omission.” She sets down her coffee, biting her bottom lip. “It makes me feel like…”
“Like what?”
“Like I don’t know you.”
I cock a brow, feeling like she’s overreacting, but knowing that if I tell her as much she’ll flip out. “I think you know enough, Justine.”
“This was a mistake.”
My eyes go wide and I reach for her, but she pulls away. “What do you mean? We’ve had an amazing time. And I feel things for you, Justine, that I’ve never felt for anyone.”
She shakes her head. “I should never have slept with you.”
I can’t help but get annoyed at those words. “That’s bullshit. This was not a mistake. This was meant to be.”
“No, Ryder, you kidnapped me, telling me the whole time that you were protecting me, that Luther Morris was a monster but your mom was married to him. You’re telling me that a wise woman like her would fall for an asshole?”
“That is exactly what I’m saying. Luther’s a manipulator.” I clench my jaw, not wanting to talk about that fucker. “And I didn’t want you to be played by him.”
“So, you just took my virginity so he couldn’t have it?”
“I never took anything. You are the one who wanted to sleep with me if I remember correctly.” I run my hands through my hair, getting pissed now. “And for the record, Justine, you may have idolized my mother, but she wasn’t perfect. She was a person like everyone else.”
“I need to go home, Ryder.” She wipes a tear from her eye “My parents are probably worried sick.”
“I get that. We can call them, but you don’t need to leave in a hurry.” I keep thinking about last night, how with Justine in my arms, it felt like the world was ours for the taking. Being around her gives my life meaning in a way it hasn’t before.
“I meant it when I said I wanted to protect you, Justine, and I still do. I can’t have you leaving so damn soon.”
“It’s my choice to make, Ryder. Not yours. And I don’t think I know who you are anymore. In fact, I don’t think I ever knew you at all.”
“That’s not true,” I insist. But she isn’t listening. She’s fixated on the one thing I didn’t tell her last night.
Instead of hearing the reason I kidnapped her, she’s assuming the worst in me.
Chapter 15
Justine
Ryder may have set my skin on fire and his hands may have opened me up and made me whole, but I totally forgot the reason I ended up at his cabin.
I ended up here because he kidnapped me.
It’s like I needed this heated conversation with him so I could be pulled back from the fog that is Ryder. It’s like he brought me to the woods and put me under a spell. I forgot myself when I was in his arms, and now, I’m waking up and remembering.
“I need a moment alone.”
“Out here?” He looks around. “You can’t wander off, Justine. This is still the wilderness.”
“I won’t go far—just to the lake where we were this morning. I need some space. I need to think this all through. Think us through.” I walk away from the bearded mountain man who somehow made me feel seen and heard and understood—all in one night.
But he also confuses me. Why does he think he knows what is best for me? I’ve always been able to take care of myself and I like that about me.
Yet somehow I fell head over heels for a man I hardly know. Any why? Because of his insanely broad shoulders and ice-blue eyes? Because he made me lentil soup?
“Justine, don’t overreact. So what, we don’t know each other that well. But that doesn’t mean what we’ve shared isn’t real.” He sighs. “And you’ve got to trust me on Luther.”
I turn to face him. “Overreact? I have to trust you?” I throw up my hands, frustrated. “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want, Ryder. And right now, I am trying to work out why you thought you had the right to intervene in my auction.”
Ryder stares at me incredulously. “Because Luther is a creep. A monster. He doesn’t deserve you. He’s nothing but—”
I raise my hand to cut him off. “How exactly can he be a monster when he was married to one of my heroes?”
I honestly can’t believe Helen would have married a creep, which means Ryder had his own reasons for bringing me here.
Scratch that. For kidnapping me and keeping me