Bound (17 page)

Did
I remember to say how happy I am? Please, please don’t pull those pictures back out.

“I know, Kate. I’m just so sorry for your loss. I wanted to call you when I heard, but I just . . . I didn’t know what to say.”

My wan smile probably wasn’t convincing, but it was all I could muster. “Thanks. I understand.”

They were all looking at me, and I saw pity and discomfort as I glanced from face to face. This weekend was going to be awful. I just wanted to go home.

The tears weren’t going to wait much longer. I backed away from my friends and gestured toward the dock. “I’m just gonna . . .”

I turned and walked away without finishing. I figured Ryke was still talking hockey with the guys, and I could take a few minutes to be alone with my thoughts.

The long wood dock stretched far into the blue water of the lake, and every step toward the end of it made me a little lighter. The mossy pine smell of the woods had faded away by the time I sat down on the end of the dock, dangling the tips of my toes in the water.

It wasn’t like I wasn’t happy for Lexi. Just because I’d lost my baby didn’t mean I begrudged anyone else. I wouldn’t wish what happened to me on my worst enemy. But the pity on my friends’ faces just brought all the pain back. I’d never be Kate Camden again. I’d become
Kate Camden --
you know, the one who lost her baby
.

If my baby had lived, I might have been showing off photos of her. Talking about future play dates with Lexi. Instead I was empty
and would never experience that joy.

The vibrations of approa
ching footsteps on the wood planks made me turn around. Ryke was walking toward me, his baseball hat shielding his eyes. I turned back toward the water, wiping my wet cheeks with my fingers.

“Hey,” he said when he stopped behind me. I expected him to ask what was wrong, but instead he sat down behind me, his legs on the outside of mine and his chest supporting my back. I held my breath
as he gathered my long hair in his hands and laid it over one of my shoulders.

His breath was warm against my bare neck as he wrapped his arms around my stomach. His legs were so much longer
than mine that his feet were completely submerged in the water.

“My dad used to take us fishing at a lake like this,” he said. “Me and my brothers.”

“You’ve got brothers?” I pictured Ryke as a child. With that dark hair and those gorgeous caramel eyes, I knew he’d been cute.

“Yep. I’m the middle one. Jeremy’s two years older than me and Scott’s three years younger.
We loved those fishing trips. Dad was constantly baiting someone’s hook or unhooking someone’s fish, so he hardly got to fish himself.”

The warmth in his voice made me think of my own dad. He and Mom had
been divorced since I was five. He lived in California now with his new family. Just me and Mom was my normal.

“He must be so proud of you,” I said. “Does he come to your games?”

“Sometimes.”

“What about your brothers?”

I felt a sigh rise in Ryke’s chest and escape with a soft breath on my neck. “Jeremy was playing semi-pro hockey but he fell off a ladder when he was 21 and ruined his back. He never played again. Now he sells insurance. And Scott’s my dad’s partner at the shop.”

His fingers brushed my forearm while we sat quietly, the only sound coming from the light ripples of the lake’s tiny waves. Ryke’s body was wrapped around mine, and the warmth
seeping from him felt more than physical. I didn’t even have to ask; he knew what had happened with my girlfriends from high school a few minutes earlier.

“What’s that like?” I asked, letting my back relax completely against his chest. “Do they expect things from you, since you’re so successful?”

His chest tensed in and out as he gave a small laugh. “It’s the opposite, actually. No one in my family will take anything from me.”

“Really?”

“Nope. I’ve quit trying. I wanted my parents to retire and build their dream house, but my dad was offended. Said no kid of his would ever be providing for him.” The sadness in his voice made me wish, for a split second, that I was the one holding him.

“But I’m sure they’re happy for you,” I said, running my fingertips over his hard, muscular forearm.

“Yeah, they are. But it’s different now, you know? My parents don’t know what to get me for Christmas because they assume I have everything I want. Jeremy resents that I still play hockey and thinks his kids will grow up idolizing me instead of him.”

“Do you see them much?”

His fingers toyed with the ends of my hair. “When I can. It’s tough during the season. The guys on the team are the closest family I have anymore. But when you’re a young widower, it just makes things . . . weird. A lot of them tread differently around me now.”

“
So you’re saying you know how I feel?” I brushed my foot against his ankle and he squeezed his arms around me a little tighter.

“No. I’m saying I know what it’s like to feel alone. To have something change the way everyone looks at you.”

The word ‘everyone’ echoed in my mind. Ryke had lost Hannah and Maggie and it sounded like his family couldn’t relate to the rich and famous version of him. Did he have someone in his life he could let it all go in front of? Someone to love him unconditionally? I had my mom. We butted heads at times, but in my heart I knew she was my champion.

But Ryke seemed to be alone. And he hadn’t just survived his l
osses; he was living the dream of his hockey career. Why couldn’t I be like strong and sure like that?

Turning
my head to rest my cheek on his chest, I closed my eyes and took in the light, clean smell of his cologne. I wanted to melt into the solid strength of his body and forget all my worries.

A few droplets of water hit my arm, making me shoot upright in alarm. My friend Deacon was laughing from the s
hore of the lake, clutching several large stones in his hand.

“I guess we should go be social,” I said, sighing.
Ryke got up from the dock and reached a hand down to help me up.

“But I get to be alone with you tonight, right? In our tent?” His wide shoulders and broad chest were intimidating as he looked down at me, a contrast to the warm playfulness of his voice. I could only manage a nod as he pulled me to my feet, my stomach churning nervously.

