I had to do it. I couldn’t stay trapped inside the car in the hope someone came along. I checked for my purse, thinking I could get my phone and call for help, but it was nowhere to be seen. The bag had probably been flung to the back of the car, or was wedged under the seat. If I struggled to believe I could make it across one seat, there was no way I could search the inside of the vehicle.
Digging deep, I searched for my inner strength.
You heal quickly, I told myself. You’ll start feeling stronger really soon.
As if my reassurance had a physical effect, the pain in my head and ribs began to lessen. I’d not been able to take a deep breath due to the pain, but was now able to, the inrush of oxygen helping to clear my head.
Okay, I could do this. It was only a matter of a couple of feet, and then I would be out of here.
Carefully, I reached over to hook my fingers around the dashboard. Using the strength in my legs, I lifted myself up to scoot over the handbrake and stick shift. Legs trembling, the stick shift jabbing me in the back of my thighs, I plopped into the passenger seat. I sat, panting, while I got my strength back again. Such a simple movement had drained every ounce out of me.
A sudden wind buffeted the car, sending it rocking. I let out a scream, clinging to the sides of my seat. The idea that I’d somehow found myself on the edge of a cliff, and that the wind would tip the car over, sprang into my head, but my overactive imagination was working, rather than a premonition of any kind. I rarely saw anything about myself directly. For once, I hated that fact. Perhaps if I had, I would have known something was wrong with the car and refused to take it. One thing I was certain of was that the car had been tampered with on purpose. Someone wanted me dead, and I thought Bulldog Mackenzie and his crew were the most likely cause. They knew what I’d done to Jordy and had taken their revenge. I had no idea if the unpleasant guy at the garage knew what was wrong with the car, if he’d been in on it. Then I got a flash of a young man tied up out back, rocking in a wooden chair he was bound to, yelling against the gag wrapped around his mouth.
Damn it. The horrible guy hadn’t even been a mechanic. He was one of the carny guys.
That explained why he hadn’t been using the proper equipment in the garage when I’d arrived. He’d just been playing the part. How did they think they’d get away with this?
But I knew how. I wouldn’t be able to report them without coming up with a reason why they’d want me dead, and that I’d killed one of their own was hardly something I would ever go to the cops about. They’d keep the young garage attendee quiet with a few simple threats of bodily harm.
A hand slammed against the outside of the passenger widow, and I let out a scream, my heart rate jumping, my hand clutched to my chest.
A face lowered down to the glass, and I sighed with relief and sagged back into my seat.
Riley!
He cracked open the door. “What the hell, Icy? What happened?”
I stifled a sob and fell into his arms, my arms wrapping around the back of his neck, my face pressing against the side of his throat.
“Hey,” he said, stroking my hair. “You’re okay now. Everything is okay.”
I allowed myself the luxury of him holding me for a few moments while I got myself together. I had to admit, the feel of his skin beneath my nose and mouth brought me a comfort I could never have even imagined before I met him. I wanted to close my eyes and lose myself in his skin, forget about the hellish event due to happen only hours from now, and that someone wanted me dead.
Sitting back up, I sniffed and brushed my hair from my face. He reached out and gently touched the wound on my forehead. I winced at the contact.
“Sorry,” he said. “Did you just do that? It looks like it’s healing already.”
“Yeah, I heal fast.” I didn’t know a lie that would work.
He cocked his eyebrows in surprise. “You sure do.” He pressed his lips together. “So what the hell happened, Icy? You in a habit of getting yourself into dangerous situations?”
I gave a cold laugh. “Yeah. I guess I am. Something went wrong with the brakes on my car. I had to stop it so I switched off the engine, pulled on the handbrake, and rammed the car into a bush.”
“Jesus!”
I hesitated, wanting to tell him I thought Bulldog Mackenzie and the others were involved, but I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to trust Riley. After all, he’d helped me hide a body, but I struggled to trust anyone fully. Life had already taught me trust shouldn’t be given away lightly.
