Air Ryder (Harper's Mountains Book 3) (5 page)

“Beer,” Aaron said, handing Lexi and Ryder a pair of cold cans as they approached.

“Are we allowed to be drinking out here?” Lexi asked, scanning the still blocked off street for Officer Darby. He was a stickler about public consumption of alcohol.

“Drink it fast if you’re worried about getting caught,” a chestnut-haired man with bright blue eyes said. He held out a hand for a shake. “I’m Wyatt.”

“Lexi,” she said with a grin.

“That’s my mate Harper over there beside Alana.”

Wyatt gestured to a brunette with oddly colored eyes, one brown and one blue with a long pupil like Kane’s. There was the dragon-blooded alpha. A wave of fear washed through Lexi as she waved politely, but that eased the second Harper pulled an old bag chair closer to hers and patted the seat. “We saved you a spot.”

Okay then. Lexi moved to sit down, but Ryder pulled her back gently and hugged her close, lowered his lips to her ear and murmured, “I know you’re tired, but thank you for saying yes to hanging out with my people.”

She sighed out a shaky breath and clutched his shirt when she swayed slightly on her feet. His deep voice against her ear had her insides tingling.

“I’ll take care of everything,” Ryder promised. “Just relax tonight, okay?”

Unable to form a single word due to the wrecking ball he’d just sent sailing through her ovaries, she nodded dumbly and then squeaked in shock when he grabbed her ass hard and bit her neck with a chomping sound. “Sexy little Lexi,” he growled, and when she looked back up at him, his eyes were the color of the sun. Air Ryder was the sexy one.

She stumbled this way and that over to the chair and almost dropped her beer as she sank into the fabric seat. Sprinkles was running circles in the middle of everyone, tongue hanging out as she panted happily through her doggy smile. Sprinkles looked like Lexi felt.

“You okay?” Harper asked, her delicate, dark eyebrows arched high and a knowing grin on her lips.

Lexi inhaled deeply, and on the exhale said, “I think that man is gonna wreck me.”

Although the thought had frightened her when they’d been sitting on the bumper of her Jeep, now, as Ryder watched her with that inhuman, hungry gaze of his, Lexi suddenly felt like that prospect had never been more exciting.

****

True to his word, Ryder had taken care of her completely. He’d brought her food and a second beer. He’d pulled up a chair next to hers and settled her legs in his lap as if they’d been lovers for years. She adored this easy and instant comfort with another person, but a part of her was scared Ryder was this familiar with every woman he met. What if she wasn’t special to him? She’d watched him lock gazes with person after person today and convince them they were the person he wanted to talk to most in the world.

He was a charmer, so why was she losing her heart so hard to him right now? Had she learned nothing from Blake?

But then Ryder would lift her knuckles to his lips right in the middle of saying something to his crew, kiss her, and rest her palm back on his thigh, as though he didn’t even notice he was doing it. That meant something, right? It sure meant a helluva lot to her. And then he’d gone and unstrapped Sprinkles from her cart when she’d worn down, lifted her against his chest, and with little effort at all, put her to sleep like a teeny baby.

And now Lexi’s lady bits pulsed once at the sight of Ryder stroking Sprinkles little body with his thumb while he rested his other hand on Lexi’s and rubbed gentle little circles on her knuckles.

Was this really happening right now?

Sprinkles snored loudly. Nope, definitely not a dream.

“Kane!” Wyatt called, his hands cupped around his mouth.

The black-haired man climbing into an old Bronco across the street paused and looked their way.

Wyatt waved him over.

“He won’t do it,” murmured Wes.

“Five bucks says he will,” Ryder said.

“You’re on,” the Novak Raven said.

“I think I’m gonna call it a night,” Kane called out.

“Told you,” Wes said with a sneer.

“I bet Wes five bucks you would hang out!” Ryder yelled. “Don’t let my faith in you go to waste.”

“Cheater,” Wes muttered.

