Breaking the Rules (Roaming Devils MC #1) (21 page)

“I never finished my shower.”

His hand slid underneath her shirt. “Go ahead. I’ll be up in a minute.”

“I’ll wait.”

Ryker finished the few bites of food left on his plate, and Ella carried it to the kitchen. He drank from the bottle of water she gave him, watching as she rinsed the plate and put it in the dishwasher.

“Did those guys say anything to you?” he asked.

“Not really.” She turned to face him and flipped the light off. “I think they were watching me, though. They knew I was alone.”

She led him up the stairs to her childhood bedroom and flipped the light on. Nothing sounded better than sleep. She glanced over to the bathroom and back at him.

“Will you come with me?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Of course.”

Ella went to the bathroom and turned the shower on. Swallowing hard, she undressed and slipped inside the shower. The hot water cascaded down her body and she reveled in it. Ryker leaned against the vanity, watching her.

“I don’t really care what you do, Ryker.” She poured shampoo into her hands. “I don’t. You’re not a bad guy in my eyes. You never were.”

She lathered her hair and rinsed it clean. “I don’t like being lied to, though. You have to respect me enough to give me the truth if you want us to work.”

“What exactly do you think the truth is?”

“I don’t know.” She poured coconut-scented body wash onto the pink loofah. “I’m scared you’re going to get bored with me. That I’m going to get attached to you and you’re going to walk away.”

“You really think I cheated on you?”

“I don’t know. You won’t tell me what you did.”

He rubbed his temples. “I went out of town to find my father.”

“Did you?”

“You don’t need to know that.” He met her gaze. “I assure you sex was not on my mind.”

“You’re not bored?” She rinsed her body and turned the shower off. He handed her a towel and she wrapped it around herself. “I just feel like I’m holding you back or something. That you’d rather have some girl shaking her tits in your face or waving her pussy around for anyone that came near. I don’t get why you’d want me. I’m not that girl. I wear scrubs, for crying out loud. I don’t even own a thong.”

He gave her a small smile. “I had those girls, Ella, and there’s nothing there. You’re beautiful and you’re kind. You see the good in people when the rest of the world sees nothing but the bad. We’re complete opposites. You’re an amazing person and I’m lucky to know you, much less actually be with you. I don’t know why you want me, to be honest. I’ve tried to keep distance between us, but I can’t say no to you. I can’t do what I know is right because that means I have to let the greatest person in my life go. I don’t want anyone else. I mean it. I can’t explain it. I just want you.”

“You’re not tempted a little bit?”

He shrugged. “I am human. I am a man. I do admire women. It’s not something I dwell on, though.”

She tightened her towel around her. “I don’t feel adequate enough for you.”

“Why?”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know. Experience.”

He laughed. “You’re fucking adorable right now.”

“Don’t laugh at me.”

He moved away from the vanity. “I’m not laughing at you. I just find it fucking unbelievable that we’re having this conversation in your parents’ house. If we were at home, I’d give you all the experience you want, baby, but I really don’t want to relive the past while we’re here.”

She snorted. “We didn’t do anything that night.”

“We came pretty fucking close.” He walked to the door and opened it.

That night. She wondered what he thought about it. She’d been mad at her dad and wanted to pay him back by having him catch her fucking the boy he didn’t like. It was wrong and she knew it. She’d felt so guilty about it afterward too.

“I set you up that night.” Ella walked with him to her room. “I wanted my dad to find us. I wanted him to get mad.”

“Well, you got your wish.” He walked into the room and took off his shirt. “Why? Rebellion?”

“Somewhat.” She dried off and pulled her tank and shorts on again before climbing into bed. “I was mad at him. I knew he didn’t like you and I wanted to rub it in his face that his little girl wasn’t so sweet and innocent. It backfired. I couldn’t even do that right.”

Ryker climbed into bed wearing his boxers. “Why the fuck do you want to be different than what you are? You’re worried about sex. You’re worried I don’t want you. You want to be a bad girl when there isn’t one fucking bad bone in your body. You balance us out, babe. I’m bad, you’re good. If you were bad, we wouldn’t work.”

Ella rolled her eyes. “If you say so.”

He pulled her to him and smacked her ass. “You’re perfect just the way you are. Don’t ever change it.”

She smiled and kissed him. “You make me feel safe,” Ella admitted.

He stared at her. “I’ll protect you with all that I am. Don’t ever question it.”

“What if…”

He pressed a finger against her lips. “Nobody is going to hurt you. I promise you that.”

He leaned in, cupping her face as he kissed her. She believed him. He’d kill them before he let them hurt her, and a small part of her took comfort in that.

****

Ryker moved Ella’s entire apartment—or what was left in it—into a new place that was in a better neighborhood. He also had a security system installed so that she’d feel safe when he wasn’t there.

It’d been a hellish day, but he and the guys got the job done. Since they had some club business to deal with that night, he figured sharing a beer on the balcony with his friends, while they were still his friends, was in order.

“We’re the dream team.” Vampire drank from his beer. “The vote should go according to plan.”

Ryker named Vampire as his VP, while Superman got the sergeant-at-arms position. He still needed to be voted in, but that was semantics. Nobody else wanted the position and it made sense since so many chapters were looking up to him as their leader as well.

“There’s still some questionable members.” Ryker rubbed his eyes. “I don’t fucking know why they were obsessed with my dad, but they’ve been part of the club longer than I’ve been alive.”

Ella came up the stairs and stopped. “Uh, you guys aren’t moving in with us, are you?”

