Ryker (The Powers That Be Book 4) (11 page)

“Hello, Francesca!” Mrs. Bertolini called from her patio making Ryker stop in his tracks and look behind him then up. Of course with her twenty-twenty vision she’d seen us.

He dropped my hand, turning to face her wrapping his arm around my shoulders and drawing me into him to where my front was against his side. I put an arm across his back and rested the palm of my other against his abs. Tucking his chin to his shoulder he looked down and asked, “Is it okay she saw us or do I need to make her disappear?”

I nodded with a roll of my eyes and smiled up at him, at which he winked then tightening his arm around me he leaned down and kissed the side of my head.

“And who might this be?” Mrs. Bertolini hollered down.

“This is Ryker Powers, Mrs. Bertolini,” I said back.

“Hello, Ryker. Oh, my. Aren’t you handsome?  You remind me of my Marco.” I knew she probably couldn’t see him too clearly in the lighting but she was not wrong about his being handsome.

Ryker grinned up at her. “It’s nice meeting you, Mrs. Bertolini.”

“And polite too.” She grinned back at him. Then looking at me she added, “I have a good feeling about this young man, Francesca.”

Instant face flush since she knew exactly who he was to me. “Uh, okay. I’ll talk to you later, Mrs. B.”

“Glad to see you kids had some fun!” she chortled before heading back inside her apartment.

Ryker breathed out a chuckle. “I like her.” Then he looked down at me and I saw the intensity was back in his eyes. “We need to talk later.”

“Okay,” I whispered hoping that what was going on between us was what I thought it was.

Taking my hand he pulled me with him to his car. “I’ll see you in a bit, okay, baby?”

I nodded and tiptoed up to kiss him, feeling the same possessiveness I’d felt before from him, and loved every bit of it.

“Bye,” I said as he got in his car and started it up. He closed his door, gave me a wink, backed out and left.

When I turned to go back to my apartment, I heard a small voice say, “Was that him?”

Mrs. B had come back out on her balcony and I looked up at her answering, “Yes.”

“Oh, honey, what you’ve got is a very good thing. I feel it in my bones.”

I smiled goofily up at her, giddy as all get out. “Thank you, Mrs. B. You were so right.”

She grinned as she held her coffee cup up as if toasting me. I grinned right back before going inside to get ready for school.

12—Predicament

Ryker and I had a blast that day in PE. Coach G had had us lay down mats and he’d gotten out the mini trampolines. The kids loved them. They partnered up and had to do routines to mostly Kids Bop songs that I played over the speakers, changing songs every few minutes.

In the smaller classes, Coach G told Ryker and me to team up while he manned the music and Ryker had me dying at some of the moves he made. When “Hotline Bling” came on I thought I was going to pee my pants I was laughing so hard. I mean, add Drake’s strange dance moves to a mini trampoline and it was hilarious. The coolest part was that Ryker seemed to love making me laugh, not even one bit afraid of making a fool out of himself which was surprising seeing how serious and intense he always was.

The kids loved it too, and it melted my heart watching all the little girls who were totally in love with him (how could they not be?) wanting to dance with him. He never turned them down either, pulling each one up on the trampoline with him and dancing with them. One of the best parts was that he also won over the younger boys when he Whipped and Nae Nae’d and I cried I was laughing so hard.

Right before lunch, the fifth graders were in class and just before the lunch bell, Ryker yelled out, “Sheridan!” He and I were being goofy on our trampoline since it was a small class, and I looked over to see the cute little redheaded girl nod and give him a thumbs up as she ran to her bag. Then she ran to Coach G and handed him a CD telling him which track to play. I looked at Ryker who smirked at me then waggled his eyebrows when “Time of My Life” from the
Dirty Dancing
soundtrack came on.

I shook my head. “Oh, no, we are not reenacting the lift scene,” I told him, backing away.

He hooked his finger at me just like Johnny did to Baby when she first went to the workers’ dorms in the movie and they were all dancing. Ugh.

“Go, Coach M! Go, Coach M!” the kids were chanting and I smiled, apologetically shaking my head at them.

“Don’t tell me you’re scared,” Ryker taunted. He looked at the kids. “I think Coach M is scared!”

I rolled my eyes but of course the competitor in me hated to lose, so glaring at him, I stated, “You’d better catch me.”

“Always,” he said with a grin then stepped past the trampoline nodding at it to let me know I was supposed to jump on it then into his arms. Yeesh.

“Fuck,” I murmured to myself then blowing out a breath and shaking out my hands, I geared up to do the stupid lift.

