Page 45 of River
CHAPTER 12
Falling in Love
Noah
River and I were together as much as possible. She still spent a lot of time with the children at the orphanage, but when they were in school, she would come and find me. At night, after following her back to her hotel, we would continue our conversation by text and lately I walked around with a permanent smile on my lips from how hilarious she was. At first glance, River seemed like such a princess, but when I messaged her gifs and memes with the lamest dad jokes, she reciprocated in the same style. Over the last three days, our exchange of pictures and short videos had made us stay up half the night because none of us wanted to end the flow of messages between us.
River had warned me that she had trust issues and made it clear that I shouldn’t expect sex, but for some reason, it had only intrigued me and made me proud that she was opening up to me.
Every night after our first official date we would end up staying up half the night texting back and forth, laughing at crazy gifs that , she had agreed to let me teach her how to surf. The weather was gorgeous, and we were laughing at her attempts to look cool on the board.
“Just accept it. You’re going to look like a fool until you learn. It’s that way for everyone.”
“But I’m a dancer. I should have better balance.”
“You’ll get it. Don’t worry.”
I held the board and started instructing her. “Show me how you get from a lying to a standing position.”
We worked all morning until she finally had the movement down. Peter was sick and spending his day in bed, so I borrowed his board and got excited to see River catch a wave and have her first success in surfing.
“Did you see that?” Her eyes were sparkling with joy as she came running to me.
Pushing my wet hair back, I laughed. “I saw it! You soared on that wave like a butterfly.”
Her smiled evaporated, and using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun, she looked up at me with surprise on her face. “That was my mother’s nickname for me. She always called me her butterfly.”
“I can see why.” Placing my arms around her neck, I pulled her in and kissed her hair.
“No, but honestly, look.” She raised her arm for me to see her tiny thin blond hairs stand up. “It gave me chills to hear you say that.”
“You didn’t like it?” I moved us out of the water to the beach.
“No, I did like it. It felt like a sign.”
After securing the two boards, I threw myself on my back, waiting for River to come sit next to me. “Are you saying that God is telling you I’m the right man for you?”
River rolled to her side and propped herself up on her elbow. “Just forget I said it.”
I mirrored her and moved up to her eye level. “I don’t want to forget you said it, butterfly.”
She watched me for a long moment. “Do you believe in signs?”
“Sure. And I think this one is significant. The universe is telling you to trust me.”
“I’m working on it. Do you think I would have gotten on that board if I didn’t trust you?”
“That’s different.” My hand ran along her jawline, with my eyes focused on her lips. “Do you trust me enough to let me kiss you?”
She was quiet, but when I met her eyes, there was a soft curiosity. Leaning closer, I stopped when we were nose to nose.
“I really like you, River.”
“I like you too,” she breathed.
My lips pressed against her in a soft kiss. When she didn’t move away, I increased my pressure and kissed her a little harder. River made a small moan and lifted her hand to my shoulder. I had kissed many women, but I couldn’t remember my stomach flipping out like now. Maybe it was because we were sober and I’d wanted to kiss her a hundred times already. With River touching me, I took it as an invitation to touch her as well. Her skin was still wet when I placed my hand on her waist and dug my fingers into her hip as a silent way of telling her how much I wanted her.
River responded by opening her mouth and licking my upper lip. My tongue was eager to play with hers, and with my head swelling from heat and lust, we angled our heads to fit each other perfectly.
