Bad Intentions (21 page)

Wow. That felt liberating.

“I hope you fall and get your dick caught in a meat grinder, Ryle,” Naomi seethes as she spouts off with childish remarks in her need to have the last word.

Ryle and I watch in silence as she stalks off and leaves the gym with smoke blowing out her ears. It’s quite amusing that she got so riled up by catching us making out. It leads me to believe that there
was
something going on between the two of them.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to,” he says, catching me off guard. He must’ve noticed the doubt that slowly crept up my neck and made itself present on my face.

I want to remind him that there’s still a part of me that thinks he’s a pompous ass, but I refrain. “You’re right. I really don’t want to know.”

“You’re lying.”

“Are you sure? Because I am most definitely sure that I don’t want to hear the details of your sexual history with Naomi.” My lips form a thin line of displeasure.

“That’s a lie though.” Ryle’s burning eyes hold me in place. He totally just called me out in the most maddening way. “You do want to know. You’re curious. I can see it in your eyes. They’re beckoning the truth even if your mouth is refusing to ask for it.”

I try to swallow, but it feels as if my pride is lodged in my throat.

“Just ask me what you want to know. Take it as a free pass. Or…” He rubs his index finger on his chin in thought. “Let’s make a game out of it.”

“You—mature, brooding Ryle who never seems to talk about anything of importance—want to play twenty questions?”

“Ouch.” A deep chuckle greets me. “But yeah. I want to play.”

This isn’t a good idea. I know I’m going to end up spilling my guts, and I’ll still know nothing about him. I start to protest. I want to tell him that I’m not interested in his little endeavor to get to know me, even though I’m desperate to know him. A lightbulb flickers over my head. Maybe this is a good thing. I can limit what I tell him and hopefully get to learn more about what makes Ryle Benson tick.

“Count me in.” I sigh heavily.

“Follow me then.” He holds out his hand, and I reach forward. Our fingers intertwine and fit together perfectly. It scares me how normal this feels.

“What are you doing?” I ask, as Ryle turns off the gym lights and locks the door behind us. “We’re not closed. What if I get fired?”

“For starters,” he says while tugging my hand and guiding me to the employee locker room. “Kaiser and I are friends. He won’t be firing you. And secondly, I own this gym.” Unconsciously my brows furrow, as I recall Kaiser mentioning Ryle being a major benefactor of Braxton University. I make a mental note to ask what’s up with that as one of my questions. “Here, sit down.”

Our hands unlock as I sit on a small love seat positioned against the wall. Ryle sits opposite of me in a chair that I would personally never sit in. It’s ratty and looks like they found it sitting outside by a curb. “So we’re just going to sit here and take turns asking questions?” I know that sounds immature, but this whole ordeal feels a bit childlike. He doesn’t answer me. Instead, he springs up and walks back through the doors we just entered. A few seconds later, he returns with an Uno box.

I’m so confused.

“We’re going to play Uno. This is how it’s going to work. Each color will have a different meaning. How about,” he opens the box and slides the cards out. Pulling the first card away from the deck, he looks down at it in his hands. “Red. Red means embarrassment. Whoever draws this color has to tell the other something embarrassing that happened to them.” He slides the next card off the deck and peers down at it. “Green means something we want to do or aspire to do. Yellow is something we fear and blue is truth. This is the important card, because we can use it in different ways. We can tell the truth about anything…even if it’s not something we’ve ever done but something we want to do. That will go in this category.”

“Wow. You really have this all planned out. Are you sure you didn’t rig the deck?”

He holds the stack out in front of him carelessly. “Here. Shuffle them, if you think I’m a cheater.”

Now this feels like a test. “I’m good.”

Ryle shows no signs of relenting. “No seriously. Shuffle them. You can deal first, and if we still have questions after this round, I’ll shuffle next.”

I grab the cards, shuffle them, and then count out seven for each of us. Placing the deck on a small table between us, I flip one up. It’s red. This should be funny.

“Okay, red. Let’s see. One time leaving the dugout, I slipped on my shoestring and fell smack dab on my ass.”

“That barely constitutes as something super embarrassing, but I’ll let it slide, Benson.” He laughs, and the sound is so sweet and carefree. He should really do it more often. “Yellow. Okay let’s see.” I let out a puff of air as I try to think about something that makes me scared. “I am deathly afraid of spiders. I know they’re little and I can kill them with a swing of a shoe, but I’m still scared of them. Every night before I go to bed, I walk around my dorm and look up at the ceiling, checking for creepy crawling little demons before I climb into bed.”

“Now that’s a good one. I’ll make sure to warn you if I see any hanging over your head tonight.”

I shiver from head to toe. “Ugh. Please stop!” I laugh while silently praying that he’s kidding, and that they don’t have an infestation in this place. “Let’s move on.”

“Damnit, blue.” He holds the card up and fans his face. “Truth. How about we change the rules,” he stalls.

“No way, buddy. You’re the one who made them up and wanted to play this little game. Now man up,” I joke, trying to put him at ease.

“All right. Here goes nothing. I, Ryle Allen Benson have never, ever, seen the ocean. Pathetic right?”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty. Why?”

“How are you twenty years old and never been to the beach?” I look up, only to see Ryle’s eyes on fire like a volcano on the verge of erupting. I know I’ve hit a nerve, yet again.

