Chapter 16
“Why do I feel like we’re fighting a losing battle here?” she asked around two in the morning.
“Because we are.” They were out by the bluffs, and he drove into one of the parking lots that he was supposed to be clearing. He parked and killed the headlights, but kept the truck running for the heat. They could hear the roar of waves crashing against the rocky shore below.
“I’m glad I’m not on the ferry tonight.” She shivered at the thought of how rough the ride would be.
“Are you cold?”
“Nope. I’m fine.”
“Bust out more of those cookies.”
As they ate the delicious cookies and watched the snow swirl around them, Nikki experienced a feeling of contentment so new and unexpected that it took her breath away for a second.
She’d done the right thing taking this break on Gansett, even as she acknowledged it would’ve been boring without Riley to entertain her.
Sealed off from the storm swirling around them, Nikki had the confidence to broach the subject that’d been on her mind for hours. “Could I ask you something?”
“Anything you want.”
“After what I told you earlier… Does that make you want to keep your distance from me?”
He stared at her, his expression fierce. “No,” he said forcefully. “Absolutely not. If you had any idea…” Shaking his head, he cut himself off.
“What?” she asked, her throat going dry as her heart began to pound.
Grasping the wheel, he tightened his grip as tension made his jaw pulse.
She placed her hand on his shoulder, and even through the padding of his coat, she could feel how rigid his muscles were. “Tell me.”
His eyes seemed to get even bluer. “If you had any idea how much I want you, you’d probably jump out of this truck and run home to get away from me.”
It took every bit of courage she could muster to meet his intense gaze and then to shake her head. “No. I wouldn’t.”
They stared at each other for an endless beat in which time seemed to stand still and significant decisions were made. The sound of his seat belt releasing echoed through the cab as he moved toward her at the same time she moved toward him, getting tangled in her own seat belt.
He grunted out a laugh as he freed her and dragged her into his arms, pizza boxes and bags of cookies going flying as they came together for the single most combustible kiss Nikki had ever experienced.
Lips and tongues and teeth and hands, driven by pure, pulsing desire that had her pulling him closer.
Frustrated by the thick layers of coats and sweaters that stood between them, Nikki tipped her head to improve the angle of the kiss.
Then he was lifting her and bringing her down to straddle his lap. Much better, she thought as she wrapped her arms around his neck and opened her mouth to his tongue.
He unzipped her coat and pushed it aside, his hands dipping under her sweater and straight up to her breasts.
His thumbs coasted over nipples gone tight from his touch as much as the pervasive chill in the air.
Riley never missed a beat in the kiss when he reached behind her to unfasten her bra.
When he cupped her bare breasts, she gasped, breaking the kiss so she could breathe.
“Too much?” he asked.
“Not enough.”
Riley groaned and pressed his mouth to her neck, which set off a new wave of shivers that racked her entire body. “God, Nik… You’re so hot, and you make me crazy. From the first time I ever saw you, I wanted you.”
She squirmed on top of him, needing to get closer to the rigid length of him. “I wanted you, too. I thought about you every day after we left.”
He captured her lips in another panty-melting kiss that was compounded by the light pinch of his fingers on her nipples.
Nikki had the presence of mind to wonder if they were going to do it right here in his truck when the cab was lit up with headlights set to high beam. A horn blared right outside the window.
“Fucking Finn,” he muttered. A series of beeps had Riley swearing viciously. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
The walkie-talkie crackled to life. “Riley is making out when he’s supposed to be plowing.”
“He’s dead.”
“Ignore him,” Nikki said, sliding her lips over his. “He’s just jealous.”
“Riley,” Mac said over the radio. “Quit making out and plow the snow.”
“I want to make out,” Luke said. “I’m going home.”
“No one is going home until the snow is gone,” Mac said.
“Screw you,” Luke replied. “You’re not the boss of me. I’m going home.”
“I wanna go home, too,” Finn said.
“Yes, please go,” Riley whispered.
“Riley won’t quit making out,” Finn said.
Nikki laughed even as Riley continued to kiss her as if they’d never been interrupted. “How long do we have to stay out here?”
“Supposed to be all night.”
“That’s too bad.” She moved suggestively on top of him, letting him know what she wanted while trying not to think about anything other than him and what was happening right here and right now. She refused to allow the past into one of the most perfect nights of her life.
“Fuck it. I’m done plowing.” He deposited her into her seat. “Buckle up.” Shifting the truck into reverse, he turned toward the parking lot entrance and headed for the road, flying past Finn’s truck, which sat idling a few feet away.
