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“I love you, sweetheart.” She didn’t stiffen against him. It was the opposite—she snuggled closer.

“I love you, Riot.”

“I wish I didn’t have to head back to Santa Maria tomorrow.”

“Move in with me.” She hadn’t meant to say it in a rush. To actually think about him leaving made her heart ache.

“Are you telling me or are you asking me?” River heard the laughter in his voice.

“Asking.”

“Why?” he teased her.

“I love watching you walk around naked.”

“If we do this, there will be no rules exceptmyrules, River.”

“Macho much?” She smirked.

“You have a problem with it?”

“No.”

“Good.” Riot rolled her over so he could lavish over her breasts. They were becoming his second favorite thing. When she moaned, he hushed her. She laughed until he showed her that he meant business by nipping at her taut nipple. Hard. “My rules,” he growled against her soft flesh. Her nails scraped along his scalp right before her fingers tangled into his hair, holding his mouth against her. Oh yeah, she needed a lesson in who was in charge.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Riot had taken off early that morning because he needed to be in the office for a meeting. River had dug around in the closets, pulling out framed photos, and begun hanging them in the hallway so they could be enjoyed. After she finished, she kept going back to the photos and the information she had found on Keith. That nagging feeling was an itch that needed scratching. The problem was she promised Riot she would leave the past in the past. It wasn’t so much wanting to dredge up the past as just wanted to connect the dots. If nothing came of it, so be it. If something did come of it… well, that was a whole other matter.What to do?“Fuck it!”

“Fuck what?”

Jerking around, River almost toppled out of her chair. Damn Mal and her stealthy moves. The woman could at least try to make some noise when she entered a room—or in this case the outside patio. “When did you get here?”

Mal sauntered over and took a seat across from River. Eyeing her best friend, she snagged the laptop from River. Yes, she was being nosey, maybe even a tad overbearing, but Riot had called saying she was obsessing over some old photos. Knowing her best friend like she did, Mal knew River having downtime was not always a good thing. Obsessing over old photos was new. “Tell me what’s eating at you.”

“Nothing, it’s old news.”

“That’s Riot talking, not you.”

“He asked me to leave the past alone and look to our future.”

“Your future? As in the two of you? You and him?”

Rolling her eyes at Mal’s comments, she replied, “I may have asked him to move in with me.”

“Girl, either you did, or you didn’t. Did you ask him before, during, or after sex?”

“Somewhere in between.”

“Then you didn’t really ask him.”

Laughing, River asked Mal how exactly did that line of thinking work. River listened as Mal explained the basic rule of questions before, during, and after sex. Evidently when in the “throes of passion” (Mal’s words), one is not in complete control of their thought process due to the overabundance of endorphins that are released into the brain during multiple climaxes.

“He does give you multiples?”

“Stop!” River laughed. She wanted Riot to live with her. Mal knew as well as she did that River had found this place way before the accident. This was meant to be home base for her and Riot years ago. When it came on the market a year after the wreck, it had been in rough shape and at a lower price she was able to manage snagging it. A lot of hard work went into making the little ranch house livable. She wanted everything she had been denied, and damn it she deserved it. “If I tell you what I found… wait,” River hushed Mal, she wanted to finish speaking before she shut her down. “If what I found is nothing more than me wishing for something, you will tell me, and I won’t ever bring it up again.” She waited while Mal sat thinking her offer over. She knew damn well everyone wanted her to stop obsessing about the shit. All River wanted was a definite answer on what she found.

“I came here to help you dig deeper. But we have to keep it to ourselves for now.”

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