Page 42 of Pretty Obsessed

“You wouldn’t believe how hard it was even with the three. Your agent told me the book you had due was more important than ‘anything a rockstar could possibly need.’ What if I had a genius pitch for you? She doesn’t know.”

“Sounds like Alice. She wouldn’t care.” I pulled a face, feeling a little bad. “This book is more important to her, as it’s already sold and the advance is paid. She doesn’t want to give back money.”

“But I get what I want in the end, Emory.”

Another shiver rolled through me. The way River spoke got to me.

Slowly River unwrapped the scarf around his throat, exposing more of the veins I was eyeing. “Then the guy with the four wheeler told me to rot. Wouldn’t give me a ride. He said if I was stupid enough to hike up here in a storm, this might be important enough to disturb you but he wasn’t bothering you with nothing.” He side-eyed me pulling the beanie off to let his hair fall around his face. “People protect you, Emory.”

“I guess they do.”

“It usually means you’re worth it.” His words were so perfectly formed I wanted to write them down. The tone, the meaning. All of it. “I have blisters in places I didn’t know I could have blisters.”

I barely fought back the urge to ask him if he needed his blisters soothed. “You hiked five miles in the snow.” I still couldn’t believe it and I shouldn’t be smiling so much. I didn’t even know why he’d done it. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t have blisters.”

“You are much too amused by this.” He smiled too, strands of his curls falling into his forehead. “I think your unnerving gatekeeper didn’t believe I had the determination to make it up here. He underestimated me.”

“He did.” I never would have expected this. Not if he told me he’d search the world to find me. He had, hadn’t he? It turned a part of my cold chest, thawing it.

“I told you, I get what I want.” The unsaid meaning behind his words sent my blood pumping below my belt.

My heart skipped a beat and I didn’t know how to reply, so I returned to the other line of thought. Will had been around since I was a child coming here with my father. He was a teen given a post no one else wanted. “Since I didn’t tell him I had company coming, he wouldn’t let anyone up here.”

He unzipped his coat, watching me with each movement.

“Do you not want me here?” He stepped into my space, and I couldn’t breathe. I wanted him to take his demanding all the way to the mattress and fuck me into it.

“No…surprised.” I looked at my feet, a little ashamed of how badly I wanted this fantasy to play out. “I—I didn’t expect it.”

“I couldn’t wait for you to come back. I have to be in Japan.” He stroked a knuckle over my cheekbone. “I couldn’t risk not finding you.”

I swallowed. “Why…”

Was it only because I’d disappeared on him? The rejection unnatural in his world so he had to chase me? We’d fucked a lot last night, but he didn’t seem entirely sex motivated, if anything he’d said was true. He’d claimed to be craving intimacy. I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. Could both things be true?

Nothing added up in my brain.

“Look at me please.” He slid the finger under my chin, forcing it up.

I lifted my gaze. “Yes?”

“Are you displeased with my presence?”

“I told you I wasn’t,” I whispered.

“Good. Because I’m not leaving.”

“Would you honestly not leave if I’d said I was displeased?” Another missed beat. My heart couldn’t handle this.

“No, I didn’t plan on giving you a choice. That was merely to disguise my design. My intentions are less than pure.” He leaned closer, brushing his mouth over mine. All the lightning from the night before returned. My body came alive for him. With just a single kiss. “Confusion is much preferred to rebuff.”

“I thought you wouldn’t take refusal.”

He smiled, parting my lips with his. “How about, I much prefer a willing stalkee.”

“So you’re admitting to stalking me then?” I laughed against his lips, giving over to the kiss.

“Are you recording this?” He grabbed both sides of my face, walking me towards the sofa. “Because I want a copy of the video if you are.”

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