Amour éternel

chapter 4

Ryder tried several times to convince Anaïs that it would be best if he stayed in a hotel but she wouldn’t listen. She said it was too expensive and just plain silly for him to stay at a hotel when she had a perfectly good guest room. Ryder knew it was a bad idea to stay with her but he decided to let her discover that on her own; eventually she would see that it was a mistake. It was late evening when they got to the apartment and Ryder decided that he wanted a shower more than anything; he could unpack afterwards. He hadn’t expected the jet lag to affect him this much; it wasn’t the first time he had traveled across time zones. 

Still, the second he got in the shower, the overwhelming sense of fatigue diminished to a bearable drowsiness. The hot water pounded against his tired shoulders and alleviated pain he hadn’t been aware of till that very moment. He leaned against the wall as the water washed all the soap away from his body and closed his eyes. Ryder knew the worst thing he could do was fall asleep now; it would completely ruin his sleep schedule and alter his internal clock. He would simply have to suffer through the lethargy till it was late enough for him to go to bed. 

****

Anaïs remembered too late that she hadn’t stocked the guest bathroom with towels. She hadn’t been expecting anyone, after all. She knew she would have to give him one; she couldn’t very well leave him to air dry. However, the guest bathroom had a glass shower with no curtain and there was absolutely no way she could sneak in, leave a towel, and go out unnoticed. In fact, it was pretty much impossible. Anaïs knew she would either have to knock or wait for him to call out to her; surely if he found himself without a towel he would call for one right? Anaïs couldn’t be sure so she grabbed a towel from the hall closet and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She knocked once, twice, but didn’t get an answer. She tried knocking harder but that didn’t work either; The shower was too loud.

After an agonizing 10 minutes of indecision and seeing no other alternative, Anaïs decided she would just have to go in. She was so caught up in her own thoughts she didn’t notice that the shower had cut off. She opened the door, thinking she would run in, excuse herself, and drop the towel on the sink, all with her eyes on the ground, but instead slammed against a hard, wet, chest. She dropped the towel as she reached up to push away from Ryder, but he grabbed onto her elbows and held her in place. 

“Whoa, where’s the fire?” he teased, slightly amused by the shock he saw on her face.

Anaïs involuntarily looked down his body and gasped when she saw that he was entirely nude.

Of course he is, her logical side thought, he just got out of the shower. 

But he’s so big, her muddled mind whined, and he’s still wet.

As her body and mind struggled to make some sense out of the situation, her eyes remained focused on the vicinity below his waist. She gulped several times as she tried to speak but all that came out was a measly little sigh. 

What the hell was wrong with her? 

“Anaïs? I know this is usually something women say to men, but my face is up here,” Ryder chuckled good-humouredly. 

He loved the way her cheeks fired up and the way she closed her eyes tight instead of simply looking up. He knew she didn’t want to meet his eyes but it only compelled him to want to tease her more. 

“Were you bringing me a towel darling?” he asked, trying very hard to sound serious when he wanted so badly to grin. 

“Uh, I, yeah, um-”

“Are you okay?”

“Uh-”

Ryder slipped his arm around her waist, pinning her against him, as he lifted her face to look at him. He found it endearing that she still kept her eyes closed. 

“You know, when I talk to someone, I usually look at them,” he murmured, his thumb running slowly over her bottom lip. 

He loved the way her lips opened at his touch and he was dangerously close to kissing her when she finally opened her eyes. Ryder saw embarrassment in them, as well as pride which made her all the more appealing. A woman who faced judgment with pride was certainly strong-willed and therefore a challenge. He didn’t like easy; Ryder enjoyed the chase as much as he enjoyed the catch. 

Suddenly, the idea of seducing her became all the more interesting. He had planned to keep his distance but he no longer saw any reason to. He could have her in his bed, all hot and bothered and eager to find release, within a week; he was sure of it. 

****

Anaïs saw the way his grin turned mischievous and knew in what direction Ryder’s thoughts had gone. Being in the arms of a naked, wet, sex-god was giving her heart palpitations. She wouldn’t be thinking rationally anymore if she stayed where she was and she couldn’t trust her body to behave if her mind wasn’t thinking straight. If she wanted to keep things platonic between them, she would need to put some literal distance between them right now. 

“Ryder I-”

“I had forgotten how well you fit in my arms,” Ryder interrupted.

Anaïs nearly sighed. Why must he say all the right things at the wrong time? She thought. Anaïs couldn’t help that she found him attractive, that had little to do with her mind, but she could control herself. It wasn’t as if Ryder had some power over her; he was one sexy man but she had resisted many of them before. She could resist him too. This was just a small hurdle she needed to cross. There would probably be many more this coming week. In fact, she was sure there would be. Living with Ryder was going to be a test of her self-control. Her libido may be going completely crazy in his arms, but her mind would be the victor in this battle. Anaïs decided then and there that she wouldn’t sleep with him, for however long he was living under her roof that is, and that she would make it a challenge for him as well. Simply staying away from him was no fun; she planned to tease him, tempt him, and utterly enthrall him so he was as damn horny as she was. After all, it wasn’t fair that she was the only one feeling this way.