By the time they’d lingered over third mugs of coffee and chatted with Paige a little more, the sun had put a serious dent in the early-morning autumn chill. Rolling out of Whitford, they headed east and rode for a couple of hours until they hit Route 1. After making a pit stop, they headed south down the coast.
He definitely needed to buy a motorcycle, he thought again. Lauren was having a great time, her body relaxed against his as she pointed things out to him and yelled to him over the wind. Mostly her hands rested casually at his waist and, when they were cruising along, he’d rest his left hand on her knee. There was intimacy to riding that made him feel closer to her than sitting side by side in a pickup.
By the time they rolled into Hampton Beach, he figured her legs and butt must be getting tired of straddling the bike’s seat. His certainly were, though he’d be loath to admit it. He found a place to park the motorcycle and gave her a hand off.
“I think I got numb from the waist down about an hour ago,” she said with a shaky laugh when her legs wobbled a little.
Once she was steady, he took her hand and led her to the public restrooms and then in search of food. After scarfing down some hot dogs and coffee, they walked out onto the beach. It wasn’t stormy, but the ocean was gray and a little whipped up.
“It’s so nice to be out of Whitford for a while,” she said, turning her face to the ocean breeze.
“When’s the last time you went out of town? For fun, I mean.”
“Not counting my monthly trek into the city to stock up on groceries, which definitely isn’t fun since I take my mother, I can’t even remember. Hailey and I did a salon trip the day before the wedding. She talked me into shopping, too, for the dress and at the lingerie store.”
“Remind me to thank Hailey.”
She gave him a naughty smile. “I’m wearing that bra-and-panty set right now.”
He groaned, instantly hard. “I have to spend another hour-plus on that bike.”
“And so do I. That thing really vibrates like crazy at certain RPMs.”
Yup, he was definitely going motorcycle shopping very, very soon.
They walked the beach for a while, hand in hand, watching the waves and the other people enjoying the warm fall day.
“I want to get home before the temperature starts dropping,” he finally said, reluctantly leading her back to where they’d parked.
Once he’d backed the big beast out and she’d climbed on behind him, Lauren leaned forward and ran her hands over his thighs. “Today’s been an amazing treat for me. You might just get lucky tonight.”
He was already lucky. Taking her to his bed would just be the cherry on top of the lucky-bastard sundae.
*
Rose was right, Lauren thought, standing in Ryan’s living room. His house was very beige. Not that it wasn’t gorgeous. She’d been stunned when he pulled into the driveway of a massive, beautiful house surrounded by impeccable landscaping. Sure, it was beige—or sandstone, as he reminded her—but that didn’t make it less attractive.
The inside was attractive, too, but looking around, it reminded her of one of the model homes that builders used to sell to customers. They were done up to look like real houses, right down to decorations on the walls, but nobody really lived there. Even cutting him slack because he’d been away a month, the house didn’t feel like Ryan’s home to her somehow. Despite a few signs of man-debris lying around, it felt more like a hotel.
He gave her the grand tour and everything fell in line with what a show house would look like. His kitchen was gorgeous, though she suspected it was largely wasted on him. The half bath was nice, too. Upstairs, he showed her a massive game room over the garage and then three guest rooms and a very nice full bathroom.
Then he took her hand and led her back downstairs. Off the living room and down a short hallway she’d barely noticed, they came to his bedroom. It was huge, with a massive bed centered on the outside wall. She peeked into the master bath and her eyes widened. Beige tones or not, he’d spared no expense in the master suite.
It was when she turned back toward the door to face him that she smiled. On the wall behind him was a chaotic arrangement of photographs. They were in a variety of wood and metal frames of all shapes and sizes and colors, with no rhyme or reason to how they were hung. With a quick scan, she spotted Rose and Liz and what looked like a Christmas-card photo of Mike and Lisa’s boys. They were all there, she was sure.
“There you are,” she said softly.
He looked over his shoulder, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve been looking for some part of this house that’s really you. I found it.”
She watched his face soften as he looked over the photos. “I have business meetings here sometimes and I like to keep my personal life and business separate and I don’t want to keep them in a drawer, so there they hang.”
“I like it.” She walked to the bed and leaned over it, pressing on the mattress with her hands. “I also like this bed. Mattress is a little on the hard side, though.”