Sunset Thunder (11 page)

Her joking and teasing was spurred from the comforting way she felt around him, as though he wasn’t analyzing her. But truthfully, he was.

“Why do you do that?” she asked. “Say my full name, as if you think I’m so perfect that I’m faultless. I am human you know. So I don’t know how to fish, but can cook a killer lasagna. That’s just who I am.”

There was the heat stroke again, affecting her own good judgement and stealing away the filter she’d been missing all morning.

Violet didn’t have to ask him why, she fully grasped he thought she was a stuck-up snob. And what was wrong with him thinking that? Everyone thought that about her...even her family. Why did she feel the need to prove to Ryder that she wasn’t?

Ryder looked up at her again, in that way he was so good at...and again it bounced attraction between them.
Attraction? Attraction!
But, tangled in there was his sincerity.

“You’re right. That does sound condescending. I apologize,” he unexpectedly agreed. But wasn’t that what she was fishing for? “I guess you’re just surprising me today, is all.”

“Because you think I’m stuck up.” 

Violet stop talking. What is happening with my mouth? I feel like I’m watching Izzy. That girl has no control over her mouth whatsoever. 

“Yes.” 

Her eyes narrowed at his honesty.

“And you assumed I would have sex with you in the bathroom.” He said it with the same accusing tone she’d used to him.

“You
did
have sex with me in the bathroom,” she pointed out.

“So you’re positive everything you’ve always thought about me is accurate?” he asked.

No, I’ve been dying to have this conversation so you can prove me wrong. So I can find out if you do this with all the women, or you want me, or what the hell all the touching, staring and confusion is about.

“I haven’t been thinking about you at all.” This time she could have slapped herself for avoiding the truth. He was so straightforward with her, it was almost terrifying.

“You’re a liar.” Terrifying and fresh. No one talked to her with such honesty. “You’ve been thinking about kissing me since you’ve boarded this boat.” 

Oh my goodness, I have. How would he know that? Was he thinking about kissing her?

That moment while they were bobbing in the water, his arms around her lower back and hers wrapped around his neck the thought had crossed her mind...but Parker and Sophia had interrupted. Thankfully.

Did he want to kiss her?  

Violet rolled her eyes, mostly to break the vision between them. “Get over yourself,” she said.

“And you’ve been thinking about touching my abs again.”

Every time her eyes fell on his bare torso
.

“Here. I don’t mind.” He grabbed her hand and placed her palm on his chest.

It felt so good. 

Violet yanked her hand away. “Are you delusional?”

He laughed. “Alright. I will teach you how to fish.”

“Do you do this with all the women?” There it was, out in the open, the question she was dying to know the answer.

He grinned more. “So you
do
think I sleep with a lot of women.” It wasn’t a question.

“Everyone thinks you sleep with a lot of women.”

“That’s not what I said.”

Why had she asked in the first place? She was ready to be done with this conversation. It was going nowhere, and making her feel stupid, when he asked, “Do
you
think I do?”

“I can’t answer that, I don’t even know you.”

Except that you tried to get up my sister’s skirt at my wedding.

He changed the smirk, smart-ass way he was talking. “I want you to know me better. I want to know you better.”
I want to know you better.
“I don’t do this with all the women.”

“So with some?”

“You don’t trust me.”

“I don’t trust anyone. Don’t take it personally.”

He eyed her quietly, assessing her, judging her, driving her senses wild with curiosity at his conclusion.

“You don’t like me.” It wasn’t a question, nor was it a solid statement. Rather, he said it like the revelation amused him.

When did he think she did like him?

Violet couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you making that sound like an appealing aspect?”

“Because everyone likes me.”

All the women certainly liked him. “Maybe that’s your problem.” He was so conceited. What had she been thinking? That she was special to Ryder? That he actually liked
her
, saw
her
? What could the outcome of today possibly be? And why was the reality that
nothing
was the answer saddening?

“My charm?” he asked.

“Your arrogance.”

Ryder laughed again. “And no one talks to me like you do.”

“Yes, I’m just full of surprises.” Violet turned to walk away. Charming, teasing, and joking...it was all flirting. They’d been flirting with each other all morning and for what?

“Hey.” Ryder touched her gently. His fingers circled her wrist, but not tight enough to hold her. If she’d wanted to walk away, she could have.

Her feet stopped.

Violet stared past the bow of the boat, across the endless sparkling lake, knowing their flirting could never amount to anything more than the small waves she saw.

“That wasn’t an insult.” The genuineness of his voice inked a path across her barriers. “Please, don’t go. The truth is I haven’t laughed with a woman in over two years. And when I did, it has never felt the way it does when I laugh with you.”

Walk away.
It was the smart thing to do.

Violet turned, finding the arrogance and charm splashed away from his serious face and she met the reflections of his honesty.

If she stayed what did it mean?

But she couldn’t walk away.

“If you do a good job at teaching me how to fish, I might invite you over and order in some deep fried pickles.”

***

UNWRAPPING THE PLASTIC from around the egg salad sandwiches Ryder had prepared earlier that morning, he cut them in four and laid them on the platter around the vegetables he’d pre-cut at home. When he was finished, the whole platter looked exactly like the ones his mother would prepare.

He missed his mother.

