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“Truce,” he agreed.
“I do have a favor to ask you, though,” she said.
“Fine,” he said, and drained his beer before setting the bottle on the floor. When his hands went to his thick belt, she laughed and touched one hand to stop him.
“Not that,” she said, and he shrugged and folded his arms. “I need you to go somewhere with me tomorrow. Kind of like—” she paused as she thought about how to frame it.
“A date?” he asked, his face looking amused.
“No,” she blurted, startled. “I don’t date. Not anymore. I was thinking more like… as an emotional bodyguard.”
“I don’t date, either,” he agreed, and strolled over to drop onto the leather couch. “Since I’m never getting married or any of that bullshit, dating would be a big lie.”
“Exactly!” Nita agreed, going over to sit beside him. “Falling in love and everything that goes with it is a racket. It’s an imaginary state perpetuated by Valentine’s Day and the movie industry.”
“Absolutely,” he agreed, and turned to lean on his muscled arm as he looked at her.
God, he smelled magnificent.
“So why do you need an emotional bodyguard if you don’t believe in love or dating or relationships?” he asked.
“Because I was in a toxic relationship and the asshole in question will be at my practice tomorrow,” she explained.
“What kind of practice?”
“My roller derby team is working out, but it’s at the warehouse Mr. Asshole owns. He’ll probably be there just to harass me.”
Ryder frowned, not in a miffed way, but in a way that says he was ready to do some bodily damage to somebody. It sent a delicious shiver up her spine.
“Define harass. Is it physical?”
“It hasn’t come to that, although he kind of threatened it once. It’s more like he lobs these subtle insults that only I would get, but they’re so targeted that they leave me feeling like I’m a piece of shit. I don’t expect you to understand, but—”
“No, I get it. He’s a gaslighter,” Ryder grunted, his face twisting in disgust. “I saw that with a friend’s sister. He was cheating on her, and when she saw some of the text messages, he had some story about the other woman being a colleague with a crush. Then he told my friend’s sister that she always reacts that way because she has trust issues and other bullshit. Really fucked her up.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, her belly souring as his words stirred up memories. “He did shit like that. It’s embarrassing to admit he could make me think I was a distrusting, clinging, mentally challenged bitch, then turn around and act like he loved me so much, despite being all of those things.”
She laughed, but could feel her cheeks turn red as she remembered so many moments with Luke and how confused she felt.
“I’m sorry I implied you were clingy,” he said as he tapped her knee. “And forget about what he said you are. If he could get you to believe those things, then he’d have a willing slave. You broke free from that.”
“Yeah, except he was right about the bitch part. I can be that,” she allowed. “Anyway, I don’t want to miss the practice because it sounds like we’re going to be out a warehouse. He owns it and he’s planning on leasing it to some company.”
She watched him as he thought it over. Finally, he tilted his head to one side.
“Okay,” he agreed. “Emotional bodyguard. I can do that.”
She nodded because she couldn’t speak. Ryder offering to help, lifted a massive weight off her shoulders, almost making her light-headed.
“Thanks,” she muttered when she thought her voice would be steady. “Now. Did you get any groceries, or should I go up to the Manor and raid the kitchen? There should be some canned peas or other non-perishable shit up there.”
“I got a few things, like beer,” he said, then looked a little sheepish. “I got you some yogurt.”
“Thanks. By the way, I hate yogurt. I love peanut butter, though.”
“I’m deathly allergic to peanut butter, so there you go,” he said with a laugh.
“Seriously?”
