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With the party over, at least for them, they walked back to Ryker’s house. Ryker held her hand the whole way, and she found herself clutching tightly to his fingers, not wanting him to let go. Despite everything, her resolve to leave as soon as possible was unraveling with every moment she spent in his company. Even though she hated that Ryker had become embroiled in a fight because of her, her heart lightened at the thought of someone caring enough to stand up for her. She’d never experienced that before.
Jenna had never been so torn in her whole life—even when she’d been with Garrett and had known deep down that he was bad for her. Back then, she’d known in her heart she needed to leave him, while her head reasoned that he was all she was ever going to be worth. Now everything was topsy-turvy. Her heart longed to stay, while her head told her it was impossible. But the longer she stayed here, the quieter the voice telling her all those reasons for leaving became.
They made it back to his place with no further incidents. Mikey still sat on the couch in the exact same position he’d been when they left. The only change was that he now wore a large pair of headphones which were plugged into his computer. The boy didn’t even notice that he now had company.
Ryker walked over to him and waved his hand in front of his brother’s face, making Mikey jump.
“We’re home,” Ryker said.
“Yeah, and you just made me die!”
“Don’t be so dramatic. You only got a fright.”
Mikey rolled his eyes. “No, on my game. I got shot in the head ‘cause of you.”
Ryker exhaled and shook his head. “Good to see you, too.”
They left Mikey to it and headed into the kitchen. Both of them were still covered in tomato juice, though it had dried on the way home, making their clothes crusted and glued to their bodies.
“Do you think you’ll get in trouble?” Jenna asked Ryker. “You know, because of the fight?”
He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I hope not. Neither of those guys are the type to get the cops involved. I didn’t exactly make the best of role models for Mikey, though. If the news gets back to him—which it probably will knowing this town—I won’t have a leg to stand on next time he gets into a fight and I attempt to ground him for it.”
“Sorry,” she said again.
He gave her a rueful smile. “It wasn’t your fault. None of this is.”
“Really? ‘Cause I kind of feel like I attract trouble.”
He gave her that intense, knowing look. “Are you calling me trouble?”
She smiled. “Well you look dangerous, but I guess looks can be deceiving considering I’m the one who keeps causing the problems.”
He edged close, his hips pressing against hers, his hands sneaking around her waist and sliding down to rest on her bottom. His proximity, combined with the hooded expression of desire in his eyes, made her shiver with lust. She couldn’t remember being so physically attracted to a man before.
He lifted his hand and tucked her hair behind her ear, his fingertips trailing around to rest against her cheek. His eyes searched hers, deep and intense, and he leaned in and spoke in her ear, “You have tomato seeds stuck to the end of your nose.”
“Oh!” She laughed and lifted her hand to pick the offending seeds off. “So I do.” She suddenly became acutely aware of the gunk from the tomatoes rotting and festering on her skin, and her aversion to bacteria set in.
“Actually, do you think I could take a shower? I feel gross.”
Ryker grinned. “Sure. I could do with getting cleaned up myself. I’ll take the main bathroom, if you want to use the ensuite. Your bags are all in my bedroom, and there’s a lock on the door.”
“Do I need it to keep you out?” she said, only half-joking.
“It would take more than a lock,” he grinned back.
Hugging herself with happiness, she turned from him and headed upstairs to his bedroom. He’d explained to her earlier how the bedroom had been his father’s when he’d been alive, but since Ryker was now the man of the house, he’d moved into it, and Mikey had taken Ryker’s old room.
She pushed open the door to find her bags positioned on the chaise longue at the foot of the bed. There were fresh towels in the bathroom. She hesitated, wondering if she should use her own towels as was her habit. She normally couldn’t stand the idea of having something that might have touched someone else’s body on her own skin. But the idea of the towels touching Ryker’s body was different. If anything, she hoped he had already dried himself with the towels. The image of him standing naked on the exact same spot she stood now flashed through her head. How much of his body did he have tattooed? Did he have anything else pierced? Was his body as rock hard as she’d felt when he’d held her against him? Her mind conjured up all the glorious images of a naked Ryker, and without thinking about what she was doing, she reached out and took the towel from the rack and pressed it to her face. The material was soft, fluffy, and warm, and she inhaled, drinking in what scent of him remained.
