“And you looked Ryder up when you got divorced?” Victoria asked.
I curled my toes, gripping the cotton cover of the day bed. “Nope.” Now it clearly felt like Victoria was trying to catch me out. “I couldn’t, as I said last night. I didn’t even remember meeting him. We ran into each other at work. Well, he wanted to purchase the business I co-founded.”
“Oh right, so it’s buy the business, get the girl for free?”
“Victoria,” Darcy and Aurora said in unison.
“My business partner and I refused his offer, but I agreed to a date.”
“That’s so cute,” Aurora said. “I have to say it was a bit of a shock. Ryder’s always liked women, so I was surprised to hear he’d decided to settle down.”
“Just say what you mean—Ryder’s a slut,” Victoria said. “He’s fucked most of New York from what I understand. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“That’s my brother you’re speaking of, Victoria. If you say another—”
“Well, I have to say, he’s certainly honed his craft,” I interrupted.
For once Victoria didn’t have a response.
Darcy laughed. “Yes, you sounded like you were having fun last night,” she said.
Oh my God, how humiliating. I covered my face with my hands. “I’m so sorry,” I said. Ryder had warned me to be quiet. It was just so difficult when I was with him. I took a deep breath. “I just mean I have no reason to doubt his loyalty.” I took another sip of my juice.
Darcy chuckled and thankfully we were interrupted by two members of staff calling Victoria and Aurora back for their next treatment.
I watched both disappear behind a heavy curtain.
“Oh my God,” Darcy whispered. “That was perfect. You even managed to blush when I pretended I’d overheard the two of you.”
“You made that up?” Thank God. We had to be more careful next time. I didn’t want Ryder’s grandfather and sister overhearing us. And anyway, there probably wouldn’t even be a next time. Last night had just been . . . I couldn’t call it a mistake—it had been too good for that—but it wasn’t the deal that we had struck.
“Well, I thought I’d made it up . . .” She narrowed her eyes at me. “Were you and Ryder . . . together?”
I held my breath, unsure what I was supposed to say. “He must have told you how we met,” I said.
“Remind me.”
Ryder and Darcy were close, and I wanted to keep the lies to a minimum. Ryder wouldn’t mind if I filled her in, would he?
I quickly explained how I’d had my first ever one-night stand, then run into Ryder at work the next day. “So it’s not as if we first slept together after . . . you know.”
“He proposed.” Darcy finished my sentence for me.
“Exactly.”
“But you’re still sleeping together?” she asked.
“Just last night.” It wasn’t like it was a regular thing. And I had no idea if it would happen again, despite the day after tomorrow being our wedding day.
“Twice is double the number of times he normally sleeps with a woman,” she replied and swung her legs back onto the day bed and opened a magazine.
I lay my head back and stared at the glimmering ceiling. He probably wasn’t around the same woman more than once. Sleeping together again had been a matter of circumstance.
Would it happen again tonight? I enjoyed his company. And his cock—that was for sure. And it wasn’t as if dating had worked out that well. Maybe having a career and a lover would be my path for the next part of my life.
“Scarlett!” Ryder called from the bedroom.
“I’m in here,” I replied. After my massage I was covered in oil and had decided to take a bath when I returned to Woolton.
The bathroom door swung open and Ryder and his tousled hair filled up the frame. “Shit,” he said, finding me in the tub. He turned to leave. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Come in.” I wanted to catch him up on my conversation with Victoria. And I kinda liked that he’d come looking for me—all rumpled and handsome.
He paused and turned back to face me. “Are you sure? I—”
“Come in and shut the door—you’re letting the cold in.” My husband and I had always caught up on our days while I took a bath. Sometimes he’d join me. It had been sacred time as a couple.
He chuckled and clicked the bathroom door closed, wandering over and sitting on the tiled ledge surrounding the bath. “You don’t mind me being in here?” he asked. But he didn’t insist on leaving.
“Should I?” He’d seen me naked in far more compromising positions. And the thick bubbles covered the surface of the bathwater in any event.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought you might want your privacy.” I knew a man who looked like he wanted to talk.
“I’m fine and you’re a sight for sore eyes. I want to hear about your day. So why not now?” I smiled. “How many birds did you kill?”
“A sight for sore eyes? Does that mean the spa day was difficult?”
“Tell me about the birds,” I said. I wanted to hear about his day.
“I’ll tell you about the birds and Fred-a-dick when you tell me about Victoria.”
I laughed. “You know you sound like a fifteen-year-old boy when you call him that,” I said.
“What can I say? He brings out the worst in me.” He reached down and swept his fingers into the water. “Nice,” he said.
“You can join me if you want. Plenty of room for two.” I drew my knees up to show him how much room I had left in the tub.
He looked at me and narrowed his eyes. “And then you’ll tell me about Victoria?”
“I’m not suggesting Chinese water torture. It’s a bath, not blackmail.” I rolled my eyes. “And anyway, Victoria wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.”
He stood and stripped off his shirt. “A bath actually does sound great.”
I watched his pecs curve and pulse as he flung his shirt to the floor and started on the fly of his jeans. I caught sight of the row of three freckles on his hip bone that I’d found last night and smiled. I was ridiculous. Every inch of this man’s body was delectable, but I focused on three tiny freckles. As he pushed down his jeans he turned his perfectly biteable ass toward me and I was easily distracted. “You have a great ass,” I said.
He chuckled. “Back at you.”
He stepped into the water.
“Sit between my legs and I’ll give your back a rub.”
“My favorite place to be, Miss King,” he replied as he steadied himself, grasping either side of the tub and took a seat in my favorite place for him to be.
The muscles under his skin were tight and I snapped open some bath cream.
“It’s cold,” he said as I squirted it onto his shoulder.
I laughed. “Don’t be a baby. I’m going to make you feel great.” His hands gripped my calves and pulled my legs tight around him.