“Not in the mood, thanks,” she called out to him.
Soon the sweet smells of barbecue drifted into her room. He’d apparently decided to eat inside after all. She hadn’t eaten since lunch, and her stomach rumbled.
A few minutes later, he called out, “Mmm, mmm, you don’t know what you’re missing!”
She ignored him, and turned her TV on.
She heard his boots clomping down the hall as he walked over to her door. “Hey, I know you don’t want to date me, but I thought you’d at least have dinner with me!”
Was he really that insensitive? He thought he could humiliate her, and she would just sit there and take it?
She stalked over and yanked open the door.
“Then I wouldn’t fit in the corset you picked out for me,” she said angrily, and hot tears filled her eyes. She tried hard to blink them away, and was surprised at the look of concern on his face.
He shook his head in bafflement. “What corset?”
“The stylists you sent over this afternoon to dress me for our dinner Thursday night?”
“Come on, Daisy, do I seem like the kind of guy who’d even know a stylist?”
“Ummm…the stylists who said that Mr. Harrison felt that I needed a makeover? They came to the house a few hours ago?” She could see from the look on his face that he knew nothing about it. “You didn’t send them? They were horrible. They really hurt my feelings. Said I shouldn’t eat much for the next couple of days before our dinner Thursday night. And I had to wear a corset so the dresses that they’d brought for me would fit.”
“What dinner Thursday night?”
She shook her head. “That’s what I said.”
Ryker’s face flushed with anger. “The Mr. Harrison they were talking about, that’s got to be Walt.”
“Ohhh.” Relief washed over her, and she realized how much it had hurt to believe that Ryker was no different from all the people who’d looked down on her for her size all her life. “Then…I apologize. I should have known better, really. The way they were talking to me…now that I think of it, I’ve never heard you talk to me that way.”
“And you never will,” he assured her. “Go in the kitchen and eat some barbecue while I straighten Walt out. Don’t say you’re not hungry – I can hear your stomach rumbling.”
She went into the kitchen, where he’d set the take-out barbecue on the table. She dove into it, savoring the sweet, tangy sauce as she listened to Ryker’s bellows of rage drifting down the hallway.
“What the hell were you thinking? No, you weren’t doing what was best for the company, you were doing what was best for your big, fat wallet! You keep those people the hell out of my house and the hell away from my— from Daisy!”
Was he about to say ‘my mate’? she wondered.
“Yes, they actually tried to make her wear a corset! Damn it, you don’t put a corset on perfection! Well, they’d better not come back!”
Perfection?
By the time Ryker came back, she was feeling considerably warmer towards him.
He flashed a grin at her as she licked barbecue sauce off her fingers. “That’s more like it,” he said. “And as for those stylists, they’re idiots. You know I love your body. I thought you were hot the first night I saw you.”
“My aunt picked out that outfit,” she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“She has excellent taste. And don’t worry, Walt will never try to pull that crap again. So, what could I do to make this up to you?”
“There’s no need,” she said, shaking her head. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“No, no, they made you feel bad on my behalf.” Then his face lit up. “I know what we can do!”
And he reached down and unzipped his jeans.
Chapter Eleven
At her startled look, he threw back his head and laughed, a deep, rich sound rumbling up from his broad chest.
“Not that,” he said. “Although that is on the table any time that you want. I’m going to take you to my favorite place on our pack property. Nobody can feel bad out there.”
He stepped out of his jeans, and Daisy swallowed hard and looked away as she pulled her T-shirt over her head. He was chiseled perfection, with every muscular square of his six-pack standing out in relief. His thick cock jutted straight up at the ceiling, rising proudly from a thatch of brown curls.
He led the way out the door, which was great, because it gave her an excuse to stare at the perfect globes of his ass. They walked outside and shifted, dropping to all fours.
Ryker led the way, tearing through the underbrush and racing around the longleaf pines that dominated the area. The forest floor was covered with a thick mat of pine needles, and running through them smelled like Christmas.