You could have the real thing, a little voice piped in her head. He wants you, even if it is only for a mercy fuck.
No, her more sensible voice answered. He does seem to really like you. But you can’t have him. He might not mind the extra pounds, but when he sees how hideously deformed your body is now, he’ll run a mile.
Jenna put the towel back on the rack and pressed her lips together. How could she be so ecstatic one minute, and confused and frightened the next?
She gave a sigh and began to peel her crusty clothes from her body. Her t-shirt was stiff from tomato juice, her jeans sticking to her legs so she had to pull and tug to drag them from her thick thighs. Finally, just in her bra and panties, she turned on the shower. The water quickly ran hot and she removed her underwear, dropping the items to the floor.
Stepping beneath the water, she used Ryker’s shampoo and body wash. The scents of cederwood and citrus filled the steamy space. Jenna didn’t mind that only male products were available. To her, it felt like another way to immerse herself in Ryker.
Clean and refreshed, she stepped out and toweled herself off. Instead of doing her usual body inspection in the mirror, she ignored her reflection and left the bathroom to retrieve a clean set of clothing from her bag. She unzipped the hold all and reached in...
And froze.
Everything had been moved around.
The way she packed her bag was done with military precision. Her shoes always went on the bottom, covered in her toiletries bag so she never needed to worry about dirt from the soles of her shoes touching her clothes. Her underwear was always positioned next, kept in two zip-lock bags—one bag for clean, another for anything that needed to be laundered. Her leggings and jeans were normally neatly folded on top, with her t-shirts and sweaters folded on top of those.
Right now, staring down into her bag, nothing was in the right order. Hell, it was barely folded. Her jeans were mixed up with her sweaters, her sneakers pointing upward and touching her clean underwear zip-lock bag.
Someone had gone through her things.
Goose bumps crawled over her skin and she dropped the bag and stepped back, staring at it as if it might suddenly grow jaws and teeth and bite her. She clutched the towel closer to her body. Had Ryker moved her stuff around when he’d brought her bags in? She didn’t understand why he would do that, but she needed to know.
Leaving the bag where it was, she hurried to the bedroom door, opened it and leaned out into the hall.
“Ryker?” she called, unsure if he was out of the shower himself. Then a little louder, “Ryker!”
His head appeared at the bottom of the stairs, his dark hair damp from the shower, his skin pinker than usual and shiny clean. “Hey, what’s up?” He caught sight of her only wearing the towel and his eyebrows lifted. “Did you decide you didn’t want to use that lock after all?”
She glared at him. “Stop thinking about sex and get up here. I need to ask you something.”
The smile fell from his mouth as he realized something was wrong and he took the stairs, two at a time to come to stand in the hall in front of her. “What’s happened?”
Still holding the towel in one hand, she took his arm with the other and pulled him toward the bedroom. “I need to show you.”
In the bedroom, she stood over her bag. “Do you see how everything is all messed up, all the different items of clothing jumbled together, and the shoes pointing toward the top of the bag?”
He glanced at her as if she was crazy. “Uh... yeah, I guess.”
“Well, I never pack like that. My stuff is always folded and in the right order.”
His eyebrows pulled together as he studied the bag. “Couldn’t it have gotten messed up while I was carrying it and throwing it into the truck?”
She shook her head. “Not like that. Stuff can’t switch places, and I pack tightly enough so things don’t move around.” She focused her gaze on his. “Please, Ryker. I know what I’m talking about here. Someone has been through my things, I can feel it.” She hesitated, and then said, “Was it you?”
He shook his head. “No, of course not. I wouldn’t go through your stuff.”
“Someone has, and if it wasn’t you, there’s only two people it could have been.”
He stared at her. “I’m going to guess Mikey is one. But who is the other?”
“Garrett.”
“You still think you saw him?”
“I don’t know. But I know someone has touched my things, and if it wasn’t you, and Mikey says it wasn’t him, then that only leaves one other option.”
“Okay, let’s go ask Mikey.”
“Just give me a minute. I need to put some clothes on.”
“Oh, sure.” He stood where he was, his arms folded across his chest.
She glared at him again. “In privacy!”
He repressed a smile, and turned to wait in the hall.
