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“I formally release you from your vow,” I said in a staged voice.
He laughed, crossing to sit beside me. He reached out to smooth a section of hair from my face then draped it behind my ear. I squinted my eyes and tilted my head, trying to read the unfamiliar emotions flaring in his eyes.
“What?” I murmured as he continued to take me in.
His gaze met mine. There was a tenderness there that stole my breath and parted my lips.
“You’re not just another girl, Ri. I told you I wanted more. Do you remember that?” His steady gaze held mine.
I licked my lips, planting my elbows into the soft cushion. “I didn’t believe you.”
His mouth formed a faint smile. “Neither did I,” he said wryly, before his eyes flickered over my face again with something akin to reverence. A lump of emotion swelled in my throat. “But I do now.”
He said them so softly, those words. Words that could bludgeon a heart open and lay claim to it from the inside. I blinked rapidly as his palm encased my cheek. “This means something to me, Riley.”
Incapable of speaking, I simply nodded into his hand. A sense of awe pumped the blood through my veins in slow motion, like even my body struggled to process what he’d said, the sentiment in his words, that he could really, truly mean them.
Reaching up, I allowed my gaze to roam his features, to really take him in, as my fingertips stroked the skin and scruff of his face with a feather light touch.
“I believe you,” I whispered.
He smiled. The same smile I knew I wore. A smile I didn’t think I’d be able to wipe off my face. Because the impossible just became possible.
Maybe Reno wasn’t one of those guys. Maybe his heart wasn’t untouchable. And maybe I might even be the one to touch it.
Fifteen
Reno
Turned out I underestimated the depth of my feelings for Riley Mason.
Or maybe not underestimated so much as categorized them as something I could control at will. Genuinely thought I had been for a minute there. I should have known better. All I’d been doing for the past few years was delaying. The second I’d decided she was worth taking a chance on, I was a goner. The girl had me by the balls. I’d been trying to play it like I wasn’t whipped, but every smile she threw my way hit me square in the chest and just made it clearer how fucking sunk I was.
She wasn’t keen on going public, but as soon as I stopped groping Raya for Riley’s benefit, the cat was out of the bag. It had been the worst kept secret in history, anyway. Everyone knew before we did. But Ri wasn’t relishing the extra attention it would bring or the way Leon would react. He wouldn’t say or do shit. He wasn’t that guy. I knew that, but neither of us wanted to hurt or humiliate him.
We’d spent the holidays together, holed up in either my trailer or hers for Christmas, New Year, and every day after until school started up again. Locked away—just the two of us—going public hadn’t been an issue. So, I hadn’t pushed for it, and hadn’t planned to... until I’d strolled into school twenty yards behind her this morning and my eyes had gone straight to the perfect globes of her ass clad in the tightest pair of black jeans I’d ever seen her wear. It had taken every ounce of my self-co
ntrol to stop myself from dragging her off to the janitor's closet and ripping them off of her.
We hadn’t had sex yet. Not because I didn’t want to, that was for damn sure. I knew it would be her first time, and suddenly that felt like a huge fucking responsibility. So, no, I wasn’t gonna fuck her in a closet, but my mind had raced with images of all the things we could do in a dark room. I’d taken a quick scan, scoping how easy it would be to grab her hand and haul her off, and in the space of three seconds, I’d gone from insanely turned on to spitting fucking furious.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only guy who couldn’t keep his eyes off Riley’s tight ass.
If she hadn’t turned and smiled that smile at me, I might have throttled nine guys single-handedly. But she had. She’d looked over her shoulder, caught sight of me and fucking beamed like I was worthy of that shit. I knew without doubt I wasn’t, but I wasn’t stupid enough to clue her in.
Now I had to set every other fucker straight. It wasn’t enough that they all suspected we were together. Not if they couldn’t keep their goddamn eyes in their head. These guys needed it spelled out in plain English.
Which was the reason I’d practically dragged a reluctant Riley behind me by the hand into the cafeteria. Why I planned to stand in the middle of the damn room and kiss the fuck out of her in front of every single pair of eyes in the place. I was laying claim to my girl right now. Then we could all avoid any more confusion, any doubt.
She’s mine. Don’t look and don’t fucking touch.
All eyes turned to us as we walked through the doors, hand in hand. Mouths opened, tongues wagged, and brows lifted. I didn’t need to see Riley’s face to know she would be blushing. I felt her palms moisten, her steps falter.
Without warning, I halted on the spot, drawing Riley to me, my actions possessive yet tender. She lifted her hooded gaze to mine, her cheeks crimson and her eyes uncertain. Until she read mine. I let her see it all. Everything I felt for her and hadn’t told her yet. I needed her to know this wasn’t just for show. Reaching down, I framed her face with my hands and searched her eyes.
“I love you,” I said.
Her eyes popped, then instantly filled. A chorus of surprised gasps emitted around us as I lowered my face to hers and kissed her with an emotion I’d never felt for anyone else in my life. Her fingers gripped my hands, her lips opened for me and then we were consuming each other like there was no one else in the room. Every word, every snigger and swoon, faded to nothing. There was nothing beyond the girl in my arms. I’d never felt happiness like it.
