Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Parrish

Riven was restless. I already knew he didn’t sleep well. Something about nighttime made him edgier than he usually was, but he was doing a lot of pacing now. He’d tugged his shorts on right after we’d come, and now he couldn’t stop moving. If he sat down, he’d stand up the next second and resume his pacing.

I did think the fresh air calmed him down some. I wondered if that came from being locked up, or if he’d always been that way. Yeah, I knew he liked being out in the middle of nowhere like this, breathing in the trees and nature, but did it soothe him before, or was that new? I wanted to know everything about him, wished I could spend time inside his brain and heart, poking around and learning all of Riven’s secrets.

“I have an idea,” I told him, then went into the tent and tugged out the sleep mat. I didn’t mess with that sleeping-directly-on-the-ground shit.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re gonna get comfortable out here. We can sleep under the stars, with a nice, pretty fire we don’t really need, but I like it anyway,” I teased.

“I don’t sleep.”

“Well, maybe you will tonight. And if not, we’ll lie under the stars and talk.”

“I don’t talk,” he countered.

“Stop being difficult. And you talk to me,” I said in a flirty voice, testing the waters.

“Stop trying to seduce me,” he said, surprising me.

“Do I really have to try? All I have to do is offer you my ass, and you take it.”

He shrugged. We both knew I had a point there.

“Come on, Riv. How long has it been since you’ve gotten to do something like this? Stop fighting any way you can to enjoy yourself or be happy. Just let go a little bit.”

“You say that like it’s easy. I don’t…” He waved his hands in the air. “Do this. Know how to do this. Everything always gets fucked up.”

Riven hadn’t really had a lot of good, had he? Outside of Betsy, most things in his life had been screwed up, and damn, did I want to be something different for him. His parents hadn’t wanted him, and his grandpa had died before Riven could even get to know him. My dad taught him to be a criminal from a young age, made him think he was loved, then used him to save his own son. I wanted to show him another way, when really, I didn’t know much about having any other kind of life either.

“I won’t let it, Riv.”

He rolled his eyes. “I don’t need someone to take care of me. You or anyone else can’t fix my life.”

“I don’t want to fix anything, but I do want to be here for you, to be a soft place for you to fall. Let me try to give you that.” I walked over to him, risked holding his hips and looking him in the eyes, and he let me. “Take a risk with me. Don’t make me fall alone.” Because I was falling for him. I liked Riven a lot. I wanted to be those things for him that he never had, for him to be able to depend on me, to lean on me, have someone who would always have his back and fight like hell so nothing would hurt him.

I waited for him to pull away, to tell me to fuck off, but he just sighed. “I don’t know how to do what you’re asking.”

“Neither do I. Not really. But we can figure it out together…if you stop fighting it so hard.”

I grinned, and for some reason, it must have been contagious because Riven caught it. His was smaller, but it was there.

“Let’s fucking do this, I guess,” he replied, as if he was just talking about sleeping outside, but I chose to believe he was talking about everything.

We finished carrying everything out to a spot where the trees broke above us and we could see the stars. We lay on our backs, hands beneath our heads, our elbows kissing.

“Was it hard?” I asked, which was a dumb question. Of course it was, and though I didn’t specify what I meant, Riven understood I meant prison.

“Could have been worse.”

“Does it have anything to do with why you don’t sleep well?”

“Maybe. Before it was easier, when I was coming down from all the shit I was pumping into my system. I just don’t know how to turn my thoughts off.”

How did I find that button inside him to give him some relief? To shut it down so he could find peace?

“Hmm…I’ll have to see what I can do about that.” I hesitated a moment, then scooted closer and set my head on his arm.

Riven didn’t move right away, but then he did, his arm stretching out, not to push me away, but to wrap around me. To let me rest on him and nuzzle in. “I don’t know how to do this,” he said again.

“Do what?”

“What we’re doing.”

“What are we doing?”

“Jesus, Parrish. You know what I mean.”

“I don’t expect you to do anything. It’s going just fine, if you ask me. There’s no set way on how to do anything. We just keep working together to find what’s best for us.” I didn’t need to use the words boyfriend or dating. I didn’t need a label or rules. Some people did, and that was fine, but this whole idea that life was one size fits all was a joke and needed to go. That if people didn’t date or screw or love or, hell, just exist the same way as someone else, that they were doing it wrong or that it wasn’t real. “The only thing that matters to me is that no one else fucking touches you. If they do, there will be a problem.”

I didn’t have to look to know he rolled his eyes.

“You think I’m yours? You own me?”

“Don’t worry, Riv. You own me too.”

Another sigh ghosted past his lips, but he didn’t argue. “Earlier you wanted to hear something good about me. Let me hear something good about you.”

And so I started speaking, and then Riv did too. We talked about everything, nearly all night, like each word was chasing away his demons, each laugh replacing every time he’d been hurt.

Riven fell asleep before me, and I lay there watching him, like I was his protector, there to keep him safe and fight his battles for him.

*

Sneaking up onhim, I wrapped my arms around Riven’s waist, fighting to get him into the lake.

“Motherfucker!” he said, trying to get out of my hold, but I had surprise on my side and the help of a luckily placed root he didn’t see, effectively tripping him and helping me gain the upper hand.

We stumbled into the water, both of us falling and sinking below the surface before breaking it again.

“Jesus Christ, you’re like a kid,” Riven grumbled, but I saw the small smile teasing the corners of his lips.

I reached for him, but he swam out deeper into the water. I pretended there was no choice but to follow him.

“Do you like swimming?”

“Yeah. Grandma said my dad used to do that—swim when he was younger. He was fast and did it competitively until he got into drugs and causing trouble. He stopped caring about shit like that.”