The kids were still chanting when I looked at Ryker who nodded for me to go. After wiping my hands on the fronts of my thighs, I took off in a run, hit the trampoline, bounced into the air and right into his strong hands.

“I did it!” I screamed, throwing my arms out what I thought was gracefully which caused him to get off balance and we fell, me landing on top of him in a heap.

The kids were yelling and clapping but promptly ran to the door and out when the bell rang for lunch, leaving us where we were.

“Nice catch,” I said, pulling back to look down at Ryker.

“Nice jump. Until it wasn’t,” he said and we cracked up.

“Getting lunch,” Coach G grumbled and left the gym.

Ryker turned us to where he was on top of me and kissed me long and hard then hopped up holding his hand out to help me up.

“I’d say some cheesy parting line, like, I’ve had the time of my life, or nobody puts Frankie in a corner, but then you’d think I was even more awesome than you already do and I just can’t risk it,” he said holding my hand as we walked to Coach G’s office so he could get his wallet and hoodie.

Inside the office, I snorted. “Riiiight. That might make me fall even more in lo—”

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I felt my face flush and I became very interested in the calendar that was on Coach’s desk.

“Francesca,” Ryker called but I wouldn’t look at him, having become infatuated with seeing if there was an “I’m an idiot” day. He called my name again after getting his hoodie on and I finally raised my eyes only to see amusement in his. “If I didn’t think we’d get caught, I’d fuck you right here on the desk. Maybe against the door. We can do both tonight at my place, though.” He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a scorching kiss before he left.

Damn.

~*~*~*~

Pressed against Ryker’s bedroom door, my fingers digging into his shoulders while one of his hands held my bottom and the other was between us rubbing circles against me, I cried out his name as my climax hit me.

“God, your pussy is so greedy for me, isn’t it, baby? Clamping onto my cock like it’s not gonna let go,” he mumbled in my ear. Then he moved us away from the door and putting both hands underneath me, lifted me then slammed me down onto his hard cock, doing this over and over. “Fuck me,” he groaned, closing his eyes as he kept the movement going. I knew he was close when he slowed his thrusts but deepened them at the same time. “So fuckin’ tight. Jesus fuck!” he growled driving me down hard on him as he came.

But then he stumbled and sat down on the edge of his bed saying he was dizzy, wrapping his arms tightly around me and burying his face in my neck, breathing hard.

“You okay?” I asked worriedly after he’d finally caught his breath.

He pulled back and looked at me smoothing my perspiration dampened hair off my forehead. “Yeah. I’m good. Just never came that hard before.”

I cupped his face with my hands and kissed him. God. I so totally loved this man.

When the kiss ended, he gently lifted me off him and laid me in the bed, covering me up. “Be back.”

  When he came back to bed, he gathered me in his arms to face him. “I’ve got a match here this Thursday night. Will you come?”

A thrill ran through me that he wanted me to watch him. “Of course,” I said, gliding my fingers over his cheekbone. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

He turned his head and kissed my palm. “Good.”

~*~*~*~

The next two days in PE were just as fun as Monday. I’d never seen this side of Ryker and I was loving that he was letting loose and having fun. We’d played tag on Tuesday then gotten the parachute out on Wednesday.

Thursday he wasn’t there because of the match. His coach wanted him to watch film then they had a team lunch before they had weigh-ins or whatever routine they did before a match.

That night I was nervous because we’d texted Wednesday night after my class and he’d told me his opponent hadn’t lost all season. Of course Ryker hadn’t sounded like he was worried but I was. I’d been an athlete my entire life and I knew how things worked. The superstitions, the routines, all that stuff that every athlete counted on before each event. When I’d played, I’d had my own little rituals and superstitions, like eating pasta primavera before games so the complex carbs would help sustain my energy and the olive oil worked as an anti-inflammatory. I also never wore an outfit on game day again if I didn’t play well when I’d worn it before. Sharee and I had this stupid secret handshake that we did in the locker room before every game which we knew helped us play better. And the entire team had to touch a banner that hung over the locker room door on our way out to the floor or we knew we wouldn’t win. Athletes are just weird that way.

That’s why I was worried.

What if Ryker didn’t do well and he blamed it on my being there to watch. Hey, I’d felt the same when a certain friend would tell me they’d be at my game and if I didn’t play well or we lost, I secretly blamed my friend for being there and messing up the mojo.

So, yeah, I was nervous.

Sharee was coming with me but we drove our own cars in case she got bored, as she told me. We got to the gym and found our seats and I was immediately fascinated. Ryker wasn’t in the ring yet, in fact, I didn’t see him anywhere, but the two guys who were in the ring were grappling hard with each other. I was totally clueless about what was going on but I watched as the guy from Hallervan grabbed the other guy’s foot which made him twist and fall to his knees which caused the ref to hold up his hand and two points were put on the board for the Hallervan dude. Hm.

