Page 52 of Riverside Reverie

“How long have you been standing there?” Theo asked, equal parts amused and irritated. He made no move to step away from me, and I found I didn’t want him to.

“Long enough to have witnessed some serious tonsil hockey,” she responded with an arched brow. “I heard a scream and thought you were murdering Lux.”

“No murdering is happening,” I assured Talia, blushing. “Just a spider.”

“Ah, yes. That can evoke the same terror as being murdered,” Talia nodded with understanding. “Well, if you don’t require a rescue, I’ll be on my way.”

“Alright, see ya,” Theo said without looking over his shoulder, his gaze still on me.

“I think we’re packing up to head back now, though. So you might want to wrap up whatever illicit things you’re doing here,” Talia added before she turned around and headed back to the pathway.

Theo looked back at me, the amusement and irritation gone, replaced with a smouldering intensity. “Guess we should head back,” he said, his eyes flitting to my lips again. I felt his erection jump against my thigh, and I sighed.

“You’re right.”

He tilted his head down, his swollen lips lifting in a sideways smile that made the butterflies explode low in my belly.

“Feel like jumping off the cliffs again before we leave?”

I thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. But are you sure jumping with that is safe?” I asked, looking pointedly at the erection he was still sporting.

“I’m sure it’ll go away before we reach the top of the cliffs. But stop staring at it, you’re not helping,” Theo joked, adjusting himself before taking my hand. I laughed as we started back up the pathway to the top of the cliff.

Rhiannon and Baz were collecting their things. Jasmine and Desmond had come up to help carry things down, and Jasmine offered to carry down our bags so I could jump with Theo.

She was encouraging me to get time alone with him, I could tell by her delighted smile when she saw us walking up the pathway hand in hand.

Theo was still holding my hand. He squeezed it, drawing my attention to him.

“Ready?” he asked me, cocking a brow. I nodded and took a deep breath, pulling oxygen into my lungs before we made a running start.

This time, I let out a screech as we fell. Theo held my hand the whole way down and tugged me to the surface after we hit the water. The cool water was exactly what my heated skin needed.

“That was amazing,” I laughed breathlessly.

Once I’d caught my breath, Theo tugged me closer to him and kissed me again, only stopping when someone started catcalling us.

“Time to go, lovers!” Talia shouted. “Unless you wanna paddle back to the marina in the dark!”

17

HOMEWARD

Theo

We paddled back to the campsite to grab our gear before heading to the marina. It didn’t take us long before our canoes and kayaks were all loaded up.

Before we left the campsite, we walked around to make sure we hadn’t left behind any garbage or recyclables. Once satisfied we’d be leaving the campsite in a better condition than we found it, we left.

Our group was a little more reserved on the way back, our energy mellow. It sucked that we’d had to call it early, but nobody wanted to get stuck in tomorrow’s thunderstorms.

Luckily, Jasmine had managed to convince Lux to come back to Sudbury with us to check out the duplex. From the sounds of it, Jasmine was working on getting Lux to be her and Talia’s roommate. I had zero complaints about that idea; in fact, I hoped like hell Lux said yes—and not only for the purely selfish reason that I’d get to see more of her.

She’d told me about what awaited her back home with her sister, and I thought it’d do her good to get away from that situation. I had a younger sister, Olivia, and while we weren’t super close, I couldn’t imagine having her hurt me in such a manner. I’d always watched out for her and protected her, and I knew she’d always have my back too.

Lux moving in with Jasmine and Talia really would save Desmond and me the headache of trying to find a college student to rent that room. It might have been easier back when we only rented to college students, but now that we had two semi-permanent renters, it was a little harder to fill that spot.

We really had to vet potential renters and make sure they got along well with Jasmine and Talia, which wasn’t impossible as they were both pretty laid-back people, but our last renter wasn’t exactly a good fit, although she’d seemed to check all the boxes. It turned out she wasn’t comfortable with “Talia’s lifestyle” and was standoffish with Jasmine. She didn’t exactly cause problems, but I knew both Jasmine and Talia felt like they had to walk on eggshells and were relieved when the renter’s term was up.

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