Ryder's Bride (Brides Bay Book 1) Read online

  Dunn gave Meg a disgusted look before turning back to his nemesis, Middleton. “Look, we don’t need a lecture from you about Promise being private property. We know that. But people here have always been allowed access if we stick to the roads, the open lands, and Crystal Beach. As long as we respect people’s property rights, which we always have, we’ve been able to go where we want. And that’s only right, because we built this place—these towns. You people sure as hell didn’t.”

  Claire sighed, shaking her head. It made Ry wonder just how she’d ended up beside Dunn, when she clearly didn’t agree with his tactics.

  “Well, thank you for that history lesson. Now, are you going to remove yourselves and your trucks from this bridge or not?” Middleton waved her phone. “This is your last chance before I call the police.”

  Dunn snorted. “I’ll answer that after you answer this. Are you going to back off your stupid proposal and listen to reason?”

  Middleton started to stab numbers into her phone.

  “And what about you, hero? Are you with her? Some people in town think you’re okay.” Dunn pointedly looked at Claire. “But as far as I’m concerned, you’re as bad as the rest of that island bunch.”

  “Anson, why don’t you ever know when to shut up?” Claire asked.

  Ry admired her guts. The whole scene was nuts. Any minute now, deputies would show up, but Dunn and some of his gang were so riled up that they might not just give up and head off meekly. There was even a chance that things could get ugly.

  And Claire could get swept up in the mix, which was not acceptable to him on any level.

  He thought about how to handle it for a few moments, then mentally shrugged and said, “Okay, Dunn, I’ll answer your question. I agree a hundred percent with Claire.”

  Her eyes popped wide. “You do?”

  Middleton shot him a filthy look.

  “Look, everybody knows there’s a problem with privacy on the island,” Ry said. “And, yeah, something should be done about it. But putting up a gate to keep people out isn’t the answer, Mrs. Middleton. Do we really want to bar these folks from an island that’s been part of their heritage for generations? I don’t. I don’t want that any more than I would want them to stop me from coming into town whenever I felt like it. So, we need to find some kind of solution that works for everybody.”

  “You’re darn right!” Meg said, shooting him a grin. “Talking to each other is the only way to go.”

  A few others, including Tammy, started to look a bit relieved, but there were also a lot of disgruntled faces among the protesters.

  Claire stared at him, obviously stunned by his intervention. She must have expected him to side with the association. Then again, how could he blame her? He was the one who’d acted like a reclusive privacy nut.

  “Yes, we should talk, but the trouble is that nothing short of a gate is likely to work,” said a gray-haired guy who had moved to the island even more recently than Ry. “I don’t much like the idea either. What’s the alternative though?”

  “He’s absolutely right,” Middleton said frostily. “And I find it most unfortunate, Ry, that you’re having difficulty supporting your neighbors in such an important matter. However, I don’t suppose it makes a great deal of difference, since I doubt more than a handful of them will agree with your position.”

  She might well be right. Ry wasn’t even sure how his friends Derek and Jane would vote on the issue, if it came down to that.

  Middleton stood on her tiptoes to peer over Dunn’s shoulder. “Ah, I believe I see a cruiser coming around the bend now. My, my, isn’t that quite an impressive response time? That’s one good thing about living in a tiny place like this, don’t you agree?”

  Almost everyone turned to look as a Sheriff’s Office cruiser pulled up and Landon Pierce got out. Ten seconds later, another cruiser swept around the bend, its light bar flashing.

  “Anyone up for an arrest?” Middleton said haughtily.

  “Please give it a rest, Mrs. Middleton.” Ry ignored her scowl in response and looked at Claire. “What do you say, Claire? Time to call it a day?”

  She grabbed Dunn’s arm. “Anson, please. Let’s not put Landon and Owen in the position of possibly having to arrest their friends and neighbors. I think we’ve already made our point.”

  “Ah, well, on that note, Pam and me will be heading out,” Tammy said cheerfully. “We have to earn a living, so we sure can’t afford any jail time, now can we?” She gave Dunn and Claire a cheery wave, then winked at Ry. “Bye y’all.”

