The Wedding Affair (The Affair Series Book 2) (26 page)

“Ryan,” she drawled. “Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not asking if you’re her baby daddy. After your explanation and Andi’s story on the same subject, I got what Tara was doing.” The smile she bestowed calmed his nerves. “She’s messing with the wrong, crazy bitches here, though. Andi’s ready to either smack her or fire her. I know it’s not you, but Tara is playing by Tara’s cray-cray rules. Not being involved and not getting dragged into someone else’s drama are two very different things. She’s dangerous. And she didn’t hesitate to try to make me feel like the outsider.”

He snorted. “She’s the outsider.”

“Actually, she’s not. On the mainland, all of you live within sixty miles of each other. You. Andi and Kyle. Your parents. Even Ali.”

“Doesn’t mean anything,” he grumbled.

“It does to someone three thousand miles away.”

Ryan felt trapped. By Tara’s delusions. By knowing Samantha was looking for an out on her life in California. By the normal constraints of being a good guy.

He couldn’t destroy Tara. She was too pathetic for that, and besides, karma would get her someday soon.

And though he wanted to, Ryan couldn’t use what he knew to force Samantha’s hand or push her into a decision using an unfair advantage. She’d hate him for it later on. She made her own decisions—a lot like him. She wouldn’t appreciate him interfering under any circumstance.

In a very real way, they were sitting on a time bomb. Pretending tomorrow wasn’t looming or that walking away from each other wasn’t about the most confusing and upsetting thing a new relationship could handle was dumb. This didn’t seem like the time to choose subtlety over candor.

“Scoot over here,” he told her before moving a bag of souvenirs from the bench between them.

“Why?”

This itty-bitty shade of defiance she engaged in from time to time would keep them on their toes in the years ahead. Like a lightning bolt of clarity, he saw the trait in his parents’ marriage and with Uncle Burt and Aunt Mel too. Now, he understood why his dad told him the Sommerfield men needed strong women to keep them in line. Many things were starting to make sense.

He looked at Samantha through new eyes. As much as he needed her to keep him grounded, she needed him to keep up the challenge. He snickered. It was their personal form of relationship yin and yang.

“’Cause I said so, you cheeky wench. Move that ass, lady.”

The twitching pursed lips as she fought a laugh reset the equilibrium and helped draw a distinct warning line around the seriousness of the discussion.

“Since you asked so nicely. . .” she muttered with a snark-laden smirk as she made a huge production of scooting, an inch at a time, across the bench until her knees hit his legs. “There. Happy now?”

Oh, yeah. Now, he got it! The spanking thing. She was almost begging for a turn over his knee.

Ryan turned toward her, shifting his body until he rested an elbow on the table—which effectively caged her in—and lightly stroked his fingers up and down the bare skin of her arm.

“Very happy. Your fire excites me, Samantha.”

Her eyes flashed dangerously. He grinned and kept on.

“So please, honey, keep it up.”

He saw the second she thought of a comeback and inclined his head to encourage her mouth to have at it.

“Careful. You might get burnt.”

“I like the fire,” he assured her. “Without it, you can’t really appreciate the peaceful times.”

She looked pleased with his observation, so he decided to tease her a little bit. Put some of that pretty blush he enjoyed so much onto her cheeks.

Using small, unhurried movements, he fingered the strap of her sundress and caressed the soft skin on her shoulder. Didn’t take long for Samantha to draw her bottom lip between her teeth as a slight tremor rippled beneath his sensitive hands.

“And then there’s that other reason when your smart mouth will come in handy.”

He liked the guileless confusion on her face. It spurred him on.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

His face split into a wide grin. “You’ve got homework.”

“What?”

“Homework. I want you to research what I’m told is the fine art of ass spanking. There’s a lot of material out there. Maybe you could use some of your movie consultants for information. Those BDSM guys with the knots and rope.”

Ryan almost fell off the bench laughing when her brows bumped together furiously, and she gaped at him, open-mouthed. “Are you serious?”

“Oh, fuck yeah,” he drawled. “Benefit of a smart-mouthed woman? Spanking her ass from time to time.”

“Why?”

“A reminder.”

She was openly sputtering now, and he had a hard time not cracking up.

“Reminder? Of what, may I ask?”

Someday, maybe he’d tell her how turned on he became when she used that snotty, prim, and uptight tone.

He didn’t answer her question. He just sat there and stared her down. That was all the explanation she needed. The victory dance he performed in his head after she eventually blushed and lowered her eyes had him calculating how fast he could get her somewhere private so he could fuck the living daylights out of her.

“Okay. Now that that’s settled.”

She
harrumphed
and wiggled on the bench but didn’t raise her eyes.

“Let’s stop all this other bullshit and talk about what’s really going on.”

Now, that got her gaze zooming to his. Thinking it was better to meet this thing head-on, he went straight to it.

“What time do you leave tomorrow?”

“Noon. And you?”

“Canceled my flight,” he started to say when her shocked gasp made him pause.

“Canceled? Why? Now, what’s going on?”

It was all there in her words. He heard the confusion. The hurt. The frustration.

He held one of her hands and continued stroking her arm. In a murmured, reassuring tone, he urged, “Easy, babe. Take a breath, okay? There’s nothing going on, and I’d tell you if there was. Ali is flying all of us by private plane. Me and the folks. The perks of being a literary superstar.”

“Oh, Ali.” A fleeting pause and then she half-smiled. “She’s batshit, ya know?”

“From my first breath,” he joked. “Sometime, I’ll tell you about the summer she rowed us out into the middle of a lake and made me jump in the water. All to test her theory that pesky little brothers were made of lead and would, therefore, sink to the bottom.”

“So when does the family fly out?”

