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21
Ash
It’s a long-ass drive,and it’s kind of tedious. The company is good, but even that can’t really take away the monotony of driving for this long without some kind of entertainment.
If we weren’t on a schedule and doing something important, I’d be bugging Gage to stop at every single random tourist attraction we pass.
But I can’t, since we don’t have the time to waste. We need to make it to the spot we’ve chosen in two days, so it’ll be a long two days of driving.
All in all, it’s not so bad, though. I’m in the backseat with River, and she’s dozing against my shoulder. She stirs when we hit a curve, and I smile and put my hands on her.
“Here,” I murmur. “This will probably be more comfortable for you, beautiful.”
She just gives a sleepy little noise of affirmation, and I help her to lie down more with her head in my lap. Her feet go in Priest’s lap, and out of the corner of my eye, I can see him rest a hand on her ankle, rubbing it gently.
I look down at River’s face, her features softened only slightly by sleep. Even when she’s knocked out in the back of the car, I can see that determination on her face. In the set of her mouth, the way her eyebrows are drawn down. She doesn’t look relaxed, she looks ready.
I like that about her. I have since the moment we met. I’ve never met anyone as strong and fucking stubborn as she is, except maybe Gage.
Nothing stands in her way for long, and it’s hard to imagine a time when that won’t be sexy as hell.
I reach down and play with her hair, letting the soft, silver strands run through my fingers. Just having her head in my lap gets my cock hard. Just the feel of her resting against me is enough to have me moving toward half-mast. River turns me on just by existing. She’s just so fucking sexy to me.
I swallow hard and keep stroking her hair, letting the arousal ebb and flow through me. She’s asleep, and we’re in the car anyway, so it’s not like there’s room to do anything. But that’s a thought, though. Gage driving, forced to keep his eyes on the road. Knox in the front seat, probably grumbling about not being able to touch her. And me and Priest back here, with River spread out for us…
Okay, that’s definitely not helping the whole being turned on problem, and I try to shift my mind to something else as we keep driving. We’ve hit the stretch of interstate where there’s just long miles of nothing but billboards and other cars.
We pass families in SUVs, loaded up with all their kids’ assorted crap, cars hauling boats and other cars behind them. U-Hauls and moving vans and little sports cars that zip between the lanes, impatient with the flow of traffic.
Billboards whip by, advertising sex shops and restaurants and truck stops. A big one looms ahead with a picture of Jesus on it, weeping tears of blood. Just a few feet beyond that is another big one, advertising “XXX Hot Girls Tonight!”
I snort and shake my head at that, and River mumbles something in her sleep that I choose to believe is her agreeing with me about how stupid that is.
Eventually, we reach the small town where we’ve planned to stay for the night.
Gage spots a sign off the highway for a diner, and he pulls off on the exit. River slowly starts waking up, shifting and groaning as she moves to sit upright, rubbing at her eyes.
“How long was I out?” she asks.
“Couple hours,” I tell her. “You didn’t miss much, unless you like billboards for adult superstores.”
“Oh, darn,” she replies, her voice somehow raspy with sleep and completely deadpan at the same time. “I can’t believe I missed that.”
I snort with amusement, and Gage pulls into the diner.
It’s a fucking revelation to pile out of the car and stretch our legs. There were a few stops to pee at rest areas and gas stations when we needed to top the car off, but there was always the looming thought that we were going to have to get right back in the car when we were done. Now at least we have a longer break ahead of us, and the promise of sleeping for the night soon.
“I’m fucking starving,” Knox says, stretching his arms overhead and cracking his back in multiple places.
“You had six bags of chips three hours ago,” Priest counters, closing his car door once River has scooted out.
“That’s not food,” Knox insists. “That’s like. Salty cardboard. It’s fluff. Distracts you from being hungry long enough that when you finally get a whiff of real food, you realize how damn hungry you are.”
No one argues with him, half because I think we all realize he has a point with that. Instead we troop into the diner and I flash a smile at the harried looking waitress who tells us, “Sit anywhere, and I’ll be right there.”
We move to settle into a booth, and River ends up on my side between me and Knox. Knox immediately dives into the menu, muttering about putting chili on a burger, but I can’t stop looking at River.
She looks so comfortable sitting there, hair tucked behind one ear and the sleeves of her hoodie pushed up. Her eyes scan the menu, but I know she knows I’m looking at her. She’s observant like that. Clearly she just doesn’t mind.
