My Mind's Eye (Pub Fiction #1) (30 page)

Later that same night, as the club fills up, I become more and more aware of how hard this might be. Maybe I need to talk to Levi and Ryker about us not working together, as I can see it spelling out trouble, especially with our regulars who have grown accustomed to treating both of us a certain way. While I receive more looks and dirty little comments, Ryker gets touches and rubs that, honestly, make me see red. He all but claims me like a Neanderthal, while I silently fume, not wanting to get into it with catty bitches. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll throw down if need be. But for now, I watch in silence, biding my time, while Ryker basically walks around pounding his chest.

Chapter 50

Kat

Winter Break

M
aking my way down the stairs after getting ready to go Christmas shopping at the mall with my mom, I stop halfway, seeing Ryker standing in the foyer chatting up my mother, who is grinning from ear to ear.

“Oh, there you are, honey. This lovely boy is here to see if he can take you to lunch,” she pretty much singsongs to me. I know she’s concealing her smirk, because she and I have just spent the morning gossiping about the entity who is now standing in my childhood home. My mom knows just how strong my feelings are starting to be for this man. Clearly, she’s beginning to see why.

“Uh…hi, Ryker,” I mutter, pretty much tongue-tied. “I see you’ve met my mom, Mary.”

Nodding a yes, honeybutter himself pretty much eye-fucks me from top to bottom with a hunger in his eyes, in front of my mother nonetheless, before stammering, “Hey, hot-er, um, Kat, yeah, I was in the neighbourhood; well, actually, it turns out my mom doesn’t live too far from here, only about a forty-five minute drive. I decided to come see you. I was wondering if you wanted to go grab a bite to eat? Thought maybe we could go ice-skating after, too. Our real first date,” he whispers once my mom is out of earshot.

Ryker Eddison is nervous and I can’t believe it! I smile my best grin before nodding, as I’m still in shock that’s he’s here. When we talked until the wee hours of the night, he never once lead on that I would be seeing him this soon. I’m excited he’s here.

“Um, sure, I’d like that—oh, but Mom…” I turn to face her. “Do you mind? We were supposed to go shopping after all?”

“Oh, Kat, I absolutely don’t mind! You let this handsome young man take you out. We can shop anytime. Besides, I can’t wait to hear how ice skating goes,” she adds with a giggle.

With that, Ryker and I set out on our
first date.

While helping me up into the cab of his truck—hand on my ass, of course—Ryker leans into my ear before hoisting me up, whispering, “Ready for our first date, sweet girl? I gotta say, I’m curious. What’s with your mom and the ice skating comment?”

Huffing out a small breath, I embarrassingly admit that I’ve never been ice skating before. I mean, Jesus, we live in Canada, and I’ve never been ice skating! Turning in my seat toward the open door where Ryker stands, I expect him to make fun of me.

Rather, I’m met with a sight of his beautiful eyes and a sly smile turning up on his sexy face. Ryker leans in while brushing my nose, giving me Eskimo kisses. “That’s good news, baby; that’s real good news.” With that, he brushes my lips with his before closing my door.
Cryptic much?

After lunch, we make our way to Valleyview Park where they have a huge, intimidating, outdoor ice rink. Crap, one that is filled with people who look like they’re floating rather than skating.

“Ryker, how about we go to a movie instead?” I ask as he’s crouched in front of me tying up my skates. “Not a chance, Kat. This is an opportunity to build trust, as well as a chance for me to be your knight in shining armour as I stop that sexy ass of yours from getting bruised too much.” He helps to stand me up, and then helps me onto the ice. I have to admit, he looks pretty hot in his hockey skates.

After an afternoon of Ryker teaching me to skate, I have to admit, I love skating! Or better, I love skating with Ryker! Holy hotness. Ryker not only taught me how to skate, but he was constantly touching, rubbing, and kissing me. Never would I have imagined Ryker Eddison could be this guy.

“Kat, Jesus, baby, if that ass keeps rubbing on my cock like that, I’m gonna have to drag you over to those bushes,” he moves beside me and I feel the loss of his cocoon, which had been engulfing me for the last few laps.

“Well, play your cards right, and maybe I’ll take
you
over to the bushes,” I sass back, deciding I want to egg him on a bit. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable, I let go of his hand, beginning to skate faster.