Kathleen had passed away in her sleep only five years earlier after years of battling cancer that finally overtook her weak and depleted body. Not a single day went be that Ryder didn’t think about her. She had been an amazing person and even the last years of her life, while suffering through treatment without a complaint, her caring ways had shone through. Her heart was big, and her love for Ryder, her only child, even more. Ryder’s blue eyes were from his mother, and every day he looked in the mirror, he saw her. Then he envisioned her warm smile and the way it erased the few wrinkles she wore around her lips. He could still hear her words, until the day she died, telling him to open his heart again, and reminding him all women were not like Courtney. She promised him that if he opened his heart, one day he would know that one woman was the one for him.

Violet flashed before his eyes.

It wasn’t possible? Was it?

Ryder had always brushed off Kathleen’s chitchat about falling in love.

Why was it coming back to him now? And why was it revolving around the woman above deck right now?

Ryder gripped the edge of the counter, and dipped his head down low, squeezing his eyes closed trying to shut out emotions the memories of his mother were bringing back.

He hadn’t let this conversation go through his head since Kathleen died. He’d humored her during the last years of her life, promising to be open, promising to let people in, but the minute she died, Ryder closed his heart down for good. Or so he thought.

Today, the recollections of his mother were different from simply remembering her smile, her laughter, her hugs and the long talks they would have in the gardens. Today, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was his mother somehow pushing him to open his heart...
to Violet Caliendo
.

And now what?
He snickered and pulled four cold bottles of water out of the fridge. He’d reached out to Violet and let her in. Sure it was the smallest attempt, the tiniest crack, and Violet had stepped one foot inside.

Now what? Was he ready for another relationship?

The only thing that was clear to Ryder was that he liked Violet.
A lot.
There was something about the way she threw her sly comments his direction, followed by her lust-filled looks. Then the next second she was laughing hysterically because she’d had no idea there was a switch on the fishing pole. She was, for sure, a thunderstorm, just like he’d originally thought, but not in a bad way. In fact, he wanted to stand in the rain of her thunderstorm and experience all she had to give. 

Ryder slammed the waters on the counter with a little more force than he’d expected.

He wanted to stand in the rain of her thunderstorm?
Was he insane? Had he lost his mind?
This was all happening to soon. She was Joel’s ex-wife.
Ex-wife.
She was Violet Caliendo.
Violet Caliendo.

“Is everything alright?” Violet asked, from the bottom of the stairs. He hadn’t heard the door open or her climb down the stairs.

It was a simple question that was easy to answer, but his mind couldn’t even focus when her voice sent desire straight through him. Her voice sent his trail of thoughts in a whole other direction and he was trying to sort it all out. 

“Do you want some help?” She was right beside him now. “That looks delicious. Did you prepare this or is it store bought?”

He didn’t understand how she was talking so casually when only hours ago they’d basically agreed to go on a date. Sort of. Then Parker and Sophia had come up and they hadn’t had an alone time since, but they’d spent a great morning together. Everything had been good until he was under deck, by himself, and thinking. 

Maybe he was the problem? Why was he so irritable?

“I made it,” he finally answered, but it came out gruff. 

He was irritable because he didn’t know what to do with this woman. He could tease, flirt, and ask her out on a date, but after the date...then what? He didn’t know what the next step was and he didn’t know whether he was ready to take it or not.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t insinuating that you couldn’t make it. I was−” 

Ryder wasn’t sure what came over him. Maybe it was the way the boat rocked her side against his. Or that her wavy beach hair was sprinkled down across her bare skin. Or the coconut-scented suntan lotion he’d torturously watched her rub onto every inch of skin the sun would touch. He had been so jealous of the sun’s rays all day long.

He kissed her.

He turned quickly, catching her face between his hands and pressed his lips against her startled gasp. A startled gasp that didn’t last one second, because as hot as he was for her, her lust for him burned jest as hot. Ryder saw it in her, in the way she licked her lips when he was around, and how her body reacted to his presence. The fact they’d agreed to deep fried pickles. Ryder had to make sure there was something more between them, then just that moment in the washroom. He had to make sure the feelings he felt for her were real and he wasn’t creating them because he thought his mother was sending him signs.

Violet kissed him back, forcefully. Her hands grabbed the outside of his forearms and she arched her body against him, opening her mouth and inviting him into the deliciousness he’d been craving all week. He was glad she’d left that damn life jacket off so his bare torso could feel the length of her body against him. In a swift movement, just like at the Caliendo Resort, he lifted her legs, spread them and set her on the counter. She welcomed the decision by wrapping her legs tightly around his middle and her hands snaked around his neck, the sun kissed warmth touching his skin.

Ryder moved his hands up her back. One grabbed the base of her neck, pulling her kisses harder against him, while the other began slipping the strap of her swimsuit down her arm. After watching the water droplets bead down after their swim, he’d wanted to kiss her bare shoulders. His lips moved down her neck and she arched back giving him access until his lips touched her shoulder and his tongue licked her collarbone. She was hot, she was delicious...she was exactly what he wanted. 

“Ryder...” she breathed. “Wait...” He felt her hands find his face and pull him away from her skin to look at him. “We can’t do this. My kids are up there.” 

Her kids? Her kids! 

Ryder stepped back and tried to pull out of her hands, but she held him harder, pulling his forehead against hers. Their panting breaths met between them, as their bodies settled down.  

“What is this?” she asked and he knew she was talking about the fact they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.