We bobbed in the water, and it struck me how incredible it was that he had shared that with me. Riven didn’t offer pieces of himself easily, and definitely not without being prompted.

“Did you use to want to swim like him?”

“Hell no. I never thought that way, even when I was young.”

“So you’ve always been a negative Nancy?” I provoked, then got my punishment when he splashed me.

Only it didn’t feel like a punishment at all.

“Fuck off, Parrish.”

“No.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, and Riven let me. And when his mouth came down on mine, tongue pushing past my lips, I felt like I was flying.

We played in the water together for at least an hour, only stopping to kiss and touch each other.

It was Riven who called an end to it. “Okay. I’m done. That’s enough fun for one day.” He began making his way toward the shore, and I swam alongside him.

“We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

“No. You’re already messing with my street cred.”

I didn’t even try to bite back my chuckle. “You’re a mess.” But I liked him that way. I liked that Riven could be who he was with me and didn’t have to pretend to be anything else. Well, except I guessed he did try to act like he didn’t enjoy having fun with me.

“No shit.”

We got out of the water, but I didn’t let Riven get far. My arms circled him from behind, and then I slid my hand inside his wet swim trunks to cup his cock and balls. “What about this kinda fun? Are you down with that?”

“You’re always needy for my dick, aren’t you?” Riven dropped his head back, on my shoulder, showing me just how needy he was for me too.

“Yes.”

“You gonna get on your knees for me.” He pressed his hips forward, fucking into my hand.

“I need my midday protein. Might as well suck it out of your balls.”

“Christ, Parrish.” I went to the ground then and there, dirt, twigs, and small rocks digging into my knees. I hooked my fingers into the band of his swim trunks, pulling them down so they were right below his tight, firm ass which was right in my face. My lips pressed to his left cheek, then his right. He had soft fuzz there, which I thought was hot as hell. Letting my tongue sneak out, I tested the waters by licking a strip down his crease. “Fuuuuck,” Riven gritted out, and while I preferred to bottom, I liked the fact that he wasn’t against me playing around with his ass.

“You like that? You want me to lick out your hole before I let you fuck my face?”

“Yes. God yes. Get your tongue inside me.”

Gladly.

I ripped his swim trunks all the way off and tossed them, getting to my feet just long enough to drag Riven closer to a tree.

“Hands on the bark. Bend over slightly.”

“Fuck—”

“Yeah, I know. Fuck me. I’m about to eat you out. Think you can try not to complain that I’m being bossy while I do it?”

“No,” he replied, but there was a playfulness to his voice that made me grin. He also obeyed me, so there was that.

I spread his ass cheeks, hoping like hell no one showed up, and took in the sight of his tight, pink ring. “Jesus, baby. Look at this hole. I could stare at it all day.”

“Get your tongue in it.”

“Who is the needy one again?” I joked before leaning in and lashing my tongue against him. I felt him tighten up beneath me, like he hadn’t been sure what to expect. I kept moving, tracing him and tasting him, the salt of his skin, the lake water too.

Riv pushed back against me, his hole softening up. I pulled back to suck my finger into my mouth, then watched it slowly dip inside him.

“Fuck…”

“Relax. You’re tightening up.”

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Sarcasm dripped from his words.

“You want me to stop?”

“No. Keep going.”

So I did, teasing my finger inside him, past the first ring of muscle, while kissing his ass and flicking his hole with my tongue.

He made muffled, bit-back sounds, said words I couldn’t understand, while I thrust my finger in and out of him. His body was so tight and hot that I swear I could’ve come just from finger-banging his ass.

But I wanted to taste it more too. I eased out, hearing a sharp sound pull out of Riven, before I immediately replaced my finger with my tongue. He was soft and open enough that I could get it inside him, cheeks in my hands as I kept him open and feasted off him.

“Parrish… I…” His words became unintelligible again as I savored his hot little ass on my face. “Suck me. Need to bust my nut down your throat.”

My cock twitched inside my swim trunks. When he put it like that, it was even more of a fuck yes.

I jerked back, watching his hole close, which, damn, it was one of the sexiest sights of my life. I shoved my shorts down while Riven turned around, and then I was immediately on his cock, taking him to the back of my throat and swallowing him down. My hand moved along my cock, jacking myself as best as I could. It wasn’t the smoothest ride at the moment, but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t going to take much for me to come.

His hand tightened in my hair, Riven tilting my head up. Our gazes collided while he eased out, then flexed his hips forward again.

“That’s it. Let me fuck that pretty mouth of yours. Let me feed you my cum. Never in my whole damn life have I seen something sexier than you on your knees for me.”

His words made my heart balloon, expand so big that it was pressing against my ribs and opening up my chest. Hearing Riven say something like that to me wasn’t something I ever would have expected.

I didn’t take my gaze off him, and Riven didn’t remove his from me as he pulled out and thrust forward again. He made me gag, which we both loved. My eyes watered while he railed into my mouth, taking it like it was my ass, and goddamned if I didn’t love it.

I was on the verge of coming myself, so when Riven’s movements became jerkier, quicker, more urgent, I let go. My balls drew up and I shot, and the second I did, the salty taste of his release splashed against the back of my throat. I swallowed him down, Riven’s cum filling my mouth and sliding down my throat while I painted the ground with my own.

“I’ve never…”

I frowned before realizing what he was saying. “Never let someone finger or eat your ass?”

He nodded.

I grinned. Fuck yes. “I’m glad it was me. That ass is mine.”

Riven rolled his eyes.

I tried to catch my breath as he tugged me to my feet, and then his hand went to my throat, holding on, before he leaned in and…kissed it, so softly, so gently.

“Was I too rough with you?” He pressed his lips to my Adam’s apple.

“No. It was perfect.”

He was perfect.

I had completely and utterly fallen for Riven McKenna.