“I guess the lightning strike fried more than the electronics.”
“Sure did.” His beautiful face contorted with anger. “The damn mechanic should have checked the whole car over!”
I put a hand on his arm. “It’s fine, Riley. I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. I should get you to a hospital.”
“Honestly, it looks worse than it is. It’s the shock, that’s all.” I could feel the skin on my forehead, tightening, itching, as it healed. Within a few days, the cut would be almost invisible, just the white line of a scar remaining. I wasn’t sure how I would explain that to Riley, but if the whole hell cycle thing happened, I imagined it would be the least of my worries.
“Please, Riley. I don’t want to go to the police, hospital, or anywhere else that involves the authorities. No one was hurt, thank God. Can we just go home?”
Except, I didn’t know where home was for me. Not anymore.
Chapter
18
Riley stared at me intently, his normally full mouth a serious line, before nodding. “Okay,” he relented, “but I’m not taking you back to your dorm to be on your own, and I can’t sneak in with you at this time of day. You’re coming back with me.”
My heart rate stepped up a notch at the idea of being back on the midway. “No.” I shook my head. “I don’t want anyone to see me.”
“They won’t. I’ll sneak you in the back. Most people won’t be around this time of day anyway. We tend to be night owls.”
My stomach churned with nerves at the thought of being so close to the people who I believed wanted me dead, but my desire to be with Riley was stronger than my fear.
“You promise you can get me in without being seen?”
He lifted his hand, his little finger cocked in front of my face. “Pinky promise,” he said with a grin.
I reached out and hooked my little finger around his. Even such a tiny contact sent shivers of desire racing through me. I wanted to take off his skin and climb inside his body with him, immerse myself fully, blend until we were like one being.
We grinned at each other, our pinkies locked, and I completely forgot the pains in my body and the fact someone wanted to kill me.
Riley leaned forward and kissed the top of my head. The hand our fingers had been joined at moved into a fuller grip, and he helped me stand from the car. His other arm slipped around my waist, supporting me. I figured I could probably walk just fine on my own, but I wasn’t going to give him an excuse to move away.
We stepped back from the car, and I gasped. My head spun. The whole of the hood was crumpled like an accordion. A spider web of cracks ran through the windscreen, the wing mirror completely knocked off on the driver’s side. The seriousness of what had happened hit me. I was lucky to be alive. I was lucky I hadn’t crashed into another car, or hit a pedestrian.
“My God,” I breathed.
“See why I was so worried?”
I nodded. I couldn’t deal with the car right now. I’d need to call a tow truck again, even go to the police and tell them I’d had an accident—someone was bound to spot the wreckage at some point and report it—but I didn’t have the head space. The cops would almost certainly come looking for me at school again. At least at Riley’s I would be safe from the police asking me more questions.
“Let’s just get out of here.”
With our bodies slotted together, we stepped out of the forest, and back onto the road. Riley’s b
ike sat parked on the curb. His helmet hung from the handle bar. I’d never seen him wear it before. I wondered why he’d brought it this time.
“Here,” he said, taking the helmet off the handlebar and handing it to me.
“What about you?”
He shrugged. “I don’t need it. You’re the one with the head injury.”
“But—” I started to protest, but he silenced me with a lift of his hand.
“Wear it, Icy, or you’re not coming on the bike.”
I sighed, but lifted the helmet and carefully slid it over my face, wincing as it made contact with my sore forehead. Riley had already climbed on the bike, so I swung my leg over the back of the seat and climbed on behind him. Automatically, I wrapped my hands around his waist, no longer worrying about the space between us or if I should hold onto the seat.
The bike roared beneath me, and Riley pulled away from the curb, heading in the same direction my car had been going. He crossed town, staying on the outskirts so he didn’t head right through Main Street. We got a few glances from people, but no one knew who I was with the helmet on.