Vampire grinned. “I’m into threeways if you are.”

Ryker kicked his friend’s boot off the small table he’d propped it on. “Knock it off.”

Ella walked toward him. “Hey.” She kissed him briefly before pulling back to meet his gaze. “I need to talk to you for a minute.”

Ryker set his beer down and followed her inside. She glanced around the apartment. While the original one she’d rented was essentially a studio, this one had nice large rooms and an open floor plan. “I don’t have enough furniture for this place.”

He pulled her to him. “We’ll get new stuff.”

“With what? My looks?” She scoffed. “Don’t answer that.”

“I have money.” He shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

She glanced around. “I said yes based on the pictures you sent me, but this looks like it’s big enough for five people.”

Ryker propped his hands on his hips. “We’ll grow into it.”

When he went in to have his staples removed, she’d given him the results of his tests. Everything came back negative. Relief filled him. They had a clean slate for their future. Now he just had to figure out how to make it happen.

“I don’t know.” She set her stuff on the coffee table. “I had a conversation with my boss today. He’s the director of the emergency medicine department at the hospital and he said that they weren’t going to hire me when I graduate from my residency program.”

He tilted his head to the side. “So you can go to another hospital. Atlanta’s got several.”

“Maybe.” She sat on the couch. “I got a job offer in Washington DC.”

Ryker closed the door to the apartment and walked toward her, taking a seat in the chair next to the sofa. “Do you want it?”

She chewed on her lower lip. “I don’t know. It’s really good money. One of my former professors got a position there. He recommended me for an ER position.”

Ryker could see it in her face that she was contemplating it. He couldn’t blame her. Atlanta had been nothing but hell for her since she’d come back. He leaned forward on his thighs.

“You do what you want to do.”

She lifted her gaze. “Where does that leave us?”

“I’ll still be here.” With all that was going on with the club, he couldn’t change chapters now. It’d wreak all kinds of havoc on him, but she’d be working most of the time and he’d be doing his thing. For the most part, she’d be out of harm’s way too.

“There’s no way you’d actually go with me?”

“Babe, I can’t. Not right now.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

She rubbed her hands on her thighs. “Yeah. I mean, I’m not going to beg you. I don’t even know if I’m taking the position either, so okay.”

She stood and walked past him. Everything in the apartment had been hooked up and transferred over. He’d even gotten them cable.

She went to the bedroom, going straight for the master bath. “Wow.”

Ryker stopped in the doorway. “I figured you’d like a little more room to put all your girly crap.”

She snorted. “This room is as big as the entire other apartment.”

He slid his arms around her from behind. “I think you need to take a bubble bath and relax.”

“Are you going anywhere?”

She still didn’t feel safe. He hated it too. “Not right now.”

“Will you stay with me?”

He kissed the side of her cheek. “Let me get rid of the guys.”

Ryker went back to the front of the apartment. Superman and Vampire laughed about something that one of them had said.

“Go round up votes. Make sure all the members are there. We’ll settle this thing tomorrow night.”

They nodded. “Is she okay?” Vampire asked.

“She’s fine.” Ryker stared at his friend. “We’ll meet tomorrow.”

He closed the door and locked it, setting the security system. He had no plans to leave for the night. Staying with Ella sounded like the best idea he’d had in a long time.

He grabbed a glass of iced tea, since she didn’t drink anything but, and a bottle of water for himself. He really needed to get some more beer. And maybe groceries in general. He carried both beverages to the bathroom, where Ella had sunk into a sea of bubbles. He smiled at her as he set the glass on the edge of the tub.

“You look like you’re enjoying the new bathtub.”

“I am.” She’d pulled her hair up high enough that she could lay her head back against the tub without it getting wet. “What were you talking about with the guys?”

He sipped at his water. Telling her club business was something he couldn’t do. But if he was going to wear the president patch and hold the role, Ella needed to know. He licked his lips and glanced away.

“We’re voting new men into the leadership roles of the club. Everyone is expecting me to take the president spot. I get to nominate the others.”

She lifted her glass from the tub. “So you
did
kill your father.”

He didn’t say anything. Talking about what he did or didn’t do put Ella at risk for all kinds of trouble. She didn’t need to know what happened with the Roaming Devils. All she needed to know was that he would make the club better.

“You’re not going to deny it?” She shook her head. “He deserved it, but it doesn’t mean you should have done it.”

He glanced over his shoulder at her staring back at him. “What should I do? Turn him in to the cops? Like he wouldn’t fucking flip on us to save his own ass? We’d all be in jail.”

“How can you be this way? How can you act like nothing happened?” She shook her head. “‘Hi, honey, what did you do today?’ ‘Oh, nothing. I just killed my father. How was the ER? Did anyone throw up on you today?’ Which, by the way, happened, thank you for asking.”

He grinned, which only pissed her off more. Her fury was damn near adorable to him. She slapped his arm. “It’s not funny.”

He laughed harder and she rolled her eyes. “You’re an asshole.”

He reached out for her head and she tried to pull away from him before he kissed her cheek. “Do you have conversations with yourself often?”

“I have to. You won’t have them with me.”

She tried pushing him away, but she didn’t win. He pressed his face against hers, leaning across the bathtub, nearly halfway inside. “I fucking need you in my life.”

He kissed her and met her eyes. “What do you want me to do? Huh? The man wanted to kill you. What do you think I should do with my father?”

“You say that like nothing has happened.” She gripped his arm, digging her nails into his skin. “Did you kill him?”

“I’m not answering that. Tell me what you would do if you were me.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s evil.”