27. Charleigh

TWENTY-SEVEN

CHARLEIGH

Air whipped across my face as we traveled through Moonlit Ridge, and the sunlight that slanted from the blue-spun heavens was warm on my cheeks.

My arms were wrapped around his waist, my front plastered against his back, clinging so tightly I was afraid I might be causing him physical pain. I was afraid if I gave even a fraction, I'd go toppling off onto the pavement that blurred beneath us.

Heat blasted from his body, a blaze against mine, and I did my best to focus on holding on rather than burrowing my nose in the back of his tee to inhale his intoxicating scent.

I needed to be careful. I was already distracted enough.

Tiptoeing so far out of bounds there was no chance I wasn't going to get caught.

As if he felt the unease ripple through me, River splayed his right hand over my trembling arms that I had locked around him. I knew it was supposed to be some show of comfort, but it only served to freak me out, and I was shouting over the howl of the wind and the roar of the heavy engine, "Two hands!"

I could feel the roll of his dark, deep chuckle, and he squeezed my arm a little tighter before he reclaimed both handlebars, and he shouted over the battering of the wind, "Told you that I've got you."

River took us all the way to the end of Culberry where it came to a T at Vista View. He made a right onto the two-lane road that wound around to the west side of the lake.

Here, the scenery was gorgeous.

Breathtaking.

What tourists flocked to the mountain-side town to experience in both summer and winter.

A bunch of cabins and homes ran alongside the smooth, crystalline waters, the colossal, peaked mountaintops their backdrop.

Slowing, River took a right, and I held my breath as the bike dipped to the side before he accelerated, the engine a loud grumble, and the motorcycle righted again.

He traveled maybe a quarter of a mile before he slowed even more so he could make the sharp left onto a tree-lined driveway.

I blew out what could only be construed as surprise when I saw the house sitting on what appeared to be about an acre of land.

It gave off a cabin vibe, fronted by dark wood planks and accented by stone. It was two stories with a pitched roof, and abundant, colorful flowers grew from pots situated around the elevated wraparound porch.

River somehow managed to get his phone from his front pocket, and he spread out his legs to support the bike with his booted feet as he punched a code into his phone and the garage door slowly lifted.

He pulled the motorcycle up beside a dark SUV and killed the engine.

In an instant, we were surrounded by a thick, tacky silence.

Uncertainty billowed as strong as the breeze. I kept my arms locked around him because I had no idea what to do at this point.

It'd been different exposing myself through the texts and calls we'd shared over the last two weeks. Coming to the place where I'd felt so comfortable with him that my secrets had begun to pour from the reservoir where I kept them dammed.

My hurts and griefs and fears.

My wants and needs .

I wasn't sure what to do with it now that he possessed those truths. Now that he was here, in the flesh.

After the panic had melted away and now it was just the two of us. Beating hearts and murmuring spirits.

"Wasn't so bad, was it?" I could hear the amusement in his voice. The soft care that shouldn't be possible.

I kept holding on, though playfulness had drifted into my voice. "I don't think my arms or legs work anymore."

"Not a problem. I'll just carry you." He said it low, with a hint of that suggestion that spread through me like flames.

How it was possible I was thinking about him touching me after what had just happened was beyond me, but there it was, that shivery, throbbing sensation coursing through my body.

"I'm not sure I'd survive that, either." It came out both timid and wry.

The truth that I wasn't sure how to handle what he made me want.

But it was there. Burning like a beacon inside me.

River grunted. A low sound that hit me like seduction.

My thighs trembled where they were still tucked up close to his hips and my heart drummed wildly against his back.

"The way I'm going to make you feel might knock you out for a minute or two, but believe me, Charleigh, pretty sure it's me who's not going to survive you."

He was still facing forward, balancing us with his big boots planted on the ground, and he let go of the handlebars with his left hand and set it on my knee.

The contact hit me like a lightning strike.

Then thunder rolled as he let it slide upward until he was squeezing my upper outer thigh.

His big, tattooed hand hot and heavy.

"Mutually assured destruction." I mumbled it at his spine as I held on.

A laugh rumbled through him, his voice just as dark and low. "But we're sure going to have fun while we're doing it. "

I wasn't even sure how he maneuvered it, but he'd swiveled around on the bike to pull me into his arms, and he lifted me at the same time as he swung off the bike.

He had my front pressed against him, my feet dangling, tips of my toes barely brushing the ground as he held me in the security of his arms. "Want you to know this is a safe place, Charleigh."

I couldn't speak around the lump lodged in my throat, so I nodded, my cheek brushing against the solid expanse of his chest.

"Good. Let's get you inside."

He set me on the ground, and he guided me forward by placing his hand against my lower back again. The scent of him invaded. His aura profound.

Leather and ink and wicked things.

It whispered around me like a drug.

Intoxicating.

Soothing and healing and terrifying.

We stepped inside and moved through a laundry room to a short hallway that led into the main area of the house.

"This is it," he said as we stalled at an opening that led into the kitchen. It was French country style, the cabinets a teal blue and the floors old wood and rustic. It was quaint and charming and had Raven written all over it.

I couldn't hide my smile. "I take it you weren't the one making the decorating choices."

He chuckled. "My sister gets her way ninety-nine percent of the time."

Affection billowed. "She has that way about her, doesn't she?"

"She won't stop until she does." Dark eyes swam, tracking over me where I had moved into the middle of the kitchen, a thunderstorm brewing. "Though I guess when my mind gets hooked on something, I don't stop, either."

"And what did you have in mind?" My teeth clamped down on my bottom lip as I played into his hand, wanting him to take me there.

Elevate me to a place I'd never been before.