The old me –
Kate Camden
– would have been giddy with excitement at the prospect of being alone tonight with the dark, gorgeous man beside me. But
Kate Camden – you know, the one who lost her baby
-- was terrified. What if he wanted to kiss me, and touch me, and wake up the feelings of desire that had been out cold for so long? And even worse, what if I wanted him to?

***

Ryke

From the second Kate pulled the t-shirt over her head and I saw her round, perfect tits on display in a white bikini top, I knew there was no hope for me. I was in serious trouble.

S
he slid her cutoff jean shorts down her lean golden legs and I swallowed hard, taking in the most intimate view of her body I’d ever had.

The breath I blew out as I rubbed my hand over my fiv
e-o-clock shadow was involuntary. I’d had notions about Kate a lot of times. From the first time I saw her at the group, I knew I was attracted to her. And she was so fucking vulnerable. Those big brown eyes got me every time.

Shifting
to adjust my throbbing cock in my shorts, I finally admitted it to myself. For only the second time in my life, I was looking at a woman I wanted to fuck senseless and then snuggle with as the sun rose. I had it bad for Kate.

She was laughing at something one of the twins said, and when she turned her wide, dazzling smile on me, my heart twisted with need for her.

I felt like a creeper just staring at her, but I couldn’t help it. She looked so gorgeous as she pulled her long blonde hair into a ponytail and climbed from the dock onto a black tube.

“Are you coming, Ryke?” she called, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand.

Just about. I was wound tight right now, having gone more than three months with no sex and watching Kate prance around in a bikini. I couldn’t wait to be alone with her tonight. She finally seemed to be opening up to my affection. I wanted to start slow and show her what it felt like to be savored. That jackass Quinn probably didn’t know the first thing about being a good lover.

“Ryke!” She called out to me again and I shook my head, snapping
out of the spell I was under.

“Yeah, on my way,” I said, grabbing a tube and heading her way.
It was a damn shame there wasn’t a tube shortage, because I’d have loved to share one with her.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d spent a day in the sun not working my ass off
training. It was relaxing, drinking beer and doing nothing. Kate’s girlfriends were checking me out, and I wondered if she noticed. She seemed oblivious, splashing her toes in the water and reading a book while she floated.

Damn,
her legs were sexy. Lean, toned and begging to be spread. She’d be quivering before I was even inside her, and the thought made my balls ache uncomfortably.

“Hey,” I called to Kate, paddling my tube closer to hers. “Wanna swim?”

“No!” she squealed, giving me a cautionary look. “Ryke, no! My hair!”

“Come on!” I’d almost reached her, and she was trying to paddle away, but she didn’t have a chance. Her carefree smile was a beautiful sight. She screamed my name as I tipped the tube and I grinned at the sight of her going under.

“I can’t believe you did that!” She was glaring at me, but not in an angry way, when she emerged. Her wet hair and the water beaded on her skin made her even sexier.

She smirked and
reached for my tube, no doubt planning to tip it. But my 220 pounds was way more than her tiny frame could upset. The sight of her clutching the edge of the tube between my spread knees was almost more than I could take.

“You want me to get in with you?” I said, laughing. “All you’ve got to do is say so.”

“Get in here with me,” she said lightly. I slid into the cool water and it actually felt great.

“Now we’ll both smell like lake til we get showers,”
Kate said. I pushed my dripping hair back from my forehead and grinned at her.

“It’s worth it,” I said. “I love making you wet.”

She looked away, smiling. I knew she was trying to look shy and shocked, but it wasn’t working. She loved it. Sunset couldn’t come fast enough for my painfully swollen balls.

***

Kate

When Deacon explained the game we always played on our first night at the campground, Ryke looked at me skeptically.

“It’s not a big deal,” I said. “You’ll see.”

“So we go in a circle, and when it’s your turn you either have to do a shot or kiss someone,” he said, nodding slightly.

“And you can’t kiss the same person twice,” Deacon said.
“And the kiss has to be at least five full seconds and involve tongue.”

“It’s a win-win,” John said, rubbing his hands together. The game was the only reason why I’d locked lips with all the
guys around the campfire over the years we’d been camping here.

When I’d walked up to the group sitting around
the circle of flames, the twins were the bread on a Ryke sandwich, so I’d sat across from him. He’d put a t-shirt on, and I missed the way he looked without it.

Maddie, the twin on Ryke’s left, was first, and she tried to look like she was considering her options.

“I don’t want to get drunk too fast . . .” she said, looking down at the ground. I sighed deeply.

Get it the hell over with, Maddie.
You suck at playing coy.

She batted her lashes at Ryke. “I guess I’ll kiss the only guy here I haven’t kissed yet,” she said.

I wondered if he’d look at me and seek my silent permission, even though we weren’t together. Maddie leaned toward him just a second later, and my stomach flipped at this new sensation. I’d never brought a man on the camping trip. Last year, the first time I’d been with anyone in a while, Quinn hadn’t been able to come because he had to work.

Seeing Ryke open his mouth to Maddie’s made my insides boil. I was seeing the player play, why was I surprised?

My friends were still trying to figure out what was up with me and Ryke. Hell, so was I. But for their benefit, I tried to look amused by the lingering, seven-second kiss.

Maddie pressed her fingers to her lips after the kiss and Ryke met my eyes. I willed myself to give nothing away. He was next, and w
hen he came over to kiss me, I planned to make sure it was a better kiss than that one had been.

“Ryke? Take your pick,” Deacon said, grinning. Of course Ryke would pick me
. It was stupid to even worry about it. He wouldn’t dare pass me over and kiss one of my friends first.