Ryker must have noticed that something is off with me, and I faintly hear him, through the thudding of my heart, ask in a worried tone, “Are you okay, little girl? Did I scare you?”
I dampen my lips in an attempt to get my mouth - my damned mouth - to cooperate with me. But to no avail. No word comes out.
He looks conflicted and maybe even a bit pained as he retracts his hand.
“I shouldn’t have acted that way with your instructor,” he says, and I bet it’s as good an apology as I am going to get.
“It’s okay,” I tell him after a while. “I’m just a little bit shaken up.”
Well, I’m not lying. But I’m not saying the entire truth either.
He doesn’t need to know why I am acting this way. I wouldn’t live off the embarrassment. He wouldn’t let me…
“Look, little girl,” he begins as he d
