Untouchable (Unstoppable 1)

“Look at me, Riley.”

No, thank you.

I heard him sigh. “Damn it, Ri,” he muttered. His hands landed on my hips, lifting me off my feet. Before I knew what was happening, my butt met the smooth surface of the counter. I responded with a little yelp, which he silenced by stepping between my thighs and pressing his lips to mine, coaxing them open.

Every part of me softened. My hands landed on his big shoulders as my lips parted for him without question, without reserve. With our mouths fused together, everything else fell away. He growled low in his throat when I pressed into him, securing his arms around my waist as my hands crawled up his neck, my fingers curling into the damp hair at his nape.

He pulled back a little, breathing heavily, trapping me in his stare. “You think I even see her?”

Eyes bouncing between his, I murmured, “What is this, Ren? What are we doing?”

I didn’t want to do it… be the needy girl who had to ask where is this going? but I couldn’t help myself. I was about to shape my entire future based on this, on the promise of us. I needed to at least believe that I wasn’t just one in a rotation of girls.

He sighed, his hands slid to rub over my upper thighs, giving them a gentle squeeze. “We’re spending time together. Having fun. Okay?”

My teeth snagged my lower lip, biting down anxiously. His answer did nothing to ease my concerns. “Are we... having fun... with other people?”

His fingers dug into my flesh and his eyes flashed. “No.”

“No?”

Using his grip on my legs, he dragged my body into his and ground his hips into me, eliciting a soft cry from my lips. His hands glided over my skin, sure fingertips sweeping beneath the fabric of my shorts. His stare drilled into me. “I’m not fucking anyone else, Ri, and you damn sure better not be.”

A hint of a smile pulled at my mouth as I wriggled closer. “So… exclusive friends?”

Narrowed eyes assessed me, right before his big palms seized each of my butt cheeks and he hauled me up off the vanity like I weighed nothing, settling me flush against his body. My legs folded around his waist like they belonged there. “You’re wearing too many clothes for a pool party,” he drawled.

“Yeah, maybe. I’m just not sure I want to get wet though.” His eyes lit on fire. I clapped my hand over my mouth, stifling a giggle.

Sexy smirk firmly in place, he asked hoarsely, “Anything I can do to change your mind?”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

He did. And he didn’t totally ignore me after he’d ravished my body in Danny’s bathroom either. It felt like a step in the right direction.

It felt like I was making the right choice.

Thirty-Five

Reno

Early morning sunlight filtered through the thin drapes, hitting the back of my closed lids. Prizing them open, I immediately blinked against the stream of light. My gaze fell to the crumpled bed sheets and the golden-haired goddamn angel tangled up in them. Pushing up on my hands, I let my eyes wander over her face, lifting a hand to brush her hair aside. Tiny freckles dotted the bridge of her nose and her long lashes rested along the crest of her cheeks. Fuck, she was beautiful.

I forced my body from the bed, intent on diverting my attention, but my defiant eyes refused to leave Riley’s face. A slow exhale flowed past my lips. She’d stayed over again. Warning sounds triggered. I was letting this develop into more than friendship, more than sex. She was steadily creeping back in. Part of me couldn’t fucking understand why that was a problem anymore. But I wasn’t about to let myself forget.

A few months ago, I’d been in love with this girl. Then everything had gone to shit, ripping my life to shreds. What I’d felt for her then hadn’t just disappeared; it had always been there. But I’d changed. I wasn’t about to lay everything on the line for something so fickle as love. Life had taught me how goddamn easy it was for someone to love you one minute and be gone the next. My mom had made her choice willingly; she’d abandoned us. That stung. More than I’d ever let myself acknowledge, and it hurt more now that I had no fucking one left. Brett and Owen hadn’t chosen to leave, but they still weren’t here, were they? And it still hurt like a bitch.

Tearing my gaze away, I threw on the discarded clothes littering the bedroom floor and strode from the room. Grabbing a bottle of Gatorade from the fridge, I took three big gulps as my eyes surveyed the space around me. There was nowhere to hide from the memories in here. The place was too small. I couldn’t look at the fridge and not see the door held open, Brett reaching in for another beer, a tinge of guilt in his eyes as he assured me it was his last one. He’d never owed me one damn explanation. Never owed me anything. Never stopped him, though. The sectional still bore mine and O's ass prints from the days we’d sat gaming for hours on end. O demanding a rematch every time I kicked his ass. If I cast my mind back real hard, I could see my mother standing by the counter, wrestling with a can opener, and Brett coming behind her, taking it from her hands with a tender kiss to her cheek.

I shook myself from the reverie. Memories might provide comfort to other people. For me, they served as reminders that life could seem perfectly fucking fine, but we were never more than one bad decision, one twist of fate away from total destruction. I didn’t even know if my mother knew about Owen. How fucked up was that? A mother not being aware her son had died. And if she had found out, she hadn’t fucking made an effort to get in touch; hadn’t attended the funeral or sent her condolences. Bitterness coiled in my gut, and I grit my teeth. Nothing was permanent. No point pretending otherwise. Leon’s mom had coerced me into seeing a grief counselor, and apparently my reaction was a natural one. Whatever. I didn’t need a shrink to tell me it was pure fucking lunacy to put myself in that position again.

Letting Riley all the way in was the equivalent of laying on a guillotine, waiting for the blade to drop. And it would. It always did. The problem with this kind of guillotine, though? It didn’t fucking kill you. No, it took chunks, hacked away piece by piece, until all it left behind was blinding pain. Loving Riley and then losing her would decimate me. Like stepping on an IED and surviving, everything except my beating heart blown to smithereens. And when it came down to it, I’d probably rather be dead.

Stalking from the trailer, desperate to put some distance between me and my supposed casual hook up, I stopped outside Leon’s door and thumped a clenched fist against it. Once, twice... ten times.

“Wake up, motherfucker.” A groan from inside, followed by a thud and muffled curse, twisted my lips into a half smirk. When his dishevelled ass opened the door, bleary, bloodshot eyes, hair sticking up every fucking which way, I grimaced. “You look like shit.”

“Well, I might not if people would let me fucking sleep,” he muttered, stumbling away.