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After Deuce dropped his bombshell at the party, I’d sobered up in a hurry and been ready to call it a night. Ryder had invited me to see his house. Now, I understood what he wanted to show me. And that it was a big deal for him to share.
So why bring Talon into it? I wanted to keep that door closed, locked, and nailed shut.
Ryder turned toward me but didn’t make a move in my direction.
He just looked at me with eyes so dark and intense, I could see them glittering in the moonlight. “I don’t know what happened between you and Talon. Don’t know what he broke inside you. Just be warned, you give me the green light, I’ll do my damnedest to put you back together.”
I sucked in a breath, my throat burning as I tried to keep the tears from my eyes. This beautiful man was throwing down for me.
Breath shuttered in my lungs. I had to tell him the truth. As much as the truth sucked, Ryder deserved to know it before he went any further down this road. “If you knew what happened, you wouldn’t say that.”
“Then tell me and let me decide,” he said, still not moving from his place across the steps.
I twisted my hands and started talking, hoping Ryder couldn’t see the blush that stained my cheeks in the dark. “Talon asked me to meet him on River Street. You know I’d met him before. A long time ago, and I thought he remembered me. So I went.” I laughed at my own naiveté. “I thought we were going on a date. Things got pretty, ummm, heated. And then he let me know it was definitely not a date. He walked away while I stood there, asking if he wanted to go get a drink. Like an idiot.”
Ryder breathed, “That motherfucker.”
I threw Ryder a quick glance, took in his clenched jaw, and looked back to the night. “I let him do it. I thought….well, I thought he remembered me from before and wanted to reconnect. I guess I had it so romanticized in my mind I thought he’d ride up on a white horse and we’d live happily ever after. You’d think a grown woman would know better.”
“No,” Ryder argued, “a grown woman would expect him to act like a grown man, not a dumbass prick.”
I sighed, “You know, my biggest pet peeve in life is being made to feel stupid. I can handle a lot of things, but I hate that. And most of the time, I end up getting more upset with myself than the other person because if I’d been as smart as people think I am, I would’ve seen it coming.”
“Can’t expect to know everything, no matter how many college degrees you’ve got.”
I paused, considering that, and then Ryder went on. “Tell me why he didn’t recognize you. The whole truth. More than what you told Deuce.”
I scuffed my sandal against the step below me, not knowing I was bathed in moonlight and Ryder watched every expression that crossed my face.
“The first time I met Talon was the day I caught my husband cheating. I was very prim and proper. Chanel suits, Louboutin heels, hair up. Makeup just so. I hated it, but I tried to be what Edward expected in a wife. While he was fucking his OR nurse, his PA, and half the time, his secretary.”
Ryder grunted a sound of agreement, “No wonder Talon pissed you off.”
“Getting the picture now?” I asked.
Ryder shifted against the railing, turning more fully toward me. “Keep going.”
I shrugged, “Before he left that night, I unloaded all that on Talon, and he looked around my house and made some snarky comment about which I’d prefer, my husband’s money or being with someone who didn’t fuck me over.”
“Sounds like Talon,” Ryder admitted.
“I found an attorney and filed for divorce the next day. And for the next couple of years, I tried to figure out whoIwanted to be. So I started working out. Hard. Started going to rock concerts again. Wearing clothes I liked.”
“Transformed, like a butterfly. So when Talon saw you again, he had no clue,” Ryder guessed.
“Sounds a lot more flattering the way you say it,” I laughed.
Ryder took a step toward me. Then another, until he was in close. “Seems to me, a man pays any kind of attention to the you that’s under all that is you, no matter what the outside looks like, he’d recognize the inside anywhere.”
I looked up into Ryder’s midnight eyes and grinned. “You are without a doubt the most awesome man on the planet right now.”
Ryder trailed a finger down my cheek and then my jaw. He stopped that finger at the corner of my mouth. “I’m just a biker who knows beauty when he sees it.”
“You make me feel good. Thank you,” I whispered.
Ryder stepped even closer, so that I could feel the heat of his chest against mine, and leaned in, “I wanna make you feel better.”
I let out a little gasp.Oh, my.
