Lost to my own pleasure, I don’t hear the knock at the door. I definitely don’t hear it open. But I do hear a man’s voice.
“Tess?”
24
I gasp, bolting upright on the bed to see a wide-eyed Ryan standing in my open doorway, leaning on one crutch.
“Jesus—fuck—” I cry, slipping off the side of my bed, vibrator still buzzing in my hand. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Oh my god.” Yep, he’s just realized what I was doing. The poor boy blushes red as a tomato as he backs into the doorknob with his hip and hisses. “Fuck—Tess, I’m sorry—”
Indignation surges through me. “What, it’s not enough that you barge into houses unannounced to catch women naked, now you’re just walking right into their bedrooms?”
“I didn’t know you were home,” he counters, looking anywhere but at my naked, flushed body. Again. “Why didn’t you announce yourself when you got in?”
“I thought you were asleep,” I cry, clicking off the bullet and tossing it on the bed.
Big mistake. That draws his eye down and now he’s looking at my open treasure trove. The puppy’s eyes go, if possible, even wider as he feasts upon my colorful sex toy collection.
“Oh…fuck.”
I flip the bag shut. “Eyes up here, Ryan,” I say, pointing to my face.
He groans, his gaze going from my face to the abstract painting on the wall. “Tess, could you—”
“Nuh-uh,” I cry, hands on my naked hips. “No way. If you’re about to ask me to cover up in my own damn bedroom, I’m gonna have to insist that you go fuck yourself with your hockey stick. Just because you think I’m not home, you think it’s okay to waltz in here? What were you looking for?”
“Nothing—”
“Then why barge in—”
“I heard a noise! And then I saw a strange car in the driveway. You weren’t answering your phone, so I didn’t know what the fuck to think. I thought maybe someone broke in.”
“That’s my car,” I explain. “It’s a rental. And I don’t have my phone anymore. I threw it in the ocean today.”
“You—what?” That gets his eyes back on me. “You threw your phone in the ocean?”
“Well, it was whatever that stretch of water is just before you hit the beach,” I reply.
“The Intracoastal?”
“Yeah. I threw my phone out the window of Ilmari’s truck.”
Ryan holds my gaze. “Why?”
“Because it wouldn’t stop ringing.”
There’s so much left unsaid in that statement. I’m almost convinced he means to ask me about it. He’s going to push me. He’s finally going to ask about Troy. It looks like the words are right on the tip of his tongue. But then his gaze softens.
“Why didn’t you let me know you were home?”
“I thought you were asleep,” I repeat.
His eyes narrow. “No, you didn’t. You saw the light on. You were hiding out in here. Why?”
“You don’t need me mothering you, Ryan. You’ve got a line of WAGs and rookies ready to take care of you—making all your meals, driving you around. You don’t need me in the way. Especially after…you know, after how I behaved this morning,” I finish lamely.
Hobbling further into my room, he leans his hip against the dresser. “Something with Shelby had you spooked. I was hugging her when you came in. Was that…did it upset you?”
“No,” I reply.
“Because she’s married,” he goes on. “I’m not—I mean, we’re not—I’m not into Shelby.”
I smile softly. “I know that, Ryan.”
“Well then what was it? Can you please tell me?” He looks so damn earnest. He genuinely wants to know. And damn it, but I feel like telling him.
I cross my arms over my bare tits. “She looks like my ex-husband’s mistress.”
His pretty green eyes go wide. “She—what?”
I drop down to sit on the edge of the bed. “Shelby bears a shocking resemblance to the secretary who used to pleasure my husband under his desk at work…and on the desk…and in my house in my bed,” I reply darkly. “In fact, I know on at least one occasion he was trying to slip her out the back door while I was in the house.”
“Jeez.”
“Today was just a lot for me, okay? I signed my divorce papers, and Troy got them this morning. He was the one calling me nonstop, looking for a fight. The marriage has been over for years, but I never bothered with all the legal drama, and this is why. My ex is a grade-A narcissist with a god complex. Pepper in a dash of crippling incompetence and a pinch of toxic male privilege, and it makes him vindictive…and dangerous.”