“You want me to clean you up?”
“I think I can manage.”
“Want to sneak into my room and—”
“I appreciate the offer but you don’t need to do that,” I say, fixing my skirt.
“Do what?”
“Turn this into something it isn’t.”
It was sex.
Mind-blowing, thought-erasing sex.
“And what exactly is this?” He wags a finger between us.
“Come on, Ry. You’re telling me, it’s something more than a quick hookup?”
His lips flatten and it’s my turn to frown.
“I’m a brat, remember?”
“Kat, I—”
“We should probably head back inside,” I blurt out. Because he’s still looking at me like that and I don’t know what to make of it.
I don’t know what to make of him.
“You’re running,” he says as I move around him, heading to the end of the shadowy alley.
“I’m being sensible. Unless you want my brother or one of the guys to come out here and spot us?” I challenge.
His nostrils flare, eyes swirling with something I can’t quite decipher. But whatever is on the tip of his tongue stays there, and disappointment sinks into me.
It’s just a bit of fun, I remind myself.
A distraction.
It doesn’t matter if Ryder makes my heart race or my thoughts drift to places they have no right being. He’s a Sinner. One of Diesel’s brothers. Nothing more can ever come of it.
Even if I wanted it to.
I duck out of the shadows and head toward the side entrance to the clubhouse, the rumble of laughter and chatter filling into the cold night air.
I don’t glance back but I feel Ryder’s heavy stare as I reach the door. I sense him slip out behind me even if he keeps his distance.
Part of me wants to turn around and throw myself at him. Beg him to take me away from here and make me forget all over again.
But I don’t.
Because letting myself be vulnerable with Ryder, putting my heart on the line like that… never going to happen.
I can’t afford any more heartache.
Not when I’m already so broken.
* * *