Page 41 of Tainted Romance

I never knew any of this! I guess I never really took much interest in the personal lives of the pack families.

“But don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy though.” She flashed me a pearly smile.

“What’s his name?”

“Ryder. There was a point to me asking if you knew him or not, that being…” She grinned. “I’m going to catch up with him now and a few of our other friends and I wanted to know if you would like to come?”

“Will Zane be there?”

Her smile falters. “No, sorry.”

“Then I’m in.”

Her face lit up. “Great, well let’s go then.”

“Where are you all meeting up?”

“Ryder’s place or, well, really it is the house down by the creek. His parents don’t like him in the house so he stays down at the boathouse and, oh my God, it is beautiful.” Cassie continued to list numerous features of this ‘amazing place.’

I was really interested in meeting Zane’s brother, but I wasn’t sure why. I think it was because I wanted to see if Zane and Ryder were anything alike. Surely it is impossible to have two boys that were insufferable.

***

Ryder wasn’t Zane; like they were nothing alike. Hell, I wouldn’t even pin them as brothers, or cousins - heck, it would be stretching it to think they could be friends. They were just that opposite.

“Hand it over, Allie, you’re killing us.” Ryder reached for the controller, which I was quick to make sure was out of his reach.

“I’ve got this, really.” I had my eyes on the screen. I wouldn’t lie to myself, I was losing.

When we came down here, we found the boys playing the Xbox, so naturally, we joined and then paired up.

Ryder and I against Jake and Cassie. Ryder had got us ahead, but I was currently killing all his good work.

It took, I think, a total of ten minutes before I felt relaxed around Ryder. He was easy going and we sort of just clicked, so right now as he was threatening to kill me, I didn’t take it personally.

“ALLIE, you aren’t even paying attention!” He cringed, with his eyes on the screen, then dropped his head into his hands as I lost yet another life.

While Cassie and Jake celebrated, I couldn’t help but laugh at Ryder’s gutted reaction.

“Come on, Ryder, it is only a game.” I patted him on the back, not able to contain my grin.

“Doesn’t matter, Allie. Ryder hates losing, period.” Jake chuckled and seemed really happy to rub in the loss with a victory dance.

“You know what this means.” Jake shot Cassie a wink; which I didn’t miss.

Cassie’s face lit up.

Ryder’s head snapped up. “Fuck no.”

“Ok, I’m missing something,” I piped up, my amusement drying up when I see the glimpse of happiness in Jake’s eyes.

It was that sort of happiness you just knew was caused by someone else’s embarrassment.

“Dunk Of Shame.” Jake grinned evilly.

“The what of shame?”

Ryder stood up, looking genuinely pissed off.

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