Page 41 of Loathing Ryan
He chuckled and held me close to him. I smiled as I nuzzled into his chest. Tonight was perfection. I couldn’t have imagined ever being in an intimate moment like this with Ryan. In fact, if someone had told me this was where we’d end up, I probably would’ve laughed in their face. But now, everything made sense. I was grateful Ryan was so gentle and accommodating. A few weeks ago, I never would have pegged him for that kind of guy, but I had never been so glad to be proven wrong.
I breathed a deep sigh of contentment, letting my body relax fully into his. We didn’t say much else to each other as we snuggled together in our happy little bubble. I never wanted this feeling to end.
18
IZABEL
The sunlight streamingin through the windows was even brighter now and gently tugged me from the realm of unconsciousness. I blinked a few times, realizing as I became more aware of my surroundings that I must have dozed off. Ryan’s hand stroked up and down my back. I fought off a yawn and then looked at him. He was still lying on his back, holding me close against his side as he stared up at the ceiling.
When he felt me stirring, he looked over at me, and his lips pulled into a crooked grin. “Good afternoon.” His voice was husky, and it made my stomach flutter.
I stretched against him languidly and yawned with a big goofy grin spread across my face.
“Good nap?” he asked, his eyes tracing my face.
“Never better,” I responded. “What were you thinking about?”
He smiled again, this one not reaching his eyes as much. “Oh, a lot of things. You being the majority.”
“Good things, I hope.”
“Of course,” he whispered, leaning his face toward me and pressing his lips against mine. I arched into him, my body instantly responding to his. He pulled away way too soon and looked at me with concern. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t too rough on you earlier,” he said.
“No, I feel fine. You were perfect.”
“No regrets?” he asked, and I could tell he was hesitant.
I leaned impossibly closer to him and breathed him in. “Absolutely no regrets.”
He let out a relieved sigh and rested his cheek against my hair again, his arms tightening around me possessively. For the first time in, maybeever, I felt like I was exactly where I belonged.
We lounged in bed together for a while longer before nature called, and I had to get up to use the restroom. By the time I had finished, Ryan was also up and dressed. He had his fishing pole in hand and was giving me a wry smirk.
“What?” I asked, amused, as I padded out of the bathroom to find my own clothes.
“You ready to learn how to fish?”
It was a miracle, but somehow, I managed to catch two fish by myself. Ryan was grateful enough to help me put the bait on the hook as I wasn’t entirely keen on sticking the earthworms he collected on the hook myself. But after that, it was all me.
Ryan and I had spent a few hours out on the dock, waiting for bites. When I had collected my two fish, we went back into the cabin to cook them up.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Ryan and I curled up for a nap in the late afternoon, only waking right when the sun was starting to set. He had suggested we make another bonfire tonight, and I readily agreed.
From my estimations, we had been out here for at least a week, and our time at the cabin was most of those days. Our day-to-day was quickly becoming routine. There wasn’t much else for us to do other than just exist out here as we waited for something to happen or for someone to find us. If we were at home or even at camp, I might’ve felt unproductive. But out here? I wouldn’t call it a vacation. We were making the most of it in whatever ways we could.
By the time the sun set, Ryan had already started a bonfire down in front of the stairs leading to the porch so we could sit. The wood crackled as the flames seeped in through the cracks, heating each log through.
I sat on the lowest stair I could so I could feel the warmth of the fire on my shins. Ryan sat next to me, tending to the logs to keep the fire going.
As night fell over the woods around us, the sounds of the forest changed. Gone were the birds that had seemed to keep us company in the day, replaced by cicadas and crickets, letting us know they were around. Though it was a different noise, it was noise nonetheless, filling the void of quietness between Ryan and myself.
“You look bored, Bells,” Ryan said to me after a while of silence. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
I chuckled at this new game Ryan had invented. “One out of every eight Americans has worked at McDonald’s at some point in their life.”
