Only With You (31 page)

Hey baby!

I smile spread across my face as I picked up my phone.
Hey you. How were the fans?

“It’s actually kind of a good thing,”
Kirsten said, and I looked up at her in confusion after I sent my text.

“What’s a good thing?” I asked.

I saw Kyla roll her eyes, so I shot her a questioning look that she didn’t answer. Instead she plucked the last beer from the bucket on the table and started to drink it. That wouldn’t make Jake very happy since it was his beer. She probably knew that though. I sincerely hoped she wouldn’t make a scene. I wasn’t in the mood for girl drama that night.

“That I’m single,”
Kirsten answered.

“Great,” I said unenthusiastically.

My phone beeped again, and I looked down to read what Sydney had written.

The fans were awesome, as usual. Hang on a sec, will you? I have tell you something, but Chris needs to talk to me.

Sure.

“Are you dating Sydney Chase?” Kyla
asked then, and my eyes darted up to her.

Where the hell had that come from? No way she knew who I was talking to, even if she’d seen my phone. I’d purposefully filed Syndey under ‘Syd’ so no one would be able to tell who she was when she was calling or texting me.

“No. Why would you ask that?”
And no, I wasn’t just texting her.

Realization suddenly dawned on me
. After the pictures of Syd and me had been all over the Internet a few weeks earlier, I’d been asked by a few people I knew if I’d hooked up with her. But that had been when I’d first gotten back to school. Things had calmed down since then.

“I saw
the pictures of you two online,” she confirmed. “You were holding hands.”

“She’s my best friend.”

“Shut up?!” Kirsten said, and Kyla looked at me with wide eyes. “Are you serious?”

I
nodded my head. “Yeah, we grew up together. I’ve known her since I was eight.”

And she’s my girlfriend. And I love her.
And she’s amazing.

“Wow, that is sooo cool! You have to introduce us!”
Kirsten screeched.

Nope, not gonna happen.

“I don’t think she’ll be visiting me here anytime soon,” I told them and fought the urge to say, ‘and for good reason’. Crazy girls like Kirsten and Kyla would be exactly who Sydney would want to avoid if she stepped foot on campus.

“She’s so beautiful and talented,” Kyla commented.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, she’s pretty incredible.”

I noticed that made Kirsten pout.
“But you’re single?” she prompted.

“Yeah, sure,” I said
noncommittally, as my phone beeped again. I looked down at it, and my eyes went wide when I read what Syd had written.

I’m officially single!

You are?!!!

Holy shit!

:) Yup. Laurie released a statement tonight that due to our busy schedules, Dillon and I have decided to just be friends. The world will know soon if they don’t know already.

I felt like punching the air with my fist. Best. News. Ever!

“Ryder, are you listening to me?” Kirsten asked.

I looked up, having definitely not been listening to a word she was saying as she rambled on. I was too wrapped up in just getting the news I’d wanted
to hear for six weeks. Not that we were going to tell anyone that we were together, but the option was there if we wanted to take it.

“No, I’m not listening. I’m sorry,” I told
Kirsten honestly.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and huffed, her eyes drifting away from me.

“I’m sorry,” I told her, because I was probably acting like a jerk. “Just let me finish this conversation, and I’ll be all yours.”

Her eyes lit up at that declaration, and I wasn’t sure why.
I didn’t have time to worry about it though since I had to get a response text back to my now single, well, not really since she was dating me, girlfriend.

Babe, that just made my night.

:) I figured it would.

I’d told Syd earlier that I was having a shitty day, but I hadn’t told her why. I’d fill her in when we talked later
and I could explain everything in detail. But that news just made all the crap from earlier not seem so bad.

What are you doing now?
she texted.

Still at
The Swamp with Jake.

Are you drunk?

Um, yes.

I fought the urge to ask if she was cool with that since I didn’t want to know if she wasn’t, and I really didn’t want her to be the kind of girlfriend who cared
if I drank too much once and a while.

Oh, the things I would do to you if I was there. I would so take advantage of you.
I liked drunk Ryder.

Her response had me laughing out loud
, since she was no doubt thinking back to the night we’d first hooked up. Kirsten and Kyla stared at me in confusion. But I couldn’t worry about them at that moment, as I was imagining all the things Syd would do to me, and my dick was starting to let me know how much it had been missing the attention of a certain brunette it had gotten quite used to.

And I like adventurous Sydney.
Then I went out on a limb.
Tell me what you would do.

I can think of a few things, but licking you like a lollipop comes to mind.

How many licks does it take to get to the cream-filled center?

I felt myself blush, not believing I’d sent that.

I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out.

Shit that’s hot. Later on, can we have Sex Time instead of Face Time?

When I felt eyes on me, I tilted my phone away just in case either of the girls could see the screen. And then I waited for Syd to respond, hoping she wouldn’t think I was a pervert. We’d never discussed having phone sex, and I’d never done it before. I wasn’t sure what her thoughts on the subject were either.

Instead of responding, my phone played Syd’s ringtone, and I answered it before the girls could see her picture on the screen.

“Hey,” I said to her, my voice purposefully low.

“Were you joking, or were you being serious
just now?” Sydney asked, her voice all breathy and sexy, succeeding in officially making me all the way hard. I shifted in my seat, hoping no one could tell since it was relatively dark outside.

“Uh, serious,” I said, hoping it was the right answer.

