Resisting Ryder(61)

She felt uncomfortable with his touch, so she tried to nonchalantly wriggle away.

“You up?” he whispered.

“Yeah, now,” she lied. She didn’t want him to know she’d been lying there having second thoughts. “Done working?”

“Yeah, couldn’t get much done for some reason,” he said. He scooted in closer to her and nuzzled her neck before reaching up and turning her face towards his. He kissed her mouth, and Stormy felt sick again.

“I-I think I’m getting sick,” she said as she flung the covers off of her sweaty body. “You probably shouldn’t get close to me.”

Ryder looked crushed as he leaned away and rolled himself back onto his side of the bed.

“Do you want me to run to the store and get you something?” he offered.

Stormy immediately saw her chance to leave and jumped on it.

“That would be so nice if you would?” she gave him her best, most innocent doe eyes. “I’ll text you what I need so you have a list when you go to the pharmacy.”

Ryder climbed out of bed and grabbed his wallet and phone, shoving them in his pockets.

“I’m sorry you’re sick,” he said. “I hope you’re not sick for your job interview tomorrow.”

“I wouldn’t miss that for the world,” she lied.

She waited on pins and needles for him to leave and watched out the window for him to pull out of the parking garage. The moment she saw him rumbling away on his bike, she called a cab and high-tailed it out of there. Her heart raced as she pulled her luggage to the curb and waited for the yellow taxi to pull up.

As soon as the cab pulled up and the driver heaved her bags into the trunk, she looked both ways to make sure no one was around and climbed in the back. She slipped on her big, oversized sunglasses and held her head low. As soon as the driver rounded the next corner, she saw Ryder in his car on his way back to the condo.

Her heart broke as she realized exactly what she was doing. She knew it was never good to make decisions when you were emotional or angry, but she couldn’t spend another night lying next to someone she didn’t feel right being with. She needed to get far away from that lifestyle.

As the taxi drove towards the airport, Stormy clutched her phone in her hand. She knew any minute now Ryder would be calling. He would probably walk in first, see the empty bed, and look around for her. When he wouldn’t find her on the balcony, he’d probably run to the closet and see all of her clothes that were once hung so neatly on wooden hangers were all gone. He’d see her toothbrush was missing and her perfume bottles all gone. He would know.

Her fingers shook as she looked up plane tickets on her phone and attempted to book something. She was prepared to stay the night at the airport if she had to. She just couldn’t stay another night near Ryder.

She found a flight that left at six in the evening. It would put her back home around nine that night. She so badly wanted to text Brooklyn and ask her to wait for her, since she was just a couple hours behind her, but she knew Brooklyn was already mid-air. Besides, she didn’t want to hear Brooklyn say “I told you so”.

She knew there wasn’t much in her bank account, but she had just enough to get home. She booked the ticket as fast as her fingers would allow her and then immediately dialed the only person she could think of that would be thrilled to see her: Hayden.

“Hey, Hayden,” she said. She tried to keep her composure, but she was sure he could hear the tears in her voice. “I need a favor.”

“Anything, Stormy, what is it?” he said on the other end. He was being so sweet to her, and it only made her feel worse about the way she left things with him.

“I need you to pick me up from the Kansas City airport tonight,” she said. “At ten.”

“Of course,” he said. “Everything okay?”

Stormy tried her best to stay strong, but it all seemed to come out at once.

“No,” she said as she sobbed into the phone. “Please, just pick me up at ten. That’s all I need.”

“I’ll be there,” he said before hanging up.





CHAPTER 22




For the first time in weeks, seeing Hayden’s face was like a breath of fresh air to Stormy. She never thought she’d be so happy to see him again. She thought for sure that chapter had been buried and gone for good, but she was wrong. Hayden was from a good family and lived a crime-free life. She knew with him, she wouldn’t have to worry about thugs knocking on the door in the middle of the night or someone trying to gun him down for some reason. He felt like a safe place for her to run to in that moment.

She threw her arms around him and squeezed him tight the moment she saw him.