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“Maybe I should use your nuts. I’ll go and ask if Nova can grab them from her purse, since you’ve obviously lost them somewhere along the way,” River teased, and I heard the thump of a fist hitting flesh, along with River’s hissed laugh. “I’m scared, man. I feel like I’m already fucking this up and it hasn’t even been two weeks.”
“Running away now would be a bitch move, Cooper. So suck it up. We’ll face this hurdle together, and we aren’t going to preempt what Nova wants. If she thinks it's too much, then we’ll face that together too.”
There was a long silence. “You’d give her up for me?” Another drawn-out silence, and I realized I wasn’t even breathing in case I missed the answer.
“I love you, River. More than anyone else in the world. If it was her or you, I’d choose you, but I know that neither of you would make me choose. It’s not the kind of people you are.”
Hell no, I wouldn’t make him give up the only person he considered family. That was, if I was about to abandon him just because he had a crazy ex-girlfriend and a stalker. I decided River had spent enough time in his feelings; I wasn’t going to let him keep imagining the worst scenario until he’d talked himself out of a relationship with us.
I snuck back a bit, then stomped down the hall like I was just coming from the living room. I knocked gently on the door jamb. They both turned toward me, Devan giving me a soft smile and River’s face a mask of guilt, his eyes looking at the cut on my cheek.
I strode over to him and climbed him like a tree, until he was forced to put his hands under my ass or let me drop to the ground like a lead weight. I gripped both his cheeks in my hand and kissed him hard.
It was a claiming kiss; if someone was watching, other than Devan, they’d know that River Cooper wasmine.Apparently, the only person second-guessing it was the man himself.
So I told him. “You’re mine, River. I’m keeping you, and as long as you hold the baby, I’ll bitch fight any ex you have for the honor.”
Devan snorted. “No, you wouldn’t. You’re a lover, not a fighter.”
I gave him a death glare. “Fine, I’ll give you such a passionate public display of affection that old ladies will blush, ex-girlfriends will see red, and you’ll have to protect me from their velociraptor claws.”
River shook his head, burying his face in my neck. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. Let’s just work out how that crazy wench found you and then plug that hole right up, because I’m not buying that she just stumbled across you and created an incident of her own volition.”
Dev raised an eyebrow at me, and I briefly wondered if he knew I’d been eavesdropping on them. “I agree with Star. Something seems fishy. Who’d have something to gain from you being embroiled in a PR scandal?”
“Some of the second string, maybe. A rookie or two who might make my spot. Someone who wants my sponsorships, though I don’t know who.”
“Or that woman from ASPN,” I added.
“Andrea Esperanza,” they both groaned simultaneously.
Devan shook his head. “She’s a professional sports reporter. Surely she isn’t stooping to trying to get shit published in trash newspapers.”
River shrugged. “She kind of hates me now.”
“She has the means and the motive, just as much as anyone else who hates River. More so maybe, because it's really personal.”
River slumped down in the office chair, glaring down at his crotch. “This is your fucking fault.” I resisted the urge to laugh. He looked up at Dev. “What do we do?”
“Did you contact the PR department for the IceCaps?” River nodded. “Your lawyer? Tony?” Tony was River and Rigby’s sports agent.
River blew out a breath. “Yeah. Tony chewed me out but he’s going to keep an eye out, see if he can head any stories off at the pass.”
Devan shrugged, grabbing me and pulling me back into his body, like waiting this long to hold me had been a hardship. I rested back into his chest. This was nice. Sure, there was probably always going to be more drama, but there was more support.
“I’ll get my lawyers to start the paperwork charging Marissa with assault and getting a restraining order. The woman obviously needs help, and I’d like it if she didn’t get within two hundred yards of Nova and Huey ever again. Then all we can do is wait, and see where this whole clusterfuck lands. Maybe that pap didn’t get any good photos?”
I snorted. We weren’tthatlucky.
ChapterThirty-One
RIVER
The following day,and the one after, was surprisingly calm. I got hauled over to the executive arm so they could grill me about what had happened, but there was no way they could come at me for this. I’d just been walking through the park with my girlfriend. She’d been attacked. We’d done nothing wrong.
But the PR people were grumpy at the best of times, so they mean-mugged me the whole time but eventually agreed. It helped that there was nothing in the papers or even really on the web about the incident. No one had recognised me from their phone footage, obviously, because it wasn’t even trending on social media.
