***
UNWRAPPING THE PLASTIC from around the egg salad sandwiches Ryder had prepared earlier that morning, he cut them in four and laid them on the platter around the vegetables he’d pre-cut at home. When he was finished, the whole platter looked exactly like the ones his mother would prepare.
He missed his mother.
Kathleen had passed away in her sleep only five years earlier after years of battling cancer that finally overtook her weak and depleted body. Not a single day went be that Ryder didn’t think about her. She had been an amazing person and even the last years of her life, while suffering through treatment without a complaint, her caring ways had shone through. Her heart was big, and her love for Ryder, her only child, even more. Ryder’s blue eyes were from his mother, and every day he looked in the mirror, he saw her. Then he envisioned her warm smile and the way it erased the few wrinkles she wore around her lips. He could still hear her words, until the day she died, telling him to open his heart again, and reminding him all women were not like Courtney. She promised him that if he opened his heart, one day he would know that one woman was the one for him.
Violet flashed before his eyes.
It wasn’t possible? Was it?
Ryder had always brushed off Kathleen’s chitchat about falling in love.
Why was it coming back to him now? And why was it revolving around the woman above deck right now?
Ryder gripped the edge of the counter, and dipped his head down low, squeezing his eyes closed trying to shut out emotions the memories of his mother were bringing back.
He hadn’t let this conversation go through his head since Kathleen died. He’d humored her during the last years of her life, promising to be open, promising to let people in, but the minute she died, Ryder closed his heart down for good. Or so he thought.
Today, the recollections of his mother were different from simply remembering her smile, her laughter, her hugs and the long talks they would have in the gardens. Today, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was his mother somehow pushing him to open his heart...to Violet Caliendo.
And now what? He snickered and pulled four cold bottles of water out of the fridge. He’d reached out to Violet and let her in. Sure it was the smallest attempt, the tiniest crack, and Violet had stepped one foot inside.
Now what? Was he ready for another relationship?
The only thing that was clear to Ryder was that he liked Violet. A lot. There was something about the way she threw her sly comments his direction, followed by her lust-filled looks. Then the next second she was laughing hysterically because she’d had no idea there was a switch on the fishing pole. She was, for sure, a thunderstorm, just like he’d originally thought, but not in a bad way. In fact, he wanted to stand in the rain of her thunderstorm and experience all she had to give.
Ryder slammed the waters on the counter with a little more force than he’d expected.
He wanted to stand in the rain of her thunderstorm? Was he insane? Had he lost his mind? This was all happening to soon. She was Joel’s ex-wife. Ex-wife. She was Violet Caliendo. Violet Caliendo.
“Is everything alright?” Violet asked, from the bottom of the stairs. He hadn’t heard the door open or her climb down the stairs.
It was a simple question that was easy to answer, but his mind couldn’t even focus when her voice sent desire straight through him. Her voice sent his trail of thoughts in a whole other direction and he was trying to sort it all out.
“Do you want some help?” She was right beside him now. “That looks delicious. Did you prepare this or is it store bought?”
He didn’t understand how she was talking so casually when only hours ago they’d basically agreed to go on a date. Sort of. Then Parker and Sophia had come up and they hadn’t had an alone time since, but they’d spent a great morning together. Everything had been good until he was under deck, by himself, and thinking.
Maybe he was the problem? Why was he so irritable?
“I made it,” he finally answered, but it came out gruff.
He was irritable because he didn’t know what to do with this woman. He could tease, flirt, and ask her out on a date, but after the date...then what? He didn’t know what the next step was and he didn’t know whether he was ready to take it or not.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t insinuating that you couldn’t make it. I was−”
Ryder wasn’t sure what came over him. Maybe it was the way the boat rocked her side against his. Or that her wavy beach hair was sprinkled down across her bare skin. Or the coconut-scented suntan lotion he’d torturously watched her rub onto every inch of skin the sun would touch. He had been so jealous of the sun’s rays all day long.
He kissed her.
He turned quickly, catching her face between his hands and pressed his lips against her startled gasp. A startled gasp that didn’t last one second, because as hot as he was for her, her lust for him burned just as hot. Ryder saw it in her, in the way she licked her lips when he was around, and how her body reacted to his presence. The fact they’d agreed to deep fried pickles. Ryder had to make sure there was something more between them, then just that moment in the washroom. He had to make sure the feelings he felt for her were real and he wasn’t creating them because he thought his mother was sending him signs.
Violet kissed him back, forcefully. Her hands grabbed the outside of his forearms and she arched her body against him, opening her mouth and inviting him into the deliciousness he’d been craving all week. He was glad she’d left that damn life jacket off so his bare torso could feel the length of her body against him. In a swift movement, just like at the Caliendo Resort, he lifted her legs, spread them and set her on the counter. She welcomed the decision by wrapping her legs tightly around his middle and her hands snaked around his neck, the sun kissed warmth touching his skin.
Ryder moved his hands up her back. One grabbed the base of her neck, pulling her kisses harder against him, while the other began slipping the strap of her swimsuit down her arm. After watching the water droplets bead down after their swim, he’d wanted to kiss her bare shoulders. His lips moved down her neck and she arched back giving him access until his lips touched her shoulder and his tongue licked her collarbone. She was hot, she was delicious...she was exactly what he wanted.
“Ryder...” she breathed. “Wait...” He felt her hands find his face and pull him away from her skin to look at him. “We can’t do this. My kids are up there.”
Ryder stepped back and tried to pull out of her hands, but she held him harder, pulling his forehead against hers. Their panting breaths met between them, as their bodies settled down.
“What is this?” she asked and he knew she was talking about the fact they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
He’d been asking himself the same question and was no closer to an answer. Having her around only made it harder to determine. “I have no idea.”
“That makes two of us.”
Ryder stepped away this time, holding his hand out to help her slide off the counter.
Violet took the platter he had prepared and he grabbed the waters.
He followed her up the stairs knowing that he had one answer to the questions going off in his head and that was that his mothers signs had nothing to do with how he felt about Violet. There was lust. There was desire, but there was also something deeper. The way she touched him and his reaction was evidence that he wanted to explore whatever was brewing between them.
He wanted to go on a date with her and he damned well planned on her saying yes before they docked the boat.