Arching her back, Lexi stared over her shoulder at the perfect red outline of his palm. “Do the other side and make me look like a peacock.”
Ryder slapped her other cheek and stared at her ass with an expectant grin. Lexi stood on the bed in front of the mirror and cracked up at the handprints on her cheeks, then she strutted around the bed like a proud peacock with her elbows flapping around like wings.
“No, no, you look like a chicken,” Ryder punched out between laughs. “Be more majestic.”
Lexi jumped up and bounced on her butt against the mattress, then said, “Spill it, smexyboy. Why are we in ten-ten?”
The grin dipped from his face but didn’t disappear altogether. Knees on the ground, he leaned his elbows on the bed and gave her lap a significant look. “I need incentive.”
Lexi pulled the shirt over her head and dropped it slowly to the floor, then jiggled her bare boobies for him.
“Maybe just a little more incentive,” he murmured, poking a finger at her panties.
“Ryder,” she warned.
“I met Mason, my dad, on the steps of an old magic singlewide trailer in the Boarland Mobile Park. And I lived there for a while with him and my mom while they were getting established. Good things happened to me there. My life turned around in ten-ten.”
“So you want good things to happen to you here?”
His ruddy eyebrows lowered, and he rested his chin on his forearms. Slowly he shook his head. “I don’t care about me anymore, Lex. I want good things to happen to you. All of the mates in Damon’s Mountains lived in that old trailer at some point, and it was good luck. There was something special about it. And when we saw this old cabin had the same house number—ten-ten—it felt like a big deal. A sign maybe, I don’t know. Harper connected with this place, and so did Alana.” Ryder blew out an exhale and admitted in a whisper, “I want to keep you, Lexi.”
Heart drumming against her sternum, she murmured, “Ten-ten or no, you already have me.”
Intensity flashed through Ryder’s gold eyes as he crawled up the bed. When he locked his arms on either side of her face, the muscles in his shoulders bulged. He canted his head in a very animal-like way and raked his hungry gaze down her body, caressing her with a glance.
Gently, she ran the back of her hand down the red scruff on his face. “Next time you get me a present, I want something real. I want a piece of you.”
Ryder leaned his cheek against her palm, rolled his eyes closed as though her touch was everything, then pressed his thumb against the tripping pulse in her wrist. He brushed a kiss against her palm and said, “Name it. You can have whatever you want.”
“I want a feather,” she said softly.
His sexy lips stretched into a surprised smile, and now his pupils were small, just like his owl’s had been, the gold color blazing like fire. He was stunning. Without a word, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers.
She was wrecked. Wrecked for every man who could possibly come after him. Ryder was everything. He was everywhere. He was the biggest, brightest part of her life now. How fitting that his eyes were the color of sunlight. He was her sun.
Ryder’s hand slipped around the back of her neck and squeezed as he lifted, arching her head back to better drink her up. And that man worked her lips until she was breathless and wanting. Until she was sliding her hands up his ribs, pulling him closer. Until she was spreading her knees wider in a silent plea to fill her. To be a part of her because she could never be close enough to him.
The heat in her chest was back, and that used to scare her, but now she thought maybe this was how it was supposed to be. She’d found her person. Despite all the hurt and betrayal of her past, she’d found him. Maybe she was supposed to be shattered by Blake so that Ryder would have the chance to put her back together. Maybe Ryder was always meant to be the one who helped her discover the best version of herself. The one who could make her laugh until she cried, who could make her love with everything she had.
Perhaps 1010 wasn’t the only magic, as he believed. Perhaps it was also Ryder.
Ryder had come in and awakened her dormant heart, and with every touch, he had opened her further, like a flower meeting the first rays of morning sunlight.
He ran his fingertips down her ribcage, over the swell of her hip, across her thigh, and then cupped her sex. She exhaled softly when he touched her clit. Rocking her hips, she reached down and pressed his hand against her harder, showing him how slow she wanted it.
Ryder pushed his tongue past her lips as he plunged two fingers inside of her. Lexi moaned into his mouth and lost herself completely to his affection. Her mind shut down to everything but his touch. His grip in her hair as he pushed his fingers into her. His warm lips on hers. His taste. His soft groan when she gripped his thick erection.
Slowly, she ran her hand down his long shaft, then pulled him closer to the cradle between her legs. The head of his cock brushed her inner thigh, and she could feel the drop of moisture at the tip as it smeared across her skin. God, she couldn’t wait for him to empty himself inside of her.
Gently, she rolled them over until he was underneath her straddled legs. Ryder’s grin turned wicked because he knew. He knew what she was doing. Big dominant shifter, and she was taking control.
And he let her. Ryder pulled his fingers out of her and gripped her waist, lowering her down over his shaft. He was so big, so thick, she had to go slowly as he stretched her. But damn, when he was buried deep and touched her clit, sparks of pleasure shot through her.