“I-I’ll be right out,” she stammered and took a step forward out of Ryan’s arms. She turned around, meeting his eyes.
“Okay,” Jake called back.
Ryan’s blood pulsed so hard it was a roar in his ears as they stared at each other wordlessly. After a beat of silence, she tore her eyes away and opened the wardrobe door.
“Are you happy now?” she hissed as she grabbed a pair of jeans from the shelves.
His eyes on her ass, he muttered, “What?”
She threw the jeans at him and he caught them when they hit him square in the chest. “This. Us. Yes, okay? I want you. Is that what you want to hear? That I dream of you too?” she choked out. “Your hands on me, inside of me, and I ache too.”
Ryan took a step towards her.
“Don’t.” She snatched the jeans out of his hands and tugged them on.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
Fin turned, rummaging for a top. She pulled one off a hanger and tugged it on furiously. “You’re sorry. I’m sorry. Everybody’s sorry. Well it’s just one sad, fucking sorry situation, isn’t it?”
Christ, Fin was a fiery inferno when she was mad, and it had his dick swelling even harder. “Fin, I—”
“Enough!” She jabbed a finger in his chest. “There’s hurt in there. I know it. You know it, but you’re not going to move on from it until you let that shit out. Whatever you’re doing now isn’t working. Own it, Ryan. Stop letting it own you.” With that she brushed passed him and opened the bedroom door. She looked at him over her shoulder before stalking away.
“Sizzler?” Fin moaned as Jake pulled into the restaurant car park an hour later.
Pulling the key out of the ignition, he turned in his seat and grinned at her. “That’s what you get for a last minute date with the two of us, right, Kendall?”
Ryan chuckled from the front passenger seat. “Right.”
Fin eyed the two of them flatly and reached for the door handle. She sighed as she opened the car door. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Don’t be like that, Fin,” Ryan called out as they got out of the car behind her and Jake beeped the locks. “It’s all you can eat. What could be better than that?”
She shivered at the wicked gleam in his eyes and strode briskly towards the restaurant door.
“I’ll tell you what’s better than that—if it was full of women instead of food,” Jake told him. “An all you can eat women buffet.”
Ryan said something she didn’t catch, and Jake burst out laughing. She rolled her eyes, shoving open the door.
Twenty minutes later Fin sat down at their table with a small pile of salad. Jake and Ryan followed soon after, sitting opposite her with plates piled high. Did they leave any food for anyone else?
She eyed them both in turn and then pointed her fork at their enormous food mountains. “That’s a heart attack on a plate.”
Ryan laughed and Jake grinned at her. “We work our asses off to eat like this.”
“And this is only round one,” Ryan told her.
Jake looked down at her modest salad with disgust. “Seriously, Fin. You don’t come to an all you can eat restaurant for the rabbit food.”
Her stomach flipped over when she met Ryan’s eyes. He was looking at her like she was a frosty ice cream and he’d just escaped the burning fires of Hell. She’d be lucky to choke down a piece of lettuce at this rate. “I’m not that hungry,” she muttered.
Jake shrugged. “So what movie are we supposed to be seeing?”
Fin finished chewing the dull tasting piece of tomato and after swallowing told him the title of the movie.
He shook his head. “Not happening.”
Stabbing at a piece of lettuce, she raised her brows and looked at him. “Fine. You don’t have to come.”
“It’s girly fluff, Fin. At least choose something we can all watch.”
Her lips twitching, she tossed a piece of lettuce at him. “What? You don’t like girly fluff?”
Jake used his fork to flick away the piece of lettuce contaminating his plate. “Not that kind,” he grumbled.
Later that evening, Ryan bought the tickets for the movie and Jake loaded them all down with popcorn.
“Haven’t you eaten enough?” she mumbled as the crowds of people swarmed around her. Getting jostled, she clutched the popcorn to her chest, watching some of it spill over and scatter carelessly on the carpeted floor.
Ryan looked down at her. “How can you go to the movies and not get popcorn?”
With Jake in front of her and Ryan behind, they walked up the dark cinema steps as a movie trailer blared wildly on the giant screen. She stumbled and Ryan grabbed her elbow to steady her.
Flustered, she murmured, “Thanks.”
Her heart pounded when his large, warm hand reached out and took hold of hers. She should’ve tugged it free, especially in light of her earlier anger, but the brief contact felt so good. He gave it a squeeze as Jake guided them into a row of seats, and Fin forced herself to let go when they sat down.