Page 10 of One Mistake

Before I could react, Ryder started across the yard. I didn’t want to watch him. Honestly, I’d humiliated myself enough for one day. For one lifetime. Gawking at him with an open mouth and wet panties wasn’t going to do anything to help that. But my tongue swiped over my gaping mouth, making the full circle, and I didn’t realize it was out or that my lips were hanging open until Jameson laughed.

Since there was no graceful way to step back into hiding behind my tree—not that it was much good for hiding behind anyway—I smoothed my ankle-length denim skirt, resisted the urge to have a sniff to make sure this wasn’t a deodorant fail moment, and cleared my throat like I was going to be able to talk.

All my confidence from the other night, both nights actually, disappeared. No longer was I the girl who’d made him moan my name, the girl who’d kissed every inch of him and had every inch of her own skin kissed by him. If nothing else told me that girl was gone, my shaking hands, dry mouth, and churning stomach screamed it.

He smiled, but it was more of the constipated and trying not to show it variety than the happy to see me kind. “Hey.”

“Hey.” I could be cool. Despite the sweat rolling down my back. Despite my shaking hands.

“I was gonna call you.”

No, he wasn’t. Or he would have. But I nodded, letting him have his lie. I stood there like a bobblehead doll, nodding and grinning like a fool. I couldn’t explain the grin. Not in a way that didn’t make me look more pathetic and ridiculous than I already did.

I motioned to the sidewalk. “I was just walking by and saw you guys playing. I wasn’t like…” Oh, what was the word? “… stalking you or anything.” Liar, liar. Pants on fire.

He chuckled. “I didn’t think you were.”

Well, not in the most technical sense of the word anyway.

We stood glancing at everything but each other, eyes never resting long in one spot until I fidgeted into him. His arms shot out to steady me, presumably so I didn’t take him to the ground and land on top of him. But his hand lingered on my hip before he let me go.

“I should go.”

He nodded and stepped back. “Okay.” But I didn’t move and neither did he. “Do you want to get a coffee?”

I wanted to spend every minute of every day looking at him, and if I had to drink sludge, then I’d put some sweetener in it and mix it with some creamer before I slurped the steaming brew. “Sure.”

We walked away from the frat house toward town. He kept his hands shoved in his pocket even though I left mine dangling at my side, just in case he wanted to lace our fingers together. Which, clearly, he did not.

After a few blocks of silence, he looked over at me. “I have to ask you something, and it’s kind of embarrassing.”

He’d seen me naked, licked some pretty private spots, and heard me beg for more. The embarrassment ship already left the harbor. “Okay.”

Instead of speaking, he nodded and blew out a breath, but kept walking. Whatever it was, this embarrassing question, seemed relatively serious. “I know we had sex, and I probably should’ve asked you before then, but…” He scoffed. “But I’m an idiot.”

Oh… “I’ve never…before you, I mean, had sex, so you don’t have anything to worry about…medically.” Oh, Lord. That was on the embarrassing side of things.

He chuckled. “I knew that, but… when you go to the doctor and you fill out the forms that ask for your history, what’s the name you put at the top of the page?”

My name. I laughed, relieved. A question I couldn’t mess up or make sound lame. “Reese. Reese Winthrop.” To be honest, I’d so much liked when he’d called me baby it never occurred to me that he hadn’t called me anything else and hadn’t asked if he should.

He stopped on the sidewalk and held out his hand, formal and smiling. “Reese. I like it. And it’s very nice to meet you.”

I slid my palm against his.

Two hours later, we were back at the boat, naked, sweating, ready for round three or maybe it was four. But every kiss, every time he whispered my name, made me want more and he didn’t seem inclined to stop either, so when we fell asleep later, all was right with the world.

4

Ryder

What started as a joke…because being kidnapped by a woman I slept with ten years ago had to be a joke, ended up with me being tethered to a wall in a basement of a house that was still better than my shitty apartment. It came with a refrigerator stocked with soda, beer, lunchmeat, and snack cakes. Also, I could walk to the bathroom without needing Reese, almost make it to the steps, and to the washer/dryer combo. I had cable TV—hence the better than my apartment—a pillow top mattress and a stereo that responded to voice commands.

By my third day in captivity, I’d made a plan for escape. I had to get back to work before I lost my jobs, otherwise, I might’ve been more inclined to stay, to enjoy the afternoon card games with Reese, to hear her recaps of what I’d missed over the weeks of TV programming on her favorite reality shows.

The last couple of days, she’d puttered around, checking on me like a hotel concierge, treating me like a guest as much as a prisoner. If she let me go soon, I would be sure to mention her kindness at her kidnapping trial.

The squeal of hinges announced her arrival and I ignored the uptick in my heart rate. No way was I looking forward to seeing her. Not unless she was setting me free today. The armful of groceries said she wasn’t.