Free Ryder's Redemption (Badboy Rockers #2) by J.A. Templeton Page A

cool.”
    “I don’t mind,” I say, and bite my lip when she gives me a strange look.
    “Alrighty then. Well, I’m going to crash.”
    I jump up and stretch. “It’s been a long day.”
    Cole is watching me. He doesn’t want me to go.
    Kenzie is watching me, too.
    This is too awkward. “Good night, Cole,” I say as I start toward the room.
    “Wait, I’m getting a glass of water first.” Kenzie walks into the kitchen.
    “You sure you don’t want to watch a movie with me?” Cole asks, and I know the question is directed at me.
    “You can stay up,” Kenzie says while filling a glass with water.
    “No, I’m completely burned out. I’ll be asleep before my head hits the pillow.” I was such a liar. I’d probably toss and turn all night wondering what Cole was doing or thinking.
    I feel so strange. Where is the elation I should be experiencing right now? Why do I instead feel trepidation all of the sudden? Is it just because I’m all too aware of my inexperience and never really figured I would be in this position with the man I desired? Or is it because a certain dark-haired, blue-eyed rocker made me feel sensations when he’d been doing something as simple as braiding my hair that had me thinking that maybe I wasn’t quite sure what, or who, I wanted?

NINE
    Ryder
     
    I slide the pills into my pocket and hand the guy fifty bucks before I start back up the street toward Branded .
    I had told Deklan I was leaving to pick up some lunch for us, so I make sure I stop by a sandwich joint and grab a couple of subs before heading back to the shop.
    It’s only been twenty-four hours since I had taken the Vicodin, and I’m excited as I slip an Oxy into my mouth. I had slept like a rock last night and savored the full night’s sleep—something that hadn’t happened since I’d stopped using.
    I wouldn’t get carried away. I just needed a few days to catch up on sleep, I told myself, wondering if I should slip into the grocery store and pick up a razor blade to cut up the remaining pills. Snorting is so much more effective than swallowing. I decide against it. I can’t run the risk of Deklan finding a razor blade among my things, and knowing him, he’d find it.
    I suck on the pill for a minute and then crush it with my back teeth, using my tongue to dislodge the rest.
    Hopefully Deklan would continue to be preoccupied with his woman issues. Last night when he’d returned from taking Kenzie and Ange home, he’d gone straight to his room. I could hear him on the phone and could tell by the tone of his voice that the conversation had been intense. Well, at least for a while. Soon his mood changed from dark and brooding to laughing at everything she said.
    Even if things weren’t going well in paradise, I still needed to be careful and watch myself. I couldn’t afford to get sloppy.
    The boy watched everything, and he was watching me closely last night. I’d had to use a distraction and braid Ange’s hair. Trust me, I’d rather pull that hair than braid it, but I couldn’t resist after her smartass mouth. That girl could give as good as she gave.
    I wonder, and not for the first time, what she’d be like between the sheets.
    Speak of the devil , I think at the sight of Kenzie’s car parked in front of the shop.
    I walk into Branded and Ange is sitting on the Victorian fainting couch leafing through one of the many magazines that Phyllis has bought. She’s wearing a bikini top beneath a razorback black and white striped tank and surprisingly short black cotton shorts. It’s normally not Ange’s style to show off too much, but I like that she’s revealing more of those killer legs. Her body is tight and toned.
    “You getting a tattoo?” I ask.
    She looks up in surprise and shakes her head. “Not today.”
    Wow, no smartass quip?
    A hint of a smile tugs at her lips. It’s like the girl can read my mind.
    No Kenzie or Deklan in sight, which means they must have escaped to the break room, or what we