When a Girl Likes a Boy

The Reason I Shouldn’t be With Him #2: He’s Got Money to Burn

Women have a way of sniffing out men made of gold – especially good-looking women. The kind of women that aren’t above whoring themselves out to ensure a cushy future. Those women are extremely upfront because they know what they want and they know that a lot of guys think with their dicks sometimes.

Like Ryan.

He sits at a booth and is more than happy to let a girl that looks no older than me hit on him. She has black hair that is teased and fluffed so it adds about an inch to her height, and sun-kissed tanned skin that stands out drastically against the white t-shirt she’s wearing. Her French manicured fingers delicately trace the seam of the dress-shirt Ryan’s wearing, and it seems to hold his attention for the most part.

My eyes narrow threateningly as I forcefully sip my liqueur through the tiny straw in the cold and slick glass. My nostrils flare dangerously and I bite down on the straw as I watch the woman. The music in the club is loud – but not distracting – and I can only imagine what she’s whispering to Ryan as she starts kissing his neck.

And he’s letting her.

You could be everything to me, Lauren, don’t ever doubt the way I feel about you.

The way he feels about me? I must be fucking replaceable if this is what he does if he quote “feels everything for me”.

I slam my glass down on the counter behind me with a lot of force. The woman leans into Ryan again, and I clench my jaw. I’m standing from my bar stool before I can convince myself to walk away, but before I can march up to Ryan and his whore and bitch slap her into next week, she gets up with her clutch. She’s going to the washroom.

I decide that this is my moment, and I weave through the tall crowd to where I hoped Ryan still was. On my short trek over, I have to mentally calm myself down so that my temper doesn’t show on my face. Because I wasn’t jealous.

Ryan’s looking after his whore when I slide into the booth and right onto his lap. His body tenses, his head turning slowly, until his eyes land on my chest. “I’d know those breasts anywhere,” he says, reaching for them, “although they look different when they’re –” I smack his hand away roughly just as his fingertips graze the top of my breast. The last time he got to cop my feels it was during sex, and as I’ve repeatedly let people know, the worst mistake of my life.

I sigh and push his head away as he attempts to lay it on my chest. “I’m doing this for your own good, Miller. Some people just have no class,” I say, looking over the crowd to see if his woman from before was finished. No luck.

I look down at Ryan as his left arm drops down from the back of the booth and winds around my back so he can rest it on my leg furthest from him – and coincidentally keep me on his lap. “These people that have no class – are they the same people that have no boundaries?”

I narrow my eyes down at him. “If that was directed at me, I’ll have you know that I have way more boundaries than you do.”

Ryan hums his agreement, but I can tell it’s sarcastic. I blindly swat at his left hand that has started smoothly grazing the skin of my exposed thigh. I didn’t need him to know that such a simple action is driving me up the wall.

“You’re so predictable, Lauren,” he tells me and presses a kiss to my exposed collarbone. My skin immediately heats up at the contact. “Let someone hit on me, and you come running…” He trails off as he brings his gaze up to meet mine.

I jut my chin out petulantly. “You’re such a dick!”

“Excuse me!” A female voice interrupts my thoughts and I have to break my staring contest with Ryan.

Before I can actually commit her image to memory, I bark out a, “you’re excused,” and then I turn back to Ryan.

“You hit on other women for my benefit?”

“Um, who the hell are you?” I’m already pissed off at Ryan after his little admission, and I really don’t need this chick pretending like I’m encroaching on her territory.

I turn to face her, and her face immediately clicks in my head. It’s the chick from before – the whorish one with the porn-star mouth and hair. “Look: you aren’t going home with him tonight, so sink your cougar claws into someone else’s boyfriend.”

If she heard my boyfriend comment, she showed no signs. Instead she sinks her claws into the cougar comment. “Cougar?” She repeats shrilly, “I’m twenty-one!”

I turn to Ryan with a serious look on my face. As he looks up at me, his dark hair falls away from his face. His eyes are dark and completely clear – he clearly hasn’t been drinking as much as I have. He pushes a loose blonde curl over my shoulder, leans in, and kisses the side of my neck. I can feel my brain turning to mush as he also starts to softly stroke my thigh with his thumb as he kisses his way down my neck.

