Page 13 of The Billionaire's Obsession

That would be you, sweetheart.I knew better than to say that aloud right now.

“How can I make it up to you?” I asked her. “What about a better studio?”

She turned a shocked look at me. “I love my studio space, and you don’t have to buy me anything, never mind some kind of monthly obligation. That’s nuts.”

“I didn’t mean pay for it monthly, I meant purchase it outright, for you.”

Riley narrowed her eyes at me. “You don’t really strike me as a supporter of the arts.”

“It’s my new passion. Why hasn’t you best friend ever upgraded your lifestyle? She can certainly afford it.”

“Because I don’t need her charity, thank you very much.”

I chuckled. “Is there such a thing as charity between friends?”

“Yeah, but they don’t call it charity,” Riley shot back, stepping to the side of the trail to avoid a fallen branch. “They call it pity and it’s way worse.”

It was the last she managed, before the ground at the edge of the trail crumbled, and she disappeared from my grasping hand.

CHAPTER9

Riley

“Riley!” Cole’s shout echoed around the valley, and I caught one last look from his worried blue eyes before everything slid away. My feet slipped, and the ground gave way, and I fell so fast, I couldn’t hold on to anything. I clawed at the ground as it shot past, roots, grass even, but nothing held. I landed hard at the bottom of a dip on a bed of rock. My ankle twisted painfully against a huge rock sticking out of the wall.

“Motherfucker!” I cried, resting back and gritting my teeth.

“Riley!” Cole called again, his voice frantic. Small rocks and dirt cascaded down the wall of dirt and dried grass beside me. His feet appeared in my line of vision, and he was sliding quickly down the side, with far less care than he should be. He landed agilely beside me.

“Be careful. One of us needs to be able to walk,” I warned him.

“Shit, does it hurt?”

“Fuck yeah, it hurts.”

“I’m sorry. Fuck, I’m so sorry.” Cole pushed a hand through his hair and frowned at my leg. “Can you move it?”

“Yeah, I can move it. It just hurts. Thank fuck it’s not my wrist.”

“We’ll fix this. I’ll fix this. I’ll fix all of it,” Cole muttered. He seemed to lose his customary cool. It was fascinating to watch. “Shit, the first time in months, no–years, that I actually care about something, and I’m fucking it all up.”

“Wow, you really want to sell your uncle on this fake relationship thing.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” he muttered, and then looked up at the trail, now far above us.

“You should leave me here. Get help, come back, I’ll be waiting.”

“No, I’m not leaving you. I don’t know if there are wild animals, other hikers, you could be in shock.”

“Cole! You can’t take me with you.” He was staring right into my eyes, and something in that look made my heart pound even harder than it had been when I was falling. Then he closed the space between us, grabbed my face between his hands and kissed me. He kissed me firmly, as if he was punctuating a sentence of a feeling. It was a full stop of a kiss. His tongue pushed against mine, and my breath stuttered as he pulled my lower lip between his teeth, before leaning back and pressing a small kiss to each corner of my mouth.

“The hell I can’t. I’m taking you with me, sweetheart, or we’re both staying here.”

With that, he stood over me and levered me up carefully. Once I was leaning against the wall, he moved in front of me and crouched down.

“Hop on, I’m carrying you.”

“That’s impossible.”

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