Page 5 of Sweet Oblivion

Navy-blue eyes the color of the deepest parts of Blue Bell Bay narrow, nearly blacken with rage, and I’m suddenly grateful I’m on the right side of this man’s anger for the moment. “You shouldn’t have to handle him. You didn’t like him in your space. It was obvious to anyone who bothered to look. I could see it from across the bar. He ignored it. Men like Dennings don’t think no applies to them.”

A group of rowdy girls who look younger than me barrel into us from the side, pushing me against Ryker’s chest, and for a split second, I close my eyes and just breathe.

“Let me give you a ride home.”

And just like that, the spell is broken.

I look over at Kaleigh, who’s currently swallowing her dance partner’s tongue.

“I came with Kaleigh.”I shake my head, opening my eyes and motion to the dance floor and my friend.

“Looks like Kaleigh might be going home without you,” he murmurs, and I sigh, swallowing my nerves because I think he might be right.

“I’m out of your way,” I protest, knowing they don’t live that far from the bar, and I’m in the opposite direction.

“Let me take you home, Delaney. I don’t trust Dennings, and I’d feel better if I knew you were safe.”

I swear those eyes stare into my freaking soul in a way no one else’s ever have and make me want to crawl out of my own skin.

It’s like Ryker Beneventi can see past all the walls I’ve built to keep people out. To keep myself safe. All the things I’m not saying. All the broken bits I work so hard to keep hidden. All the pieces of me I refuse to share with anyone.And there’s nothing I can do but wait to see how he uses it all against me.

But that moment doesn’t come.

Not in the moments we stand in silence in the middle of the crowded bar, locked in a battle of wills. And not in all the moments yet to come. Because I won’t let it. Won’t let him break what I’ve spent a lifetime building.

Finally, Ryker shrugs, breaking the spell for a second time. “Please.”

I look down at the hold he still has on me and wonder again why it doesn’t make me flinch.

Maybe in a different life, I could have accepted the date the first time he asked last spring. We could have gone on a picnic and enjoyed the warm sun and the cool breeze.

Maybe we’d have been together since . . .

Hand in hand.

But that’s not my life.

Not even for a night . . .

For tonight, a ride will have to do.

“Thanks, Ryker. I guess I could use a ride home.”

DELANEY

According to the news, it’s always the pretty girl everyone loved who lit up the room who ends up murdered. Maybe I should be grateful for my RBF and introverted ways. Most people have no clue who I am, and the only room I light up is my bathroom with a vanilla-lime candle before I get lost in a really good book. The only killers I meet are tucked safely between the pages and are typically thousand-year-old vampires or devilishly sexy fae.

Doubt I’m coming across them in a dark alley any time soon.

—Delaney’s Secret Thoughts

We were ready to leave West End twenty minutes ago but only made it as far as the booths on the other side of the dance floor before Ryker was stopped over and over again by teammates. By fans. By his family. He was kind to each one, giving them his full attention but never dropping my hand.

Not sure exactly what I think about that though. At least, other than recognizing the panic attack sitting at the very edge of my psyche for those entire twenty minutes.

Fuck anxiety and fuck my father for giving me that asan unending gift.

Just when I think the door is finally in sight, an older man with a gentle smile stops next to us. His hand shakes as he waits to say hello, and my heart does something funny when this man takes the time to sign the letters. I know how hard learning ASL can be, and I get the feeling this man may have learned it just in case he ever got this chance.