“Ha!” Ryder’s laugh echoed down the street as he draped his arm over her shoulders, still clasping her hand in his. “Speak for yourself. I’m awesome.”
Lexi giggled and shook her head for the tenth time today. She liked his sense of humor more than she wanted to admit out loud.
“How did a professional chef land in small-town North Carolina?” Ryder asked.
“Well the small-town part wasn’t in my plans. I went to school around here, grew up with Alana, actually. And I couldn’t wait to get out of here after graduation. I thought the people who were staying here after high school were settling, you know? Like they would never see the world and always be small town.”
“Snooty snooty.”
“So snooty,” she said with a chuckle. “I went to culinary school in Chicago and landed a job right after I graduated, aaaand,” she drawled out.
“You hated it.”
“I hated it,” she agreed. “I missed small-town living and knowing everyone. I missed people asking about my day and waving to me when I drove by them on the street. I just got to this point where I felt like a number, and I couldn’t fix this void in my chest. And for some reason, every time I came back to visit for the holidays, I felt a million times better. It was like a soul-recharge every time I came back, and eventually, I just didn’t want to go back to my job at the fancy restaurant in a town I hadn’t connected to and feel empty anymore.” Lexi shrugged. “So I stayed.”
“And the void is gone now?” Ryder asked in a careful voice.
“It is. I feel like I belong here. Hell, maybe I always did belong, and I just needed to leave to see how good I had it. This place is home, and I love my job. I get to use my culinary skills in a small cabin setting where I actually get to talk to the clients I cook for. I like this much more than being in a hot kitchen ten hours a day getting verbally maimed by the head chef every two minutes. I get to set up my own clients and build rapport. I’m happier here than I was in Chicago. I don’t know. Maybe that means the big city defeated me.”
“Nah, you just figured out what you want. There’s no defeat in that.”
Sprinkles tried to get off the curb but got stuck. She looked right at Ryder for help.
Lexi made an offended sound in her throat. “Traitor.”
Ryder bit Lexi’s knuckles gently, then released her and jogged over to help Sprinkles. “You would’ve had a shot at fealty if your dog was a boy, but the ladies love me.”
Lexi frowned as she watched the giant, sexy, musclebound man right Sprinkles’s little wheels onto the concrete. And Lexi could see it. From the hundreds of thousands of followers online and the flirty comments girls put all over his posts, to the way he’d charmed the masses today with little effort, Ryder had no reason to settle with a single woman. He’d grown a massive following not only for the way he looked, and the animal he wielded, but also by the force of his personality.
Everyone knew his name—Air Ryder.
He could have whoever he wanted.
“What’s that look for?” Ryder asked, locking his arms on either side of her hips. He leaned in so close her breath froze in her chest.
Slowly, he lifted a finger and brushed it against her eyebrow, smoothing her frown away.
She’d done her research about shifters, and even flight shifters could hear a lie, so she didn’t even try. “You scare me.”
Ryder eased back by inches, studied her face. “I’m in control of my animal. I would never hurt you.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
His face went slack with realization. For a moment, he was right there, locked in her gaze, and she witnessed the change in his eyes firsthand. They morphed from blue to a bright gold that was almost hard to look at…almost. He dipped his gaze to her lips, and this was it. He was going to kiss her, and it would make him even more terrifying. She would fall in love without him, because that’s what she did. She picked men who were unavailable.
“Ryder,” she said on a breath. At some point, she had to learn her lesson and protect herself.
“I’m not what you think I am,” he whispered. Slowly, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.
She’d imagined this moment in the build-up to today. Imagined what his lips would feel like on hers, but she’d come nowhere close to the real thing. The rasp of his beard prickled against her soft face, such a contrast. Rough man, soft woman. But his lips were easy against hers, forming perfectly to match hers. He angled his head and sipped at her, and she could feel it. The slight brush of his tongue on her closed lips.
This was the moment when she should ease away and tell him she wasn’t ready, but she couldn’t put space between them, no matter how hard she tried. There was this pull, like she was metal and he was a magnet. Fighting the attraction would do no good.
Weak.
No, some inner voice said. Not weak. Happy.
He did make her happy.
Parting her lips slightly, she allowed him in on the next pass, his tongue dipping into her mouth. He tasted divine, and she let off a soft noise deep in her throat. She rested her palm on his cheek to feel his jaw move as he kissed her and, holy moly, no kiss had ever felt like this. It wasn’t passionate lust or neediness that drove his tongue against hers, stroke after reverent stroke. He was building a slow fire in her middle so that she would burn longer and brighter.
He pulled her hand from his cheek, slowly drew it behind his neck, and stood, bringing her with him. His body was rock hard against hers, and his erection was stony between their hips, but he didn’t push for more. Ryder seemed content to just tether her to him completely with this kiss.