Even though the girl gets the hint and leaves, this intimacy between him and I probably isn’t a good idea.
…
The hotel room is big enough to fit a small city, but that isn’t what I’m focused on. “Ryan, this champagne is five hundred dollars!” I tell him, taking the bottle out of the ice bucket by the neck and turning it in my hands. Ryan plucks the bottle out of my hands and studies it. “Don’t open it!” I gasp as I see his hands going for the seal around the top.

“Why not?” He asks. I feel my body convulse lightly as I imagine him pealing the seal off the top.

“Because you’ll have to pay for it!” I say it as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world, at the same time I make a grab for it. However, Ryan’s quick reflexes allow him to simply twist at the waist and hold the bottle higher.

“It’s only five hundred dollars,” he informs me.

I let out an ear-piercing shriek as Ryan tears the seal off the top. But maybe if he didn’t uncork it, I could pretend like the bottle was tampered with before we got in here. “Ryan!” I say, moving around so I’m standing under his extended arms.

“Yes?”

“Give me the bottle.”

A slow smirk slithers across his face, but he doesn’t lower his arm. “Or else?” he taunts lightly.

“Or else,” I confirm seriously.

A beat of silence passes between us before he opens his mouth. “Make me.”

My eyebrows sink lower over my eyes as his challenge becomes ingrained in my brain. “Ryan Miller!” I warn before I pounce on him and tackle him onto the bed. “Don’t uncork that!”

Despite hovering over him, he still holds the bottle of champagne over his head. The position reminds me a lot of a little S&M. Just as I get lost in his deep brown eyes, I hear the sound of a bottle being uncorked. My eyes dart up just in time to have the pale yellow liquid come spraying in my face. I splutter and try to push the liquid away. However, the bottle is already on empty before I can inhale enough oxygen to yell at him.

When I open my eyes, Ryan’s smiling up at me like he knows a secret. “You’re such an ass!” I yell.

He’s completely unruffled below me. “Shit Lauren, I had no idea that was going to happen.”

Bullshit he didn’t. I tell him this, and he just cracks a disarming smile. “You get so cute when you’re angry, you know that?”

I huff as I stand up. The fermented smell of champagne invades my nose, and I feel warm and sticky. In a completely bad way, of course. I turn away from him, prepared to go wash myself off, when I hear the bed shift from under Ryan as he stands up. “Here.”

I think, briefly, that he’s about to offer me some kind of help since he’s doused me in champagne, but it’s a naïve thought since when I turn to face him he squirts chocolate sauce all over me. I scream again, this time out of pure indignation. I feel my temper flaring uncontrollably. “Is this your idea of foreplay?”

Ryan’s got his gaze on the cart of room service that had already been in the room by the time we’d gotten here. The second I’d seen it, I’d wondered how much of this night he’d actually planned. He looks so smug as he delicately places the chocolate sauce back on the cart. He picks up a plump strawberry, and, turning to face me, holds it up so we can both see it.

I get defensive with him as he steps towards me. “Strawberries and chocolate sauce? Are you serious, Miller?” I put my hands on my hips and stare him down.

He stops in front of me, and softly swipes the strawberry down my cheek. The chocolate sauce engulfs the strawberry, until he sticks it in his mouth. I wonder, briefly, if those strawberries had been washed.

But that thought is forgotten moments later when he plucks the top out of his mouth and replaces it with my mouth. I can taste the sweetness of the strawberry on his tongue, as it darts into my mouth.

He pulls away a second later and looks at me. “Osgoode,” he says, “when it comes to you I’m very serious.”

I tell myself it’s the alcohol that makes me believe him. And maybe, if I repeat it enough times, it’ll actually be true.
…
The sun is high in the sky, and I can feel my skin soaking up the sun like a hooker soaking up crack. I’ve got sunglasses perched high on my nose to block my eyes from the intense sun, as I sip at my water through a bendy straw.

“I just don’t get it, Lauren.”

I roll my head to the left, not really wanting to lift my head from my lounge chair, and glance at Ella. She too is wearing sunglasses, so I’m not one hundred percent sure where she’s looking. “Don’t get what?” I ask calmly, even though part of me already knows.

“Why you and Ryan aren’t together yet.”

