Tate
She plopped down on the couch and finally stopped talking.
“You ready to discuss us?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
“Fine, I can do the talking, and then we can move on to the rest of the night.”
Her eyes bugged out, but she refused to talk. It was a battle of wits with this woman. One minute, I couldn’t get her to stop talking, and the next, when I wanted her to talk, I couldn’t drag a word out of her.
I sat down in the recliner next to the couch and popped open the foot rest. Might as well get comfortable. I had no plans of leaving tonight.
“So, let’s start with Ryker. Not that I truly understand why you’re concerned about him, but I’m willing to hear your reasoning.”
She sat back on the couch and crossed her legs. I tried my best to not stare at all the smooth skin, but it was damn hard not to. “Are you going to let me talk without cutting me off?”
“My lips are sealed until you tell me I can talk, sweetheart.” Another thing that was going to be damn hard. I knew everything she was about to say was pure bullshit.
She looked around the living room and tapped her foot. “Now I don’t know where to start,” she mumbled.
“Well, you think on it, and I’m going to go raid your fridge. I’m damn hungry.” I wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge.
“What exactly are you hungry for?” she asked, following me into the kitchen.
“You, but we’ll get to that in a bit.” I opened the freezer and pulled out a frozen pizza. “Have you thought about acquiring stock in frozen pizza? You have enough in there to feed an army.”
She sat down at the table and crossed her legs again. Lord have mercy, she was pushing me closer to the edge every time she crossed them.
“Am I supposed to ignore the first thing you said?”
I turned on the oven and took the wrapper off the pizza. “Up to you, sweetheart. It doesn't matter if you acknowledge it or not, it’s going to happen.”
“Right,” she stood up and put her hands on her hips. “I think I’ve got my thoughts in order.”
“Hadley, just—”
She held her hand up and shook her head. “I talk now.”
I held up my hands in surrender and leaned against the counter. “You got it, sweetheart.”
She paced the length of the small kitchen and finally stopped in front of me. “I like you.”
Well, that was a different path than the one I thought she was going to go down. “I like you, too.”
“But that doesn’t matter.” She gathered her hair off of her neck, twisted the hair tie she had around her wrist, and piled her hair on top of her head. I fucking loved when she had her hair like that. “I can’t date you because that would mess everything up with Ryker. I’m already shitty at this whole guardian thing, and adding you to the mix would really get me in trouble with Pye.”
“Pie?” What in the hell was she talking about? Now I wanted a piece of pie to go with my pizza.
She waved her hand around. “He’s an ass, and not really part of this. I don’t even know why I brought him up other than the fact he’s another man in my life that is making everything harder.” She sighed and hung her head. “Back to you and me.”
“Okay.”
She took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. “Ryker looks up to you and loves spending time at Powerhouse. If you and I start dating, then Ryker is going to get even more attached to you. Plus, Ryker isn’t going to go away. He’s my responsibility, and that’s never going to change, even when he turns eighteen. I have a whole lot of baggage in my trunk, and I don’t think you understand what you are getting into with me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded. “That it?”
She shook her head and started pacing again. “I really don’t think you hear what I’m saying. Ryker finds out about us and everything changes.”
“But what if he doesn’t find out about us?” I knew I wanted Hadley, but she was right when she said that we had only known each other for two days. “How about we pump the breaks on letting anyone know about us and just keep it between the two of us?”
She spun around and gnawed on her bottom lip. “But how would that even work?”
I took a step towards her. “You let me take you to work every night, I hang out while you work, and then I get to spend your breaks and time after work with you.”
“That’s twenty minutes to and from work and a fifteen-minute break. How are we going to get to know each other in that short amount of time?”
I closed the space between us and pulled her into my arms. She stiffened up, but didn’t move away. “This isn’t a race, Hadley. I hear what you’re saying and most of it makes sense.”
She leaned back and looked up at me. “Where did I lose you at?”
“The whole pie thing, but I’ll have you explain that to me later.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “He’s Ryker’s principal who makes me feel like even more of a failure.”
“Jesus, Hadley. I really doubt you’re a failure.” I rubbed her back and tugged her with me as I stepped backward to the chair. “So what do you think of my idea?”
“I think you aren’t going to let me say no, and to be honest, I don’t want to say no.”
“Then say yes.” I nuzzled her neck, burying my face in her hair.
“This isn’t fair,” she whispered.
“I say it is.”
She rested her hands on my shoulders and tilted her head to the side. “Your assy is showing.”
“Kind of like how yours was before?”
She slugged me in the arm. “You shouldn’t have looked.”
“Hadley, if your ass is in my face, you can better believe I’m going to fucking look.”
Her head rested on my shoulder. “You shouldn’t swear so much.”
“Sorry, next time I’ll use shit muffins instead.”
“You weren’t supposed to hear that,” she said as she laughed.
I sat down in the chair, positioning her between my legs, and fingered the hem of her shirt. I looked up at her. “They make you wear this short of skirt for work?”
“It used to be longer, then Ryker decided to help with laundry and shrunk half of my work clothes.”
“I bet you make crazy tips,” I pondered out loud.
“Yeah, but I just need to be careful who I bend over in front of.”
Picturing Hadley bending over in front of me made me moan while my fingers touched her soft skin. I slid my hand to her ass and pulled her closer. “You have two options right now.”
She gulped and nodded. “And what would those options be?” she asked shakily.
My legs spread wide, and I leaned forward. Her eyes were clouded with desire, and I knew she wanted me. “You put the pizza in the oven, we watch a movie, and I go home, or,” I licked my lips and squeezed her ass, “you climb into my lap, and I give us both what we’ve been wanting.”
Her bottom lip was caught between her teeth, and she rested her hands on my shoulders. “Can we have pizza after?”
My eyes closed, and I pressed my face into her stomach. “Fuck yes,” I mumbled.
Her hands pressed on my shoulders, and I sat back in the chair. She climbed into my lap, straddling me, and I wound my arms around her waist. “I gotta admit, sweetheart, I really didn’t know which way you were going to go.”
She leaned back and looked down at me. “As long as this stays between you and me, no won’t be a word you hear from me often,” she purred.
“You sure? I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
Her hands slid down my chest and grabbed the hem of my shirt. “You told me I was the boss tonight, right?”
“That is what I said.”
She worked my shirt up and pulled it over my head. “Then I say you and I both have too many clothes on.” Her hands ran over my bare chest, and her fingertips traced the tribal tattoo on my arm and over my shoulder to my back.
“It’s amazing the things we hide under our clothes. I never figured you for a tattoo.”
A laugh rumbled through me, and I fingered the hem of her shirt. “I got that when I turned eighteen and thought it would make me look like a badass.”
She giggled and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Well, mission accomplished, although I think the fact your hands are probably deadly weapons makes you more of a badass.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” I said, shaking my head. “You need to stop watching kung fu movies.”
“Never. Those are the only movies Ryker will watch with me. You would think I was shoving needles down his fingernails when I put anything else on.” She sighed and tapped her finger on her chin. “Although, the kid sure does like to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.”
I slid my hands down her back and cupped her ass. I pulled her flush against me, and her skirt rode up her legs. “Sweetheart, I’m going to have to ask you to not talk about Ryker when you’re straddling my lap.”
She threaded her fingers through my hair and gently tugged. “Sorry,” she whispered.
“Not saying you can’t talk about him, just not when I’m about to have my way with you.”
Her eyes flashed. “Is that’s what’s about to happen?” she purred.
“That and so much more, sweetheart.”
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