Page 70 of Riot Reunion
“Love you, too.”
I hang up, and the line goes dead.
“That sounded fun.”
The voice comes out of the shadows on the other side of the room, startling the life out of me. I gasp, nearly rolling out of the damn bed in my surprise. “Pax! Holy shit, I didn’t know you were there!”
He moves, giving away his location. Sitting in the high-backed chair next to the window, he’s nothing more than the charcoal outline of a man. I can’t see his face, but I can feel his energy now—how have I missed it until now? —and it doesnotfeel good.
“School, Chase? You’re quittingschool?” he rumbles.
“Oh, come on.You’regonna lecture me on dropping out of college? You decided not to go!”
“That’s not the same and you know it.” He stands, emerging out of the darkness, shrouded in shadows like some wicked wraith. He’s shirtless. Barefoot. A pair of thin black sweatpants hang from his hips, the material riding dangerously low, displaying the beginnings of well-maintained dark hair, trailing below the waistband. Even with so little light to see by, Pax Davis looks like a wrathful god.
My heart thunders in my chest as his eyes—hard and angry—lock onto mine. “I’m not built like you,” he clips out.
“I can see that.”
“I’m notacademic. I learn better through a more vocational approach. I’m still studying. I’m still learning. What’s the plan, Chase? You just gonna stay here in Mountain Lakes with your dad. Gonna live in that house, haunted by the memories of what happened to you there, while the world moves on without you?”
“Whoa, now. That’s not fair! You might wanna give me a break here. I’ve kinda been dealt a shitty hand if you hadn’t notic—”
“No, I won’t give you a break. Thousands of other women get pregnant young and still
get their degrees. A lot of them do it alone. With no help from their families or their partners. You have your family’s support. You have your boyfriend’s support. But you haven’t decided if you’re even gonna have this baby yet, Chase. You’re just fucking giving up, and for no good reason.”
My cheeks burst into flames. My whole body does. Imustbe on fire, the way my skin feels like it’s scorching right off my bones. “Please don’t talk to me like that.”
“Like I’m mad at you? Like I’m frustrated? Confused by you? Like I can’t fucking figure you out?” he hisses.
“Yes!”
The harsh look on his face hardens. I can just about make out his expression, and the cold fury in his eyes makes me want to shrink back under the covers and hide from him. But…then all of it seems to fall away. The anger. The tension in his shoulders. All of it just…dissolves.
He sinks down onto the edge of the bed and twists so that he’s facing me. “Take off your shirt,” he commands.
“What?”
“Take. Off. Your. Shirt.”
I wrap my arms around myself protectively. “I don’t think that now’s the time for—”
“I want to see you,” he says. “Your sweats and your underwear, too. All of it. Off. Now. I want to see your body.”
“I…” I don’t know what to say. I’m so fucking turned around.
“Are you gonna lie to me? Are you gonna tell me that you don’t love me anymore? You don’t wanna fuck me anymore?”
“Of course I do!”
“Iknowyou do,” he says, his voice rough. “So take off your fucking clothes. I want to see you.” Quickly standing, he grabs hold of the waistband of his own pants and tears them down his legs, kicking out of them. It takes all but a second for him to be standing naked and proud in front of me. I can’t tear my eyes away from the perfection of him.
It’s been months since we had sex last. And pregnancy has done the wildest things to my hormones. I haven’t even admitted it to myself properly, but in amongst all of the morning sickness and feeling bloated, my body has been filled with electricity. I’ve wanted him so badly. Fantasized about him. Had the wildest dreams, where I’ve imagined his hands on my body, his tongue between my legs, and I’ve woken soaked with sweat and slick between my thighs.
Do I want him? Hell yes, I want him. I’ve needed him for weeks, and no amount of time with my vibrator has come close to sating that need.
Rain patters lightly at the windows again. Outside, thunder rumbles. A flicker of light illuminates the forest, and for a split second, Pax’s face is limned in silver. His eyes look like molten metal. With the muscles popping and flexing at his jaw, he takes his already erect cock in one hand and then grabs my face by the chin with the other. “Look at it,” he orders.