Squeezing the fingers on the hand he held, he gave her a conspiratorial smirk and a quick wink. “When I’m ready. The plane will be on one-hour standby, so on my say, we head home.”

She wasn’t too hard to read. The thoughts and questions in her head made fleeting appearances on her face as well.

“That’s my way of saying you’re my priority, Ms. Evers. I’ll take you to the airport and make sure everything’s in order. And only once I know you’re in the air and on your way home will I consider leaving.”

She winced when he mentioned her home. What could he do to help her get past the noise in her head? They had enough to contend with. No need to create more.

“This isn’t over just because it’s time to get back to the real world. I don’t have the answers, honey. I mean, shit. I didn’t come here expecting to fall in love, and neither did. . .what?”

The expression on her face was going to stay in his memory forever. “Uh, I, um, Ryan.” She was all over the place. “Wh-what did you say?”

Hmm. He rewound the last moment for a clue. When he found it, his eyes went round, and he locked gazes with her.

“Wow. Uh. Sam.”

Her laughter started quietly but quickly grew into a raucous giggle. Grabbing his forearms, she rocked back and forth and cracked up.

“Oh, my god,” she drawled between snorts of amused laughter. “Anything else?”

Ryan saw how funny it was and joined her in a good chuckle.

“So when you sell this story to cable, make sure a bullet list is included in the outline.”

She howled. “Right?”

He started ticking off everything they’d had thrown at them in the last few days.

“Time-out-of-place encounter. Some bullshit about kismet.”

“Kismet!” she shrieked with good humor. “Eyes will roll at that.”

“Instant attraction. Amp it up, though. Needs some wow, don’t you think? Like wild animal attraction or something like that.”

“You want me to use the word alpha, don’t you?”

“Hey, if the shoe fits, right?”

“Should I include the part about being set up by the bride and groom?”

Ah! He almost forgot that part. “Absolutely! Go for the gusto, babe. It’s just a rom-com without the drama. Include the crazy bitch and a possible bun in the oven.”

“And the box of thirty-six. Gotta add that.”

Their laughter sobered when they each paused. Bucket of ice-cold reality dumped on their heads.

“One thing at a time, honey.”

She nodded. The vibe rolling off her hit him like a falling brick wall.

“We’re leaving,” he abruptly announced. Signaling to the waiter, he began to gather their things.

“Where are we going?”

There was only one possible way to answer the question.

“Back to the hotel so I can make love to you with all the minutes we have left until tomorrow.”

“That’s a lot of minutes.” Her voice sounded small but hopeful.

He put his hand on her neck and caressed her throat. The move was possessive and controlling. “Not enough for what I want to do with you.”

Within minutes, they were in the back of a cab, hands clasped tightly, heads bent close together as they communicated through sighs and touches. Halfway there, she put her hand on his thigh and moved slowly upward until all pretense of decent behavior slipped away, and she boldly stroked his manhood.

Ryan barely held it together at the hotel, throwing money and a generous tip at the driver the second the car drew up to the entrance. By his calculation, they had roughly five minutes before his overpowering desire to be inside her destroyed whatever manners and constraint he possessed.

“
I
love Andi,” Sam murmured.

Ryan was caressing each of her fingers where they rested in the crook of his arm as they walked along. It seemed to her as though he couldn’t get enough of touching her, and she was okay with that.

“First class. Wow.”

She still couldn’t believe it, but when she did her pre-board ticket check, Sam discovered that Andi had changed her ticket and was flying her home in style. With her emotions currently all over the damn place, the extra comfort and ease of first class might help her stay sane during the flight. A flight that was taking her away from this island paradise and the wonderful man keeping her close by his side.

“She’s a great girl,” he said. “My cousin is a lucky man.”

There didn’t seem like much to say after that. Their time together was quickly winding down. With each step leading to her departure, Sam’s heart grew heavier and heavier.

The security checkpoint was in view when he waylaid them aside from the moving cluster of people and pushed her out of the way and against a wall.

“Shit, Samantha,” he growled. “This is tougher than I thought.”

She couldn’t look at him, or the tears would start.

“Honey,” he asked. Sam saw him through her lowered lashes and swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat. “Are you happy in L.A.?”

It took a surprising amount of effort to choke out words. “It’s where I live, Ryan.”

“That’s not an answer. I can’t believe this is happening.”

She started melting down at the sound of emotional anguish in his voice.

He touched the side of her face and lay his palm against her neck. His thumb moved along her jawline. “Is L.A. where you’re happy, Samantha? Do you see a future there? Help me here, babe.”

Should she admit her time there had been a waste? More failure than shining success? If she did, what did that say about her? For the first time in her life, she wanted to pull what Lisa always called a
Fuck-It
. The temptation to throw up her hands in defeat was real. But was doing that any smarter than letting the events of a single week in her life dictate her whole future? And what exactly would happen if she threw in the California towel?

She felt stuck.

“I’m so confused,” she admitted. “Even if L.A. was the coolest experience of my life, now that we’ve met, nothing makes sense.”

He touched his forehead to hers and held her face in his hands. She held fast to his wrists and fought a surge of threatening tears.

“Look, I know this is crazy, but I’m falling in love with you, Samantha Evers. Have been from the first moment I saw you. What we feel isn’t island madness. I guess shit like this really does happen—just never thought it’d happen to me.”

Sam threw her arms around his neck and held on for dear life. “Oh, Ryan. What are we gonna do?”

His warm embrace felt so right, and that only made the threatening tears more insistent.

“You’re killing me, honey.”

Her arms tightened, and she pressed her face into his neck.

“Samantha,” he groaned. “Please, baby. Tell me. Do you feel the same way?”

The gift of eloquence would have been great at that moment, but all she had was a nod and an emotional whimper.