Page 59 of Driven by Desire

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Three months later.

Riley stood with her back to him watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. She was waist deep in the water, allowing the gentle waves to lick against her tanned body. Dark chocolate hair was pulled high on her head in a ponytail. Her arms were wrapped protectively around herself. He could see her black chipped nails splayed against the skin of her back on either side. The thin black strap of her bikini halter trailed down between the angel’s wings of her tattoo. She was so fucking beautiful it made him ache deep inside.

He wanted to smile, but he couldn’t. Eventually they would get there. But for now, his chest ached too much at how serious his gorgeous girl had become. He almost always knew to find her outdoors at this time of day when he came home from work. Claustrophobia was probably the biggest side effect to her ordeal. He calmly dealt with it by clearing out the local pharmacy of all their sunscreen so she could spend as much time outdoors as she needed. She also had about a hundred new hats to choose from to protect her face from the sun. Hats she never wore, he noted with annoyance, stripping the clothes from his body and leaving them in the sand.

He also watched quietly and never said a word as she opened every door and window in their house, allowing flies and critters to wander through. That was how they’d adopted McDavid the month before. An ugly as fuck snaggletooth Shepard mix that had wandered in looking for a handout and found the mess Riley had made in the kitchen. Somehow the mangy mutt could calm Riley’s panic attacks when nothing else could. So the damn dog stayed.

Soloman didn't push her to go to counselling. Surprisingly it was Cilia that managed to talk her into seeing his friend’s wife. And the counselling seemed to help gradually heal her trauma. She opened up bit by bit about her experience. Sometimes she cried. Sometimes she raged and threw things. He didn’t care what she did as long as she got it out and kept it out.

He waded out into the ocean, splashing a little so she wouldn’t be surprised. Some days she got stuck in her own head. He hated the terror that would cross her features when something or someone startled her. He noted the gradual loosening of her shoulders and knew that she was aware of his presence. His lips twitched upward.

She turned her head to the side as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned her head back against his chest. He loved the way her soft hair fell between them and rubbed against his hard body. Then he saw the necklace. She was wearing his choker. Fuck, that sign of his possession combined with her tiny bikini nearly made him come right then and there. Was she telling him she was finally ready to resume intimacy?

“You’re late,” she said, her voice softly accusing.

The rage he felt every time he heard her damaged voice was like a fresh wound. Her voice was softer now, hoarse and sexy. But not the Riley he’d originally met. Not the confident, strident woman that told him to fuck off in no uncertain tones. That Riley had been taken. Her voice had been torn to shreds from screams of terror and agony as she slowly baked to death in a trunk.

He never let her know how he felt. He was never anything but infinitely gentle. It cost him. He wanted the man that had hurt his girl back under his hands. He would make him pay. Again and again. For a thousand lifetimes.

“Trouble at Merchant’s,” he told her not wanting to elaborate. He didn't know how she’d feel about his most recent bout of trouble.

She turned in his arms pressing her full breasts against him. Breath hissed through his teeth as he tried like hell to tame his reaction to her. Knowing what she’d been through, understanding what that sick fuck had tried to do to her, he'd kept his distance. But now, with her in his arms, pressing herself curves against him, nothing could stop his cock from rising up between them.

And for the first time in a long time, a smile curved her gorgeous lips. She clutched his biceps, tilted her head back, pressed her stomach against his erection and grinned with her eyes closed. He held her loosely in his arms just watching her glow in the light of the setting sun. So incredibly down to earth and lovely. He couldn’t imagine wanting anything else in his life.

She opened her eyes and looked at him mischievously through her lashes. “Is Cilia causing mischief in your club?” she asked innocently. A little too innocently. The little vixen knew something.

His arms tightened around her and he dragged her up his body. He slid an arm up her back and cupped her head, forcing her face up to his. “What exactly do you know about it, Riley Bancroft?”

She bit her lip to stifle the giggle that threatened to erupt and shrugged her shoulders. He reached into the water for her leg and lifted it high to hook around his hip. She gasped as his thick cock rubbed against her bikini bottom. He pulled her other leg up and cupped her ass in one large hand, sliding his fingers into the material.

“I may or may not know something about a large amount of missing funds,” she admitted in a breathless rush, her melted chocolate eyes clouding with lust.

Jesus, she knew about the money. And fucked if he cared. He wanted her so fucking bad in that moment he was about to shrug off six million dollars just so he could slide his cock into her willing heat. Apparently, she had the same thought, because she tangled her fingers in his hair and tugged his head down to hers, spearing his mouth with her tongue.

He groaned and shoved her tongue back into her mouth with his own before orally fucking her with every pent up sexual feeling he’d had over the past three months. He felt like he finally had his girl in his arms instead of a ghost. She felt so good, so alive. He’d been willing to wait for as long as it took for her to be ready. He would have waited forever if that was what she’d wanted. But fuck, three months felt like forever.

He turned in the water with her and started toward the beach with her nibbling at his neck. She breathed sexily in his ear before moaning, “Don’t you want to know why she stole the money?”

“No offence, gorgeous, don’t want to talk about your mother right now. Want to lay you down on the beach and fuck you until we both can’t stand anymore… wait… why would she tell you about any of this?” he finally asked. “That’s not like her, right?”

They emerged from the ocean together. He let her slide through his arms until her feet sank into the soft sand next to his expensive suit, which was now going to have to be thoroughly cleaned. She smiled and nodded. “Now you’re catching on.”

“I’ll bite,” he growled. “Why did she steal the money?”

A beautiful blush splashed across her face and she looked away from him. It was so unlike his Riley to not be completely forthright that he was shocked for a moment.

Finally, with her eyes glued to his chest, she said, “She’s holding the money for ransom. She wants us to get married. It’s going to be a wedding gift. You say, ‘I do’ and she transfers the money back.”

He stared down at her in surprise. “And she told you this?” he asked incredulously.

She nodded and laughed a little. “About an hour ago. She left town just in case you decided to be pissed. Understanding people’s reactions aren’t really her thing, so she likes to be safe, just in case things don't go as planned.”

Soloman wanted to laugh. He was beginning to really enjoy his bizarre soon-to-be mother-in-law. He’d have to keep a better eye on his assets around her though. Instead, he dropped to his knees in the sand, surprising Riley. Her hands fell to his shoulders and her eyes widened in shock. She opened her mouth, but he shook his head sharply.

He took her hands in his. “I don't give a fuck about the money, Riley. I would throw it all away if it meant I got to spend the next ten minutes with you. She can keep it. I should have proposed to you the moment I saw you in the garage. You would’ve thought I was crazy, but it’s what I wanted to do. Instead, I scared you, bullied you and forced you to come to me.”

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