Page 80 of River & Rue

Taking shameless advantage of the moment, I move close enough to nuzzle my nose into the soft hair behind her ear. As I speak, my lips accidentally graze her earlobe.

“Let’s worry about that in a few minutes.”

She makes a small sound, clearly involuntary, that goes straight to my cock. Then she nods and forces a few coughs under the false assumption I’ll doubt what I heard.

“Whew, it’s dusty, right?”

Biting my lip to abort a smile, I pull away before I do something I can’t take back—like ask her if she’ll whimper like that when I’m eating her pussy.

We continue pedaling.

Rue avoids looking at me.

Dropping my head back, I stare through the tunnel of sparkling lights and moving metal to a sky the same color as her eyes. I think about tasting her. Feasting. Her hands tangled in my hair as she rides my face.

Pedaling becomes increasingly uncomfortable, but I don’t care. Nor do I make a move to conceal my hard-on. I want her to see what she does to me.

I think about her thighs shaking. Sweat glistening on her naked body. Licking every scar. Mapping all her textures with my tongue. Sinking inside her. Filling her with cum.

I think about fucking her so slowly she hates me and so hard she falls in love.

My cock jerks, and the fabric of my shorts snags on my piercings. I hiss and sit up, shifting my hips to create some slack.

From the corner of my eye, I watch Rue’s head turn. I feel the weight of her stare on my lap. Hear the small sound she tries to swallow.

She sees.

She knows.

She looks away.

29

rue

​. . .​

your game, your rules

If I’d died on the Journey to the Stars like I half-expected to, I’d have left this world having never seen River naked.

That was Maya’s response when I pulled her aside after dinner and blurted out not only the boner incident, but what River said about kissing him—that my mouth would never forget the shape of his.

In the moment, I’d felt like a passenger to the experience, like he was saying it to someone else. Truth be told, I thought only fictional men dropped bombs like that. I almost laughed in his face out of giddy disbelief; I probably would have if he hadn’t asked about my scar.

Hours later, I’m having a delayed physical response in the shower. I don’t know if River is back yet—when I left the Lodge, he was deep in conversation with Dan and Jae—but I can’t bring myself to care. Consciously or not, he edged me all damn day.

All that provocative looming. The mischievous smiles. The casual ass-grabbing when he caught me. The unnecessary closeness and smoldering looks. The secrets he shared. The vulnerability in his voice. His warmth and openness. The grounding clasp of his hand as I told him the origin of my name.

That romance-novel-worthy line and the abject hunger on his face as he said it. His lips trailing over my ear. The erection he didn’t even try to hide—incontrovertible evidence of what he wants from me.

That’s what sends me over the edge.

A strangled moan leaves me as my hips spasm against my hand. The pleasure ends too fast. It’s not enough.

Coming to terms with my decade’s worth of longing was one thing, but acknowledging the possibility he’s been flirting with me, maybe even seducing me? It feels like reading a book with pages that burn as they’re flipped. Our history is turning to smoke and ash right before my eyes, and our future is predetermined to do the same. But the compulsion to keep reading has already eclipsed the consequences.

I’m truly, monumentally, metaphorically fucked. And I can’t even tell Ivy about it. I’ve barely spoken to her in the last week and a half, relying on the bullshit excuse of bad service and unreliable Wi-Fi. Every day, my guilt burrows deeper.