Riley stayed on the coastal road until he was past the carnival, still and silent, and under investigation, then he doubled back on himself. He took a small road that led to the beach, and cut back up so he was at the back of the carnival where the carnies’ trailers were parked. As he’d predicted, there didn’t seem to be many people around.
Still some distance from his trailer, he cut the power from the bike. “Keep the helmet on,” he told me. “Just in case someone is being nosy.”
He dragged the bike toward his trailer, and I hurried alongside him. He left the bike at the back of his home, and quickly ran up the steps to unlock the trailer. I noticed this time he’d locked the front door.
I was relieved to be inside Riley’s home again. Carefully, I pulled the helmet off and shook out my hair. Riley stepped in front of me, took the helmet from my hands and set it down on the small, fold out table. He straightened and reached out to me with both hands. His fingers lightly touched my temples, and he tilted my head slightly. His thumb brushed the cut as he inspected it.
“It really does seem better,” he noted.
“It’s fine.” I thought of something. “How did you find me, anyway?”
“I happened to be riding out on that road. It’s good for bikes. I spotted your car from the road.”
“Really? But it seemed almost hidden by the bushes.”
“Nah, I’m observant, that’s all.”
“Riding on a motorbike at god-knows how many miles per hour?”
He laughed and lowered his forehead to mine. “What are you saying, Icy? Are you worried I’m stalking you?”
I hadn’t been, until then. “And yesterday?” I dared to say. “What about when you found me? How did you know then?”
“I told you, I overheard the guys talking after they got back here. They gave a vague direction. I just followed it and got lucky.”
I wasn’t sure you could call finding me with a dead body and covered in blood lucky, but I didn’t know what other explanation he could give.
“Don’t doubt me, Icy,” he said, but his voice was low, intense. “I’ve given you no reason to think I’m anything but helpful.”
“Yeah, maybe a bit too helpful.” Damn my mouth. Why couldn’t I learn when to keep it shut?
“You need to let people in.”
But I shook my head. “Not people,” I said. “Only you.”
We locked eyes, my breath growing shallower by the second. I was breathing him in, our faces a mere inch apart. His hands still cupped my cheeks, his fingers in my hair.
“Riley,” I started, but I didn’t know what I planned on saying. He wasn’t listening anyway. He ducked his head a little, bringing his mouth closer to mine. My breath stopped in my chest, my lips tingling in anticipation. He placed his mouth against mine, and my eyes slipped shut. My entire being focused on that one point, the touch of his mouth on mine. The warmth of his lips, the slight opening of his mouth, the exact amount of pressure he applied.
My body acted of its own accord. My arms wound around his neck, my back arching to push my torso closer to his. He still wore his jacket, the leather soft and worn beneath my hands. He deepened the kiss and I responded, opening my mouth to him so our tongues did a slow, delicious dance.
Riley scooped me up. He was only a couple of inches taller than me, but he was strong and wiry. He pushed through the small trailer into the bedroom at the back and unceremoniously dumped me on the bed.
“Hey,” I protested. “I’m injured, remember.”
He glowered down at me, his black hair falling in his face. “Just stop talking.”
I clamped my mouth shut as he shrugged his jacket from his shoulders and pulled his t-shirt over his head. My eyes absorbed the sight of him, the jeans riding low on his hips, exposing the jutted lines that marked his hip bones. A spatter of dark chest hair ran across his pectoral muscles, and a line followed down the column of his abs, to his navel, and then further, disappearing beneath his worn out jeans. He kicked off his boots, and then climbed onto the bed with me.
“You’re losing this top, you know?” he said. His fingers slipped beneath the hem of my long sleeved t-shirt, grazing the skin of my flat stomach, causing goose bumps to erupt all over me.
He was lying with me, face to face, with no shirt on. I flattened my palm and reached out to touch him. I placed my hand on his warm shoulder, to run down his smooth, well-muscled arm, and then back up again. My hands found my way around to his back, feeling the sharp edge of his shoulder blades, the thick muscles either side of his spine, the dip at his lower back. Finally, I positioned my hand on his chest, right above his heart, feeling the steady beat of his life force beneath my palm.
