It took me a second to wrap my head around it, and I moved for him, reaching out to touch his forearm to stop him. “This is a bad idea, Ryder.”
He whirled around, and shock spiraled through me when he suddenly had me by the jaw, fingers soft but sure before his hand slid up to my cheek.
His hot palm burned into my flesh.
My stomach tipped onto the floor.
What the hell was he doing?
My feet had turned to putty as he stared down at me. “Call it what you want, Dakota, but I’m not leaving here without you and your son.” The pad of his thumb traced along the hollow of my eye. “I won’t take that risk.”
I blinked at him, hardly able to press out the question. “Do you really think we’re in danger?”
His hand tightened on my face, that gaze darkening and deepening, swilling with something harsh and severe. “I’m not sure, Dakota, but if you are? I promise I will take care of you. Protect you.”
“Why?”
“Because protecting you is what I was created to do.”
I swallowed around the jagged rocks that littered my throat. I had to set aside the questions and worries. Set aside the desperate need to ask him what he meant when he claimed things like that.
None of that mattered right then.
Bottom line, I couldn’t take that risk with my son, either.
And it wasn’t like this was forever. It was just for the night. Ezra would check things out and find it was all good, tell me there was nothing to worry about, and I’d be right back home.
One night.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t spent the night under the same roof as Ryder before.
But it’d been a long, long time ago, and it’d always been wrought with that crush that had made me feel like I couldn’t breathe, like the walls had closed in.
Made me toss, awake but never fully alive.
Wanting with a need that would never be met.
I forced a big smile to my face. “Fine. But know Kayden is going to destroy your house.”
Ryder chuckled. Low and deep and dark, and still, the man somehow made it seem easy and light. “You think I’m afraid of a two-year-old?”
Softness filled his gaze, but there was also something deeper. Something that spoke of a hidden fear that loitered in the depths.
“Are you sure it’s not a bother?” I asked.
“Like I said, taking care of you is what I was meant to do, Dakota.”
Confusion bound, and I couldn’t get free of the snare of those eyes that were watching me.
I had to refuse it. Not allow my head to go tripping into fanciful things.
It’d hurt too damn much when I’d learned Ryder would never love me back. Not the way I’d wanted him to.
So, I found the will that I’d come to find then, the strength, and I pulled back up some of those walls that sometimes threatened to slip, remembering that Ryder would never be anything more than a friend.
A friend that growled, “Now pack your things before I do it for you.”
TEN
DAKOTA
Twenty minutes later, I was pulling out of my driveway that wound around the side of the café that dumped into its parking lot. Ryder followed close behind, his headlights covering us as we eased out onto the main road in the dead of night.
Kayden had barely stirred when I’d picked him up to carry him downstairs and buckled him into his car seat in the back of my car.
Ezra was on his way. He’d insisted he would come himself, along with one of the other deputies on duty.
I made them both swear not to tell my brother or the rest of my family until we were certain of things.
I didn’t want them freaking out for no reason.
I glanced in the rearview mirror.
Appreciation washed over me.
Once I’d let the panic subside, I realized how lucky I was to have an incredible group of people surround me when I needed it.
Ones who supported.
Without question or reservation.
People who truly cared and would drop everything and come running.
Not everyone had that.
It was the whole point of family, wasn’t it?
And I guessed I had to admit this was Ryder offering his own personal strength.
His own type of dedication.
Swooping in. Forever the protector. The one who’d step in front of a car spinning out of control to push their loved one out of the way.
The one who’d fight if it came down to it.
Oh, and Ryder would definitely fight.
He might come off as easygoing, but I’d seen him come unhinged a time or two.
The scraps he and Cody had gotten involved in when someone had said the wrong thing or acted the wrong way.
The aggression that had taken over a year ago when some douchebag had gotten too friendly with me at the bar and wouldn’t listen after I’d told him to keep his hands to himself.
My stomach tightened when I thought back to what he’d done when I was nineteen. The turbulence of his assault and the aftermath of what he’d left behind.
No, Ryder was not to be toyed with, which I guessed was part of the reason I’d called him in the first place.
It was the rest of this that was difficult, making the two quick turns required to get to his house and pulling into the driveway.
I couldn’t shake the sense that I was traveling into forbidden terrain.
Rocky, unstable ground.
The neighborhood was completely quiet at this time of night. The windows blackened. A calm so intense you could almost see it hovering over the roofs.
His neighborhood was in an older area in Time River. Some houses were large estates and others were smaller, though each sat on two acre lots.
Most had been renovated, their values skyrocketing, though there were still a couple that were run-down and gave off a creepy vibe, especially at two in the morning.
Ryder’s was smaller, though fully redone, as quaint and gorgeous as could be. White and two-story with a big, elevated porch out front.
It had been his childhood home, where he’d grown up, just him and his mother.
It made my heart soar that he’d been able to buy it back once he’d had the means.
Knew what it meant to him.
He was the one who’d had the remodel done, bringing it back to life when it’d once rang with death.
Ryder pulled in directly behind me, boxing me in, and I exhaled a shaky breath.
I could handle this.
It wasn’t any different than hanging out with him at Mack’s or at my brother’s or at my mom’s. Or any of the times he’d come by my house to help with things, or when I’d pop over here to drop off some special recipe I’d made.
It was totally, completely the same.
I didn’t know why I was making such a big deal about it.
I worked at convincing myself of that while I climbed from my car. Ryder was already there, striding up to the back passenger door and opening it.
I stalled out for a fraction of a beat.
This dark, casual mayhem that stirred the air and sent it skittering across my flesh.
Midnight.
He dipped in, unbuckled Kayden, and pulled him into his tattooed arms.
God, why did a man snuggling a baby have to look so good?
But even contemplating that was dangerous, so I started for the tailgate to grab our things. Only Ryder snagged me by the wrist as I started to pass. “Leave it. I’ll get everything once we get you settled inside.”
“I’m not incapable of carrying in a few bags, Ryder.”
He smirked one of those smirks that danced through my insides.
“Clearly. But why would you go and do that when I’m here to do it? Use me up, Dakota.”
He had the audacity to wink.
“You’re asking for it.” I forced lightness into my voice as I yanked a little to free myself from his hold. The connection was just too much. “I’m going to get used to this pampering, and you’re never going to get rid of me. Lugging around that kid is getting tough. He’s heavy.”
I rambled it as I turned to move up the walkway that wound around the front of the house to the five steps that led to the porch.
Ryder followed close behind.
That energy vibrated.
Entrancing.
Hypnotic.
Our footsteps thudded softly across the planks.