Page 49 of They Will Fall

Once she’s dry, I stand up and spin her around. Her eyes immediately land on Maddox, who has one foot kicked up on the wall by the door and his arms crossed over his chest. There’s a look of concern on Riley’s face, but when Maddox smiles and crosses the room to us, her emotions quickly shift gears.

“I didn’t know you were there,” she says to him as he crouches down in front of her. I step to the side as he pulls up a pair of his gym shorts on her that he must have grabbed from his bag.

He remains down in front of her, but tips his chin. “Didn’t want to disrupt your reunion.”

Riley rolls her lips together. “I know this isn’t normal, but I hope it can beournormal.”

“Normal is boring,” Maddox retorts, and I’m in complete agreement. “We areus. Doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.”

She smiles in response and I find myself doing the same.

Once Maddox is on his feet, he presses a chaste kiss to her lips. “I’ll finish getting your room ready. You’ll be in the room between mine and Ridge’s” His gaze lands on mine. “Ridge, can you show her to her bathroom? She said she wanted a shower.”

I nod and take her hand, leading her through to the kitchen, to the staircase on the far side of the house.

Even with everything going on around us, there’s a sense of calm inside me right now. It’s amazing how much power another human being can have over your emotions.

Still holding her hand, I lead her into the guest bathroom down the hall from the room she’ll be staying in. On top of the sink vanity is a towel, along with some bath essentials, such as shampoo, conditioner, and razors.

I close the door and she pauses inside, as if she expects me to leave. Well, she’s wrong.

Reaching over, I turn on the bathtub and click the lever to keep the water from draining. “How about a bath instead of a shower?”

A smile draws on her face. “Okay.”

I gather the mini bottles of shampoo and conditioner, as well as a new razor, and set them on the ledge of the bathtub. My eyes land on a near-empty bottle of bubble bath on a shelf to the right, so I grab it and squeeze the remaining contents beneath the stream of running water, watching as foam begins to surface.

As the bath fills, I return to Riley. My hands run down her sleeves and I grip the hem of her sweatshirt. I lift up and her arms instinctively rise. Her tired eyes stare back at me and I get lost in them as I toss the sweatshirt to the floor. Still locked on her blue orbs, I lower myself to my knees and take her shorts back down. She steps one foot out, then the other, and I throw them on top of the sweatshirt.

With her hand now in mine, I lead her over to the bathtub. “Join me?” she asks in a near whisper.

“Planned on it.”

She steps into the bath, wincing when her feet, that seem to be covered in cuts and scrapes, touch the water. I immediately want to ask her what happened and demand revenge on anyone that caused my girl pain, much less made her bleed. Except, as her body sinks beneath the frothy bubbles, I find myself not wanting to ruin the moment. I undress quickly, eager to join her. I step in behind her, my legs curling around her body as I cage her in.

Riley rests her head back on my chest, and I draw lines up and down her arms with the foam we’re engulfed in.

“This is nice,” she says. “If only the comfort I feel now could last forever.”

“It will,” I tell her. “I need you not to worry and let me, Maddox, and Lev do the worrying for you.”

Her body tenses and her eyes look up at me. “Lev?”

I nod. “Yes, Lev.”

“But he’s the reason this happened, Ridge. He’s the cause of this mess.” She sits up and meets my gaze with questioning eyes. Her forehead creases prominently and her eyebrows cave in. “Do you know where he is?”

I can’t lie to her, and I won’t. I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and mutter a barely audible, “Yeah.”

“Ridge!” she stammers, her hand sloshing in the water. “Have you known this whole time?”

“No,” I say in a harsh tone. I don’t make it a point to lie to her, so why would she assume I was? “Not the whole time. After you and Maddox took off, he called me.” My tone softens and I pull her into me, forcing her back to my chest as I hold her. “We have a lot to talk about, including where you and Maddox were all this time. And we’ll talk about it all. But right now, just soak up this moment with me.”

A minute or so of silence passes and she finally relaxes into me. We sit there, soaking in the water, for what feels like hours, but it’s still not enough time. I could stay here forever.

Riley begins to stir, then she slides down, allowing her body to fully emerge. I look down at her face through the clear water. Her eyes are closed, her hair spread out like a web that covers my legs.

When she comes back up, she inhales a deep breath and pushes the water off her face.

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