“Mm.” I turn her head to the side and kiss her so that her ear folds in half. “Back here?”
Her approval is a garbled word that, before I started kissing on her, resembled something from the English language.
I smile and tuck the fleshy part of her ear into my mouth, grazing it gently with my teeth.
“Sweet mercy above.” Riley swallows hard.
“So you like nibbling too. Noted,” I tease.
Her eyes flutter open and I’m proud of the way she looks slightly unfocused. “If this is how you repay unrequited love, I will admit that I like your compensation package.”
I laugh. “Am I still passing the inspection?”
“It depends. How many women have you practiced with to be so good at kissing?”
I scrunch my nose. “The past is in the past.”
Jealousy flashes through her eyes. “You will never beat the playboy allegations, Campbell.”
“That was the old, eighteen-year-old Campbell. The new Campbell is property of Riley Elizabeth Carter and Riley Elizabeth Carter alone.”
“Better be,” she says, wrapping her arms around me.
I press a kiss to the top of her hair.
“I’m so happy,” Riley announces. “I wish life was a movie so I could stop it right here and stay like this forever.”
“If you stop here, then you’ll miss the rest of the good stuff.”
“It gets better?” Riley asks, popping her head up and giving me a mischievous look.
My head drops toward hers. “You have no…”
The words stop as a striking pain flares in my leg. It’s so intense that I grip Riley tighter and she yelps.
“Nat, you’re squeezing me like a stress ball.”
“Sorry,” I choke out as my eyes dart frantically to my leg.
It feels like a third-degree burn but frominsideof my skin and it’s accompanied by a persistent and dull throbbing.
“N-Nat?” Riley’s smile drains away and concern etches into the frown that forms in its place. “Nat, you’re getting so red.”
“I need to go… bathroom.”
I have no idea how I push those words out.
Agony has me in a chokehold.
The pain is unending, lashing waves crashing to the shore, dragging me into the depths.
Sharp.
Debilitating.
I stumble away from Riley, my teeth bared like an animal.
Just make it to the bathroom. Just…
