Page 2 of Ride Forever
Take our time? I wanted to scream into the void until my brain exploded. It had only been three months of this…and seven years of hiding. My whole life had been a joke. Thinking about my unfinished online university degree, everything seemed an epic waste of time.
“I don’t want to live like this,” I muttered, my heart sinking.
“Neither do I,” Chaser agreed. “That’s why we have to plan better this time. We went into Fortitude grossly unprepared.”
I grunted, not wanting to acknowledge he was right.
“We had passion but lacked proper strategy.”
“We winged it,” I said.
Chaser nodded. “This time, we figure it out. The Hollow Men aren’t Fortitude.”
“No, they aren’t…”
“Besides…” He trailed off, his brow creasing. Plucking his sunglasses from his shirt pocket, he slid them on and gazed out at the horizon.
“Besides what?” I asked, lifting my head.
He shrugged, folding his arms on top of the railing.
“Chaser.”
“Besides…” He sighed, then tilted his head toward me. “You haven’t talked about what happened.”
“I don’t need to talk about what happened.” I scowled, any ease our conversation had instilled in my heart evaporating. “It’s in the past.”
“Sloane, you shot your own father.”
“Glad to see you used the word shot rather than killed,” I drawled, wriggling away from the edge of the roof. Rising to my feet, I brushed my palms over my ass, dusting off the grit from the flaky, tarred surface.
“Sloane,” Chaser exclaimed, standing. He grabbed my arm and pulled, yanking me around. “You have to face it at some point, and I’d rather it wasn’t with a gun in your hand.”
“Let me go.” I wrenched myself free. “I don’t need to face anything. I knew who he was, Chaser, and I damn well know the world is a better place without him in it. He’s not the first man I killed, remember? There was the guy who tried to kill you on the side of the road in Texas. I shot him, and it did nothing to my mental wellbeing.”
“Sloane… You collapsed. You dragged your dead father through the desert, andyou collapsed.”
“So? He was fucking heavy!” I scoffed and gestured at him. “And what about you? I hardly know anything about you, and I have these…feelings. I’d go so far as to say the l-word, but how could I when I don’t know…” I let out a frustrated cry.
“Don’t turn this back on me. I’m trying to help you.”
“Maybe I’m just that indifferent about it,” I said, knowing it was a lie. I hadn’t slept a wink because I was afraid of what my dreams would reveal.
Chaser pursed his lips. “I know we haven’t had time,” he said after a moment’s silence. “I know there are things you don’t know about my past, but know this, I’m standing here as a free man because of you. I’m no longer indentured to Fortitude. I no longer have to kill on command. And I sure as hell don’t have to answer to anyone I don’t want to. You gave that to me.”
“So now, you owe me,” I said, jutting out my chin.
“I won’t help you further in your denial.”
I tensed, steeling myself to shout at him again, but he fisted his hands in my hair and pulled me close, his lips crushing mine. My body flared at his touch, my clit rubbing painfully on the inner seam of my shorts as he rubbed his crotch against me. His tongue swirled with mine, deep and hard, then he tore away with a gasp etched with longing.
“You want to believe in something?” he murmured, his breath hot against my skin. “Something that’s good?” His body curved as if he was sheltering me from the world. “Then, believe in us.”
“Chaser…”
“I only just started,” he whispered. “Don’t leave me now.”
I rubbed my palms over his chest, feeling the warmth of his body underneath the fabric of his shirt. I explored my way upward until my hands circled his neck. They were far too small to close the entire way around, but I felt the thrum of his pulse. It was thrumming fast, and I didn’t need the evidence pressing into me through his jeans to verify it, either. With Chaser, I could tell when he was hard by simply looking at him.
