“Only when you’re safe.”
“Fine, I’ll go where I’m safe, then you leave me the fuck alone,” she huffs, storming off towards the sidewalk.
Her being temporarily safe wasn’t what I meant, but I don’t say anything. Not when she’s more than likely going to the library again—a spot where we can talk without having anyone seeing us. I follow her down the familiar route. One she took me on only a few months ago, when she was limping from a fall she didn’t cause. And now, she’s still bruised and healing. Just like last time. Except this time, the life is slowly seeping out of her.
Her steps are swift and angry, causing her hips to swing in a manner that’s so seductive—I’m forced to adjust myself like an asshole.
She pushes open the broken door to her abandoned library with a fierce shove. She stomps into the dusty, graffiti-filled building and marches through the empty shelves. I follow her into an aisle that must have been used for little kid books. The shelves are tick, waist-high and coated with dust.
And then she stops suddenly, forcing me to balance on the tips of my toes as to not plow down her little body. In a flash, she’s whipping around and smacking a hand straight across my face. A hand that has a hard-ass cast on it, and one she definitely shouldn’t be fucking using to hit people.
I take a deep breath and look away, licking my bloody lip as I try to reign in my rising temper. I don’t like being hit. I got a lot of that shit before I found myself in a nice family, it’s very rare I let anyone hit me without some type of consequence. I’d never hurt River—that’d defeat my entire purpose of trying to help her—but I’d certainly teach her lesson if she wasn’t devoted to another man. A man I’d really like to murder with my bare hands.
My jaw ticks as she gets up in my face, her heaving chest pressed into mine. Our breaths are synced, both strife with adrenaline. Her sweet cinnamon smell invades my senses. All I want to do is take a bite out of her, just like I would a cinnamon apple. I’m distracted from my anger when I get a good look at her eyes. They’re the most unique color I’ve ever seen, the exact color of liquid gold with little flecks of brown mixed in and an outer ring of light brown.
Those are the type of eyes you can’t look away from, no matter how hard you try.
“I don’t need you to save me,” she snarls, snapping me away from my musings. “I’m not some damsel in fucking distress. I’m not a weak, little girl that needs your rescuing. I don’t need you, Mako. The only fucking person I need is my goddamn self. Do you understand me?”
Her face is red with rage and her golden eyes are bright with a storm of hateful emotions. I’m not looking in the face of a girl. I’m looking into the face of a fierce lioness, her fangs pulled back and ready to rip my neck out with one wrong move or word.
I’ve never wanted to kiss someone so badly in my life.
I nod my head, keeping quiet. I feel the urge building inside my chest. I have to tamp it down, I need to. Kissing her would be catastrophic.
“Do you want to fuck me, Mako?” she asks, derision coating her words. Apparently, I didn’t do a good job of keeping the lust out of my eyes.
Yes. “Not what I’m after,” I clip. The muscle in my jaw is going to burst with how hard I’m clenching my teeth.
She gives me a challenging look and my heart seizes. Her chin drops as she takes a big step back and peers up at me through hooded eyes. It looks like she wants to ride my cock as she slashes my throat. I’m not sure how to feel about that, but fuck if I don’t want to let her do it anyway.
She reaches her hands up and runs them down her curves. Her head tips back, exposing her slender throat. I could easily reach out and wrap my hand clear around her neck. I could squeeze until her face turns pink and she’s desperate for breath. Her eyes would dilate, and she’d beg for more.
A moan releases from her mouth, and my whole body turns to steel.
“Ryan!” she gasps around another moan. My eyes narrow into thin slits as anger rises in my chest. Her hands continue to explore her body as soft, melodic moans vibrate through her throat. A growl leaves my mouth before I can stop it.
“What are you doing, River?”
Her head falls forward, her eyes dark amber and swirling with rage and lust. My favorite fucking combination.
“Is this what you want, Mako?” she taunts, her voice low and breathy. “You want to touch my body, feel how wet my pussy is?” A smirk rises on her face and her eyes roll again. “Oh, Ryan!”
The skin around my knuckles is threating to rip apart from how tightly I’m clenching my fists. The little bitch is mocking me. I’m three seconds from saying fuck it and pushing her up against one of these shelves and teaching her that lesson.
“Keep it up, River. You won’t be able to moan the wrong name when your mouth is full of my cock,” I threaten on a low growl.
Her hands drop from her body and mirth curls her lips up. From hot to cold in a span of seconds.
“You’ll never fucking have me, Mako. You’ll never get to lay a finger on me again.”
“Are you willing to promise me that? Because I will make a liar out of you, baby girl,” I challenge, my eyebrow cocking sardonically. I step into her space, pressing our chests back together. “I think we both know Ryan doesn’t satisfy you the way you need to be.”
How quickly my good guy plan blew out the window, it’s actually comically pathetic. This girl brings something out of me no one else can. I don’t want to want her, but I don’t think I ever had a choice. She shouldn’t be with me, but I think I need her to be.
The darkness I tried so hard to hold back slips through. River knows how to push every single one of my fucking buttons. Especially when her head falls back once more, her eyes roll, and she lets out a long moan.
“Ohhh, Ryan,” she moans, dramatic but still sexy as hell. Without thinking, my hand shoots out and does exactly what I’ve been fantasizing about since she started this bullshit. I squeeze her throat, seeing red as she moans the wrong fucking name. By the time I’m done with her, she’ll be begging for me to hurt her.