Air Ryder (Harper's Mountains Book 3) by T. S. Joyce Page A

our rehearsal dinner.”
    Ryder’s limbs stopped shaking, and he hugged her hard. Lexi gasped at how strong he was, and he released her in a rush. Leaning back on locked arms, he cast his brightly-colored gaze off to the side and said carefully, “Tell me.”
    “I had my wedding gown all steam cleaned and ready, hanging from the top of my closet door. The bridal luncheon was done, I had all the favors, flower arrangements, caterers, the venue, everything already paid for. My mom and I didn’t really get along, but she came around for the wedding planning and supported me one hundred percent. Everything was just as I had dreamed of as a little girl. It was perfect.” Her eyes burned with tears she refused to shed, so she blinked hard and continued. “Everything was perfect except the person I’d chosen to spend the rest of my life with. Blake had gotten his secret girlfriend pregnant, and he was starting a family with her instead of me. I. Was. Devastated. And instead of helping me deal with the mess he’d made, he took her on our honeymoon—the one I’d paid for—while I had to cancel everything, send the gifts back, and tell everyone the wedding was off. That’s the thing I hate talking about. Hate it. My family doesn’t even mention Blake or what happened anymore because I shut down for a year afterward. I hated everything and everyone, and I felt like I couldn’t trust people anymore. I’m coming out of it and finding myself again, but thinking about what happened makes me feel like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff and the wind has kicked up. It makes me feel like I could so easily fall back into the hole Blake created.” She cupped Ryder’s cheeks and dragged his glowing gold gaze back to hers. “So, you see, I’ve loved someone more than they loved me before, too, and I understand you don’t want to talk about ghosts. I still like you the same.”
    Ryder winced in the instant before his lips crashed onto hers. His hands gripped her waist desperately, and she got it. Emotion was burning her up, too. This kiss banished thoughts of Blake, and she hoped with her whole heart it banished thoughts of Ryder’s asshole biological father, too. She didn’t know what his father had done to the man she loved, but she hated his real dad for putting darkness inside a creature of the light. Ryder was a man who could make a person feel incredible with a joke or a smile, but the man who was supposed to love him the most had hurt him as a kid. He’d hurt him so badly Ryder still wrestled with the demons conjured by that rejection.
    She wanted to make him feel better, and to make herself feel better, too, so she eased out of their kiss just enough to pull her tank top over her head. Without a moment of hesitation, Ryder pulled his shirt off and unsnapped her bra with a competent snap of his fingers. He yanked the loose bra from her arms. She thought he would stare, drink her in, but he did something better. Ryder pulled her immediately against his chest and exhaled a shaky breath. He rocked them, as if the feeling of her bare skin against his was a feeling he’d waited for his whole life.
    He was shattering her heart with his tenderness. She’d imagined intimacy with the dirty-mouthed, sexually-charged Air Ryder would be quick and hard, but he was lips melding onto hers, soft strokes against her skin, racing heartbeats, and a soft sound in his throat that was nothing shy of content.
    This felt huge—like her first time.
    She rolled her hips against his, and he cupped the back of her head, fingers intertwined in her long hair as he pressed his tongue past her lips and tasted her gently. His other arm was strong and steady on her back, drawing her close, keeping her sensitive breasts pressed against his rock hard chest.
    God, she loved this. Loved being this close to him. His hard erection was pressed just right against the seam of her jeans, and as he rolled his hips for the first time, she gasped at how perfect