Can't Touch This (Can't Touch This #1)

“And why the hell would I agree to that?”

I blinked. “Because you ought to be with Michelle.”

He exploded with laughter. “Oh, I should, should I? You suddenly hate me enough to lump me with a cold witch like her?”

“But she—”

“She has nothing on you. Nothing. Believe me. If I had met you when I met her, there would never have been any competition. I would’ve taken one look at you and known you were it for me. I wouldn’t have cared about age. I would’ve lost my virginity to you. I would’ve fucking married you. I wasn’t a kid who thought the grass was greener on the other side. When I know, I know.” His hands cupped my cheeks. “And, Ves, I know you’re mine as much as I’m yours. We’re it. No if, buts, or maybes. Got it?”

“But—”

“There’s that word again.”

“What about—”

“Another version of but. Not gonna let you ruin what we have, Vesper. Stop thinking I still have feelings for someone who I honestly haven’t thought about in eleven years.”

I stiffened.

He just lied.

It’s less than eleven years.

“But Nate—”

“What the hell does her kid have to do with this?”

Frustration at him talking over me made me blurt. “If you let me speak for two damn seconds, I’d tell you!”

He smirked, his thumbs caressing my shoulders, somehow activating the tipsiness in my blood and making me mellow just a little. “Okay, little firecracker, go on. I won’t interrupt.” He zipped his lips dramatically. “Promise.”

I swallowed, mentally preparing to slice through our future. “Nate is yours.”

He froze. “What?”

“Michelle. She told me that Nate is yours and he’s the reason she hunted you down. She wants you to take her back because he’s your son.”

For a second, Ryder looked as angry with me as he had with her.

But then his lips slowly twitched, followed by a loud laugh. “I knew that’s why she came. Wow, she really hasn’t changed.” He shook his head. “You know, I actually feel sorry for her. Can you believe that? For so long, I felt sorry for me because of what she did but all along, I should’ve felt sorry for her.”

He trampled all over my heart.

He felt sorry for her now?

God, when will this day end?

My fingernails wedged into my palms. “That might be the case, and I’m glad you don’t hate her anymore, but what the hell does that have to do about Nate?”

“You don’t need to worry about Nate. Nothing’s changed.”

“Everything has changed, Ry! Don’t you see!? You have a kid. She still wants you. You have responsibilities now. Who the hell am I to stand in the way of that?”

“You’re my fucking soulmate, that’s who you are.” Ryder’s outburst shocked both of us. Stalking toward me, his hands cupped my cheeks as his body pressed me against the tree. “Vesper, you are me. I’m myself with you. I’m free with you. If you think you’re going to take that freedom away from me, then you should never have agreed to let me take you home and tend to you while you were sick.”

“Um, I seem to remember you telling, not asking. I had no choice.”

“Just like I had no choice when I fell for you.”