He lit it and took a drag. He pushed himself to a seated position up on the bed. A thin sheet covered him just below his rippled stomach, but the bulge of his dick was so obvious. There was no hiding that monster. And that was fine with me. That was one monster I was not afraid of.
He gave me the smoke and I had to admit … I felt sexy on my elbows, my body exposed, taking a drag of the cigarette. My breasts pressed against the bed, and my nipples were tender. My skin was tight and shivers kept rolling through me. Between my thighs, I could feel everything that had happened. I curled my toes and took another drag.
River stared at me, eyeing up and down.
"What?" I finally asked with a playful smile. "You're creeping me out."
"Just look at you," he said. "I never thought you could get more beautiful, but you proved me wrong."
"Stop that."
"Lacey, no," he said as he plucked the cigarette from me.
I reached for his chest and flicked my pointer finger over his nipple. It made no sense that I felt so comfortable with him. Well, it did make sense, he was the one.
"You should talk," I said. "You have all these new muscles, River. And some new moves."
"All for you, darlin'," he said with a grin.
"Yeah, right. I'm sure you had your fun for years without me."
"I wouldn't call it fun," he said. "More like numbing the pain."
He took a drag and tilted his head back, exhaling the smoke.
Fuck, he was so hot. He was godlike to me. Everything good and bad, all wrapped up into one tall, strong package.
River looked at me and passed the smoke again. "I'm sure you had yours, too."
I didn't respond.
In my mind, I had two flashes of memories. One was of a guy on one knee, sliding a ring onto my finger. The other was a cop at the door, telling me how sorry he was for my loss.
I took a weak drag. "So, do we talk about the past, River? Everything that happened while we were apart?"
"I'll talk about anything you want," he said. "I don't want anything hidden between us. I don't want anything to break us apart. Like your parents did … "
"You don't have to worry about them."
"No?"
"When I left, I left everything. Including them. I haven't seen them in years."
"Shit, darlin', that's not right."
"Tell that to them," I said. My heart ached a little. "They made their decisions in life, River. So I made mine. I wasn't going to fake everything like they did. And that's where I was headed. One step away from walking down the aisle … "
"Married?" River asked. "You were … "
Before he could finish his question, there was a pounding at the front door to the cabin.
"What the hell is that?" River asked.
He took the cigarette from me and got out of the bed. He put the smoke between his lips and wrestled to get his jeans back on. He left the room, and I rolled myself up in the sheet and stood up. I felt dizzy for a few seconds. From the amazing sex. From the look on his face when he almost found out I had been engaged.
Clawing through the past wasn't going to be easy.
I took a few steps from the room and heard voices.
"Christ, I thought it was this place," a voice said.
"Richie, what are you talking about?" River asked.
"I have a scanner up at my place. My version of the news. Storm was fucking nasty, River. Heard something come through about here."
"Here? What do you mean?"
"Well, if it's not this place, it's that old shit house a little ways over."
"What happened?"
I stepped into view just as Richie answered the question.
"It's burning to the ground … "
River grabbed my hand as we walked from the front of his truck toward the black, billowing smoke. The rain had officially died off, and the winds were calm. The storm was off to cause problems for someone else.
We hadn't spoken a word since Richie said the house was on fire.
Yeah, it was a beat-up piece of shit that should have been burned or torn down a long time ago. I had wanted to go see the place one more time. Maybe even walk through it with River. Capture all those memories that were still there.
But now it was just a few pieces of jagged wood sticking up like dirty, crooked teeth on a monster. There were two firetrucks still working to kill any of the hot spots.
Richie was with us, too, not knowing what this actually meant for us.
He went right up to one of the firefighters who was taking a break, drinking water.