Always His (Crazed Devotion #1) Read Online Free

he leaned a hip against the bar.
    “I knew she’d say no, but I still had to ask. And I was fooling myself thinking we could have a relationship being so far apart. I mean, hell, what girl wants to be with a guy that’s living thousands of miles across the world?” I paused as I picked at the edge of the bar. “I couldn’t hold her back. It just didn’t feel right.”
    “I listened to my daughter cry herself to sleep for weeks after you left,” Allan said, and it felt like he’d kicked me in the stomach. “Then I watched her fall apart when you stopped calling. We fought, and, Ryker, you know we never fight.”
    I swallowed past the lump in my throat as I nodded in agreement. I had never in my life met a father and daughter that had the kind of relationship Allan and Nicole did. They were so much alike they were like two best friends rather than a parent and child.
    “I tried to help her through it all, but nothing worked. So I sat back and watched her fall apart a little more each day.” He cleared his throat as he pushed off the counter and began drying glasses once more. “If I’d known she was hanging around with that loser Tyler, I would have stopped it.”
    Thinking of Tyler being around Nicole made my blood boil. He and I had never gotten along. I can even remember beating his ass on more than one occasion.
    “When she told me she was pregnant, she didn’t have that look of happiness a woman gets when they share that news. She looked devastated. It was real rough patch, and without Liz, I’m not sure how we would have gotten through it.” The tormented look on Allan’s face only made the ache in my chest that much harder to bear.
    “But the moment she saw Victoria for the first time, it was like everything shifted into place. That sweet little girl brought back my Nicole.” Allan’s eyes appeared glossy as he looked down at his hands as they continued to dry the same glass over and over. “I know it’s been hard for her, but that girl’s strength inspires me. She’s just like her momma, and Tori’s her world. Despite the shitty father she was stuck with, there is not a day goes by that my granddaughter doesn’t make our days brighter.”
    “She’s beautiful,” I said, and he looked up at me, nodding in agreement with a proud smile.
    “I’m rooting for ya, Ryker, but you have to know it isn’t gonna be an easy road. You hurt her, even though your intentions were good.”
    It was my turn to nod. I couldn’t say anything more because I’d heard more than once now how rough my leaving was on Nicole.
    “I can’t help ya, because right or wrong, I’m in Nicole’s corner. But that doesn’t mean I’m not quietly praying for her to give you another shot. I never met a man I thought was good enough for Nic until I met you.”
    Like I said, Allan Russell was a good man.

“W hat the hell do you mean Ryker is back in town?” Liz screeched through the phone. I held it away from my ear as she rambled on about beating his ass and a dozen other ways to torture him.
    Once she had calmed down long enough for me to intervene, I put the phone back to my ear. “He didn’t reenlist. At least that’s what Bert said he told him. So he’s back for good.” I tucked the phone between my shoulder and ear as I lifted the basket of clothes from the floor.
    “And he just showed up on your doorstep this mornin’ like nothing ever happened?” she said, a little less high-pitched this time.
    “I wouldn’t say like nothing ever happened.” I paused in the hallway, remembering his face when I finally looked up at him. “He was nervous. He still does that sexy squint when he’s unsure of something.”
    “And?” she pressed.
    I looked over at Tori, who sat on the floor in my father’s living room, eating Cheerios and watching Dora the Explorer . “And nothing,” I replied. “He’s back, and my life continues to move forward the way it has for the last five years.”
    “I call bullshit,” she