Page 10 of Resting Grump Face

Ryker raises one brow. “Are you always this gullible?” he asks, shakes his head and vanishes into the bathroom.

“Are you always this presumptuous?” I retort, wondering what he means.

A second later, both the bathroom door and the door to the room close simultaneously. Keys turn in the respective locks.

Oh, no.

“Olivia!” I rush back to the door. “Don’t you dare!”

“It’s my day,” she replies. “I should do whatever I want. Your words, not mine. Well, kind of. Anyway, I’ll let you out once you two get along. No fighting, no bickering, no?—”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

“Fucking and kidding is allowed. That’s actually a pretty unbeatable combination,” Phoenix says before Olivia continues. “I will check in on you in an hour.”

Their steps outside grow more and more quiet until they’re gone, and I am stuck in a room with Ryker aRe yoU aLWaYs ThIs gulLiblE Grayson.

For the record, I am not. It’s just… him. He’s to blame for this.

I wonderwhat kind of hotel room still uses normal keys as I rattle the knob. There’s no way to get through the door without breaking it down, so, naturally, I walk over to the balcony to check whether I could survive a jump. The cliff beneath it makes me think I shouldn’t try, but then again, it might be the better option.

A few minutes later, a freshly showered Mr. Handsome With Seductively Wet Hair steps out of the bathroom and sighs. “Locked us in, did she?”

I grumble in an attempt to speak his language.

“Balcony too high for an escape?”

Another grumble emanates from my throat making me worried his grumpiness might have already rubbed off on me. I don’t like it.

Ryker grumbles back in response and an obvious attempt to mock me.

Behave yourself,I think.Don’t stoop down to his level.

“If I threw you off first, your body might be able to cushion my fall.”

Unlikely. His muscles look like they’re made of steel. They wouldn’t cushion anything.

“If you wanna jump on me,” he lets himself fall back onto the bed, “we can just do that right here.”

Again with the cockiness. He’s probably not used to people telling him no.

“Oh, I’d like to jump you, alright. I just don’t carry my favorite shank to weddings. So it’ll have to wait.”

Both of us sigh at the same time, followed by more eye-to-eye combat.

This is going to be a long day.

I stroll around the room and spy into drawers, hoping Olivia might have stored a lock-picking set somewhere. Instead, in her nightstand, I find condoms and lube, and I quickly close the drawer again.That would be the last thing I need right now.

Ryker is still lying on the bed, his chest steadily moving up and down, his giant hands resting on top. “So,” he eventually grunts, his eyes following me around the room, “what’s your deal then?”

“No deals for you,” I reply without thinking. “You’ll pay full-price from now on.”

Ryker’s brief laugh fills the room and then my confused chest or belly. It’s hard to tell. Maybe I ate something wrong.

“Don’t,” I shut him down before he can reply. “Any prostitute jokes would not be well-received right now.”

He grunts again, but this time it’s like he’s stifling a laugh with a deep frequency radiating from his chest. “Okay, pretty woman. I’ll forgo the joke and in return you’ll answer my question: What is your deal? Why are you like this? Why are you… the way you are?”