“What did you expect?”
She jumped, seeming surprised I was so closely following her. She shrugged. “It’s actually quite homey. I expected something this extravagant to be…I don’t know, well, a show home really. All whites and browns. Bland and…” she eyed me up and down. “Manly.”
Puffing my chest out, I winked at her. “It’s manly.”
The smile that spread over her face for a moment turned her from gorgeous to breathtakingly beautiful. “Oh, you look manly, but your home has been decorated to be a home. I like what I’m seeing. Whoever did this, has good taste.”
“It’s our house.”
Her smile disappeared and she sighed. “And there is the crazy.” She walked down the hall past the lounge room and kitchen out to the rumpus room and sat on the couch that looked over the beach. “Come on. Let’s get this talk out of the way so I can get back to my real life.”
I went to sit next to her, but she pointed to the recliner. Sitting down on it I leaned forward and took a deep breath in and tried to think of how to start the explanation for everything that was between us without sounding crazy. “Before I start this, I want you admit something.”
She rolled her eyes and groaned, “Fine. If agreeing to something will move this along, then tell me what you want me to admit.”
“You feel it. The spark between us.”
Divinity wriggled back into the seat, closed her eyes and sighed loudly. After a moment or two she massaged her forehead. Her eyes popped open and she crossed her arms over her chest and scowled. She was adorable. “I’ll admit I feel something for you. Annoyance. Displeasure. And, oh I don’t know, anger. I’m not sure about a spark, but maybe my desire to Taser you ninety percent of the time is coming through our connection you ‘feel’ we have.”
She was witty and such a smart arse. I was loving that she wasn’t scared of me. She didn’t give a rat’s arse about who I was or who my family was, and I loved it. My smile since taking her felt like a permanent fixture. “See, you’re not scared ether. I’ve kidnapped you and don’t you find it strange that you’re not scared or terrified?”
I watched as she realized what I was saying was true. Right now, she was vulnerable and should be scared out of her mind, but she was still bossy and sassy. Her eyes scanned me before looking at her surrounding and then coming back to me. After a while I saw the realization that something wasn’t right come over her. She uncrossed her arms and threw them up in the air. “Oh all right, you’ve made your frigging point. Tell me now what the hell is fucking going on.”
Yes, I had her. Now to convince her of the curse and try not to have her think I’d lost my Goddamn marbles. Relaxing back into my seat, I started at the beginning.
Ryder had a few screws loose. He’d just spent a good fifteen minutes telling me about his family back in the ‘old country’ helping a group of gypsies and them repaying the Silverman family by giving them the gift to know who their soulmate is. But, supposedly the curse is a double-edged sword, because when a Silverman finds his mate, he becomes, for the best explanation, a possessive caveman. I really wasn’t finding his story very realistic, or if it was real, anything I wanted to be involved with. I had enough alpha men in my life, thank you very much, there was no way I was going to add anymore. Ryder may be hot with a capital H, but not only was he a lunatic, he was way too alpha for me. I liked my men without that gene.
The men I’d been involved with before, were easy going, under six feet, of smaller build, and they definitely didn’t have muscles like Ryder. Or tats. Actually, none of the guys I’ve been on a date with had any tattoos that were visible or I knew about. It wasn’t that I didn’t like tats, I’d just never been with a man who’d had them. Err, not that I’d been with many men at all. Ryder’s tats were had to miss. He’d have to wear a long sleeve turtle neck and long pants to cover his up.
Staring at Ryder, I tried to take in everything he’d told me. As my mind was processing, my gaze devoured the gorgeous man sitting across from me. It was a pity I didn’t like my men all ‘He-man alpha,’ because, Ryder was a very yummy specimen. His head was almost shaved, expect for the dark stubble like growth. He looked as if he hadn’t shaved his face in a day or two with the dark five o’clock shadow. His eyes were the most intense dark green I’d ever seen. His cheeks were high and his jaw square. He was huge, all muscle, but in proportion to his six foot something height. He was the picture-perfect example of masculine beauty.