He smiled at me, and his smile made my heart burst with happiness. “What are you doing?”
“Learning every inch of you.”
He grinned wickedly. “There are plenty more inches to go.” And he leaned back in and captured my mouth again, drawing me into another deep, forceful kiss. This time his hand slid further beneath my top. I’d never been so conscious of the position of another person’s hand before. Our legs tangled together, our bodies melded. My lips felt bruised from the force of our kiss, my face hot, my breath leaving my body in frantic gasps. I could have kissed him this way for hours. Riley returned my passion with fervor of his own, one hand knotted in my hair, while the other roamed my body, learning its curves and dips in the same way I had learned his.
I knew he wanted me, I could feel his desire pressed hard against my hip.
But he broke the kiss, edging away from me just a fraction of an inch, separating what should never be separated. I had to stop myself moaning in disappointment.
He gazed down into my eyes, intense, smoldering. “Is this okay, Icy? Is this what you want?”
Emotions welled up inside me. I nodded frantically. “Yes, more than anything else in the world.”
And I did. I’d never been surer of anything. I belonged with Riley, and he belonged with me. I wanted to know his body as intimately as I knew my own. I wanted to be able to lay myself bare for him, and know, without doubt, that he would hold my heart with as much care and passion as he held my body.
I moved toward him this time, desperately wanting his mouth back on mine. I’d never experienced anything as wondrous as kissing Riley, and I doubted I would ever experience anything as intensely again.
He took me at my word. This time, when he reached down, he hooked his fingers beneath my top and slowly lifted it to expose my stomach and breasts. I shifted in the bed slightly, allowing him to pull the t-shirt over my head. He dropped it to the floor. Though I’d stood before Riley in just my panties before, even though I was still clad in my jeans and bra, this time was different. I wanted this. I knew how far I was going to go, and I was filled with nervous excitement. I was going to do it, finally, and not just with some low life I’d finally gi
ven in to, but with a guy I believed might be my soul mate.
We helped each other remove our jeans, struggling with the buttons and zippers, while still clinging to each other and doing our best not to stop kissing for a second. Riley’s mouth left mine, but only for a moment, while he trailed kisses down my jaw and throat.
“We need to be safe,” he murmured against my skin, before leaning across and yanking open a drawer in his bedside cabinet. He leaned back into me, holding a foil packet I instantly recognized but had no experience with.
Panic suddenly filled me. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Shush,” he said, kissing me lightly on the lips, in teasing pecks, the kiss turning into a gentle bite on my lower lip that sent shivers through me. “Leave it up to me.”
I wanted to touch him. Tentatively, I reached down, slipping my hand inside his shorts. He was solid iron, heated from within. Silky soft. As I tightened my grip on him, cautiously sliding my hand up and down his length, he let out a moan and dropped his head to my shoulder.
His hips moved in response to my strokes. “Oh, Icy,” he groaned.
Riley lifted his head back up and we kissed again. His hand ran down my body, stopping to caress my breasts, his thumb grazing over my hardened nipple, before moving lower. I had to stop myself from holding my breath. His hand slipped inside my panties, delving down. His fingers sought the place no one else had ever been, and he slipped into my intimate heat. I gasped, my free hand gripping his shoulder, my other hand keeping up my rhythmical stroking of him.
I buried my face in his neck, and suddenly became aware of the thump of his pulse beneath his skin. Instantly, all my attention redirected toward that point, toward the thump of hot blood. My mouth ran dry, my throat closing over with a pang of pain. I licked my lips. No, I wouldn’t let this ruin my first experience with a man. I fought the urge to bite him with every piece of strength I had.
I must have paused my movements, as Riley leaned back slightly to look at me, concern in his eyes.
Voracious Vixens, 13 Novels of Sexy Horror and Hot Paranormal Romance Page 86
