Off Limits (Secrets Kept, #1)

by Riley Hart

TheDoctorIsIn: It’s as if you took the words right out of my head. My day was similar… I almost messaged you, but I already got emotional once, after that thing with my family, so I wasn’t going to let that shit out again. There’s only so much I can handle of those pesky…feelings. But now you’ve opened the can of worms, so we can be mopey together. GoodWithHisHands: Oh God, what’s wrong with us? We’re not only up in our feels, but we’re doing it together…ew…gross. Quick, talk about sucking dick or something else to distract us.

“Just give this guy a chance, okay? Maybe it’ll be nothing, and maybe it’ll be everything. And you deserve that—to have everything. I’m not sure you know that.”

“Hey, sorry, I—” The man’s words cut off as familiar hazel eyes stared back at me. Ryder was there, wearing a shirt that said Lynwood Mechanics right above his heart. Mechanics. Ryder was a mechanic. Ryder was… “No…” he said, and that one word made my world spin, made me hold on to the railing in the elevator, fearing I would collapse if I didn’t. “You live…here? You’re a doctor…fuck.”

“I want you, Ryder… God, I want you so fucking much; it’s eating me away inside. Why does it have to be you I can’t get out of my head? Why is it you I think about first thing when I wake up and last thing before I go to sleep?” He tugged my hips close to his, and we both trembled. “Why is it you who makes me feel alive in ways I didn’t know were possible? The one person I can never have.”

“I want you too.” Our lips grazed when I spoke. “I feel you… Down to the marrow of my bones, I feel you, this rightness I didn’t even know I was missing. Like a part of me was waiting for you all along. No matter how hard I try, I can’t make it go away.”

“You wanna mark me all up inside? Make it so everyone knows I’m yours? Because I am, Hutch. Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I am.”

“Is he worth it? The trouble?” “Yes,” I replied without hesitation. Hutch was what I hadn’t known I was looking for, what I hadn’t known I needed. “But…it’s complicated, and worse for him than for me. I don’t want shit to get fucked up for him.” “That’s on him to decide, though, isn’t it? He’s a grown man. He gets to choose what’s worth the risk to him, just like you do for you. Hopefully, the two of you pick the same answer. If so…fucking magic.” Bryson winked, then turned and got back to work. Fucking magic. I liked that.

“Hutch and me, sitting in a tree…because Hutch just realized he’s in love with…me. Shit. I was trying to rhyme. I suck at that, Mister In Love With Me. I think I’m gonna call you that from now on… Hi, have you met my boyfriend, In Love With Me? In case you didn’t know, he’s in love with me.” Hutch chuckled and shook his head. “You’re ridiculous. I changed my mind. I don’t love you anymore.”

“Well, that’s a damn shame because I’m so fucking in love with you. I’ll spend every day trying to earn you back if I have to.”

“I can’t believe you would even ask me that, Dad. Everything isn’t about you. Do you think it doesn’t kill me to hurt Maddy? That I don’t hate myself for it? That I don’t berate myself for it every hour of every day? Because I can promise you, I do. I don’t know how I’ll ever get past hurting her like this, but…don’t I deserve to be happy? To be loved? There was no future for Ryder and Maddy, but there is for us. He makes me feel…” Hutch rubbed a hand over his heart. “Right…settled in here. You want me to walk away from that?”