At that moment, I hear a splash of water, and a small tidal wave laps at Ella and I’s feet. I’m forced, by my own curiosity, to look at the pool. Ryan’s just leapt in, and as I find his form in the pool, he swings his head to one side to clear his dark hair from his eyes. His back is to me, and as he stands up in the shallow end, I catch a glimpse of his lean back, carved with muscle. It wasn’t something I hadn’t seen before, because I’m going to face it: after last night I’d seen it twice. And I’d also seen his naked chest, muscular but not bulky, that gave way to narrow but sturdy hips.

And oh those hips.

My cheeks grow warm, and I know with the utmost certainty that it has nothing to do with the sun. Ryan turns to face in my direction, and my eyes are drawn to his hipbones, which peak out over the waistband of his swim trunks.

It’s like watching slow motion porn on mute, the way he flips his dripping hair back over his head. I glare at him, which he doesn’t see, and then I turn my attention back to Ella.

“The keys are in my purse,” she mumbles quietly to the guy that’s bent over with his head near her face. His name is Alex, and he’s a friend of Ryan’s from the University of Michigan. It was actually due to him that I had met Ryan, not Ella like I liked to pretend.

He smiles at her, kisses her cheek, and stands up. Alex is an attractive man with honey blonde hair and meadow green eyes. The only way I can describe him is a sexy puppy. After mumbling a thanks to her, he weaves out and in front of the chair. As he passes me, he gives me a head nod. I acknowledge him with a smile and my own head nod. “Ryan says stop staring,” he says mysteriously after he’s far enough away that I can’t kick him in the back of the knee.

“Tell him he can bite me!” I yell loudly, defensive in the way that Ryan sometimes just knows.

A dark shadow looms in front of me, and just as I’m in the process of looking over, I hear his voice. “I mean I know you have a hard time admitting you want me, but I never pegged you for the type of girl that was into all that S&M stuff.”

“Oh bite me, Miller.” I know it’s a little uncalled for, but he’s standing in front of me in nothing but swimming trunks – which, I have to say are sticking in certain places – and dripping wet. He gleams in the sun like he gleams in the fluorescent lighting of the hotel room while we’re –

He interrupts my thoughts when he sits down on my lounge chair and attempts to scoot up towards me. I stop him with my foot, which I place on his lower back. “You’re wet,” I tell him, and push gently on his back, “stay down there.”

He twists his torso and gives me a smile that, had I been standing, would’ve made my knees buckle. “Now where have I heard that before?”

I push my toes into his back forcefully, as if telling him not to speak. Clearly he doesn’t get my hint, because he leans towards me and says, “Oh that’s right – that’s what you said last night too.”

“Charming,” I tell him with a roll of my eyes. Now that he’s openly acknowledged our night last night, it feels less taboo and I don’t mind that Ella’s jaw is basically touching the concrete ground. “Now get lost. I’m about to inform Ella why you and I are never going to happen.”

He smirks as he stands up. He walks around to the side of the chair, much like Alex had been like with Ella, and hunches over. I look up at him, only because my eyes are magnetized to his – I have no control over this attraction. And while I can admit that my eyes have this sort of attraction, I can admit that I like it when Ryan’s magnetized to me and leans into my personal space. But like hell I’ll admit it out loud.

“You may be able to read people, but even I can tell when you’re lying.” I growl at him as he presses a quick kiss to my forehead.

I turn back to Ella as soon as he leaves my personal space. “I let him kiss me once and look what happens! Total invasion of personal space!”

“Lauren Osgoode you slept with him again?”

I blink at how abruptly she had changed the topic, and for once, she doesn’t look happy with me. Suddenly, I don’t feel angry at Ryan. I don’t feel ashamed for sleeping with him again, I don’t feel utterly lost when I look into his eyes, and I don’t feel like tearing my hair out when I think about how much he could hurt me if I let him. Now I’m just confused at Ella. “Ella –”

“No, Lauren,” she hisses, since we’d attracted attention from the various barbeque attenders that were loitering in the backyard of Ella’s sister’s house.

“I don’t understand what you’re doing. You act like you can’t stand the guy, but at the same time I see the way you look at him. You get jealous when he’s with other women – and don’t you deny it, Lauren. You turn green. You’d do anything to make sure no one takes your man – and he is yours, so don’t you dare interrupt me – so I think it’s pretty clear that what you feel for him is more than just a crush.”

