Page 127 of Riordan's Revenge

“I recently found out some things about my mother,” I said in a rush. She knew how the woman was long dead. “It’s stuck in my head because talking about her has made me feel like she might pop up unexpectedly.”

I hadn’t realised the point until I voiced it. Doctor Hillier asked for more information, and I went through meeting DeeDee and what she’d told me. It was just another item in the lists of things that could fuck me up and send me running.

Too quickly, our time was up.

The doctor gave me her parting words. “You’re quick to call yourself faddy, and while it’s true that you’ve had a history of changing interests quickly, you were young and still growing. It’s normal for teenagers to change identities as often as they change clothes until they find one that fits. Consider that you hadn’t yet found the right version of yourself to be.”

I clutched the phone long after she’d made her goodbyes.

I’d barely begun to process my thoughts when a scraping sound came from the back corner of the office. I’d locked the door after Dixie and knew I was alone, so leapt up and searched the space.

Nothing. No hidden person behind the filing cabinet or sofa.

Then a cough sounded. It came from the other side of the wall.

Flying to the door, I fell out into the corridor, scanning the floor to work out what backed onto the office. The long wall led the way down to the lift and then the entrance to Divide. In the other direction, it rounded the central staircase then descended steps to the basement.

I sprinted into the nightclub. To the left, in a back corner, was a storeroom. I rattled the door handle. Closed and locked.

Nor was there anyone in the vast, empty space of the club.

Had I been overheard? Lara was the only person I’d seen going in here. I searched my mind for if it mattered. I’d given a ton of personal information on myself, but why would anyone else care about that?

Riordan was the only person affected by what I’d said on the phone. If he’d heard me, it could so easily have sounded bad.

Then another thought resolved. The cough had been distinctly feminine.

Relief swallowed me whole.

I made my way back upstairs and to our seventh-floor apartment. In our bed, Riordan slept on. Quietly, I undressed and climbed in beside him, my movements stirring him to haul me into his arms.

“You’re cold,” he muttered sleepily into my hair.

He hugged me, giving me back life where the chill of trying to fix myself had settled in.

I kissed his rough cheek. He woke enough to fit his mouth to mine and return the affection. The kisses didn’t end, becoming drugging and wet. His sleepiness and my wakefulness traded off until we were both in a state of somewhere in between where everything was just us.

Riordan’s hands wandered. He made a sound of approval at finding me naked, and his hand cupped me between the legs, a possessive squeeze shifting into a tease, his fingers stroking me until I moaned in need.

He flipped me over to my front and reared up behind me, kneeling between my legs. Through a sleep-soaked voice, he said, “I’m going to fuck you hard. Don’t come. I’m going to first, then I’ll lick you clean and make you cry out and orgasm until you beg me to stop.”

He propped up my hips with a hand to my upper back to keep my head and shoulders down, then lined up his dick with my entrance. I was wet from the kissing and his touch, so he thrustinside without teasing. My lips parted over a rushed intake of breath, no feeling better in this world than when we were together like this. He filled me so good. The stretch was familiar now, and pleasure rolled through me. Every sense brightening.

With my cheek to the mattress and my arse in the air, I closed my eyes and felt every blow. Every slam into me that lit up my body. Automatically, my fingers crept up to my clit, but Riordan noticed and slapped my hand away.

“Don’t come.”

“No fair,” I whined.

“I’ll make it fair. Let me fill you up, beautiful girl. Fuck, you’re so tight. You’re going to make me come already.”

A thrill danced over me, and I squeezed him, loving how his words faltered and turned into a groan. He never let himself go first, but I was here for it, loving the switch around and how fervently he fucked me.

When he gave a guttural shout and thrust hard into me then stilled, pulsing, I nearly came, too. Had to force myself to pant through it.

Riordan palmed my arse, stroking the globes of my cheeks while he breathed. “Keep your head down and your ass high. Tell me if you’re close. I want my tongue inside you each time.”

Pulling out, he kissed my spine then moved down further. His fingers slid over my soaked and sensitive flesh.

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