Page 70 of After Tonight

Derek took a second to study the group. Peyton was hard not to notice. She was bright and loud and funny. She was a little more easygoing now that she was with Scott and felt more settled, but she was still outspoken and impossible to ignore. Samantha was another of the girls. She was the only one in the group who was married. She had a baby boy at home, but her friend, Kendall, also sitting with the group, made sure Samantha got out once in a while for a girls’ night. And then there were Riley and Lucy.

They seemed completely different on the outside. Lucy wore very little makeup, generally kept her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore, well, basic clothes. Nothing in wild colors or particularly fitted or short. She smiled easily but was quiet and unassuming.

Riley was…none of those things. She was a lot like Peyton in that she was very hard to ignore, and Derek knew he wasn’t the only man to feel that way. Her red hair, her dramatic makeup, her tattoos and bright-colored clothing were part of it. But her smile was big, her laugh was big, and she could be ready to argue nearly anything with anyone in a snap. Unassuming was not a word that would ever be assigned to Riley.

How could he think about dating Lucy? She was so nice. Smart. Sweet. He knew there was a man out there who would appreciate and love Lucy exactly as she was, but for him, well, he wasn’t sure he could do quiet, nice, and sweet now.

Peyton had pulled Kendall and Samantha out onto the dance floor, and Riley and Lucy were sitting, just watching. He saw Dawson Hayes heading in their direction, and Derek fought the urge to step in front of the guy and tell him to back off, because he knew that Hayes was beelining for Riley.

Derek and Riley had been keeping their relationship on the down low. No one knew they were seeing each other. No one knew that she was his.

His.

Derek frowned. That seemed damned possessive. Like the night a few weeks ago when Scott had first called her in to work and Derek had actually worried about her. And missed her.

He didn’t do these things with women. But watching Dawson ask Riley to dance, and her accept, made Derek very much want to claim her. Loudly. Publicly.

And once he did that, he couldn’t very well take it back. Riley was Kyle’s little sister. Erika and Jake’s daughter. Ruby’s granddaughter. Once he said she was his, he wouldn’t be able to take it back.

He still wanted to say it.

He started around the end of the bar, determined to cut in. In a very grand-gesture kind of way. But Riley looked up at him when he was only halfway across the floor. She tipped her head in the direction of the table where Lucy sat, now alone. He followed her gaze. Lucy didn’t look unhappy. She looked…resigned. And yeah, okay, that made him feel a little like asking her to dance.

He glanced back at Riley. She widened her eyes and then nodded toward Lucy again.

Derek sighed. Yeah, yeah, he was going to ask Lucy to dance.

And, not for the first time, he wished that Riley was a little clingier. Why couldn’t Dawson dance with Lucy? Why didn’t Riley suggest that? She had a boyfriend. Lucy didn’t.

But he turned, walked over to Lucy, held out a hand, said something charming, got a smile, and pulled the quiet bookworm onto the dance floor. And was rewarded with a big grin from the woman he was seriously considering spanking later.

And five hours later, after they’d danced and laughed, after he’d made sure Lucy had a fabulous time, after he’d leaned in and told Riley that he expected her mouth around his cock two minutes after they got home, after everyone had finally vacated the bar, they’d headed out to his truck hand in hand. And Derek admitted that he liked that Riley knew she could trust him, that he could dance with other women without her needing to worry. He liked that he didn’t have to report in to her on a regular basis, that they could each do their own things and then end up back together at home.

But he still spanked her, because she asked very nicely.

* * *

Riley tore open the bag of sparkly sapphire-blue stones with a swarm of butterflies in her stomach. They were perfect. Beautiful and bright. They were going to look amazing scattered among the white and silver stones.

“Oh, those are so pretty!”

She looked up and smiled at Lucy. “They are, aren’t they?”

Lucy was helping her get the path finished before the big crowd came to town for Michael Kade’s murder-mystery event.

“Okay, so the white and silver stones are to fill up the path,” Lucy clarified.

Thanks to Derek, the path was already dug. It curved from the highway on the edge of town, through the grass and trees that bordered the town, to Teal Street, the first street in Sapphire Falls. The path then continued through the town square from Teal Street to the gazebo that was the heart of the town. The path signified that anyone was welcome in Sapphire Falls and would find safety and hospitality. It was also designed to raise awareness among the people in Sapphire Falls and their visitors for victims of sex trafficking that were often taken from their own homes to places far away, where they were alone and scared.

The square saw the most traffic of anywhere in town, and when the people of Sapphire Falls walked by the path, or even followed the path up to the gazebo, they’d think of what it stood for. And when visitors saw the unusual path, made of loose white, silver, and blue stones, and they asked what it was about, anyone in town should be able to tell them.

“Yes, those are just the basic fillers,” Riley said. “And then every person or family or business who donates five dollars gets a blue stone to add to the path. Hopefully, some families and all the businesses will donate more than one stone.”

All the money would go to an advocacy group called the Family Alliance. Her parents had actually given her the money to create the path and buy the stones, so that all the proceeds could be donated. She still got a little choked up when she thought about that.

“I love it,” Lucy told her. “It’s beautiful, and I love the symbolism.”

Riley smiled. “Thanks, Luce.” She was really proud of it. And she loved that Derek had helped her build it, and that her mom and dad had given her the money to get it started, and that Lucy was here helping her now.

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