“I don’t know—I guess I was never lucky enough to have anyone give a damn about me—much less care enough to take me on vacation.”

I knew we shouldn’t have started this dumb game.

“I’m a virgin,” I blurt out. I guess I want to draw his attention somewhere else— anywhere—so that he doesn’t have to think about his shitty past.

“You didn’t draw a card.” His tone is apologetic.

“I didn’t need to.”

“Why did you just tell me that?” A curious look appears on his face as a muscle quivers along his jawline.

“I just…I didn’t mean to bring up the past, and I wanted to take your mind off of it. You can guess that my admission is red.”

“You’re embarrassed by that? If the tools on this campus knew a girl like you were a virgin, they’d be lining up half-way around the block. It’s not something to be ashamed of. Be prideful of the fact that you’re not easy. Trust me. I like you a lot more, having learned what I just did.”

I swivel quickly, turning my back to him. My eyes gloss over. I am utterly humiliated, and I caused it.
Good one, Adaley.
The admission causes my stomach to twist and turn inside. I feel like someone is literally wringing my insides with their bare hands. As much as I wish I could take it back, one thing he just said pulls me into reality. He likes me a lot more knowing that I’m a virgin. Great. Now he’s just going to want to bang me to say that he nailed a virgin.

I sense his nearness before I feel the cushion next to me dip down. I fling my hands out in despair and quickly cover my face. Using my hands as a shield, I breathe in and out, on the verge of an anxiety attack. I used to get them a lot after my accident. Feeling a shudder of humiliation, I force my eyes open, only to be greeted by Ryle’s. This time, they’re not dark and hooded and full of mystery. They’re full of compassion. This is a good look for him.

“Don’t hide the truth from me. I’m the one who wanted to play this game, remember? I’m the one who wanted to get to know you—that includes even the things you’re not ready to tell me. I want to know it all.”

“What did you do with Ryle?” I ask flatly. “I mean, where is the guy I’m used to being around—the one who doesn’t give a damn about anything or anyone? Because the version of him sitting in front of me is freaking me out.”

“There’s only one Ryle. Sometimes I’m a dick, and sometimes—very rarely—do I wear my heart on my sleeve. You better watch it though, because if you push one of them away, you push both versions away.” His tone both arouses and infuriates me.

My heart stumbles before finding its rhythm again. Words fall out of my mouth before I realize what I’m saying. “What’s going on between us? I want to know if I’m just imagining this chemistry that I feel, or if it’s real and tangible. Because quite frankly I feel like—.”

I feel lips press tightly against mine. His mouth now feels familiar, like God sculpted ours tongues precisely for the other’s benefit.

I pull away slightly. “I feel like I’m dreaming.”

Ryle’s voice is husky when he responds in a whisper. “If this is a dream, then I don’t ever want to wake up.”

“T
onight was a total waste of make-up,” Zoe sneers as she walks through the door. Tossing her cross-body purse on the bed, she balances herself against the back of a chair and slides her heels off one by one.

“Details. I need details, lady!” I sit perched on my twin bed, legs folded like a pretzel.

“Kaiser texted me and asked if I wanted to hang out. He said—and I quote—‘get some dinner.’ Naturally, I got all dolled up, thinking we were going out to a restaurant. Hell, I wasn’t asking for a five-course meal—I’d have been fine with O’Charley’s!” she huffs, before continuing on her rampage. “He picked me up, and we drove to Ryle’s apartment. Granted, he had pizza already ordered, but I’m still mad.”

Ryle’s apartment? Did he lend it out for his friends? Was it a sex pad or something?

“So what happened?”

“We had sex and ate pizza,” she says, like it’s the most natural sentence in the world.

Does he offer his apartment up a lot? Is that why he’d gone to the gym? To give Kaiser and Zoe some alone time? It would make sense. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t work? Does he charge people for using his apartment? My mind is reeling.

“Earth to Adaley.” Zoe snaps in front of my face. “Did you catch any of that?”

“I caught the part where Ryle offers his place up to his buds as a cozy flesh pad.”

“Number one, that’s gross. Number two,
he’s
not having sex in it, so that’s all that matters right?”

Correct. I guess. Who am I to judge anyone? Plus, I love the fact that he’s not the one going to pound town in his own place. “You’re right.”

“So what did you do tonight?” She unzips her dress and tosses it onto a pile on the floor. Soon, that mound of clothes will rival Mt. Everest. I’m scared that any minute a giant, mutated rat is going to crawl out from under it.

“I worked, but ended up closing early. Played Uno with Ryle. That about sums it up.”

“Uno? What are you, ten?”

“His idea. It went south anyways.”

Her eyebrow shoots up. “South in a good way?”

“Not really. I’m tired of talking about boys. I was just about to watch the fourth season of The Vampire Diaries on my Kindle. You in?”

“Isn’t that a show about a love triangle…and boys?” She laughs.

“Vampire boys are so much better than real boys.”

“I’m in!”

We spend the remainder of the night gorging on kettle corn and binge watching TVD. All the while, my mind keeps lingering on the topic of Ryle.

Stupid brain.

I fall asleep thinking about him biting my neck and whispering promises of eternity into my ear.