“Oh, I see, hot girl, you wanna play chase? You got it. I’ll give you ’til the count of twenty; then it’s game the fuck on,” he quips before counting.

Trying to get away, I move my legs simultaneously, moving faster and faster, working in tandem to move around the rink. Suddenly, I’m going way too fast and it’s totally exhilarating and scary all at the same time. Then as I begin to lose my footing, on the way to making a huge face plant, big hands grip my hips, steadying me from behind.

“I got you, baby. See, I really am your knight in shining armour. I told ya I would be,” he says before we land in a fresh pile of snow. Looking up while lying flat on my back in a huge snow pile, I couldn’t be happier as Ryker is now hovering over me with a huge smile on his face. How the hell did we get here? He kisses my nose before speaking with a somewhat strained voice. “God, you trying to get away from me, Kat, has got me so fuckin’ hard.” He licks my neck up to my ear. “Watching that ass of yours moving with those sexy as fuck legs, I started to picture them wrapped around my neck as I sink into you.” He looks me in the eye before laughing a deep belly laugh. “Well, that was until you almost took a face plant.” He grins, waiting for my reaction. I giggle at the whole thing as Ryker swoops in, offering me a kiss that steals my breath.

Ryker and I have many more wonderful dates like this, and I swear, with each one, I fall for this man a bit more. He is full of kindness, sweetness, and goodness; I question why I ever denied myself this in first place. I think the days we ended up being apart only helped to solidify how much we actually care about each other. Things have been going amazing, and I have never been this happy. Ryker has proven he meant every word about me and about us that day.

Chapter 51

Kat

January

A
s soon as we’re back from the winter break, Ryker and I just seem to connect on a deeper level. We spent a lot of time really getting to know each other, voicing our insecurities where relationships are concerned, as well as sharing intimate details about our pasts.

“I can’t believe we missed the movie,” I say as Ryker holds the door to The Bean open for me.

“It was all your fault, sweet girl; you kept taunting me with that sweet ass of yours,” the liar teases.

“Ha! You wish, buddy. All I did was try to put jeans on. It’s not my fault you’re a sex machine.” I wink.

“Sex machine, oh, I’m hurt, that hurts.” He places his hand on his heart as if he’s wounded. “Well, it’s not my fault my woman makes me crave her like a wild beast,” Ryker growls in my ear as he brings me in for a bear hug. I nuzzle in, and then lick up his neck. “Kat,” he scolds, pulling me away. “I’m not about to let these people see me fuck you like the animal I am, I suggest you stop.”

“Oh, you’re no fun,” I joke before giving him a soft kiss on the lips.

“You go get us a table, sweet girl. I’ll grab our drinks.” He kisses my forehead before heading for the counter. Once I opened up to him about the fire and how it’s impacted me, I felt like the last weight I’d been carrying around with me has been permanently lifted.

I guess I just worried he’d think all my little quirks meant I was crazy. Boy, was I wrong. I don’t know why I waited so long to fully share that part of me with him. I know he knew something had happened to me the night of the storm when the alarm went off, but I think I needed to open up about it in my own time. And I’m glad I did. It just showed me how wonderful of a person Ryker is. He never pressured me, but always let it be known he was here whenever I was ready to share.

“I need to leave here, Ryker,” I said, looking around the stuffy restaurant, sweat starting to break pool on the back of my neck, the walls closing in on me. My breathing laboured as panic began to take over. Looking around, I still couldn’t find a safe escape route if there were to be a fire. I just needed to get out.

“I can’t… I can’t sit here. It’s too small. I’m so sorry. I really tried, but I can’t,” I blurted out as the tears I had been trying to hold in cascaded down my cheeks.

“What’s wrong, Kat? Let’s sit and talk about it.” He motioned to our table.

Shaking my head, I managed to form a mumbled reply, “You stay. I’ll catch a taxi home. I’m fine, Ryker, just forget it. I’m sorry for ruining the night.” I pushed past him, around the customers crowding the place straight out the door, with Ryker following quickly, calling after me.

