“Fucking save it,” she muttered.
“Yeah, yeah! Wonder where you’re coming from, Wiley Coyote?” Jase laughed.
Wiley Coyote. Fuck, she hated that nickname. I’d almost lost a nut in sophomore year for taunting her with it. Learned a valuable lesson that day. The corners of my lips kicked up when her expression darkened, a finger lifting to point right at Jason.
“Don’t!” she warned, clearly in no mood for his bullshit. Because she’d woken up alone? A stab of guilt hit me. Don’t even fucking go there, dickhead. “I was taking out the trash, that okay with you?”
Danny shot her a smirk. “In yesterday’s clothes?”
Why the fuck did that asshole know what she was wearing yesterday? My feet were moving before I could process the intention. Riley shrugged. “What can I say? It’s laundry day. This is all I had.”
Jase scoffed. “Laundry day? What’s that code for... a spin cycle on Reno’s dick?” Smart-mouthed motherfucker. He and Danny slapped each other a high five. Jesus.
I caught Riley’s eye roll as I pushed the door open. Her head swung to me instantly, those bright green eyes growing wide before she swallowed visibly, her throat working, and blanked her features. Turning back to Jason, she flattened her palm and cracked it over the back of his head. “Don’t be disgusting, jerk.”
“Ow!” he muttered, scrubbing his hand over his head with a frown.
The edges of my mouth turned up. Man, she was something else. I looked at her and she fucking broke me. Her sass, her demeanor. That gorgeous goddamn face. All of it. If my balls ached, then my chest ached ten times harder. Shake it the fuck off, man. Clearing my throat loudly, I folded my arms over my chest and eyed Jase and Danny.
“You two gonna stand there pissing about all day, or you gonna come inside so I can kick both of your asses on COD?”
“Oh, he’s delusional today. Must be all the steam from Riley’s laundry screwing with his head, huh, Riley?” Her hand shot out again. Both idiots ducked, weaving out of her range. When they were at a safe distance, Danny turned back with a wink. “You guys aren’t nearly as sly as you think you are.” When he spun around, I was inches away. “Whoa, motherfucker!” he gasped. “Fucking sneak up on people like that!”
“Shut the fuck up, Dan.”
His lips twisted into a smirk, but he mimed shutting the fuck up and shuffled past me as he followed Jase inside. My eyes locked on Riley’s the second the door swung shut behind me. The closed door didn’t fool me into thinking we didn’t have an audience. Her cheeks flushed pink, and the sight was so fucking endearing, my heart pounded and my fingers itched to trace over her warm skin. Fuck. Shut that shit down. This is only fucking… and it’s temporary.
Schooling my features, I offered her a brief nod. One that asked are you good without voicing the words. She nodded, sinking her teeth into that full bottom lip, and my blood heated. I heard a growl rumble in my chest before I’d clocked it had come from me. She heard it. With a sultry smile, she twisted her hands behind her back and began walking away, still facing me. I wanted her. In a bed, a car, over a table. Right here on the grass with the guys and every other nosy fucker watching on. And she knew it.
Eventually she swirled around, granting me a glance of that perfect ass swathed in tight denim, and swung her hips with an exaggerated sway. When her small hand curled around the door handle, she glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes gleaming and the morning sun shining over her still tousled dirty blonde hair.
“Have a good day, Ren.” She smiled before disappearing inside.
Was she kidding? Blue balls. All damn day.
And that’s what I got for leaving her to wake up alone.
Fuck.
I spent
the rest of the afternoon at Le's, talking shit, eating shit, smoking shit. It was unproductive as fuck, but it was the perfect location to stake out Riley’s trailer so I’d know the second her mom left for work in her beat up old banger, the exhaust coughing like a ninety-year-old with fucking emphysema. Made sense, it looked to be around that age. As soon as the clouds of exhaust fumes cleared, I ditched the guys without explanation, and took the ten strides that separated the two homes faster than my ass had ever moved before. I’d fucking defy Usain Bolt to beat my time.
Knuckles rapping on the door, I waited. Riley hadn’t left all afternoon, and I knew that because I’d kept one of my eyes trained on her door for the past ten hours, like a straight-up, certified creeper. I lifted my fist to knock again, but stopped at the sound of music filtering from inside. She couldn’t even fucking hear me. Dropping my hand to the handle instead, I pushed, and it clicked open without resistance. Unlocked! Fucking irresponsible woman! Brows knitted in irritation, my feet made a beeline for the small bedroom at the back, the steady thrum of the bass increasing the closer I got.
Annoyance pulsed through me at the fact that this girl seemed hell-bent on winding up dumped in a shallow grave with her throat slit or some shit. I was fully fucking intent on introducing her to a little something known as a sense of self-preservation… until the girl in question waltzed into my eye-line through the six-inch gap in the door. Clothed in nothing except a tiny lace thong, her hair still damp, and sticking to the skin over her shoulders and back. Safe to say the anger melted like ice on a steam grate, replaced by a surge of desire so fucking strong my knees threatened to buckle and my dick sprang to life like a defibrillator had shocked it. Zero to fucking sixty in approximately nought point nought seconds. Actually, fuck that—I’d been sporting a semi since she’d strutted past me in those tight little shorts this morning. Now, it was goddamn painful. I couldn’t resist watching her unobserved. But when she grabbed a matching sleep short and cami set, I made my presence known. No sense letting her get dressed, I’d have her naked again in less than two minutes.
“It’s as if you’re trying to get yourself killed.”
Her head damn near hit the roof of the trailer, her pale hands clutching the material in a death grip against her heaving chest. “What the fucking Jesus is wrong with you!” she demanded, voice shrill, every other word punctured by a labored gulp for air.
Stepping into her space, I felt my lips curve up into a satisfied smirk and twitched a brow. “You should keep your door locked, Ri. It could have been anyone strolling in here finding you in your underwear.” My gaze trailed her body as I closed the distance between us, fire burning through every single part of me.
Her chin tipped, her jaw clenched and her eyes narrowed. She was pissed and trying to convey that fact, but her slim shoulders rose and fell faster with every step I took toward her. And she was still naked except for a scrap of lace, so the effect was lost.
“I wish it had been someone else, you jackass! And quit looking at me like that!” she snapped, her green eyes flashing. But I watched her face flush, and she was still panting like a train.
My head tilted, lips curling as my eyes devoured her. I knew exactly how I was looking at her. I also knew I had zero intention of stopping. Still I murmured, “Like what?”