Perhaps I couldn’t have controlled what he did to me when I was young and weak. My brother had tried to stop him and had been sent away, never to return.
At the time, I didn’t even know what was happening to me. I knew only that my father was hurting me, but he was still my daddy, and Rock was trying to hurt him.
If only I could turn time backward and relive those precious moments. Somehow get away and help Rock complete his task.
I could have saved myself the next two decades of horror. I could have saved my brother.
You were six, Riley. Six. A child. A child doesn’t need redemption.
But an adult did.
Could Matteo Rossi offer me redemption? No. But he could make me forget for a few precious hours.
Except he couldn’t.
Even as I kissed him, these thoughts pervaded my psyche.
I pulled away.20Matteo“Riley?”
“I’m sorry, Matt. I’m just…”
“Just what, baby?” I cupped her cheek, her skin so smooth beneath my rough fingers.
“I want this,” she said.
“God, so do I. So what’s the matter?”
She stepped backward, away from me, averting her gaze. Her cheeks reddened.
“Riley, please. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I told you. I’m…frightened.”
“Of what? Me?”
“No. Not you. I trust you, Matt.”
“I’m glad. I promise not to harm you.”
“I know you won’t. It’s just… It’s been a long time.”
A long time? She must have been kidding. This woman was the most gorgeous creature I’d ever laid eyes on. Surely men crawled out of the woodwork to bed her.
“We’ll go slow, then,” I said. “Let’s just go out to the hot tub. That’s all we have to do for now.”
She met my gaze and nodded.
“Tell me how to put that beautiful smile back on your face, Riley.”
She closed the distance between us and melted into my arms. “Hold me. Please.”
I could do that. Holding her was no hardship. Except on my dick, no pun intended. If she was truly out of practice—and I had a hard time believing that—my big-ass cock might be intimidating her. One way to deal with that. I hoisted her into my arms, so my cock wasn’t burrowing against her, carried her through the cabin, and outside to the deck.
“Matt! We’re naked.”
“Baby, there’s no one around here close enough to see anything.”
“I can see your cabin.”
“That’s all you see, and I’m here.”
“True.” She laughed. Kind of nervously, but it was a start.
“I’m going to put you down so I can get the cover off the tub,” I said.
“Okay.”
I set her down gently, my cock still hard as marble. I walked a little stiffly to the tub and got the cover off. I checked the temperature. Ninety-eight. Perfect. Anything over a hundred and we wouldn’t be able to stay in for long.
I’d stay in the tub all night if I had to. Anything to get Riley relaxed.
“Go ahead and get in,” I said. “I’m going to get us some water. And by the way, you may want to take those panties off now or I may have to rip them off you.”
She nodded, looking slightly nervous. I walked back into the cabin, grabbed a seltzer for me and a bottle of water for her, and returned.
She’d gotten into the tub, and her perfect breasts were floating on top of the bubbly water.
My dick reacted instantly. I set the drinks in the drink holders and stepped into the tub.
The water whisked around me, warming me. Not that I needed warming. I was hot as blazes for Riley. This woman had a profound effect on me, and I was beginning to realize her physical beauty wasn’t the cause.
Yeah, she was gorgeous with a rocking body, but Riley Mansfield was so much more than a pretty face.
Something hid inside her—something that disturbed her. Something that disturbed her so much that she pretended to be something she so clearly wasn’t.
A teacher from Pittsburgh?
Not so much.
My goal tonight wasn’t to make her tell me her backstory. No. My goal tonight was to make love to her. To show her some beauty in this world. Okay, so I wasn’t completely altruistic. I wanted the sex for my own prurient reasons. But it would be good for her too, in more ways than one. Tomorrow we could talk about her real story.
I sat down next to her, a jet massaging my back. I didn’t try to touch her, though I wanted to very badly. I simply sat. I’d let her make the first move. If we ended up just sitting in the hot tub all night, that’d be okay. We still had several days together.
Maybe I could talk her into staying longer.
Damn!
I didn’t want my time with this woman to end.
Talk about scary.
Except not so scary, at least not in a bad way.
I wasn’t in love with her. No one fell in love in two days. But I was definitely interested in pursuing something with her that I’d never pursued.