  “Okay, okay, we’ll go,” Dunn said in a sour voice. “But hear me when I say this, Mrs. Middleton. We’ll be back if you don’t come to your senses real soon. You can take that to the bank.”

  “And if necessary, we’ll get an injunction to prevent any recurrences of this nonsense,” Middleton shot back. “Enough is enough.”

  Ry wanted to grab the two of them and knock their heads together. Who needed this kind of crap? It looked like the protest might have done nothing but drive an even bigger wedge between the islanders and the townies.

  With Meg tugging at her arm, Claire looked Ry straight in the eye and mouthed the words thank you over the commotion of the dispersing crowd. Dunn turned as Landon Pierce tapped him on the shoulder, and the two big men strode off to the side of the bridge to talk.

  Ry took a couple of quick steps and reached out to grasp Claire’s hand. “Wait a minute, Claire, okay?”

  She nodded to Meg, who headed off toward a group of other protesters.

  “You don’t need to thank me. You did great, standing up to that hard-head Dunn and the others like that.”

  She grimaced. “They’re going to say it’s because I don’t want to lose business. That I’m being a coward. It’s awful, because I’m as much against a gate as they are. I just don’t think it’s right to threaten people or break the law. Tactics like blockades will just cause resentment and divide us even more.”

  He nodded. “My gut tells me your approach will probably get more support than Dunn’s in the end.”

  “I hope so.” Her mouth quirked up in a small smile. “It means a lot to me that you took a stand, Ry. Now that was brave. You’re not going to be a popular man on Promise from now on—Carling Middleton will see to that. She pretty much rules the roost over there.”

  “I know, but compared to Boston or Montreal hockey fans, Carling Middleton is a cream puff. Besides, I didn’t come to Brides Bay to play bridge and drink tea with my neighbors.”

  “Right, you came here to be left alone. So, was today part of your master plan to keep your neighbors out of your hair?” Her smile wobbled.

  Ry did want to be left alone, with one huge exception. He’d missed Claire like crazy since he drove her home yesterday. The house seemed empty without her. Even Stanley had been kind of mopey ever since she left, lonely without his favorite buddy to play with him and teach him new things.

  It was such a new and strange feeling that he was having a hard time sorting it out. Really missing somebody—feeling like everything was slightly off when that person wasn’t there—had never been in his DNA.

  Or so he’d always thought.

  “Maybe, but not keeping everybody away,” he said softly.

  Her brow wrinkled as she studied him. “Well, do you need to be alone now?”

  Ry took her hand. “Actually, I have this sudden need to take a long, close look at some good watercolors. Know where I could find some?”

  Her smile seemed like a burst of sunshine breaking through an early morning Maine fog. “Funny you should ask, because I happen to know just the place.”

  Chapter 20

  Claire had never had sex in this bed before. In fact, she’d never had sex anywhere in this apartment. Not once had she been tempted to bring a date home, much less invite him to take off his clothes. But as she slowly trailed two fingers down Ry’s broad, strong back, lazily making a pattern all the way to his muscular butt, she felt grateful th
at she’d gone with her instincts and hadn’t become seriously involved with a man until she was ready.

  Because, with Ry, it was like never before—it was something magical.

  Sex with him—just being with him—was amazing and a little bit crazy. Crazy in a very good way. Here she was, Miss Nobody from small town Maine, getting it on with a guy who everybody in the world would think was way above her pay grade. Ry was rich, famous, and ridiculously hot, not to mention multi-talented, ambitious, and smart. For someone like her to be with a man like him was the stuff of fairy tales. It was the product of a strange intersection of circumstances and decisions that had somehow landed them in each other’s paths.

  Actually, it seemed more like fate than random chance that had brought them together. And right now that was pretty much scaring the spit out of her.

