Hunter (King’s Men MC #1)

11. Ryleigh

11

RYLEIGH

My eyes sprang open to the blue twilight sky outside my window.

I woke up feeling…

Restless.

I didn’t know why that was, and I didn’t know how to make it go away.

It wasn’t unusual for me to wake up feeling tired.

I couldn’t even remember the last time I had woken up feeling refreshed, but this morning was entirely different.

Something was different, and I hoped it was nothing more than that I was still getting used to waking up in a new place, so far away from anything and everyone I was familiar with.

It was thoughts like this that made me doubt my decision to go against my parents and sign the lease for this place, but I knew those thoughts were just my mom talking.

I wiped away the weariness from my eyes and hopped out of bed, shivering slightly when my foot touched the cold hardwood floor .

Slowly, I moved to the bathroom and got ready for my day.

My reflection in the mirror surprised me.

There was something different about my eyes and some coloring to my cheeks.

What had changed since last night when I had gone to bed?

I kept my gaze on myself as I brushed my teeth, dark brown eyes entering uninvited into my mind.

Again, I shivered, but for an entirely different reason.

I hadn’t reacted to any man like this since…

Probably high school, when I had my first boyfriend.

That relationship didn’t last long, considering Rhett hadn’t wanted to stay in a relationship with the school’s outcast.

High school boys sucked, and I had hoped college boys would be better, but well…

They sucked too.

The man in the building looked much older than anyone I had ever been with. I estimated he was probably early to mid-thirties. An air of confidence surrounded him that had always been missing from all those boys in school.

He was handsome, in a very rugged—dangerous way.

I shouldn’t be attracted to dangerous men.

I had enough of that to last this lifetime, but there was just something different about him.

Something that made me want to get closer and closer until I could take a hint of his darkness for myself.

I quickly rinsed my mouth and looked back at my reflection.

Dark eyes and flushed cheeks.

I was turned on just thinking about the man. I wondered what would happen if he touched me.

I just might ignite .

Hell.

Taking a deep breath, I walked out to the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee.

One of the best parts about my job was that I didn’t have to go anywhere.

I had just been signed on with one of the fastest-growing publishing companies in the last decade.

OwlHead Inc. was predicted to rival the big five companies that had dominated the publishing world for so long, and I hoped to stay with them for a while.

Usually, they would sign authors and have them pick from a list of their in-house illustrators.

I was now one of them, and the more times authors picked me, the more projects I received, the more likely it would be that they would keep me on.

I could only cross my fingers on that because the last thing I wanted was to go to my parents and tell them I was no longer working at OwlHead Inc.

I took a seat on one of the three pieces of furniture I had in this apartment—aside from the stuff I had in my bedroom.

A small dining room table that seated two was placed on the small section in my apartment that was obviously meant to be a dining area.

I hoped I would feel better rested when I finally could get more furniture into this place that would feel like… me.

Something told me it would take more than furniture in my place to make me feel more rested at night.

I walked back into the building with the blazing sun heating behind me.

Sweat clung to the back of my neck, plus I was sleep deprived, which made for an already uncomfortable day .

It didn’t help that as I got through the revolving door, Angelica was opposite from me on the other door wing. Our eyes met through the glass before she turned away from me, pretending not to know I existed. My last interaction with her was before she and her friends slashed the tires on my car because I didn’t want to play chauffeur.

It was also the night I witnessed a murder, and I moved out of the apartment after that.

Every time after that I had seen her, she’d pretended not to know me.

Now, I was wondering what she was doing here.

The rent for this place wasn’t as expensive as some of the other places in Sacramento, but it wasn’t cheap either.

It was the only thing I splurged on because it was one of the few buildings that actually had good security.

And I was beginning to realize just how valuable my safety and sense of security really were.

I looked away from her. The man she had been with when I’d first seen her came to mind.

He looked like the kind of man who came from money.

Had she given up her goal of becoming Mrs. Kai Madden?

