“Do you want cheese on your burgers?” someone shouted from across the street. Whoever it was probably wasn’t talking to her and Ryder.
Lexi slid her other arm around his neck and sighed a happy sound at his slow dips into her mouth.
A shrill whistle echoed. “Ryder, take a break from sucking face long enough to tell me cheese or no cheese, man. I’m about to burn this meat!”
Ryder growled and ended the kiss with a soft smack, then yelled behind him, “Fucking surprise me, man! I’m busy!”
Lexi giggled and hid her face against Ryder’s chest.
“Sooo,” Aaron called. “Yes to cheese on both? Lexi? Cheese?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Ryder muttered. With an irritated sigh, he cocked his head and asked her, “Lexi, would you like to eat with my crew?”
“I would love to, but maybe we should wait until that goes down?” She snickered and pointed to his massive boner.
“No,” Ryder said with a baffled head shake. “Come on, Sprinkles,” he muttered, pulling Lexi behind him. “Interrupting Aaron can deal with an eyeful of my happy wienice, and fuck him if he mentions it.”
Oh, dear goodness, he said wienice! Ryder seemed mad so she stifled her laughter. Lexi should be embarrassed, really she should, but Ryder had very little shame about bodily functions, so okay. She probably smelled like a vat of pheromones, and the shifters had heightened senses, but they would also have to get over that because Ryder was right. Interrupting Aaron would just have to deal with the consequences of his actions.
“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.