Lexi was human, but even she could hear Kane’s gritted out “mother fucker” from here. He looked pissed as he crossed the street. He flipped his dark hair, longer on top, to the other side in an irritated gesture. Dark sunglasses covered his face as usual. He liked to hide his dragon eyes from the town, but Lexi had seen them once at Drat’s Boozehouse when he was arm wrestling one of the locals.

“Pay up, suckaaah,” Ryder crowed at Weston. Sprinkles twitched in the cradle of his arm but didn’t wake.

Kane looked uncomfortable as hell as he looked around at all the full seats, but he needn’t worry. “Take mine,” Lexi offered.

Ryder was already pulling her into his lap anyway, the snuggler. But as his erection poked her butt cheek, she thought maybe it wasn’t so much snuggling on his mind as other intimacies. His waggling red eyebrows backed that theory.

She laughed and relaxed against him as the chatter of the crew picked up again. Kane was quiet like he always was, but after a few minutes, Lexi spied his first smile. How many times had she seen him around town, or at the bar when she’d gone to cut loose after bad days at work? A dozen? Fifteen? She’d maybe seen him smile a handful of times, but tonight, the longer he spent with the crew, the more his lips curved up.

“Lexi, you’ll like this one. We used to call him Karate Ryder,” Wyatt said with a laugh as he pointed the neck of his beer bottle at Ryder.

“Because I was awesome at karate,” Ryder said confidently.

“No, you were terrible,” Wes said. He arched his eyebrows at Lexi. “From age twelve to fourteen, he was the most annoying kid you could ever meet. Every sleepover, Karate Kid movies. Every day after school, karate moves in the woods. Every dinner conversation—”

“Let me guess, karate?” Lexi asked.

“Exactly. And he sucked at it.”

“False,” Ryder said. “I surpassed my master in under a year.”

Harper snorted. “You got kicked out of class because you refused to take direction.”

With a chuckle, Ryder argued, “That’s because I knew everything.”

He was trying to hide a smile again, and Lexi rolled her eyes.

The others launched into a discussion about how a Boarlander bear shifter named Bash used to make them pizza rolls after school and tutor them in math. Ryder had gone quiet, though, and pulled the hairband gently out of Lexi’s ponytail, loosing her long hair. His fingers were firm as he massaged the back of her neck. He watched her face with a slight frown. “You feel different.”

“What do you mean?” she murmured, relaxing into his massage.

He was quiet for a minute before he answered, “Forget it. I don’t know what I mean.”

Well, that was a copout if she’d ever heard one. He ran his fingertips up the back of her head, through her hair, and massaged until she curled her legs in his lap around Sprinkles and sighed happily.

The early spring wind kicked up, and even though Ryder was warm as a furnace against her, she’d only worn a T-shirt with her job logo on it, and gooseflesh rose across her arms.

“You cold?”

“A little.” Oh, he made her so mushy with how much he cared.

“Sad, little human with your pathetically thin skin,” Ryder said with a shake of his head.

Lexi swatted his chest. “I’m super tough, I’ll have you know.”

“Oh, I can tell from your shivering. Crew, I’m gonna see this one off.” Ryder rocked them up out of the chair and settled her on her feet.

“Neeeew,” Alana drawled. “It’s still early.”

“Ha, early for you party animals,” Lexi teased. “Get it?”

“Party.
Animals
,” Ryder said, finishing her joke with a snicker.

Wes, Aaron, and Wyatt shook their heads in mock disappointment.

“But really,” Lexi said. “I have to make breakfast for a couple up at the cabins in the morning, and that five a.m. alarm comes quick.”

“You said comes quick,” Ryder repeated through a smirk.

She giggled and leaned over to pat Kane on the leg as she passed. Quick as a strike of lightning, he grabbed her hand just before she touched his knee. His face had gone stone hard, and his grip was too tight.

“If you want to keep those fuckin’ dragon eyes in your face, I suggest you let her go,” Ryder said blandly.

Kane relaxed his grip and murmured a hasty apology. Then without another word, he stood and limped past Harper and Wyatt’s chairs and across the street to his ride.

