Page 52 of Deserving Ryleigh
She blinked at him, then gave him the sweetest smile he’d ever seen. She put her head back on his shoulder and squeezed him tightly. Tiny kissed her head and relaxed against the cushions. Ryleigh had snuck under his shields as easily as she slipped into top-secret databases. But he wasn’t sorry. He was tired of being suspicious of everyone and everything. He wanted what his friends had.
And he knew to the very marrow of his bones that Ryleigh was his chance. His chance to trust again. To love.
If Tiny thought Ryleigh would fall asleep halfway through the eighties movie, he was very wrong. She stayed awake and kept up a running commentary throughout. She rolled her eyes in disgust at the blatant discriminatory depictions of Asians, and how the supposed “hero” left a blind-drunk woman—one he was dating—in the hands of someone else, giving him carte blanche to have sex with her, even though she couldn’t consent.
But at the end, when Jake Ryan appeared at the church where Samantha’s sister got married and responded to her innocent, “Who me?” question with, “Yeah, you,” Tiny still heard Ryleigh sigh.
The kiss over the birthday cake at the very end was cheesy as hell, but he could see how it would appeal to teenagers…and apparently Ryleigh.
She looked up at him when it was over, but she didn’t speak.
“So?” he asked.
“So, what?”
“Does he look like me? That main dude?” Tiny asked.
Ryleigh studied him for a long moment before shrugging. “There’s some resemblance, but honestly, you’re much more…”
Tiny practically held his breath waiting for whatever she was going to say.
“Rugged. Less pretty-boy. More real.”
He let out his breath. He could live with all of that. “What do you want to watch next?Pretty in Pink?Say Anything?Breakfast Club?”
She giggled. “How aboutUnder Siege?”
Tiny groaned.
“What? It’s manly. And has Navy SEALs in it,” Ryleigh protested.
“It’s awful.”
She pouted. “I like it. I can picture you as the lead. Being all badass, blowing up microwaves, not shivering even though you’ve been locked in a freezer, caring about that poor low-ranking guy who was just trying to do his job, and vowing revenge when your friend the general was killed.”
“Commanding officer,” he corrected.
“Whatever.”
Tiny couldn’t help but like that she saw him that way. “Fine.”
This time, Ryleigh did fall asleep halfway through the film. Instead of waking her up and sending her to bed, Tiny switched positions on the couch, lying lengthwise with Ryleigh dead to the world on top of him. One hand rested on the small of her back, and the other was under his head, acting as a pillow of sorts.
This felt good.Amazinglygood. He hadn’t slept in the same bed…er, couch…with a woman since Sonja. Hadn’t been able to, mentally.
And yet with Ryleigh, he felt not one iota of doubt or trepidation. Even though she’d lied to him, even though he’d spent months trying to dislike her. It felt as if from the moment he’d met her over a year ago, they’d been working toward this point in time.
Was Tiny all of a sudden a different man? One who trusted everyone, and everything they said? No. Hell no. But he trusted this woman. She should be a complete mess, what with her background. Instead, she wascompassionate and kind. She went out of her way to help others in any way she could. Tiny understood it was an attempt to atone for what she saw as her sins, but as far as he was concerned, they weren’thersins. They were her shithead of a father’s.
She would no sooner stab him in the chest in the middle of the night than she would decide to go back to a life of crime at her father’s side.
No, if she was going to doanything, it would be to slink off quietly, disappear like a puff of smoke.
Tiny was completely safe from Ryleigh attempting to inflict violence on his person. But not from damaging his heart. He wasn’t safe from falling in love with her.
Shit.Love…
Yeah. He was a goner.
