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Riley’s hand on the back of my neck tightens, and I feel her body jerk slightly. I release her hand and tip her chin upward, forcing her to look at me. I knew if I had asked, she would refuse and stare elsewhere.
“Riley,” I breathe as I watch tears slowly trickle down her cheek. My thumb swipes the tears away, but more continue to fall.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she sniffles.
“Like what?” I don’t let my gaze waver, though. The entire barn disappears around us.
“Like Nicholas Cage and Monica Potter looked at each other at the end ofCon Air.”
So, she was thinking the same thing I was. The first time I ever said I love you to her was at the drive-in theater while playing that movie. This song had become our song.
“Like you can’t believe I’m here, and if you blink, I might just disappear.”
“Won’t you?” I didn’t mean for the words to slip, but now that they’re out in the open, I don’t regret them.
The emotion in her gaze washes away with my words. “I guess I learned from the best.”
She slowly steps back, never taking her gaze off me. I reach out, but she pulls her hand back like I just burned her. With one last look at the ceiling, she shakes her head before turning and bolting out the door. Was she shaking her head at me not to follow her or that she couldn’t believe what was brewing between us just a second ago?
I follow her out the main double doors, and the cool, crisp air is a reprieve from the air in the barn.
Where did you go, Riles?I look around, perching my hands on my hips. There’s a crowd gathered a few feet away, but Riley isn’t there. Something catches my attention in the darkness toward my left.
A soft sniffle in the darkness confirms which way she ran off to. With slow and careful steps so as to not startle her, I make my way toward her. However, fate or, well, Mother Nature had other plans. I’m so focused on the woman in front of me with her back currently toward me and her shoulders trembling that I miss the stick in front of me until my foot is pressing down on it.
Snap.The branch breaks in half, causing Riley to whip around to face me.
I wait for her to berate me for following her, but the words never come. Before I can exhale my next breath, Riley is barreling toward me, launching herself into my arms, and pressing her lips to mine.
Chapter 21
Cooper
Completelysurprisedbyherassault, I’m frozen in place. It takes just a second for my brain to register that Riley is kissing me, and I finally kiss her back. I devour her mouth with slow and steady strokes of my tongue against hers.
Switching our positions so that her back is now up against the barn, our kiss quickly goes from soft to feverish, with lips clashing and teeth clanging. There is nothing sweet about this kiss, as if we’re trying to make up for all the years our lips were apart. I can’t get close enough to this girl.
I hoist her up by the back of her thighs, and she instinctively wraps her legs around my waist. Fuck, I’ve missed this—missed us.It was one thing having her in my arms on the dance floor, but to have her this close in an intimate position, with my dick pulsing against her core, feeling the heat coming off her body—if we keep this up, I may just come on the spot.
She runs her fingers through the ends of my hair, which I’ve let grow out just a little longer than usual since being home. When she tugs on the strands, I exert a loud groan into her mouth. In return, I bring my erection to her, and she breaks the kiss, her head falling back against the side of the barn, giving me open access to her neck. Starting at her collarbone, I bite and suck my way back up to her ear. With each nibble, I lick away the sting.
I need to feel her, to be inside her. I don’t even care that we’re in the shadows and that anyone could catch us.
With my body still pressed against her, I trail my hand slowly up her thigh from under her ass. I’m halfway up her thigh when I feel a raised, tight bump on her skin.What is that? Is that a scar?It’s too high to have been from the accident.My fingers continue exploring the skin, discovering matching narrow lines. I know every freckle, every mark, every inch of her skin from when we were younger, and those definitely weren’t there then.What the hell happened to you while I was gone, baby? What am I missing?
Riley freezes in my arms. Her hands drop to my chest and push me away. “Stop! We can’t do this. I can’t do this.”
I let her back on her feet. What just happened? I reach for her hand, but she slowly puts distance between us. “Riley, talk to me.” My fingers graze hers, and I hold tight. Her gaze meets mine, and the sadness in her eyes rips the very breath from my lungs.
“I’m sorry, Coop. This was a mistake,” she says just above a whisper before turning away from me and running off back into the barn.
Sorry? What is she sorry for? What the hell just happened?
Is this what Austin meant when he said she’s too fragile? That she’s not strong enough? Did I damage her beyond repair?
No, that can’t be it. Riley is the strongest person I know. I mean, look at her. She lost everything yet still managed to pull the pieces of her life together and make something of herself. She still has the ability to give others a smile. A genuine smile. She has compassion and love that she gives freely. To everyone except me.
What have I done with my life? I let the pain and guilt eat at me until I was nothing but a shell of the boy I used to be. I may have survived, but only barely. My life paused, leaving me on Highway 15 with my best friend’s dead body while Riley moved on. She healed.