Lexi watched him blast out of his parking space as she rubbed her sore hand gingerly. “Is that a rule? No touching?” she asked. “I didn’t mean to chase him off.”

“Nah,” Ryder said. “That’s just Kane’s rules. Most shifters thrive on affection, especially from their crew and mates. Kane never had a crew, though. He didn’t learn.” Ryder had said it lightly, but when Lexi looked up at him, a slight frown marred his striking red eyebrows, and he was staring at Kane’s taillights.

Her distress evaporated when she saw Sprinkles. Ryder had her on her back, cradled to his chest like a little baby, and she was looking up at him adoringly, her back legs limp against his arm. How fucking cute to see a strapping, musclebound, filthy-mouthed behemoth carrying her little hairy baby so gently.

Lexi picked up Sprinkles’s cart and made to leave. Harper and Alana hugged her farewell, and as she passed, Wes grabbed her hand suddenly. He held her there, locking her in his gaze as his bright green eyes tightened at the corners. And after the span of a couple of heartbeats, he released her grip and relaxed back into his chair. “Nothing,” he murmured in a satisfied tone.

“What was that about?” Lexi murmured as she and Ryder walked toward her Wrangler.

“Wes has some kind of fucked-up future teller sight. I guess he thought if he molested your hand, he would see something about you.”

“Wait, he can see the future?”

“He could before Alana was Turned. He had visions bad, but he hasn’t had any in the last few months. I guess that was the test. I guess he can’t see you.”

Ryder’s tone had darkened on that last part, so she studied his face in the illumination of the street lights that lined the road. He was suddenly very busy looking at Sprinkles.

“I feel like you only like me for my dog,” she teased.

“Not true. I fell for your tits first.”

Her surprised laugh echoed down the street, and before she could change her mind, Lexi wrapped her arms around his waist and fell into step beside him. After a moment of hesitation, he draped his empty arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly against his side, pressed his lips against her hairline.

She felt like she was glowing under his affection. If she could see herself in this moment, there would be a soft, happy aura clinging to her like a second skin. She was falling hard for Ryder, and it left her a bit breathless.

“Do all owl shifters like affection?” she asked softly as they reached her jacked-up Jeep.

“Uuuh, I’m not sure. There aren’t many snowy owls.”

“How many are there?” she asked curiously, resting her back against the door as Ryder settled Sprinkles in the back.

“Me and my mom that I know of. There has to be more, but they’re in hiding or maybe dead. None but me and my mom have registered.”

“Oh.” That sounded lonely.

“Well, don’t pity me, woman. I have my mom, and my dad is a shifter, too.”

“What kind?”

“A boar.”

“Wait,
the
boar shifter?” There was only one registered as far as she knew, and the only reason she remembered was because he had a very specific, very intimidating name. “Your dad is the Beast Boar?”

“Yep. He took me in as his own when my real dad bailed. And I was brought up in a good crew. Well, my crew was bat-shit crazy, but they were family. I had good role models. But yeah.” He leaned his back on her Jeep beside her. “I think owl shifters are affectionate. I grew up watching my mom just
melt
against my dad when she saw him after a long day. They would stand in the kitchen for half an hour, not saying anything, just hugging each other.” Ryder swallowed hard. “I want that—being able to make someone’s day better just by holding them.”

“You’re a romantic.”

“No, I’m not. I’m very manly and unromantic. Cock, dick, finger-bang, tit-suck—”

“Okay.” She bit her lip against a smile. Ryder could deny it all he wanted, but he was straight from one of the romantic movies she liked to watch—but with a filthy mouth, a dirty mind, and a chronic boner.

“So, as far as first friend-dates go…”

“Yeah?” she asked.

“How would you rate this one?”

Lexi puffed air out her cheeks and felt like she was floating. He cared what she thought of today. “Ten out of ten for me. You?” she asked, trying to hide the hope from her voice.

Ryder gave her a sideways glance, and that sexy smile that took the corner of his lips was back. “Same.”