“See ya later, Sexy Lexi,” Ryder said. But where she expected to see humor on his face, his eyebrows were drawn down and furrowed.
He was so cute! Those freckles and fair skin, perfect nose, great smile, dimples, and now his eye color had morphed to a vibrant blue. He was definitely one of those shifters, but she had no clue what kind. For all Lexi knew, he could be a bear shifter like Alana was now.
She forced herself to break her gaze from Ryder’s, and just as she did, she smashed face first into the glass door. Mortified, she apologized—to the door—then escaped out into the sunlight. She inhaled deeply as she jogged to her mud-splattered black jeep parked right in front of the café.
As she pulled out of the parking spot, she looked through the window of Alana’s shop one last time to see Ryder standing there, head cocked, eyes narrowed as he watched her leave. He was biting the corner of his lip like she was as confusing to him as he was to her.
He was taller and wider in the shoulders than she’d been able to tell before, and now her hormones were surging. It was probably just the animal in him that was affecting her like this. That was a thing, right? She’d seen it on websites. Animal magnetism or something.
Yeah. That was all it was.
Lexi hit the gas and blasted down Main Street and away from the sexy, red-headed giant. The sooner she got back to work up in the Smoky Mountains, the better. That man was hung up on his ex, and Lexi had been there, done that.
She would not set herself up to be any man’s rebound.
Chapter Two
Weston muttered a curse as he poked and prodded at the undercarriage of the four-wheeler he’d flipped on its side. “Doesn’t make any sense, man. It should start.”
“It’s electrical,” Ryder said from where he sat on the back porch stairs of their connected cabins.
“It’s not. I already checked.”
“It’s the switch.”
“Goddammit, Ryder, it’s not the switch.”
Ryder shrugged and went back to rubbing his thumb across the inside of his palm and thinking about her. Sexy Lexi. She’d taken up his entire headspace since yesterday, but he couldn’t figure out why. Maybe it was how frazzled she’d seemed when he’d talked to her, or maybe it was the sexy way her full lips formed the word vagina. Hell, maybe he was just curious about why she’d bolted from the café. Nah, it wasn’t curiosity. It was those big ol’ titties popping out from her camo-printed tank top. Camo on top, a push-up bra, obviously, little jean shorts hugging that juicy ass of hers, and hiking boots that made her legs look like they needed to be wrapped around him as soon as possible. It wasn’t just her curves that had him drawn up when she’d told him not to call Serena back though. It was her face too, or more specifically, her eyes. They were a strange color between green and amber. Mood eyes maybe. They probably changed colors when she was pissed. So fuckin’ sexy on a human. And her hair? Jet black and long, soft curls stretching down over those perfect jugs of hers. Dark tresses paired with all that mascara shit on her long lashes made the green-brown of her eyes pop even more.
She’d stunned him. Even more surprising? She’d stunned his owl.
That probably meant it was about time to get laid again. Serena drove him crazy every fuckin’ Tuesday and made him desperate to snuff his ex out of his mind. And this week, Ryder’s inner bird had just happened to land his horny sights on Sexy Lexi.
His best friend, Weston, pulled the four-wheeler back upright and shoved a couple of probes on the wires coming off the starter switch. He turned it on, but his machine didn’t make a single solitary beep.
“Told you,” Ryder gloated.
“Dang,” Weston said, standing back to glare at it. “We ain’t got the part for that.”
“I’ll order it tomorrow.”
Wes wiped his greasy hands on a rag that used to be white but was now the color of soot, then frowned over his shoulder at Ryder. “Are you gonna tell me about the call yesterday or not?”
“You already know how it went, psychic.”
“Don’t call me that. I haven’t had a single vision about you or Serena. You told me so about the switch, but I told you so for three fuckin’ years about her.” Weston squatted and started poking around near the throttle before he murmured to himself, “That woman is a little monster in human skin.”
“Yeah, well, she was my little monster.”
“Bullshit, she was never yours. She cheated on you, then took your dog and all your money, man. She made you into a damn country song. You open yourself up too much in relationships.”
Ryder gritted his teeth against verbally reaming Wes and shook his head, staring off into the early spring woods behind the double cabin. Wes didn’t get it. He’d never needed anyone else. Not really. He was strong on his own, but Ryder had been wanting a bond with a mate since he was a kid. He really thought he’d found it with Serena.
Wes would only give him a hard time, though, so he kept that little gem to himself.
To avoid the hell out of this conversation, Ryder said, “I applied for the permits to use the land behind Harper’s Mountains to make trails. We also got the LLC paperwork back. Big Flight ATV Tours is officially ours.”
“Alana said you’ve been asking her about some townie named Alexis Porter.”
“Alana has a big mouth and is being a terrible second best friend,” Ryder muttered grumpily. He was definitely going to burn a dick shape into her and Aaron’s front yard tonight.