Jenna didn’t like being alone. It felt as if whoever had touched her things was still here, watching her. Quickly, she grabbed a set of underwear, a clean pair of jeans and a baggy, v-neck t-shirt, and pulled them on. She tried not to think about whose hands might have fingered the material not so long ago.
Dressed, she went out into the hallway where Ryker waited. He took her by the hand and together they headed downstairs and back into the living room where Mikey continued to play his games.
Ryker crouched in front of his still-sitting brother to bring them to an equal level. “Mikey, I have to ask you something very serious. Did you touch Jenna’s stuff while we were out?”
Mikey sat back in his chair as if Ryker had just punched him. His eyes widened, his face coloring puce with outrage. “No, of course I didn’t!”
Ryker tried again. “Please, Mikey. It’s okay if you did. It’s really important ‘cause if someone has messed with Jenna’s stuff and it wasn’t you, then we really need to figure out who did it.”
“I didn’t touch the chick’s gear. I swear it!”
“Hey, if you were just being nosy, or looking for cash or something—”
“What the fuck, Ryker! You’re accusing me of stealing now?” His gaze turned to Jenna. “Or is it you putting these ideas in his head? Am I getting in the way of your little love nest and you figured you’d rather I was gone.”
Mikey shoved Ryker out of the way and jumped to his feet. “Well, fine. I’m out of here.”
“Mikey, wait. If you say you didn’t touch her bags, we believe you.”
Mikey’s mouth thinned to a line and he folded his arms across his chest. “I said I didn’t.”
“Okay. Is there any way someone could have come into the house without you noticing?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. I was gaming and had my headphones on half the time. Someone might have come in.”
Ryker and Jenna exchanged a glance.
Jenna didn’t know what to believe. She didn’t have much of value, except for her laptop, and an emergency credit card, and neither of those things had been stolen. In fact, nothing had actually been taken, just messed up a little. Maybe Mikey was of that age where he might go through her stuff in the search of underwear, but she was hardly a Victoria’s Secret model. Mikey could find more erotic things simply by going on line.
But if it hadn’t been Mikey, did that mean Garrett was here? Had he snuck in and gone through her stuff while they were in town? If so, that meant he knew exactly where she was staying.
“I need to go,” she told Ryker, pushing past him to go and gather her things. She ran up the stairs to the bedroom. She bent to grab her bags, but Ryker had followed her. He caught her by the wrist, pulling her back.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Anywhere but here. I was stupid to have come here in the first place. Garrett could have come in and hurt Mikey!”
Ryker lowered his voice. “Hey, we don’t know that it wasn’t Mikey that moved your stuff around. I don’t like calling my little brother a liar, but trust me, I’ve caught him out on bigger lies than this before. I don’t want you to go, especially not just because of this.”
“It isn’t just because of this. It’s because of everything. I still thought I saw him, remember? Then there was the thing with the bird, and Garrett missing his parole meeting...” All the energy went out of her and she sank to the edge of the bed and put her head in her hands. “I don’t know what to think any more. I feel like I’m going crazy.” She shook her head. “Maybe that’s exactly what Garrett wants.”
The bed dipped as Ryker sat down beside her. His big, warm hand made contact with her back and he rubbed in soothing circles.
“You can’t go anywhere tonight, Jenna. It’s going to be getting dark soon, and there’s nowhere else in town for you to stay. I won’t see you sleeping out on the street, especially if there’s a chance that son of a bitch is out there somewhere.”
She lifted her eyes to his, searching their blue depths for the truth. “Aren’t you frightened for Mikey? For yourself? A seriously angry, probably mentally unstable ex-con might be out there somewhere, might know where you live and that you’re helping me, but you don’t seem fazed.”
He looked back at her, his gaze unflinching. “I can take on that asshole, baby. If he comes for you, he’s got to go through me first.”
A sob swelled up inside her, and she clamped her hand to her mouth, trying to prevent it bursting from her throat. She didn’t know if she wanted to cry because she was so happy Ryker wanted to protect her, or because she was so terrified for what she might have dropped on this already struggling, small family.
Unable to speak, she threw her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his throat, absorbing the scent of him. His hands wrapped around her body and he held her tight.
She never wanted him to let go.