Page 125 of What are the Risks
“Hadone,” I clarified. “Besides, what we’ve each done in the past has nothing to do with what you and I do now.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Okay, Wheels.”
I stepped closer to her, forcing her to tilt back her head to maintain eye contact.
“I mean it, Ruby. Do you not realise your past scares me?”
She shrunk a little, seeming taken aback. “How?”
“Youlovedthe last guy you were with. I’m just some casual fun and–”
I trailed off when a sudden gust of wind swept through the stairwell, as if a door to outside was open somewhere. It was fucking freezing in here. Though despite the chill, Ruby’s cheeks were still particularly rosy.
“Are you drunk?” I checked.
She shrugged. “A little bit.”
Shit. I’d almost missed it and fucked her anyway. I wanted her way too badly to see clearly. Logic was never going to prevail when it came to my desire for Ruby.
I sighed. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll finish this conversation in the Uber.”
Only we didn’t. Because the second the car pulled away from the curb, Ruby passed out in my lap.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
I’m glad it’s you
Ruby
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was my throbbing head. The second was that I was alone.
Ryker was gone.
Panicked, I sat up quickly – too quickly – causing the pounding in my head to worsen. The blankets from his side had been smoothed over, as if he hadn’t slept there. The groove in his pillow was the only tell that he had.
Unease settled in my stomach, churning last night’s alcohol. I’d messed up. Even drunk, I remembered how angry Ryker had been in the stairwell. As for the rest of the night? My memory ended there.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed his things were still here. His duffle was on my ottoman, his cap was placed on my dresser, and his hoodie was thrown across the back of my desk chair.
I might have some grovelling to do, but at least he hadn’t run for the hills... yet.
Swinging my legs out of bed, I noticed a cold glass of water on my side table, along with two Advil. Picking them up, I managed to swallow the pills without dry retching. I’d dodged the hangover nausea, but the headache was hitting me hard.
Stealing Ryker’s hoodie off my desk chair, I slipped it on over my pyjamas – had I put these on last night, or had he been forced to dress me like a child? – then headed downstairs. Hopefully one of the girls was awake and knew where he was.
“Morning,” Bri cheerfully chirped when I walked into the kitchen.
I groaned, rubbing at my temples. She was much too chipper considering she’d stayed out later than I did.
“Hey. Have you seen–”
My question died off.
Ryker was leaning against the fridge, a tee hanging around his shoulders and his bare chest on display. I couldn’t help but stare. He had the perfect chest. Muscled and toned, but not too bulky.
The sweat trickling down his skin accentuated the hard panes, and the creases outlining each of his abs was almost cartoon-like. Like, seriously, how many sit-ups must a person complete to have abs like that?
“I woke early, so I went for a run,” he explained.
