Chapter 14: "What the fuck."

Ryan’s POV.

Layla’s pinching me.

I swallow all the spite that brings out in me because this might have been a result of my actions.

She wasn’t walking fast enough to the car, and I had a meeting I wanted to catch up with, so I swept her off her feet and put her in my arms, ignoring her yelp and making for the car.

Except getting to the car is proving a little bit of a problem.

“Stop pinching me.”

The words drop from my clenched teeth in a cold frigid manner but if Layla hears that she makes no indication of it. She does respond cheekily, however,

“Put me down then.”

Layla’s voice is meek and almost silent, and that is all the more reason why I do not put her down. She’s feeling shy.

Embarrassed.

It occurs to me that she’s probably never had anybody carry her like this. Bridal style.

My father would have never, not in a million years. He might have once though, when he was younger, and if Layla had been someone else, someone like my mother.

The pictures of his and my mum’s