Tease and play and explore.

I wanted to be made new.

Or maybe I just wanted to become who I was always meant to be. And maybe…maybe now I had a chance.

"You." It was a greedy stroke from his tongue, and he crossed the space in a flash. A whorl of energy bashed against the walls in his wake.

He had me by the waist and propped on the high island in a flash.

The breath whooshed out of me, and my hands shot to his shoulders to keep myself steady while his nearly completely circled around my waist.

The span of them enormous.

That big, big body towered high, and he'd wedged himself between my legs.

"It's you on my mind. You who has me hooked. You who has me wanting to do things I don't do."

His hands splayed wide, stretching out over the entirety of my back, his front pressed close. I got the sense he could cover every inch of me at the same time.

Envelop and consume.

I breathed out a shaky breath as he studied me in the glittering rays of light that streaked in through the windows, evening slowly approaching and casting the air in pink, misty hues.

He pulled the strap of my bag over my head and set it aside, and I reached out with a trembling hand and let my fingertips play along the contours of his face. Over the harsh lines and defined edges. The man was carved like a blade. Hewn in severity and shorn in brutality.

My fingers drifted, brushing over the sharp angle of his brow and dancing over the stars tattooed at his hairline, dragging down his jaw before they were caressing over his full, plush lips that were the only thing that was soft about him.

Those lips barely moved with my touch, just soft puffs of air that felt like murmured kisses.

"Can't fuckin' wait to show you what it feels like to be touched by me. Can't wait to adore this body. I'm going to explore every inch of you. Show you that bastard no longer has any control over you."

Goosebumps lifted, and a gluttonous sound rolled through him as he leaned in and chased them up my neck.

"That sound good to you, Little Runner? You want me to show you what it's like to have so much pleasure you won't be able to think of anything else but me? Gonna write myself so fuckin' deep."

A tremble rolled through me.

An earthquake of need.

He groaned like he could feel the way my center throbbed. The way I wanted to melt into him and disappear.

"I want that," I whispered, too turned on to be flustered or shy. "I want to feel everything."

Experience it.

On my own desire, on my own volition.

Not because I'd been coerced or manipulated.

"I'll give you everything you want and more than you've ever dared to imagine."

I was right.

I was never going to survive this.

But I wanted it, anyway.

So, I murmured, "Show me."

Begging him for his kiss.

For his hands and his touch.

For him to do me in.

I wanted to be wrecked. Destroyed. Rebuilt.

He obliged with a growl, taking my mouth in a possessive, mind-bending kiss.

One hand spread all the way across my back to yank me against the hard planes of his body, and the other gripped me by the base of my neck at my skull so he could angle me the direction he wanted me.

This kiss wasn't careful the way the last had been.

This one was a ravaging.

A plundering.

His tongue stroking deep as I opened to him.

Need rolled up his throat and a whimper danced through mine, and I struggled to get closer, to rub myself against the hardness beneath his jeans that I could feel pressing at the thin material of my scrubs.

Normally, I would shrink and cower. Fold in on myself. Close my eyes and pretend I wasn't there.

But I was just as famished as him.

Kissing and kissing him.

My hands rushed to touch him everywhere.

His back. His shoulders. His arms.

Raking down his chest and his abdomen.

"River." I moaned it, this desperate sound that came from a place I didn't know existed.

"I know, baby, I know. I've got?—"

We both froze when the sound of the garage door whirring open echoed through the house.

"Shit," River hissed as he broke the kiss. Panting, he dropped his forehead to mine. "That will be Raven and Nolan. I shot her a text and asked her to pick him up from daycare for me."

I struggled to get my bearings.

To come back down from wherever River had lifted me.

I swallowed hard, and River picked me up from around the waist and set me on my feet just as car doors were slamming. One second later, the interior door busted open to the sound of Nolan's voice carrying, "Hey, yo, Daddy-O! I'm here. Did you miss me?"

He came barreling around the corner and into the kitchen, and he skidded to a stop when he saw me. It took all of one beat for his confusion to flash to a beaming smile.

A smile that speared through me and made the haggard breaths I was breathing grow thick with affection. "Miss Charleigh?! What are you even doing here?"

"Oh, well, I…" I stammered it.

Brilliant.

I couldn't even speak.

Then a rush of self-consciousness came barreling through when Raven rounded the corner .

On a gasp, she halted in her tracks, and her dark eyes widened in surprise as she took us in.

My flushed skin and mussed hair and swollen lips. Not to mention River who was a vibrating ball of energy beside me.

And well…just the fact that I was there. Because I'd denied anything was going on with her brother over the last two weeks like I was denying committing murder, and there I stood, pretty sure I was wearing his kiss like a brand.

I shifted on my feet, uncertain of what I was supposed to say or do.

"Charleigh?" She muttered it like a question.

"Hi." I awkwardly fluttered my fingers at her.

Could I be more obvious?

"Did you even know Miss Charleigh was goin' to be waitin' for us here, Auntie?" Nolan bounced, his fingers threaded together like he was issuing a prayer.

Her attention volleyed between the two of us.

"Um, no, I did not even know that Charleigh was going to be here waiting for us."

"Well, surprises are really good. I like surprises. Do you like surprises, Miss Charleigh?" The child was a perfect whirlwind. It wasn't so hard to force a smile to my face.

"As long as they're the good kind," I told him.

He giggled like mad. "Well, I think you're a good surprise. What do you think, Daddy-O? Do you think Miss Charleigh is a good surprise?"

River's gaze swept to me. So intense it nearly bowled me over.

Redness splashed my cheeks, and I couldn't look away from him as he stared at me before he said, "Yeah, I think she's a really good surprise."