My jaw opens when she stops to take a breath, but I can’t make anything coherent come out. “He is a bad news bear!” I splutter indignantly after a moment’s pause.

Ella raises both her eyebrows in calm surprise. “Ryan Miller is one of the nicest guys I know, Lauren. If I wasn’t dating Alex, I’d be all over him.”

I blanch at the thought. “He hits on anything with a wiggle and thinks he can buy anything that needs fixing. Did you know he sprayed me with a five hundred dollar bottle of champagne last night?”

“So let me get this straight – you’re angry at him because he’s willing to spend five hundred dollars on you? Are you on crack?”

“No!” I insist loudly, and then quiet down when I catch Ryan looking at us from over Ella’s shoulder. “I’m angry that he’s willing to throw it away like that.”

“No you’re scared because you think he’ll do the same thing to you. You may be able to read people like a book, Lauren, but so can I. And I have never seen someone so genuine about their feelings. He may go about things the wrong way, but that’s what makes it interesting.” This talk is having a good effect on Ella, because when she sits up and smiles at me, I can see that what she’s saying is really touching a special spot in her heart. “Lauren,” she tries again, “you’re being too neurotic about this. When you realize that the only time a woman actually succeeds in changing a man is when he’s a baby, you’ll be so much happier.”

I suck in my lower lip and sit up to face her. “Love him for what he is, despite what he isn’t. That man is crazy about you, and if I’m lying, you can strike me down with a dull pitchfork. He doesn’t spend two hundred dollars on strawberries and chocolate sauce on just anyone, you know.”

She knew? Wait – “He spent two hundred dollars on something you can buy at a grocery store for under twenty dollars?” She gives me a wry look, and it registers slowly in my brain. “And you knew?” I continued.

Her one eyebrow lifts higher than the other. “Of course you knew,” I sigh dryly. “Someone had to encourage him.”

Instead of being insulted, she smiles brilliantly at me. “And now I’m encouraging you. Go.”

I look at Ryan again over her shoulder. I can see him in profile – he’s put on a white dress shirt in the time it’s taken for Ella to give me a lashing, and he’s crouched down in front of a small boy. When he smiles at the boy, it’s genuine. I can tell because even from the distance I’m at, I can see the muscles around his eyes shift. He signs the boy’s t-shirt, and as the boy scampers off, he looks up and we catch eyes. Well, he catches my sunglasses, but behind my sunglasses are my eyes.

I stand, like Ella knew I would, and make my way towards him. He turns completely to face me, but he doesn’t say anything. I’m silent, and I guess that’s why he suddenly looks so guarded. But Ella said if she was lying I could strike her down with a dull pitchfork.

As I come to a stop in front of him, I have to look up. Sometimes I forget how tall he is. I grip my sunglasses and push them over my forehead so they rest on the top of my head. “Ryan Miller, are you attracted to me?”

His shoulders deflate, and he almost rolls his eyes. “Lauren –”

“Yes or no,” I interrupt calmly, my voice commanding.

“Yes.” His eyes are focused on mine, but they’re looking into me, not at me like they would’ve been if he was lying.

“Would you like to date me?”

His shoulders stiffen and he shifts on his feet. His hands almost start swinging, and I know he’s anxious. “Lauren, if this is –”

“Do you know how to play the yes or no answer game?” I yell.

His eyes focus back on my face, and a smile that reaches his eyes softly graces his lean face. “I would love to date you. In fact, I’d like to love you, period; for what you are, despite what you’re not. Which is a lot of things.”

My glower deepens the more he speaks. I put my hands on my hips. “That isn’t at all endearing, you know.” He’s making fun of me again.

He reaches out for me, and I turn away. “Come on Lauren.” I can hear the restrained laughter in his voice as his large hands crawl up my limp arms.

I look back at him, because I had approached him. I had to finish what he’d started all those years ago. So I inhale deeply, and look into his eyes. “Tell me I could be your everything.”

“Lauren,” he says, and I can tell his sincerity is genuine. As his hands crawl up to cup my face, I feel myself losing touch with reality. “You could be everything to me and more.”

And more! I nod my head, and pull away from him. I turn and start walking back towards Ella. “Yup!” I call, “He’s definitely in love with me.”

Take that Ryan Miller.