“You didn’t know Sebastian was going to do this,” he says. “And you were right. We couldn’t revolve our lives around him, waiting for his next psycho move. If I had to get stabbed a thousand times for you, I would. I love you, Cassie.”
His blue eyes, the color of the ocean on a clear day, gaze into mine, and for the first time, maybe ever in my life, I feel seen, like Ryder understands me in ways maybe I don’t even understand myself. Maybe that’s what it is to be loved. Sebastian always used I love you as an excuse for bad behavior, a manipulation. The words aren’t any different, I know. But they sound different in Ryder’s voice. I believe him, and that makes hearing them feel different too, as though finally, they mean something real.
I smile. “I love you, too.” I kiss the corner of his mouth, the scruff on his cheek, his bare collarbone. “You saved me tonight,” I say. “If you hadn’t shown up, or if you had left me there…” I start, but I can’t bring myself to finish the thought of what could have been.
“I’m never leaving you,” he says. He holds me to him tightly, and I tuck my head beneath his jaw. A perfect fit. “And you saved me, too. No one’s ever defended me like that before. You actually broke his nose.”
“Well, I learned from the best,” I say. “You always win, right?
“We won,” he says. “Together.” He strokes the space between my shoulder blades and rests his hand on the small of my back.
His fingertips graze the top of my ass as the curtain that separates the room from the hallway rustles.
“Knock knock,” a voice that sounds very much like Shelby’s says.
“Ryde?” Cash says. “Cass? Y’all here?”
I sit up on the table in time to see Cash’s smiling, dimpled face as he pushes through the curtains. He turns behind him and says, “This is the one,” and Shelby, Avery, Ruby, Savannah, Jackson, and Parker flood into the tiny space, crowding around the examination table shoulder to shoulder.
“They don’t give you much room in here, do they?” Avery says.
“I don’t think most people get visitors at the ER,” Parker says. “Or maybe Ryder would have put on some clothes.”
“Good one,” Cash says.
“I’m so glad y’all are here,” I say, leaning over, reaching for my crutches.
“Oh, don’t you fucking dare get up,” Savannah says. “We’ll come to you.” She hugs me.
“How did all of you manage to get back here?” Ryder says, pushing himself to sitting. “I thought they were pretty strict with that stuff.”
“Cash used to sleep with one of the nurses,” Ruby says.
“That’s not true,” he says. “She’s a doctor, thank you very much.”
“Y’all are like family,” Shelby says, taking my hand and kissing my cheek. “We would have snuck in through the window if we had to.”
“Seriously, though,” Jackson says, “Are you guys okay?” He glances at our bandages and the faint, dried blood still on parts of our skin.
Ryder and I look at each other. I can’t say for sure what he’s thinking, of course, but from the way he smiles, it might be the same thing I am: I am so fucking lucky to love you. “We’re good,” he says.
“Great, actually,” I say. “We’re great.”
Ryder drapes his tattooed arm around my waist, and I curl into him, my head on his chest, my ear to his heart, right where I will always belong.
RYDER
EPILOGUE
One Month Later
There are some things in life you take for granted. For me, watching Cassie McEntire get dressed after sex will never be one of them.
In just a black bra and panties, she leans forward a little as she slips each perfect long leg into her skirt and pulls it to her hips, right where my hands held her only a few minutes before as she rode me in my office chair at Altitude, her shoulders stretched as she moved on my lap, back and forth, then teasing me up and down, her fingers gripping the nape of my neck as she came.
Usually we can be civilized people and wait til we’re home to get naked together. But sometimes, like when I know I’ll be here late closing up or I have to go to the fight and may not be done til sunrise, we find our way back here. I love this bar and I love fight night, but I love being inside Cassie more than anything.
Earlier we’d been in the bar with everyone, our usual Friday night now. Even though it’s a work night for me—the weekends seem to get busier and busier here, a good problem to have—it doesn’t ever feel like work. I never dread it, always look forward to it. Cash was making drinks, Shelby and Avery and Ruby and Savannah were gossiping and laughing in their usual reserved booth. Parker and Jackson were talking to me about our new spot in the old Ogden’s Books. Then Cassie walked by us, on her way to join the rest of the women. She smiled at me and ran her hand across my arm, her fingertips like a breeze across my shirtsleeve, and I didn’t hear a word Jackson or Parker said after that. All I could hear was the sound of Cassie coming in my imagination, her gasps and moans and the way she exhales my name, quiet and quick, like a secret she can’t hold onto anymore.