“Whoa, easy there, Kat,” Ryker said, grasping my arm gently as he tried to stop me from running. “Sweet girl, I’m not leaving you, especially after seeing you get so upset back there.” He took a hold of my hand, wiped my tears and scanned the area before he suggested, “Let’s pop into Starbucks, grab a coffee, and sit over there at the park and talk.”

After a few minutes and some calming breaths, I agreed to go with Ryker, “Okay, I can do that.” I smiled up at his concerned face before asking, “Are you sure you don’t want me to just go? I’m sure I embarrassed you back there.”

“Not a chance, baby, where you go, I go. Nothing you ever do would embarrass me to the point where I’d leave you. That back there was nothing. Besides, no one noticed, sweet girl. Let’s get our drinks, and you can tell me about what caused that reaction.”

We talked for what felt like hours while sitting on that bench in the park, and Ryker was perfect. He even asked me to show him the Toronto Trauma Survivor Group and bookmarked it on his phone. “That way, if you’re ever at my place or without your phone and need a little check-in, you can use mine.” He gave me a squeeze and, I swear, my heart melted at his thoughtfulness. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the way I’d planned on telling him, but regardless, it was all out in the open now, and I was grateful for that.

“Thank you for sharing that with me, baby. I can’t imagine what that must have been like for you girls. I had no idea. Remind me to give Claire a big hug for helping my baby.” He wipes the tears from my eyes. “What say we grab take-out tonight, and we’ll build up to eating inside the restaurant again soon?” I nodded in agreement, still a little embarrassed at how sudden the anxiety overtook me. It was the conversation we had about the fire that really made me realize Ryker is absolutely everything I never expected him to be.

Later that same night while eating Thai food, snuggled side by side in my bed, we talked about everything; I feel like we both laid all our cards out on the table, from relationships, to the fire again, and my insomnia issues. Ryker and I talked about my relationship with Seth as well as his with Melissa at great lengths. I think both of us having been hurt before, it has only bonded us closer together. I realized Ryker will not ever cheat on me and I’m confident he feels the same. It’s nice to know we have this in common, as it’s been a sore spot for the both of us, affecting many of our relationships, or better yet, lack thereof. It was cathartic for us both.

As for the issue of Seth, Ryker has been amazing. Why I hesitated telling him is a mystery. Ryker is an incredibly understanding and protective man, and I am lucky to have him in my life.

“Kat, again, I’m glad you shared all this with me, sweet girl. Jesus, that guy is a dick. If I had known who he was that time, I would have kicked his ass on principle alone,” he admitted, intertwining our hands. “I’ll deal with that loser if he ever shows his face around here again. I don’t want you to worry, baby. I’ll sort that fucker out.”

The next day, he even took me to the police station to seek advice, but unfortunately, because nothing is threatening or there isn’t a sure way to prove it’s Seth, there really isn’t much to be done from their end at this time, unless he shows up again uttering threats or attempts to do me any harm. For now, I ignore the messages and share them openly with Ryker at the odd times they do come.

“Kat, it’s okay; I don’t want you to ever stress over that dick. I protect what’s mine, and you are abso-fuckin-lutetly mine,” he assured me, swinging our intertwined hands.

That was the day I knew I was totally in love with Ryker Eddison.

Rykers’ heavy footsteps approaching the table bring me out of my thoughts. “There you are, hot girl.” He puts my chai latte and scone down in front of me. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“I was just thinking about you, how amazing you are.” The smell of my sweet drink has me licking my lips; Ryker notices and gives me a smirk.

“I love when you lick those lips—my sweet tasting lips,” he whispers in my ear before sitting down across from me. “I should have known you’d be near the exit door,” he teases me, looking around the small shop, and I know he’s only joking. “I’m proud of you, Kat. The table right beside the door is free, but you chose this one; that’s major, baby.” He grabs my hand, squeezing it.
God, this man is perfect.

Chapter 52

Kat

“K
at!” Amanda calls to me from the top of the stairs.

“What? I’m just getting ready to go to the library,” I yell back while putting on my shoes.

“Well, you might want to pick up the phone before you go. There’s a certain hottie on the line who is demanding to speak to his woman, and if you ask me, he sounds kinda pissy.”

Rolling my eyes, I jog up the stairs to grab the cordless off the kitchen table. “Hello?”