Don't Forget Me Tomorrow(60)

I was quick to return my attention to Kayden, rinsing the suds off as I whispered, “That he is.”

“I get Mommy aww wet,” he told Ryder, tossing his arms and splashing more water over the side.

Ryder chuckled. So low it skated over me like a rough caress. “Looks like she’s the one getting the bath rather than you.”

I felt him move. The stir of the air as he pressed into the cramped space.

His footsteps heavy.

His presence overpowering.

Ryder leaned down beside me. “Like this?” he asked Kayden.

He reached into the tub and dragged his hand across the surface, splashing me over the side.

I gasped, and my mouth dropped open. “Ryder.”

He laughed. Laughed a free, satisfied sound that was so sexy my knees went weak.

Stomach tipping at what was dancing across his face.

Greed.

Like he’d given into the restraint he’d been trying to show earlier tonight. I’d recognized it for what it’d been, and now, it was missing, and with it, I had no idea what was going to be left of me.

“What, you don’t want to get wet with me, Cookie?”

“Ryder,” I chastised like I hadn’t given it the first thought when I could feel the dampness soaking my panties.

I pressed my thighs together.

“That’s what I thought, sweet thing.” He leaned in and rumbled it near my ear before he moved to grab a towel from the cabinet and held it open.

Did he expect me to stand after that?

I reached in and scooped up some water and tossed it his way. Only a few droplets made it to the mark of his face.

“What was that for?” He didn’t attempt to stop the smirk lighting all over that mouth.

“For teasing me.”

A coarse chuckle vibrated out of him. “You’re in trouble for that, Dakota.”

“How much trouble?” I wheezed it.

God, and I was, in so much trouble as that dark, hungry gaze dragged over me.

“Give me a minute and you’re going to find out. Now give me that kid.”

“Me!” Kayden giggled and kicked his feet in the water that by then wasn’t deeper than an inch.

Shivers rocked, head to toe, and my arms were shaking as I picked Kayden up and passed him to Ryder who wrapped him in the towel. Kayden squirmed all over as Ryder sat him on the counter and dried him off then helped him brush his teeth.

The whole time, I could feel the man cutting his attention to me, sneaking peeks while I leaned into the tub and pulled out the plug.

His heated stare devouring me.

“Sight of you right now.”

Butterflies flapped, and the man was doing stupid things to my heart as I looked back at him, on my knees and bent over, my shorts so short I was pretty sure he was getting an eyeful.

He groaned. “Trying to wreck a man.”

And still, I played it off like this hadn’t become very real between us. “I guess I’m nothing but a troublemaker.”

I kept telling Paisley that I didn’t need this kind of trouble in my life, but how much I wanted it right then.

I wanted the teasing and the tempting and the playing.

I wanted his body and that mouth and those hands.

And I guessed I’d been staring up at him with all of it written on my face because Ryder’s teeth ground. “Warning you, Cookie. You don’t want to go looking at me like that.”

“And what am I looking at you like?”

I asked it as I mopped up the mess we’d made on the floor and stood with a pile of wet towels. I went to angle by him so I could go downstairs and put the load into the washing machine. Only Ryder’s hand shot out to stop me, landing on my waist, his mouth going to my ear. “You’re looking at me like you want me to wreck you, too.”

“You wrecked me a long time ago.” I didn’t mean for the confession to whisper free, and Ryder looked like I might have hit him. Regret swam through his dark, dark eyes before he pulled away and turned back to my son.

Blowing out a sigh, I hurried around him and went downstairs where I started the load of towels. By the time I’d climbed back up, Ryder had taken Kayden into his makeshift room. He had him sitting on the bed and was dressing him in a pair of pajamas printed with monster trucks.

Kayden was making a bunch of engine noises, pointing at each one. “Dis and dis and dis.”

“I like that one, but I think I like the red one even better,” Ryder told Kayden.

“I wike bwue,” Kayden told him in his sweet slur.

“Blue is super cool.” Ryder finished tugging on his pants. “Alright, little man, story time.”

Ryder grabbed a book from the stack, and he climbed up onto the mattress beside him and leaned against the headboard.

Kayden curled up at his side, tucked in the crook of his arm so he could see the pages.

And I found I couldn’t move into the space. Found I was rooted to the spot, standing there in the doorway watching Ryder read my son a story, lost to the infectious laughter that rolled from Kayden as Ryder changed his voice with the different characters. Lifting it high and dropping it low, making the sound of a racing car and the beep of a horn.

Lost to everything Ryder kept saying.

To the greed that kept surfacing and the hidden shame that would shut him down.