“Was it something I said?” Finn asked over the radio.
“Going home,” Riley said into the radio.
“He’s got better things to plow than snow,” Finn said.
“Shut up, Finn,” Mac said, sounding increasingly annoyed, “and plow the damn snow!”
A deep rumbling laugh echoed through the radio. “Son, you’re losing control of the troops,” Big Mac said.
“Who gave you a radio?” Mac asked.
“I took one.”
“I gots one, too,” another voice said.
“Who is that?” Nikki asked, trying not to laugh her ass off.
“Big Mac’s best friend, Ned Saunders.”
“Everyone shut up and plow,” Mac said, “or I’m going home, too.”
“Maybe we should all go home,” Finn said, “and come back out in the morning. This is a losing battle.”
The snow continued to come down harder than ever.
“Fine,” Mac said. “Go home. Everyone back out at eight, and I mean it. No screwing around.”
Finn’s laughter came through the radio. “Us? Screw around? Oh, wait. You’re talking to Riley. He’s the one screwing around when he’s supposed to be working.”
“I’m going to kill him, and I’m going to make it hurt,” Riley muttered.
Nikki laughed so hard that tears filled her eyes.
“Riley?” Finn said. “Hello, Riley? Come in, Riley? What are you doing, Riley? Where are you going, Riley? I’m following you.”
As he drove, Riley kept a hand on her thigh, squeezing her leg to let her know they were going to pick up where they’d left off the second they got to her house.
She couldn’t wait.
This is really going to happen, Riley thought, frustrated by the fact that he had to drive slowly so he wouldn’t kill them both before they could get home.
Even Finn and his shenanigans couldn’t rattle him. Not with Nikki sitting next to him, warm and willing and sexy as all fuck. He was so hard, he ached from wanting her, and they were still miles from the house while the snow seemed to intensify, as if it knew how badly he needed to get her home.
Forty-five minutes after leaving the bluffs, they pulled into the driveway at Eastward Look, and there was no sign of Finn following them. They’d lost him a while back, thankfully.
Riley turned off the radio and shut down the truck. “Wait for me,” he said, getting out to run around and help her lest she fall and get hurt at this critical juncture.
Inside, they shed coats, boots, hats and gloves into a pile on the floor of the foyer.
Riley hooked his arm around her waist and picked her up.
Her arms and legs curled around him, holding on tight as he walked them upstairs, kissing her as he took the stairs two at a time. “Where’re we going?” he asked between kisses.
“End of the hall.”
In the bedroom, he lowered her onto the bed and came down on top of her. “You can still say no,” he said gruffly, his lips hovering above hers.
“I’m not saying no.”
“You can say no at any time, and everything stops.”
A huge lump lodged in her throat, forcing her to swallow hard. “That means everything to me,” she said, drawing him into another kiss.
After that, there were no more words.
Riley helped her out of her sweater, and then she returned the favor.
The bra he’d unhooked earlier hung loosely on her shoulders.
His gaze heated with desire as he pushed the cups aside and slid the straps down her arms, his fingers gliding over sensitized skin. Then he tugged on the button to her jeans and began to move with more urgency as he removed them, leaving her covered in only a thin layer of silk.
“I’ve never seen anything more beautiful than you are,” he whispered, bending over her to press a kiss to the valley between her full breasts. “And I’ve never wanted anything more than I want you.”
As he drew her nipple into the heat of his mouth, Nikki buried her fingers in his hair, needing to hold on to something. She wanted to touch him but couldn’t seem to make her hands move while he tormented first one nipple and then the other.
“Riley,” she gasped.
“What, honey?”
“You’re making me crazy.”
“That’s kind of the idea.” His lips skimmed down her body, over her belly and…
Oh God. She’d never done that… Was that his…
Oh my God. The three words echoed through her mind like a chant and a cry for mercy.
He pushed her underwear aside. His tongue stroked her most sensitive flesh, while his fingers slid into her, the combination taking her to the brink of orgasm so fast, she could barely keep up.
He backed off, clearly intent on torturing her, before doing it again and again until she was half out of her mind and begging for relief.
When it happened, the orgasm blew through her in a flash of heat, leaving every part of her humming with relief and a kind of giddiness she’d rarely experienced.
The soaring high left her feeling like anything was possible, that she could overcome the past and move forward with joy and the kind of pleasure she’d lived for so long without.
She could do this.