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He nods. “I thought I’d check it out and read a chapter or two. The next thing I know, a couple hours had slipped by.” There’s a pause. “I must have fallen asleep after that.”
“So…did you learn anything interesting?” The question is out of my mouth before I can shove it back inside where it belongs.
A slow smile curves his lips. It’s so predatory in nature that my pulse trips.
Instead of responding, he tosses that loaded question right back at me. “Haveyou?”
My teeth scrape across my lower lip. “It’s definitely given me some ideas.”
“Well, we can agree on that.”
My insides contract at the idea of him trying out different scenes from the book with another girl. As soon as that thought pops into my brain, I shove it away. A heavy silence blankets us as he rises to his feet and prowls closer.
Nerves shoot to the surface of my skin, and I blurt, “Don’t you have practice this morning?”
His expression falters and his eyes lose some of their intensity as he slides the phone from his pocket and glances at the screen. His brows knit together. “Yeah. In thirty minutes.”
Thick tension ratchets up between us until it feels combustible. It’s as if we’re teetering on the precipice of something explosive.
When his gaze resettles on mine, the moment fades.
For all I know, it was never there to begin with.
“I should probably get moving,” he mutters.
As he swings toward the bedroom door, I can’t resist asking, “Do you want to borrow the book so you can read the rest?”
It’s a joke, of course.
There’s no way Ryder would actually read a romance novel.
He tosses a glance over his shoulder. “Nah, I’ll buy the e-book and finish it.”
Not expecting that response, my jaw crashes open.
“Oh, and make sure you cross drinking at a college party off your list. You were definitely lit up last night.”
A strangled sound escapes from me as I echo the word.“List?”
He yanks open the bedroom door and grinds to a halt before swinging toward me and pointing to the nightstand. Humor sparks to life in his eyes as a smile simmers around the edges of his lips. “Yeah, you showed it to me. Don’t you remember?”
Oh, the humiliation.
It’s official. I’m never drinking again.
“Can you just…” My voice trails off as I clench my hands. My fingers curl around the paperback. With a painful gulp, I force myself to continue. “Forget about that?”
The same heat filling his eyes earlier ignites in them again. But there’s something else there too.
Something darker.
“Nope.”
That one word sucks all the oxygen from my lungs, making it impossible to breathe.
With that, he saunters out of the room.
It’s only when he disappears from sight and I hear the faint click of the door in a distant part of the apartment that my knees weaken, and I nearly collapse on the floor.
