Page 83 of Ryder
He headed for the kettle. “It’s all a mass of what if, what if, babe. Right now all I know is, I want a cup of fucking coffee, and I want to work on making this place nice for both of us.”
Stubbornness was definitely a thing with these damn bikers.
“If you’re making coffee…”
“Yeah, babe. I’m making you one too.”
He did make good coffee, so maybe that was a good start.
“I can help.”
“Don’t you dare move off that fucking sofa, woman.”
He’d shot me a fierce look when he said that, but all it did was make me smile. Maybe we had enough to build on, if he really, truly didn’t resent me for what I’d done to him.
Ryder
The next few dayswere… not pleasant, exactly… but bearable. She’d agreed to sleep in the same bed with me, but she always put as much space between us as she could, and I was wearing damn lounge pants to sleep in, which I hated, because the damn things always get all twisted, and I end up with a fucking wedgie in the middle of the night.
She’d adapted to the lack of a bathroom door, and insisted on changing her clothes behind the curtain each morning, which was a damn shame because I wanted to see her without clothes, but I knew it might be a long time before she let me.
We also hadn’t broached the old lady thing any further. She didn’t know what it entailed. There wasn’t a big ceremony assuch, but she would be officially welcomed to the club as my old lady, in front of all of my brothers.
First I had to announce it to them at the table too. Not that I imagined there would be any issues from anyone. It’s not really any of their business, and hopefully most of them didn’t know how we’d first met. That was a secret I’d prefer to take to my fucking grave, if only to protect her from their reactions.
The other part she would probably go nuts about; the tattoo. We’re all about permanence here, because like Reacher said, old ladies are for life. Tattoos were about cementing that bond. I’d be getting her name tattooed on me, but she’d be getting something very different. I just had to work out how to tell her.
We’d fallen into a tentative pattern. Now that she was moving around more, she was cooking breakfast each morning, and for dinner, we were having someone bring in a takeaway. Otherwise we just snacked when we wanted, and I made all the coffee. I was cool with that.
Keeping her from getting bored was more difficult. From her place, there had been a stack of books, so I’d made sure that they were unpacked for her, but she was struggling to concentrate on reading, and kept starting and stopping different books. I’d been surprised that she even had things like books, if she’d been living like a damn nomad, moving from town to town now and then, but she’d explained that she always bought books, and donated them each time she moved on.
I picked up one of the books she’d discarded, while she was showering. Huh… there was a biker on the front of it, or I guess a female-fantasised version of one. I glanced at the curtain hiding her from me, and looked back at it. I read the back of the book.Interesting. The spine wasn’t creased, so I didn’t think she’d done more than look at a page or two.
By the time she emerged from the shower, I was a few chapters in, and just completely bemused.
“What are you… are you reading that?” She asked, a giggle following her words, as I stared up at her.
“Some of this is actually quite close, but Jesus… people like reading this stuff?”
She shrugged, but I saw the telltale flush in her cheeks.
“Bikers are hot. Everyone knows that.”
I glanced at the shiny muscled guy on the cover, and looked down at myself.
“I’m feeling kind of inadequate right now, babe. Is this what they expect us all to look like?”
She laughed, climbing on the bed and grabbing the book from me, while I hissed at her to save my page.
She stared at the cover, and looked back at me, pretending to scrutinise it carefully.
“Hmmm… I mean, I guess it is a little off.”
I snatched the book back. “Charming. Thanks.”
She pulled the towel from her hair and rubbed at it.
“All I meant was that he’s too much of a pretty boy. Everyone knows bikers are more rugged and grizzly, and that’s way hotter.”
