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The scent that clung to him. Leather and ink and wickedness.
The glint of the fading sun that sparked through the dense leaves of the trees.
The taste of his kiss that still whispered on my tongue.
His skin an inferno where it blazed against mine.
Anticipation billowed when he made the couple turns it took to have us gliding down his driveway toward the sanctuary of his house.
An old, custom pickup truck was parked out front. It was low to the ground and painted jet black. River slowed, and he swung his boots to the ground to support the motorcycle while he dug his phone out of his pocket and entered the code to raise the garage door.
He pulled his bike in between his SUV and Raven’s little white car before he cut the engine. Then he took my hand to help me swing off, helping me to maneuver without touching any hot metal parts.
But it was River who could scorch me. Sear me through. Those dark, dangerous eyes raking over me while I stood beside his bike.
“A man could get used to this.”
“And what’s that?”
He swung from the bike, rising to his full, imposing height.
A devastating warrior.
His hand slipped to my cheek, and his voice turned low. “You.”
That one word seemed to hold more meaning than any before it, and he shook off whatever had held him rapt before he snagged my hand and hauled me to the interior door. He jammed at the button to close the garage in the same second as he dragged me inside, right down the hall and to the clatter transpiring in the kitchen.
It was another dance party. Like yesterday’s, only Raven and Otto were swing dancing, like they’d stepped straight out of another era. Raven squealed and screamed when Otto flipped her.
Nolan howled and clapped where he sat on the island watching them. “That one was a ten! Or even an eleven even though we aren’t even supposed to have one of those, but it was really perfect, so I think you get extra credit.”
Then he screeched and kicked his feet when he noticed me and River in the archway. “Miss Charleigh, you came back to me!”
He popped off the counter, hit the stool, and was on his feet in a flash and barreling over to me. I didn’t have the time to prepare myself before he launched himself into my arms.
I lifted him. Hugged him to me. Breathed him in.
Peace whispered through my being, this child a balm to my soul.
I held him that way for the longest time, relishing in the feel of his perfect weight.
Then he edged back. “You are in so much trouble that you didn’t even say goodbye last night. I thought you were supposed to be sleepin’ in the guest room right across from me, and I went right there in the morning, and the bed hadn’t been slept in or nothin’.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh with the amount of joy his sweet, demanding words brought out in me, or weep from the truth that I’d been so close to neverseeing him again.
Weep that I’d been inclined to run.
And I would have missedthis.
I splayed one hand over the back of his head, holding him so close that I could feel his spirit knitting with mine. “Well, that was completely rude of me, wasn’t it? Which is why I had to come back here to make sure you knew I was thinking of you.”
He angled back, hanging onto my shoulders with both hands. A hopeful twist pulled to his brow. “You were thinking about me?”
“All day,” I told him.
I realized then that three pairs of eyes were on us, and the music had been turned down. It was also when I noticed River’s spine had sprouted a rod of steel where he stood beside me looking at Otto.
All the lightness in Otto had disappeared, and the two men shared what appeared to be some sort of silent argument.
