Page 51 of Deserving Ryleigh
a real man like you and your buddies? fine i’ll do that, i’ll act in a way you can understand and appreciate. it’ll be fun to watch the sparks fly
A chill went down Tiny’s spine. He had no idea what Harold meant by that, but he knew it couldn’t be good.
tell my darling daughter to give my money back, all if it, and all this stops. if not we’ll see who wins in the end
Tiny began typing a response, but suddenly the entire screen went black. He lifted his fingers from the keys in surprise.
“What? What’s wrong?” Ryleigh asked urgently.
“I don’t know. Everything went black.”
Ryleigh cursed and took the laptop from Tiny. She breathed a sigh of relief when words began scrolling on thescreen once more. “He deleted the conversation. And I can’t trace him because he bounced his connection off too many towers. What’d he say?”
Tiny sighed. “He wants his money back. All of it.”
“I wouldn’t give him a penny if he was drowning and the money kept him from going under,” Ryleigh said fiercely.
“Come here,” he said, not giving her a chance to respond before he pulled her against his side. He buried his nose in her hair as he tried to get control over his emotions. He wasn’t surprised at how horrible her father was, she’d told him exactly what kind of man they were dealing with…and yet, he was still disturbed at how easily he’d talked about selling his own daughter.
To his relief, Ryleigh snuggled against him immediately. Her arms went around him and she pressed her cheek to his shoulder.
“Have you ever seen the movieSixteen Candles?” she asked out of the blue.
Tiny stifled a groan. “Let me guess, the girls told you about Jake Ryan.”
Ryleigh giggled, and the sound went straight to his dick. “Yeah, but I’d heard people say they think you look like him before today.”
“I do not,” Tiny insisted, although deep down, he had to agree there was a slight resemblance. On one hand, he couldn’t believe he was having this conversation, but on the other, he was more than glad he wasn’t trying to soothe Ryleigh after she was forced to read for herself all the shit her father had the nerve to say to her.
“Can we watch it?”
“Sixteen Candles?”
“No,Alienfourteen. Yes!Sixteen Candles.”
“If I can find it on one of the streaming apps.”
“Oh, it’s there. I already looked it up,” Ryleigh said. Tiny could hear the humor in her voice.
“Of course you did. What would you do if I’d said no?”
“Watch it with one of the girls. Maybe Reese, she seems to really love it.”
Tiny reached for the remote. “Nope, that’s not happening. We can watch it.”
Ryleigh giggled again. He liked her like this. Relaxed. Happy.
She told him which app the movie was on and within minutes, the opening credits were rolling. Ryleigh looked up at him. “Tiny?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry you had to talk to my dad. I’m sure it wasn’t fun. And he probably said some awful things. But I’m going to stop him. If it’s the last thing I do.”
“Weare going to stop him. And it won’t be the last thing. I won’t allow that. Not when we’re just getting started.”
“Started with what?”
“Us.”
