AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ryke shrugs and runs a hand through his hair, which only causes his shirt to ride up to reveal a sliver of his toned stomach. “What, you really thought I was going to win and not get something just for you?”
“You’re a surprise, you know that?”
“I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not,” he says with a long pause following afterward. “Is it?”
“A very good thing,” I whisper while hugging the penguin to my chest as Ryker grabs hold of my bucket of cheese fries. “Where to next, Rockstar? This is your show, and I’m just following along.”
And now I’ve got an image of following him around backstage during a big show. It’s one I can’t unsee, which is nerve-wracking, to say the least, because, as I’ve repeated to myself multiple times already, he’s my client and completely off-limits.
This is a side of him I’ve yet to see. He’s got such a rough exterior, but there’s something softer hidden behind all that anger, and now I’m dying to see it come out.
I clap excitedly when we round a corner and see the petting zoo up ahead. “Oh my, we have to go in there!”
Ryker groans but lets me pull him toward them without a single word of complaint. The attendants are already waiting patiently inside, phones glued to their faces, but they immediately shove them away when we step into the tent.
One of the girls gives us a friendly smile, her eyes lingering on Ryker a little too long for my liking, and I clear my throat with a frown. “We’d like a cup of food and a bottle of milk, please,” I grind out.
She blinks as if suddenly realizing where she’s at and nods when I narrow my eyes at her. “Oh, of course.”
As she bends over to grab everything, I steal a quick glance at Ryker to see if he’s giving her the attention, I’m sure she’s craving. To my surprise, it doesn’t even look as though he’s entertaining the way she looked at him.
That doesn’t change the jealousy coursing through me, but helps it ease up just a little bit.
As soon as we step through the wooden gate, every goat near us comes rushing over, eager for their next bite of food. I watch as Ryker calmly leans down with the cup aimed at their mouths. He smiles at it, his hand comes over its nose as he pets it, and my heart warms just a little more for him.
I hadn’t expected him to come in here with me, more so stand on the sidelines and watch from behind the fence – this is a sweet surprise. I’ve no clue how I will keep denying how I feel when I’m around him after this.
He said it wasn’t supposed to be a date, but the longer we stand here together, the more I wish he would reach over and thread his fingers through mine as if we were on one.
My focus should be on his anger, helping him find ways to cope with it, yet all I can think about are how I could make him come undone… or how soft his lips feel against mine.
This could go sideways pretty quickly, being this close to him when my feelings are all over the place, but I can’t bring myself to back out of the contract I signed with his manager. Even if I could, I’m not sure I’d be able to do it because I don’t want to walk away from him.
Which means I’ve got to figure out how to handle this.
11
Ryker
The ride back to my place is nothing like it was before. Instead of asking me questions and trying to get into my head, Wren gazes out of the window with a faraway look, and it makes me wish I knew what was wrong. I tighten my hands around the steering wheel in thought, coming to the conclusion that she didn’t have as good of a time at the carnival as I assumed she would, and glance at the large penguin I won for her.
Did I go too far with the day? I told her over and over again that this wasn’t a date, but did I act as though it was? Winning a stuffed animal for a girl is something a date would do, so maybe that’s the problem. She’s told me enough times that anything more than professional could ruin her career, but now I’ve gone and messed that up, too.
She’s leaning her head against the window when I pull into my driveway and input the code for the gate. The wrought iron creaks as it opens, and the security detail I have stationed outside waves at me as I pass through. Wren sits up the closer we get to the house, and before I’ve even got the car in park, she’s jumping out of the vehicle like it’s on fire.
I hurry to follow her, hoping she’ll talk to me once we go inside. She’s kicking her shoes off behind the door when I step in, and I clear my throat. “Did you enjoy the day?”
She hums in response but says nothing else as she makes her way down the hall that leads to her guest room. I’d love nothing more than to follow her, but something tells me it would be a bad idea to do so, and I choose to hang back instead. If she wants to spend the rest of the night alone, I need to be understanding of that.
Even though I can’t seem to get her excitement out of my head.
It can’t be that she didn’t have fun. Her smile was too genuine to have been a bad day for her. I’ll only keep driving myself insane if I try to figure out what her issue is. My only option is to wait until morning and try to get something out of her then.
***
Instead of showering as soon as I wake up, I quickly pull on a pair of fleece pajama pants and walk down the hall in hopes that Wren is already awake.
Just as I hoped, she’s sitting at the island with a bowl of cereal in front of her, and she finishes the last few bites in silence while I watch her like a creep. She’s got her red hair pulled into a tight ponytail and a pair of jeans that hug her curves in ways that have me holding back a groan.
