Lost In Love | ✔️

15

~Clementine's POV~

When I woke up the next morning, Ryder wasn't in bed beside me like he usually was when I woke up. I frowned to myself as I rubbed my tired eyes and sluggishly sat up, glancing at his empty side of the bed like he'd suddenly just appear beside me. Obviously, he didn't.

I groaned as I slid out of his warm, comfy bed and felt the cool air against my bare thighs. It was clear to me when I looked up that he wasn't in the bathroom because the door was wide open and the light was off. Maybe he had gotten a head start on making breakfast, I assumed. Not wanting to fret over it, I went ahead and picked out some clothes before I took a shower. When I got out, I pulled on a long pistachio green and brown colored wrap skirt that felt nice and silky against my legs. Wearing a bra seemed pointless to me so I simply went without a bra, barely managing to squeeze my breasts into the one strapped green crop top. It might as well have been a bra in itself because of how small it was, but I didn't care.

After I was dressed I left the bedroom and headed downstairs, making an immediate beeline for the kitchen with the assumption that he was there. However, it was empty when I reached it, and there was no food in sight. I frowned, my brows furrowing in confusion as I glanced into the living room, which was also empty.

Since it wasn't like he could just have disappeared, I assumed he must've been outside somewhere, so I left the house and began wandering around in search of him. I didn't like being alone in such a large house. Something about it just made me feel lonely, even more so when I knew that he was what was missing from it.

For a while I just absentmindedly walked around the island, eventually ending up at the shore that he and I often went to when the sun was setting. It had become somewhat of a ritual for him and I to go watch the sun set on the shore of the island, of which he had lately spent most of the time trying to make out with me or touch me. Usually it ended with him getting his way or me just laughing and pushing him away, though the latter happening was definitely more rare than the former. I almost never refused a kiss from him, or really any sort of affection, at that.

To my surprise, I found that Ryder was out on the beach, which surprised me for exactly two reasons. Firstly, I had almost never seen him out here this early in the morning—as it was only ten AM—and secondly, because he was fucking shirtless and working out in the sand. My mouth hung open slightly as I watched him from just beneath the shade of the trees, unable to stop myself from checking him out when he looked so damn good.

Ryder's muscular torso flexed with each sit up that he did, his skin coated in a thin sheen of sweat that glistened on his body. I found myself biting on the inside of my cheek as I looked at him, ogling the way his muscles tightened, flexing attractively beneath his skin. As weird and perverted as it sounded, I wanted to kiss all over his bare skin, to lick over the skin of his abs and feel the ridges of each muscle. I must be some kind of mega pervert, I thought. Still, I just stood there regardless, eyeing the flexing muscles in his body and the way his hair flopped back when he finally laid flat on his back after a few minutes, heavy breaths escaping his lips.

"I know that you're there, watching me, Clementine." He breathed out after a moment, causing me to purse my lips to hide a smile. I hadn't made a sound, hell I hadn't even moved since I had gotten here, and he hadn't looked back at all. It was unknown to me how he knew I was here. "I don't know what on earth you're talking about." I said softly, leaning against the tree I was standing beneath.

He sat up a few seconds later, still breathing heavily from his workout, but he didn't look back at me. Instead, he just stared out at the ocean. "Come here, baby." He insisted, not really acknowledging what I had said. I didn't move for a while, just staring at his broad shoulders before I walked over, hesitantly sitting down beside him in the sand. "I didn't know you'd be out here this morning." I mentioned after a few moments, breaking the comfortable silence that was between us.

With a quick move he turned his head to glance over at me, a small smile on his full lips. "And I didn't know you'd be checking me out, you little vixen." He teased, but I felt my face burn regardless, embarrassed that he had evidently caught me peeping at him. "How did you know I was watching you?" I asked, furrowing my brows together curiously.

A sly smile formed on Ryder's unbelievably sexy face as he looked at me, sweat trailing down between the ridges of his abs. "Because I could feel you looking at me." He chuckled, a genuine look on his face. "When you're checking me out, I can just...I can feel the tension, somehow, if that even makes any sense. It's like I know you're here." He explained, and if I wasn't mistaken, I was pretty sure I had seen his cheeks turn a light shade of pink that I had almost never seen before. It was so fucking cute that I just stared for at minute at the color, practically star struck. Nobody was ever going to be as attractive to me as he was, and of that I was absolutely certain.

"What are you doing working out here, anyways?" I asked him, biting on the inside of my cheek as I stared up at the side of his face, watching his expressions. He glanced down at me at first and a small smile was on his beyond attractive face, likely assessing the emotion that was on my features. "Why, did you want to watch?" He teased, a grin forming on his lips as he looked at me.

I scowled and huffed despite the warmth that I felt spreading up my neck and into my face at his words, which were very correct, not that I'd ever let him know that. "No!" I grunted, clenching my jaw as he leaned back onto his palms beside me, which I noticed out of the corner of my eye caused his abs to tighten in a way that made my core ache. There was something about that I just found so arousing, and I hated it. "You're such a fucking dirty trickster." I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest. "Yeah, am I?" He hummed, a teasing smile on his lips. It was as if he knew something that I didn't. It was only when he gripped my chin and tilted my head up towards his that I realized that this was actually exactly the case here. He was the one in charge and he knew it. Of course, he loved that sort of thing.

I managed to pull my face free and gently swatted his arm, which just caused him to frown and glance down at me with a furrow in his brows. "I work out all the time, by the way. Of course I'm going to be here." He said to me suddenly. "A man as sexy as me has to stay ripped." He teased, laughing to himself when I just snorted, casting him an exasperated glare. He wasn't wrong, though. It wasn't like those muscles were so perfect from him doing nothing all day, every day. "I just didn't know where you were when I woke up." I explained, frowning as I glanced down at the sand. "I was a little bit worried." I confessed quietly.

Ryder gently turned my face up to look at him, placing a soft kiss on my lips. "You never need to worry." He murmured, now completely serious. "But I'm flattered that you care about me enough to."