  Fairy tales, as everyone knew, tended to end with a happily ever after—at least the ones she liked. Unfortunately, she still had a hard time seeing how her fantastical romance with Ryder Griffin could ever lead to a happy ending. Aside from the fact that he was a major risk taker, he was getting ready to knock down her beloved house to build a monster mansion. And after he did that, there was the very real possibility that he would sell that mansion and leave Brides Bay, putting small town life in his rear view mirror.

  And there would go any chance of her glass slipper ending.

  What the heck have you gotten yourself into, Claire?

  “I hope you realize that if you keep doing that, I might have to make you pay in some very interesting ways,” Ry said, his voice coming out in a lazy drawl.

  She’d thought he was dozing. “Do you promise? Cross your heart and hope to die?”

  He turned over and slid an arm under her shoulders, then kissed the top of her head. “I doubt this was how you intended to spend the rest of your day.”

  “I’m certainly not complaining. I’m sure you had other plans too.”

  “Yeah, funny what can happen on your way to get beer and dog food.”

  “Life happens.” She planted a long, soft kiss on the center of his chest and swore she could feel his heart speed up. “It’s fitting that we got a little compensation for that awful scene on the bridge.”

  He gave her a mock scowl. “Little? That’s not what you were saying a few minutes ago.”

  She hid her smile against his warm skin.

  “Anyway,” he added, “I figure it was our good karma for showing some common sense.”

  With a sigh, she rested her chin on his chest. “If only honest dialogue could solve the problem. But in this case I’m afraid somebody might have to blink.”

  “Carling Middleton doesn’t look like the blinking type to me. And you know how much she runs the show on the island. The rest of those guys were like her court jesters today.”

  “All of them but you.”

  “Well, no surprise there. I’m usually the odd man out. Always have been. That could go on my tombstone.”

  She heard the irony in his light tone. “You’ve never felt like you fit in, have you? Not even when you had thousands of fans cheering for you.”

  “It didn’t matter much when I was on the ice. Playing was all that mattered.”

  His calloused hand smoothed down her back and stroked over her bottom. It was shocking how easily his touch could wind her up.

  “You didn’t even feel close to your teammates?” she murmured. “No band of brothers stuff in the locker room?”

  After a few moments, his silence had her thinking she’d stuck her foot in her mouth again.

  “I’ve never thought much about it, to be honest,” he finally said. “I’m not even sure what that expression really means when it comes to sports. I know I sweated and fought for those guys, just like they did for me. And I liked most of them. But it wasn’t like we were hunkered down together in some foxhole, getting blasted to shit by Nazi artillery. We were just a bunch of guys who skated on the same team for a while before we got traded somewhere else or retired. Or were dumped.”

  She had to wonder if he’d ever felt truly close to another human being—other than his mom, who had died when he was so young. His father sounded like a monster, and his brief marriage had obviously been a dysfunctional nightmare. He probably wasn’t exaggerating when he said he wasn’t sure what it meant to be close to someone.

  Despite everything Ry had going for him, she couldn’t help wondering if he’d ever be happy. To find true and lasting happiness, not just moments of pleasure—like here in bed—or thrills when racing his motorcycle. By happiness she meant the bone-deep satisfaction with the state of your life, a contentment strong enough to weather even the roughest storms.

  Then again, she supposed the same might be said for her.

  * * *

  The woman might as well have danger stamped on her forehead. Ry doubted even her courageous decision to stand up to Anson Dunn and his gang was likely to diminish her status as Brides Bay’s number one sweetheart. Any guy who dared to screw her over, especially an outsider, would find himself in a world of hurt. Getting tossed off a lobster boat into the cold waters of the bay would be a definite possibility.

  Yet he’d made love to her for the third time today and the sun was barely down. The first time, they hadn’t even made it to her bedroom, stripping off each other’s clothes as they collapsed in a tangle of limbs on the sofa. The next time had been less frenzied, as they did it in bed, drinking wine and not talking much, both a little stunned by what was happening between them. Then he’d pulled on his clothes and picked up dinner at the Jade Palace down the street. They’d only taken half a dozen bites each when he came up behind her as she was uncorking a second bottle of wine and slid his hands under her shirt. Thirty seconds later, they were mostly naked again with her bent over the kitchen counter and him deep inside her. They’d finished that one in spectacular fashion on the sofa after Claire unexpectedly took charge of the play calling in mid-game.