I still shivered involuntarily thinking about the son of the King’s Men MC president.

It would be too soon if I had never heard anything about that club in this lifetime.

I pulled up short when I ran into a man on my way to the elevator bay.

I gasped as my face plastered up against a firm chest and strong arms wrapped around me.

The first thought that came to mind was that this man smelled really good.

The second was… Can I just stay here… forever ?

A sense of calmness settled around me, throwing me off guard.

I took a step back and looked up… and up.

Jesus, but this man was tall.

I made out a large, hard chest, broad shoulders, a dark brown beard that covered the lower half of his face that didn’t hide the arrogant smile the man was sporting, and finally to the familiar brown eyes that had haunted my thoughts since the first time I’d seen them across the lobby a day before.

It was him.

The handsome man in my building.

“S-Sorry,” I stuttered out, my face flaming, for more reasons than the fact that I almost plowed over him.

Right… like someone like me could plow over a man of his mammoth size.

His smile widened, and there was something predatory about it.

I should turn away and run away from such a smile.

Instead, I found myself shifting forward slightly before I realized what I was doing and stopped.

“That’s all right, love. You can run into me any time you want.”

He winked, and I shouldn’t find that charming, but Lord helped me, I did.

I licked my suddenly dry lips, not knowing what to say.

He frowned and leaned in closer to me, making me feel light-headed.

Heat emanated from him, and though I had been hot with the summer sun just moments before, I didn’t find his body heat to be… unpleasant.

“Are you all right?”

I blinked up at him.

I had been right before. He easily towered over me .

He was possibly the biggest man I had ever met in my entire life.

“Miss?”

I gasped and pulled away. “Yeah,” I sputtered out. “I’m okay.”

If my face hadn’t already been red from before, it was now. I was such a loser. It was no wonder all of my “potential” boyfriends in college left with barely a word to me.

“Are you sure?” he asked, his eyes softening in kindness, though there was something off about it.

He was being kind to me now, but something told me this was not a kind man.

He was not someone I wanted to mess with, and not just because of his size or the fact that he really looked like he could handle himself in any situation, but that there was a sort of darkness that clung to him.

He looked like he had seen all sorts of bad shit in life, and my sense of self-preservation must have been lacking when it came to him because I had the sudden urge to give him a hug.

Slowly, he reached for me, holding out his hand and grabbed my elbow, leading me to the nearby seating area they had set up in the lobby.

I shouldn’t have let a strange man touch me so intimately or even let him lead me anywhere, but it was like I was experiencing an out-of-body trance. My mind screamed at me to get away from this man who looked like he could eat me for dinner and still have room left over. My heart told me to follow him as long as he kept touching me like this.

My heart was a stupid, useless organ.

It was also winning the argument.

He sat me on the sofa bench and sat next to me.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned .

I pulled back, finally getting out of this dazed state I was in, and I flushed in embarrassment.

“Sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night. I must be out of it. I didn’t mean to act like such a dork.”

He blinked before a small smile graced his lips. “I wouldn’t exactly call you a dork.”

“Yeah, and what would you call me?”

“Cute,” he answered without hesitation.

That was something you called your kid sister. Not something I wanted to be described as when it came to a man who looked like him. But I knew what I looked like, and this man was definitely out of my league.

“Right. I’m okay now,” I said, disappointment weighing me down.

I made a move to stand up when he placed a large hand on my knee to keep me still. I gasped, and he pulled away as if he thought he was scaring me, but that wasn’t why I reacted like that.

No, the gasp was because his touch burned .

And how badly I wanted him to set me aflame.

“Sorry,” he muttered, looking away as if the word was so foreign coming from his lips.

I shook my head. “It’s okay. You just surprised me, that’s all.”

“Not in a bad way, I hope?” he asked smoothly.

I shook my head shyly and looked down in front of me at our feet. His feet were twice the size of my own, and I suddenly thought of the old adage, Big feet, big…

I blushed.

