the door again, tried to chalk it up to the vodka. He was going to dig his heels in every bit as hard as her sister had with Landon. He was going to come up with a million reasons why the two of them couldn’t be together.
Ryder might have finally opened his eyes and seen her as a woman tonight, but he was still blind.
Lucky for him, her vision was twenty-twenty.
Chapter Five
Ryder pulled into his driveway around nine on Friday night and turned off the car, making no move to get out. Tonight’s departure from work was much less eventful than last week’s. No power outage, no stuck elevators, no sexy, sweet, innocent Darcy.
He’d been out of the office most of the week, working on-site at the stadium. Today was the only day he’d been in his own office, and even then, he hadn’t left it, taking one meeting after another.
One benefit—the primary benefit—of working away from the office was, it made it easy for him to resist the lure of stopping by the marketing department in hopes of seeing Darcy or hearing her infectious laughter.
She’d consumed his thoughts this week, making it hard for him to concentrate on anything else. Something that never happened. His inability to focus was bad enough—his personal assistant, Phillip, had suggested that he get his annual physical, even though it was a few months early. At this rate, he could only assume Phillip was concerned he’d had a series of mini-strokes because it was the only way to explain Ryder acting so completely out of character.
Ryder, who always arrived ten minutes early to everything, had been late to several meetings. He’d also been caught daydreaming on more than one occasion, missing his cue to speak or answer questions directed at him. And Wednesday, he’d worn the exact same suit and tie he’d had on Tuesday.
One night with Darcy was fucking him up.
He’d relived those hours trapped in the elevator more than he cared to admit, and as a result, he’d been dealing with constant, frequent erections. For four years, he’d cursed his impotence.
Now, he’d give anything to return to that state.
He needed to get his head screwed back on straight because even if he was looking for a relationship—which he definitely wasn’t—Darcy Young was absolutely, unequivocally wrong for him. She was ten years younger, quick to laugh, a romantic virgin—Jesus, he couldn’t begin to wrap his head around that fact—who was looking for true love. To make matters worse, she came from a huge, close-knit family that did everything together.
Ryder hadn’t said or done a single romantic thing in his life, his view of the world was cynical and jaded. He was far too rough and demanding in the bedroom to ever introduce an inexperienced woman to sex. And he didn’t like people. He barely tolerated them because he was a human on the planet and he had to, but just the thought of trying to fit into her loud, boisterous family made his head hurt.
He sighed heavily. It was time for him to put all thoughts of Darcy out of his head. Time to move on and get back to normal, starting tonight.
He’d go inside, pour himself a bourbon, fire up a movie—not Blade Runner, dammit, because it now reminded him of her—and forget last Friday night ever happened.
Satisfied with the plan, he dragged himself from the car and walked into the house. Boomer excitedly greeted him at the door, so he bent down to pat the sweet dog on the head. Loud voices and laughter drifted from the family room.
Great. The boys were knee-deep in one of their damned video games. He longed for a quiet night.
“I’m home,” he called out.
He set his briefcase by the door, hung his suit jacket over a chair, and walked into the family room.
And there she was.
It was as if he’d conjured her up merely by thinking about her.
“Darcy?”
She glanced his way briefly before turning her attention back to the TV. “Hey, Ryder. Gimme two seconds. I’m in a bind here.”
Ryder took note of her casual, friendly tone. He’d asked for her friendship the night of Halloween. If he’d been smart, he should have suggested things return to normal. Their previous employee/boss relationship would have been easier to maintain. Darcy struck him as the type of woman who took her friendships very seriously.
And while that wasn’t a bad thing, he wasn’t stupid enough to actually think he’d be able to hang out with her platonically without