I looked at Sharee out of the corner of my eye and we both shrugged.

While I watched, I learned that wrestling was probably the hardest sport ever because these guys had to be in tremendous shape and not only have physical strength but mental strength as well. At one point, the Hallervan guy was down and the other guy had his leg all twisted around which made Sharee and I both cringe. I mean, ouch.

Halfway through the second period, Sharee nudged me with her elbow and pointed. Following her finger, I saw that Ryker was now on the floor behind the bench wearing a maroon Hallervan warmup suit and he had headgear on so I knew he was probably up next. I couldn’t keep my eyes off him as he jogged in place for a while then stretched his legs, first pulling one to his chest then the other. He threw in several more stretches jogging in between time then the horn blew on the clock and I realized the match I’d been watching was over. The ref held up the Hallervan guy’s hand, so he’d won but I didn’t know why. I’d been too busy watching Ryker.

There was a break while they cleaned the mat and a group of cheerleaders-slash-dancers dressed in short shorts and what looked like sports bras ran in front of the mat and lined up, heads bowed waiting for their music to start. “Call Me Maybe” started playing and the girls’ heads popped up and they started doing their moves. It was really cute and I was enjoying it until I noticed a gorgeous blonde girl with a killer body paying particular attention to Ryker. And he was watching her back!

Sharee elbowed me pointing out the now obvious, and we both watched as the girl did the phone thing with her fingers to her ear at the chorus and pointed at Ryker nodding with a smirk. I looked at him to see he was smirking right back.

What?

“Who is that?” I asked.

“I have no idea but I want her waistline.”

Yeah, she was totally built and beautiful and I’m sure Ryker had “hit that” at some point. I mean, duh. They’d been watching each other the whole time. Well, during the time that I was watching them watch each other.

When the song was over, the girls did that cheerleader wave thing to the crowd and skipped off the mat screaming, “Go Bulldogs!”

My eyes went back to Ryker and I watched as he came around the bench and pulled off his warmup pants and jacket then bent to check his shoelaces. My God he looked good, all ripped and muscular. Wow. His coach came up and talked to him for a moment before kind of smacking him on the side of the head. Um. Ryker went to the center circle on the mat shaking his legs out then his arms. His opponent joined him and then the ref was there. Ryker and the other guy were in a stance bending at the waist and shook hands just before the ref blew his whistle.

I’m not going to lie. I was about to pull my hair out throughout the entire thing. Right off the bat, Ryker grab the guy and threw him down and I stood up and yelled, “Yeah!” before realizing no one else had stood and I literally had no idea what was going on so I sat back down.

At the end of the first period, Ryker was ahead 1-0 which was good. The second period started and his opponent took the lead immediately, 2-1. I wished I’d known how the scoring worked or what the hell they were doing that was getting them points but I figured I’d learn as things progressed.

I didn’t.

By the third period I was confused as ever because although Ryker had picked the guy up a couple times and slammed him down, he’d gotten no points but the guy had when he’d gotten away from him. Weird. Then it happened the opposite way with the opponent kicking Ryker’s feet out from under him and taking him to the floor but Ryker got away from him somehow and was awarded two points.

Throughout there’d been a lot of standstill stuff with Ryker holding this guy down not letting him do anything and I wondered what the point of it was.  With fourteen seconds to go, they were tied 4-4 and I’d bitten two of my fingernails to the quick.

“Is it going to end in a tie? Do they have overtime?” I asked Sharee who responded with a shrug. God, we were pathetic.

At five seconds, they’d gone out of the ring and the ref blew his whistle but no score went up. They were still tied. Back in the ring they faced off and the ref blew his whistle then the five seconds went off the clock and the ref whistled again. The Hallervan crowd started cheering but I didn’t understand since it was a tie. But then the ref held up Ryker’s arm and when I looked at the score, he’d won 5-4. Um, okay. I heard the announcer saying something about riding time, so I guess he’d earned a point somehow.

Anyway, I stood and cheered with everyone else because it was awesome that my guy had won and I watched as he looked up and pointed two fingers at the ceiling but I wasn’t sure what that meant.

What wasn’t awesome was that I saw the little blonde run out to him and hug him around the neck quickly before disappearing again. What the hell was that?

“Well, that was fun,” Sharee announced sarcastically.

“Hey, you got to see hot guys in singlets. You should be happy.”

“Meh. I prefer football uniforms to this.”

I looked at her. “Have you been talking to Chance again?”