Taking the Leap (River Rain 3)

I tipped my head to look up at him.

He’d shrugged off his jacket and was unbuttoning his shirt, his eyes to my feet.

Sadly, I had my thoughts on a variety of other things, not only Chad, so I could not focus entirely on how hot my beautiful man looked, unbuttoning his shirt.

Though I did focus (alas, just not entirely), and he was hot.

“They’re never going to forgive me for the torture I’m putting them through this week,” I remarked. “In other words, we’re day one, and my feet are already killing me.”

His shirt open to his navel, he came to stand in front of me and muttered, “Give it.”

He had his hand out, cupped in front of him.

For a second, I didn’t understand.

Then I lifted my foot and rested it in his cupped hand.

With a couple of expert tugs, the strap was released and then the six hundred dollar shoe (the other one was another six hundred dollars) went sailing, landing with a thud on the floor.

Rix then covered my foot with the fingers of both his hands, digging the pads of his thumbs into the arch.

Ohmigod.

Heaven.

“Don’t know your sister much, babe. What I do know, I’m not impressed. But I don’t care who it is, or if they’re an asshole. They deserve to know shit like that’s going down. Especially right before they legally commit to a punk-ass cheat,” he advised.

He was now holding my foot in one hand, digging his knuckles into my heel.

It felt awesome.

But my sigh wasn’t about that (or, not all about that).

“Was getting off on how you’re stealing her thunder without even trying,” Rix went on. “Considering what you’ve told me about her, and the little I’ve seen which confirms it. But no one deserves to walk into a life of that.”

He was right.

Far too soon, he bent to set my foot down, but lucky for me, he picked up the other one.

Tug, tug, shoe was flying, and he was kneading.

“Suggestion?” he offered.

I looked from his long-fingered hands doing their magic up to his face.

And it did its magic.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Maybe talk to your dad about it. The Helena and Edward show is fucked up, baby, and I gotta admit, Blake may be a bitch, but I’ve never seen a dad act so shitty to his kid. But even with that, he seems the most level-headed and functional of the bunch.”

“He wasn’t always that way with her,” I muttered.

“Yeah. Jamie clued me into some shit. Same thing you told me. Said she’d act up not in good ways.”

I nodded. “I’m not surprised Jamie shared, seeing as maybe I downplayed it when I was mentioning it before. The truth is, Blake was beginning to get a serious reputation.”

“Yeah?” he prompted.

I felt my face get soft at that one word.

Always.

Always interested.

Interested in everything about me.

My Rix.

My Rix

Really mine.

And my face got even softer.

His face did the same as mine did, and for a second, I focused entirely on how gorgeous my man was.

When his lips quirked, and I knew he knew I was focusing on that, I pulled myself out of it and began the Tales of the Dread Adventures of Blake Sharp.

“She’s been arrested. Twice. Little stuff, but it took Dad’s time to deal with. The scariest part of all her devilries was that, for a while, she got caught up with some drug people. Not like, dealers or anything. Just a crew of debutants and dandies who liked cocaine too much. And when I say that, I mean way too much. While she was using that stuff, she wasn’t just acting like she ruled the world, because she kinda always acted like that, it was just pronounced when she was high. She also acted sometimes like she could leap from tall buildings. It could be pretty terrifying. We were all worried, in our ways. I talked to her a couple of times; she blew me off that couple of times. Dad eventually sat her down. Apparently, cocaine costs a lot of money. And the Bernhard-Sharp-Coddingtons haven’t stayed rich by blowing money on stupid stuff. I also think he told her she wouldn’t stay rich if she kept up with that shit. So she gave it up.”

Rix nodded.

Thus I kept sharing.

“One of that group went on to get seriously into heroin. Another had a really bad car accident when she was under the influence. One’s been married and divorced twice, and she’s only thirty years old. Blake never talked about it, but I think she was glad she got out when she did.”

“Have to have no brain in her head if she sees what that shit does to your life, and she wasn’t grateful she pulled herself out of it,” Rix commented.

“Yeah,” I agreed, and then kept going, because, sadly, there was more to share. “She got into a habit of playing some uncool games with a number of exclusive stores. To the point she isn’t allowed into them anymore. Still. Buying expensive clothes and shoes and handbags, using them, even damaging them, then demanding they take them back for return. Doing this not because she needed the money back, obviously she didn’t. But because she’s a Coddington-Sharp and was throwing her weight around. Though, once beleaguered store managers started calling Dad to intervene, and he told them to treat her like they would anyone else, that eventually stopped.”