn’t want to tangle with her, but kept putting himself right in her path. Playing with fire.
He stared at her and she stared right back, her expression unwavering. He blew out a breath. “Be very careful what you wish for, Sophie, what you ask for, because I’ll give it to you.”
A frown curved over her lips, and her face darkened. “Is that a threat?”
Shoulders rigid, he said, “You don’t think I know you say one thing and mean another? Do you think I haven’t noticed?”
“Why are you fighting for this? To what purpose?”
The question stopped him cold. What was he fighting for? When he really thought about it, his reasons for staying away from her were flimsy as hell. Sure, he had this grand plan to stay away from reckless wild women, but Sophie wasn’t a one-night stand.
She wasn’t a future either.
His only excuse was he . . . liked her. He could be himself with her, and he didn’t know the last time that happened. She made him feel clicked on and engaged, and fuck it, he wasn’t ready to give that up. Even if that meant agreeing to friends only. For real this time.
But first he had to tell her the truth.
He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Last year, I had a one-nighter with a girl I met in a bar.”
Her expression clouded with confusion but she nodded. “Okay?”
“I’ve always been a bit wild. It’s not that I didn’t ever want commitment, but more that I was young and had time and didn’t want to tie myself down. I guess you could say I was your typical player. I was always up front. Always told the woman she couldn’t expect anything from me.” He sighed and pointed to the steps. “Can we at least sit down?”
She straightened. “Okay.”
They sat on the top of the steps, her on one side, him on the other. He put his elbows on his knees and continued, “So this woman, we met at a bar, and I took her home after I’d laid out my normal ground rules.”
“All right.” She sounded interested now, and he supposed that was something.
“She wanted to exchange numbers, and I didn’t see the harm, since we’d had fun and she seemed cool with what I wanted.” He gave her a chagrined smile. “Even though I didn’t intend to call her again.”
She rolled her eyes. “Men.”
“Yeah. Typical, huh?”
She laughed a little, and he was happy to see the sadness slip from her features.
He laced his fingers between his splayed knees. “She called me a few days later wanting a hookup, and I didn’t see the harm.”
“Of course. ’Cause sex.”
He shook his head. “Pretty much. I was going through a pretty busy time at work, and she’d call, always very cool and relaxed, and I figured why not.”
“Oh no.” She shifted, propping against the rounded column. “You fell for it.”
“Yep.” He shook his head. “She was a head case. She must have watched too many soaps when she was in her formative years because she pulled out every trick in the book, including a fake pregnancy.”
