Ian
Adull thud on the door wakes me from an uneasy sleep. I sit up in the middle of my bed trying to figure out what it is, but nothing else happens. I lie back down, sleepily thinking I must have been having a nightmare, when another knock makes me jump out of bed.
I grab my jeans off the floor and slip them on quickly, going to the door. I place my hands against the cold metal and put my ear against it.
“Ian…?”
It’s barely more than a whisper, but it’s a call I can’t avoid.
I crouch down and open the door completely.
Riley is in front of me under the pouring rain. She’s shaking, her teeth are chattering from the cold and she’s wrapped her arms around her chest. I don’t think twice. I grab her by the shoulders and pull her to me.
I don’t know why she’s here, but my good sense should tell me to put her in a taxi and send her home, to stop going out and looking for her.
But this fucking heart never listens to anything I say.
It’s always been in the palm of her hand.
She lifts her head and I lower my gaze to look at her and what I see in her eyes is something I can’t stand, something I want to kiss away right this minute.
Her hands slide down my face, slowly and quivering. My legs feel like they could give way under her touch, so wanted, so longed-for.
I have to have her.
She brushes the wound on my forehead then drops her fingertips down to my busted lip, and I almost faint at her feet.
She brings her head in close to my face and when I understand what she’s going to do, I grab her arm and push her away from me hard.
Her expression changes. She wrinkles her forehead in confusion then I see rage fill her eyes as she shakes free from my grip. She turns to leave but I grab her again by the wrist and spin her around to face me.
There is resentment in her eyes, discomfort and that damn loneliness that swallows me up and makes me want things I shouldn’t. That has stirred up something in me ever since the night I first denied her a stupid dance.
“Why are you here?” I yell at her, angrily.
She left. She left the stadium as fast as she could and didn’t look back. She showed that I’m not her player and I never will be.
She abandoned me.
“I’m stupid!” she says, freeing herself again from my grip. I grab her again with both of my hands and trap her arms. She protests, fighting and yelling and I let her get it out. Then, she looks up at me and I’m engulfed by a wave of my own desire, pulling me under cutting off my oxygen.
A desire that has worn me down to my bones and that I could die from right now.
I let her arms go and grab her face.
And then it happens.
My mouth crushes down hard on hers. Assertive, possessive.
It’s a violent kiss, full of anger and blind madness.
A repressed desire full of pain.
I put my hands in her hair and pull her in forcefully, bending her into my desperation.
I slip my tongue into her mouth and invade it greedily.
I don’t let her breathe.
