Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81018 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Nodding, Ryder sat on the couch’s armrest and began to stroke his fingers through my hair. It felt so good, I struggled to keep from purring like a happy cat. A quick peek at my mom revealed a soft smile on her lips and less anxiety in her gaze.
“So…” Ryder kept petting my hair as he began. “This is not how I wanted to broach this subject, but I’ve been thinking about something for a while. I’d planned to bring it up under better circumstances, but tonight changed everything, and I’m not waiting any longer.”
Shit. My stomach plummeted. I tried to swallow, but my throat hardened like a solid chunk of immovable concrete. Was this it? Was tonight the last straw? Did the drugs, violence, and midnight interruptions finally run off my Ryder? I wouldn’t blame him. This was heavy shit he didn’t need in his life.
“I want you to move in with me.”
My mouth dropped open, but no sound came out. Ice pressed to my face, I blinked at him, sitting there with a fierce expression that left no doubt he was serious.
“Both of you.”
“What?” I squeaked, finally finding my voice, but it didn’t sound like me at all. I lowered the ice only to have Ryder guide my hand back to my face with a no-nonsense glare.
“Ryder….” My mom’s eyes shone with appreciation. “That is an incredible gesture, but that would be a huge commitment for you. It’s too much.”
He shook his head, giving my mom his full attention as he soothed me by continuing to play with my hair. “It’s more selfish than you realize. I love Alex, and I want to wake up to him every day. You’re the reason he’s here. That makes you just as important to me as you are to Alex.”
My eyes prickled, and I blinked away the sudden moisture. I turned to look at this remarkable man next to me. He grinned, and my insides liquified.
How on earth was this amazing man mine?
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
RYDER
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to convince Alex to move into my penthouse with his mother, but even I underestimated my obstinate boyfriend.
That man could out-stubborn a whole pride of lions any day of the week. It took me an entire seventeen days and countless hours of strutting around naked as an incentive to get that man to agree to move in with me. I still wasn’t sure if it was my persuasive debating skills or my swinging dick that did it, but who cares. In the end, he agreed to move in with me. Nicole would take one of the spare bedrooms, which was twice the size of her room at their house. She’d have her own en-suite bathroom we could outfit with all the adaptive equipment she needed to make her daily tasks easier.
Alex spent a significant amount of his time fretting over his mom’s well-being. The nights he slept at my penthouse, he felt guilty for abandoning her despite her assurances to the contrary. He also hated leaving her alone with Kenny, though that little shit spent more time away from home than in the house he resided in rent-free.
Neither of us knew where Kenny spent his copious free time, though we had our suspicions. He certainly wasn’t working, going to school, or doing anything productive with his life, yet somehow, he never asked for money. We assumed he was selling drugs, but the times he’d been arrested, it had been for fighting or public intoxication, not drug distribution, so who really knew?
Even though moving in with me would solve all these problems and relieve mountains of strain from Alex’s shoulders, he’d fought the idea. I understood. I’d attached myself to a fiercely independent man who’d never had someone take care of him, so he had no idea how to accept that kind of love. He threw up roadblock after roadblock, afraid I’d get sick of him in my space, worried he’d be considered a gold digger, and stressed over what he’d do with his house if he moved out of it. Mostly, he feared I’d find living with his mother too much of a burden for our relationship to bear. I spent those seventeen days plowing through his roadblocks and reassuring him I loved him and had thought this decision through from every possible angle.
It’s one hundred percent what I wanted.
In the end, I got my way, and today we were moving Alex and his mom into my penthouse.
“You know,” Alex said as the elevator doors slid open to reveal him sweaty and mussed, standing beside a tower of boxes. “You can at least try to wipe the smug grin off your face.”
No. I really couldn’t. And it wasn’t smugness, it was pure giddy enthusiasm. I stepped into the elevator and hit the stop button, trapping it on our floor as I wrapped my arms around my damp boyfriend. “I’m not smug,” I said as I pecked him on the lips. “I’m excited.”