Page 106 of River
She stiffened. “What do you mean? Are you scared that we’re moving too fast?”
“No. I already know what I want, but you’ve freaked out on me before.”
River rolled on top of me, straddling my hips while wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing her forehead against mine. “I won’t freak out like that again. Everything with you feels different from any of the relationships that I’ve been in before.”
“In what way?”
“It was always a transaction of sorts. It took finding you to understand that I’ve never loved any of my other boyfriends.”
I let my hands slide from the small of her back and up to her shoulder blades. “Is that your way of saying that you love me?”
Pulling her head back enough to meet my gaze, she hesitated for a moment before finally breathing out, “I love you, Noah.”
I didn’t even hesitate when I whispered back, “I love you too, River.”
It’d been a long day, but we still made love like we hadn’t seen each other for months. River was relaxed from the wine and champagne, and we snickered together when the bed made noises. I covered her mouth when she moaned too loud, but by the time River finally came with me inside her, I was so high on satisfaction that I didn’t mind her family hearing that I made her happy.
Maybe it was the massive dose of romance from the wedding or the excitement of feeling accepted into a large family that made me unable to find sleep long after River had drifted off.
I thought about what Owen had said about losing Kit and wasting years that they could have spent together. I wanted to hold on to what I had with River, but there were so many questions in my mind. She lived in bustling London while I was in rural Ireland. Where would we live, and would I be enough for someone like River long term? I didn’t know anything about art and fashion. And what about when she found out about the scale of my inheritance? Would she feel betrayed by my not telling her in the first place? It’d been a full year since my father died, but I still didn’t identify with the word billionaire. For the most part, I pushed the thought away and left the money to work for me. One day soon, I’d decide what to do with all that money, but for now, my biggest challenge was how to tell River in a way that wouldn’t make her feel I’d been dishonest with her.
