Resisting Ryder(39)

“What you’re saying sounds really nice and all,” Stormy mumbled. She thought about Hayden and about how things were maybe starting to get on track with that. “I just don’t know if it’s what Jett would’ve wanted.”

“You have no idea what Jett would’ve wanted. You can speculate all you want if it makes you feel less guilty or whatever,” Ryder huffed with a bitterness in his tone. “I know you feel something too. You’re just too scared to admit it.”

Ryder hit the nail on the head, and Stormy knew it. The way she looked at it, she had two choices. She could completely close the chapter on Ryder and focus on Hayden and move on or she could accept that her feelings towards Ryder were real and that it was okay to explore whatever it was that was going on between them.

“I’m not going to lie,” she prefaced. “I’ve felt something between us too.”

Ryder’s faced seemed to light up a bit.

“But how do I know I’m not drawn to you because you look like Jett?” she wondered. “You’re like the older, stronger, more independent version of the love of my life. I’m constantly comparing you to him and that’s not fair to either of you. Sometimes when I look at you, I only see him.”

“I can’t control what you see when you look at me,” he replied. “That’s all you. But I can tell you what I see when I look at you.”

Ryder repositioned himself so that he was facing her straight on. He stared at her face, which was caked with makeup from her failed girls’ night out, and took a deep breath.

“I see a young woman who’s afraid to try anything new. She’s afraid to step out of her comfort zone. She loves with all her heart and yet at the same time she holds her cards close. She’s afraid to get hurt, but once she opens up, she has the most beautiful soul,” he said. “She’s protective and loyal and a little curious when she lets her guard down, which is rare. She likes comfort and routine, but I know she’d be a little more adventurous about things if she had the right partner beside her.”

Stormy was blown away by how well he knew her. They had maybe spent five or six days together total in the last month, yet he knew her just as well as anyone else in her life if not better.

“I see someone who has so much potential if she just stepped outside of her comfort zone once in a while,” he said. “You have the potential to go places in life and do great things, but you’re scared. I want to help you. I want to support you. I want to be there for you every step of the way. You don’t see what I see, Stormy. You don’t see it at all. People like you are rare.”

“Wow,” Stormy remarked as her eyes misted up a little. “That’s, like, the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me before. How do you know me so well? I feel like I hardly know you at all.”

Ryder shrugged as he studied her face and her every move. He seemed so present, so in tune with her.

She thought about Jett and what he would think in that moment, then she realized that maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe all he would’ve wanted was just for her to move on and be happy. She thought about Hayden. Hayden couldn’t stack up to Jett and he certainly would never stack up to Ryder, but Hayden was safe. She knew him. She’d known him since grade school. He wasn’t perfect, but he offered her the comfort and familiarity she didn’t quite have yet with Ryder.

Ryder leaned in closer to her, and she knew he wanted to kiss her. She tried to fight it. She tried to deny her feelings, but they were too strong. She wanted to kiss him too. She wanted to be with him more than she cared to let herself admit.

Stormy leaned closer to Ryder and pressed her lips against his. His kisses were soft and gentle, not hungry and passionate like Hayden’s were the night before. He was delicate with her and sweet.

He tasted like cinnamon gum and he smelled like some sort of masculine body wash. She ran her fingers through his already mussed up hair and relished in that moment. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe it was wrong. Maybe it was all sorts of messed up, but she couldn’t deny that she was falling for him. She couldn’t stuff those feelings down anymore. Ryder was pretty amazing, and that she could not ignore.

His hands traced her face softly before he ran his fingers through her loose, brunette curls. His touches were tender not naughty. He wasn’t only after one thing as far as she could tell. He was taking things slowly and that’s exactly what she needed. He always seemed to know exactly what she needed.





CHAPTER 15




Ryder slept on the couch that night while Stormy slept sound in her bed all alone. It was what she wanted though. She didn’t want to rush anything, and Ryder was perfectly fine with it.