Page 214 of When We Fall: Part Two
“Don’t look. Just… follow my lead, OK?”
Bewildered, I watched him move his seat next to mine and drape his arm around my shoulders.
“Um, Ryder?”
“Shh.” He pushed the last strawberry to my lips. “Open.”
I did what he asked and bit into the fruit.
And that’s when I saw what had him acting this way.
Enzo and Cole, with Celeste, had just been seated nearby. They hadn’t noticed us.
“I-I have to go.” I tried to get up, but Ryder held me in place and leaned in, his lips at my ear.
“Do not move,” he whispered. “They’re out here being fucking cocksuckers. Thinking you’re home, crying, mourning them. You’re not, though, Red. You’re here, sexy as fuck, with me. We can put it to them if you want.”
I cast a side-eye at their table. They were getting wine. Enzo was smiling. Cole wasn’t. No Ethan, but I knew he hated Celeste, so at least he wasn’t completely shredding my heart.
I breathed out. “Cole will lose it.”
“Cole isn’t with you, Rosalie,” he continued softly. “He’s not allowed to lose it. Not here in public. It’ll eat at him all night. Make them hurt if you want to make them hurt. Or maybe they won’t give a shit at all, and if they don’t, at least you had a little fun.”
“You’re a damn menace,” I whisper-hissed back at him.
He let out a soft laugh and ran his lips along my jaw. “Come on. Live a little. We’ll have a story to tell Anson and Trent when we get home.”
I rolled his words over in my head. I did want Cole and Enzo to hurt. I was tired of being the only one who broke.
If this bothered them, good. If it didn’t, then I had some damn fun.
“Cole just noticed you,” Ryder murmured. “Don’t look. Follow my lead.”
I swallowed as his hand rested high on my thigh. If you weren’t paying close attention, it would just look like he was a guy giving his girl some affection, but I knew Cole. He was a details person. If he knew I was here, he was watching and knew precisely what was happening as Ryder moved his hand.
“You might enjoy this a little more if you relaxed.”
“What? No,” I hissed back at him. “We should go.”
“I’m not going to do anything.” He moved his hand higher. “It’ll just look like I am. Like we’re together.”
I hesitated for a moment before relaxing and letting out a soft breath. Ryder moved his hand high on my thigh, just beneath my skirt, and gently traced circles on my skin, making goosebumps rush across.
His lips were still at my ear.
“Lean into me,” he said.
I did so, swallowing hard.
“Now just pretend like I’m saying the most insanely sexy as fuck things to you.”
“Are you going to?”
“Do you want me to?” I could hear the smile in his voice.
“No. I-I just wanted to be prepared.”
“Mm, I know how to actually make spaghetti. Would you like that, Red? My spaghetti. In your mouth? Look at me.”