“Good,” she breathed out, and my heart rate started to speed up. Then she made this sexy little growl noise, and I about lost it right there. When she spoke again, her voice sounded like a phone-sex operator. “Ry, I miss you soooo much.”

Holy shit. That was so hot.

And she hadn’t even said anything dirty. Later on, it was going to be game-over very quickly if I wasn’t careful.

“Are you alone?” I asked, afraid all of her team was standing around in her dressing room
while she turned me on to the max.

“Yes,” she breathed out.

I swallowed hard. Why did her saying that make me suddenly picture her sprawled out on the couch in her dressing room naked and touching herself? I knew that wasn’t happening since she was due on stage in ten minutes, but a guy could dream.

“I’m not,” I told her, feeling like I was letting her down.

“Seriously?” she asked, her voice back to normal.

“I’m sorry.”

“But I wanted you to tell me something sexy,” she said, her voice back in phone-sex mode. “You know, let me have something to think about for later. Tell me what you want to do to me.”

Dammit.
She was killing me.

“I can’t,” I said, hating to let her down.

“Just step away,” she encouraged.

“I can’t do that either,” I said honestly, because the raging hard-on I was sporting was going to be very obvious if I stood up.

“Why not?”

Shit. She wasn’t going to get it. She wasn’
t a guy. I had to think about how I could creatively tell her without giving myself away. Kyla and Kirsten were talking to each other now, but I was fairly certain they, or at least Kirsten, were still listening to my conversation with one ear.

“Um, if you were here, you would be able to tell – physically speaking – why that’s not in my best interest.”

“What does–  Oh! Oh, no! Are you serious?”

“Uh, yeah. Totally.
And it’s all your fault.”

Instead of laughing, she let out a breathy sigh that did nothing for my current state. “That’s ridiculously hot. No need to say anything. I’ll take that image on stage with me tonight.”

Damn,
that
was an image I could carry with me.

“Good,” I said, aiming to regain some of the cool points I felt like I’d lost by having the
self-control of a fourteen year-old.

Sydney chuckled. “Okay, I have go to. Love you.”

“Love you too,” I told her. “Talk to you later.”

“Can’t wait,” she said as she hung up the phone.

I set mine back on the table just as Jake was returning with a new bucket of beers. He shot a glance at Kirsten and Kyla that I was able to read very clearly as, ‘Great, you’re still here’.

“How’s the hottie?” he asked me.

“Mine,” I told him, and he laughed and handed me a beer. “Did you find the waitress?”

I was really hungry, and I figured I probably needed some fuel
for later, although phone sex wouldn’t be nearly as rigorous as real sex, unfortunately.

“Yeah, she’s on her way out,” he told me.

“Hi Jake,” Kyla said softly.

“Uh, hey Kyla,” he said as
Kirsten turned to me.

“So anyway,” she said, seeming annoyed.

I raised an eyebrow at her as I took a long swig of my beer. “Yes.”

“Who was on the phone?”

“No one.”

She wasn’t getting shit from me.
Kirsten was the last girl I was telling about Sydney, as my friend or my girlfriend.

She rolled her eyes. “You were talking to
her
, weren’t you? The stripper.”

“What stripper?” Jake asked suddenly, his ears tuned in to any word that might mean sex or naked girls.

“She’s not a stripper!” I shouted, throwing my hands up and realizing that my voice was really loud. People all around us had turned to stare. I lowered my voice. “She’s not a stripper.”

“Who’s not a stripper?” Jake asked.

“The girl he’s in love with,” Kirsten said, jerking her thumb toward me.

That made Jake roar with laughter.
“She’s talking about,” he widened his eyes in gesture so he didn’t have to say Sydney’s name, “right?”

I nodded in amusement. “Yeah, she is.”

“That is fucking hilarious! She’s not a stripper,” he confirmed.

Kirsten
looked annoyed, and then she shook her head. “Look, here’s the deal,” she said, turning to me. “I’m single, and since you’re single, I think we should give it another go. I’ll overlook the fact that you’re in love with stripper girl.”

And before I could stop her, she leaned forward and kissed me, her hands braced on either side of my face. After a few seconds, I reached up and rip
ped her hands away and pushing her back.

“What the hell?” I asked, wiping at my mouth with the back of my hand,
fairly sure fire was about to shoot out of my eyes.

“I just–” she started to say, but I realized I didn’t actually care.

What she’d done had pissed me off.

“Okay, first of all,
don’t ever fucking do that again. Second, you and me are
not
going to happen, not in a million years. Third, she’s not a fucking stripper! Don’t ever talk about her like that again. And fourth, and this is the most important one, so pay real close attention.” I leaned in closer to her, and her eyes showed how intimidating I must have looked in that moment. “I have a girlfriend, so back the fuck off.”

“Whoa, calm down, bro,” I heard Jake say as
Kirsten’s eyes got wide.

I wasn’t usually a guy who went all ballistic, but I’d completely lost my cool when Kristen had kissed me. Not acceptable.

“You do?” she asked quietly. “But you said you were single.”

Shit.
The way she sounded when she said that made me realize that I was scaring her. I immediately softened my tone.

“
I lied.” I said firmly, keeping my raging emotions at bay. I couldn’t believe she’d fucking kissed me. “But yeah, I do. Her name’s Elisa, and she’s on Sydney’s publicity team. It’s new, so we’re not really telling people.”

I was surprised at how easy the lie jus
t rolled off my tongue. But the girls already thought I was seeing Syd, so it was better to completely throw them off than risk them realizing the truth.