I knew that was a myth, but judging by his huge size, well, I would be surprised if that wasn’t the case.

And now I was thinking about a stranger’s penis.

How terrible .

“I would love to know the thought that’s making you blush like that,” he said softly beside me.

My eyes sprang to his, afraid that perhaps he had developed superpowers and could actually read my mind.

I hoped my face didn’t give me away.

But then he laughed, and I wasn’t sure.

I cleared my throat. “Right, um, thanks for checking up on me. I should probably… uh, head on up to my apartment.”

“Is that an invitation, little one?”

I must look like a fish out of the water, just staring at him with wide eyes and my mouth agape.

He laughed once more, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

I did not want to be made fun of by someone who looked like him, especially when I just had impure thoughts about the man. I looked away from him and was about to walk off when he moved his hand to my shoulder.

This time, I didn’t show any outward reaction.

“Ah, I’m sorry. You are just refreshingly adorable. I had no idea.”

I frowned. What did he mean by that? That he was imagining the kind of person I was just after meeting my eyes from across the room the day before?

He stood up and faced me, something unreadable crossing over his dark eyes.

Before I could ask him, he spoke. “What’s your name?”

I shouldn’t be giving my name out to strangers, but if I gave him mine, he would give me his, right?

“Uh, Ryleigh.”

“Ryleigh,” he said as if testing it out.

I loved the way my name sounded on his tongue. It sent a shiver of pleasure up and down my spine. I cocked my head to the side, waiting for him to tell me his, and his arrogant smile was back .

“My name’s Xavier,” he said softly, holding out his hand to me.

I grabbed it and let him pull me up. He didn’t let go of my hand as I expected. He gave it a decisive squeeze that I felt down my stomach and further still.

I resisted the urge to squirm.

Xavier.

I tried to match the name to his face, and though it was a strong name—a good name—there was something off about it.

I didn’t think he would lie to me about his name, but I didn’t see him as a Xavier.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ryleigh.”

“You, too,” I said softly.

I pulled away first, even when everything in me said not to.

It was such a strange reaction to this stranger.

I shouldn’t want to be close to him.

Yet I did.

I wanted to crawl inside of him and let him protect me from all that was bad in this world. Surely, he was capable, considering all the muscle I could see outlined through his tight, long-sleeved black shirt.

I swallowed, and his eyes seemed to glow as if he knew what I was thinking.

“I better go,” I said.

He nodded. “See you around, Ryleigh.”

I turned and made my way to the elevator bay in a daze. It wasn’t until I pressed a button that I realized I didn’t answer him, but when I turned around, the man was gone.

I might have thought I imagined the whole thing had my hand not tingled from when he grasped a hold of it before.

That man was trouble.

I knew it .

But I badly wanted to be entrenched in his brand of trouble.

And that was such a bad thing.

The elevator doors opened, and I walked in.

“Wait, hold the door.”

For a brief moment, I thought it was Xavier coming back, and my heart skipped a beat in excitement. But the voice was all wrong. It was not as deep and smooth as caramel—plus, it didn’t send goosebumps up and down my body.

A hand shot out just as the doors were about to close, and the handsome man that had been flirting with the woman on my floor got on.

I smiled a little at him and moved off to the corner as he got in, sneaking in a small glance.

The man was conventionally attractive.

With brown hair and dark tan skin, he was the kind of man who only made an impression after the second or third meeting.

Unlike Xavier.

Who I really shouldn’t be comparing to a stranger.

His brown eyes moved to me, and I quickly looked away just as he pressed the button to the floor above mine.

We stood in silence as the elevator ascended, and I shifted around in awkwardness until, finally, the doors opened to my floor.

I quickly got out without looking back, moving to my apartment door and going in. Afterward, I leaned back against the door and thought of dark brown eyes that I was sure would fuel my fantasies for days to come… until I saw him again.

Hopefully, soon.