  When she pushed him onto his back and warned him that he’d better not move until she gave him permission, he sure hadn’t expected a move like that. And, man, it had it turned his crank. Not that he’d been able to obey Mistress Claire for very long before he’d flipped her over and fucked them both into exhaustion.

  Now reality was rearing its nasty head, telling him he was being six times a goddamned fool. But he was learning to ignore reality. If he was stupid, then stupid had never felt so good. She was like the greatest dessert he’d ever eaten, awesome sweetness laced with some kind of crazily addictive drug.

  Claire stretched beside him, yawning. She’d dozed off for a few minutes, leaving his mind free to wander. When she rolled over onto her side and brushed a few strands of silky blond hair from her face, her sweet smile went straight to his groin. “Penny for your thoughts, big guy?”

  “With inflation, that old saying should be up to about a buck now,” he said, kissing the tip of her nose.

  In return, she flicked her tongue over his lips.

  Jesus. As if I needed any encouragement.

  “I’ll pay that and a lot more if those thoughts are as dirty as I think they are,” she murmured.

  Her sex-sated voice made him instantly hard again.

  “My thoughts are that somehow I’ve gotten myself in the clutches of an insatiable sex fiend.”

  She sighed. “It’s awful to be you, isn’t it?”

  “You have no idea.” He glanced at the bedside clock. “But right about now, some big furry guy must be super mad at me. I’d better deal with that right now.”

  When she bolted upright, the sheet slid off and exposed her gorgeous breasts. The pink tips were hard and just begging to be sucked.

  “Oh, right, poor Stanley hasn’t been fed yet! I’m sure he’ll be sitting at the front door thinking you’ve abandoned him. Believe me, I know that look.”

  “Yeah, he must be starving by now. I didn’t think a trip to the grocery store for beer would end up taking five hours.”

  �
�I’m sure he’ll forgive you the moment you set a full dish in front of him. But yes, you should go.” She made a little shooing motion.

  “Why don’t you come with me? Maybe even stay the night at my place?” Then he realized it might sound like he was some kind of sex fiend himself. Or like you’re really falling for her, dude. “Or maybe you’d rather not leave this nice, cozy bed.”

  Claire frowned slightly as she studied him. He had to resist the temptation to jump out of bed and start dressing, because he had the distinct impression she could read his mind. Not that it would be very difficult. It would just be messy, because he was pretty confused about what came next.

  There was hardly ever a next in his life, but it sure seemed like there might be with her.

  “Do you really want me to come and stay?” Her voice wasn’t flirty or teasing—or coaxing, for that matter. She was really asking if he was serious.

  She hadn’t offered him the option of returning to her place for the night after feeding Stanley. Fish or cut bait, buddy seemed to be the unspoken message.

  The fact that he didn’t want to leave her shocked the living hell out of him. He’d never had a problem leaving a woman’s bed before.

  It was time to go with his gut. “Of course I do. Totally.”

  She swung her legs out of bed. “Okay, then. But only because I’ve really been missing Stanley.”

  He stared at her until she disappeared into the bathroom and then started to laugh. He could barely keep up with Claire, and he was beginning to think that wasn’t all bad.

  * * *

  The Promise Island Bridge was dark and quiet as Ry’s truck rolled across the short span. Through her open window, Claire could hear the slap of small waves against the pilings and the soft whistle of the wind through the steel structure. The peaceful scene couldn’t have been more different from the tense confrontation that had taken place there this afternoon. She breathed deeply of the tangy ocean breeze and tried to relax.

  She should have been feeling a lot more laid-back than she was. In fact, all that sex should have made her virtually comatose. But the stupid lizard part of her brain had kicked into full preservation mode and kept shouting that she was going down a very dangerous path. That expecting anything serious from Ry was a fool’s errand.