Soon, I’m going to make you mine. Forever.
If the meeting with her dad goes well.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rosie
“You wanted me to get dressed up to take me to the gym at your office?” I ask, trying for a joking tone even as worry resounds through me.
Ryker has been acting strange ever since he and Paul went for dinner last night, giving me these unreadable looks, his eyes seeming somehow even more penetrating than usual. When he looks at me, it’s like he’s seeing all the things we’re going to do, going to be…
And yet I could be reading him wrong.
What if there’s another reason for that look behind his bright wolfish stare?
“Something like that.” He’s trying to put some lightheartedness into his voice too, but he’s failing. “This is where it all started, after all.”
I study him for a few moments, in his tight fitting blue suit, his face clean shaven, showing the strong shape of his jawline.
He grips the steering wheel like he’s going to tear it loose as we sit here, his knuckles turning white.
“It is,” I whisper, struggling to contain the emotion in my voice.
Is this what I think it is? Are we here for the reason I really, really freaking hope we are?
“But I don’t think I’ll be of much use in this.”
I force a giggle as I wave a hand down at my body.
I’m wearing a sparkly dress, an item Ryker chose for me. It’s cut higher than the one he picked for the date, showing more of my legs. When I emerged from the bedroom Ryker’s mouth fell open.
My sex tingled as he gazed at me, as he stared at me so hard I thought I was going to shatter.
“No one else is going to see you,” he snarled, walking slowly toward me, as if he didn’t trust himself to move faster otherwise he’d maul me. “So it’s good to let out your sexy side a little.”
I placed my hand against his chest, squeezing onto his firm pecs. “I’d wear anything you want to make you look at me like this.”
He grabbed onto my hips and slipped his hand around to my ass. Arching my back, I shivered against him, moving with the spontaneity of our new closeness. I no longer question if I’m good enough, if he wants me, any of that.
Now I’m able to drop gracefully into my lust, relishing the way my man obsesses over me.
But then he stepped away, which was unusual as heck. We’ve been like wild animals ever since we first had made love, falling upon each other with more and more passion each time, unable to stop ourselves from melting in the intimacy.
“Come on,” he rumbled. “I need to take you someplace.”
And now here we are, staring across the parking lot of his office where he has his private gym, the place where our romance began. We sit in silence for a time, the car filled with the scent of my man, musky, hot, and tempting.
It takes everything I have not to dart my hand over and squeeze down onto his throbbing groin, feeling how hard he gets for me, how fast his excitement bursts from his beast’s body.
The woman who first came to this place would never believe that, would never accept how easily I think about initiating sex with my man. But now that I know he wants me, it’s so easy, so wonderful to be the one to lead the way sometimes.
But not today, not for this… whatever this is.
Please, please, please, I chant in my mind.
Why else would he want to talk to Paul?
Please let me be right.
“Come on, beautiful.”
He leans over and kisses my cheek softly, with that way he has. He often lingers for several moments, as though everything in him is aching to take it further, to fully uncage himself on me, for me.
But he pulls away, letting out a breath as he reaches for the door handle.
Am I going crazy here, or does he look nervous?
I feel like I’m going to burst into tears the second we step into the small gym. I’m used to seeing the waiting room, the chairs, and the inspiring photos on the walls. I’m used to the businesslike layout and the door to the gym being closed.
What I’m met with instead is…
I cough back a sob as my eyes scan over the scene.
All the equipment has been removed, the walls stripped of the motivational posters. Now there are small oak tables dotted around the place, every single one flickering with sweet scented candles. The walls show my artwork, each one of them in frames, and in the middle of the room, there’s a glittering table and chairs, a bottle sitting in a bucket of ice beside it.
And rose petals. Rose petals everywhere.
They cover the floor and catch the light, making it shimmer a deep wonderful red.