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So, what happens now?
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Colton —21 years old
Two years ago, outside Riley’s hospital room, Lila gave me some advice and what she said to me changed the course of my life.
“Riley is fragile. She doesn’t need you to push her boundaries, like you’ve relentlessly been doing since you’ve met her. This is exactly what pushed her into Grayson’s arms. If you want her, you need to be patient. You need to soften your heart for her, Colton.”
Riley is an intricate riddle, a beautiful puzzle, and I have taken my sweet time discovering her. Everything about her.
What ticks her off. What makes her laugh. What pleases or angers her. I’ve seen all I had to see—the complicated, the ugly and the beautiful that makes Riley Johnson.
Lila is her best friend and if there’s anyone else in this world who knows Riley better than I do, it’s her. So, I did exactly what she advised.
I’m not a patient person by nature; it’s never been a virtue of mine, but for my Little Wallflower? I’ve been solemnly patient.
For two years, I’ve kept my hands to myself. Giving her the time and the space she needed. I watched her rise from the ashes of her broken heart and slowly put her life together. I watched quietly, as she endured the grief that haunts her and the pain that resides in her soul.
We are more alike than it seems.
Souls made out of flames and with heartbreak etched on our skin.
We are battle-worn.
They say the fruit of patience always tastes the sweetest. It’s not a lie.
That kiss two months ago? Riley initiated it.
And her lips? They tasted like the sweetest fucking thing I’ve ever had in my life. The finest wine, and God, I could easily get addicted to those lips of hers.
She calls me obsessive…
And fuck yeah, I am obsessed with her. Like a mad, mad man.
I will never deny it. If someone were to ask me if I have ever had an addiction, I’d simply point at her. Riley Johnson is my drug of choice. When I’m around her, I forget my demons.
I might be the storm in her life, but she brings me a sense of tranquility that I’ve never felt before. I never knew such feelings even existed.
She is the calm to my chaos.
The softness to my viciousness.
The cure for my venomous heart.
I’m still lost in my thoughts of Riley when my phone rings with an incoming call. My arms uncurl from behind my head and I blindly reach for my phone. It’s way past midnight, who could possibly be calling me at this time?
My heart stammers when I see Riley’s name flashing on the phone screen. She’s calling? What the hell? She has never called me before.
I answer the call, bringing the phone to my ear. Before I have a chance to speak, there’s a breathy moan in the background. My jaw snaps closed, shock coursing through me, and I forget what I was going to say.
Riley moans again, and I know it’s her because I’d recognize the sound of her moan from anywhere. “Ah… shit.” I hear a rustling in the background and then a needy whimper. “Colton.”
My name spills from her lips and I’m instantly hard.
She’s touching herself…and calling out to me. Ah, fuck. I’m a goner.
But knowing Riley the way I do, I’m sure she hasn’t realized yet that I’m listening to her. That call is an accident, I just know it.
