Fuck, I need to leave.
None of this makes sense. I shouldn’t be here.
A kiss?
When was the last time I let anyone kiss me?
River wraps a towel around his waist. “Anya?” He catches my wrist before I can escape. And for the first time, I feel a chill of terror run through me. Not because I’m scared of River but because of the way I feel myself changing around him.
“It was a mistake coming here,” I say.
His eyebrows furrow in confusion, but he releases my wrist and lets me go.
When I take my leave, he calls out my name again.
I grip the edge of his doorway, my red nails wanting to dig in to keep me here. A part of me knowing it should run.
Feelings. Alek and I don’t get them for other people. So why is my brother halfway around the world chasing a woman?
And when he does return, I may very well kill him for leaving me this long.
Because isn’t that what I’m doing right now? Chasing?
I have never been apart from my brother for this long, and I’m mistakenly craving something I’m missing, and I’m looking for it in all the wrong places. Namely, River Bently.
I shake my head and push myself out of his bedroom and go straight down the stairs. When I reach the door, I hear his voice from behind me.
“Tomorrow, Anya, you owe me. I’ll pick you up at three.”
I don’t turn back to look at him, because I know if I do, I’ll walk straight back up those stairs and into his arms.
Not because I want a hug or a kiss, I tell myself. Because I want to fuck him.
And that’s becoming a dangerous sentiment in itself.
“I’m busy tomorrow,” I shout back.
“I’m picking you up,” he shouts down the stairs.
“Don’t pick me up before five. I have plans!” I yell before I slam the door behind me.
My heart pounds as I walk out, shivering cold and still wet. I send Vance a text and start walking down the driveway, never looking back.
What the fuck am I doing here?
Have I lost my fucking mind?
CHAPTER 22
Anya
“You seem quiet today, miss,” Clay says as he looks through the rearview mirror at me.
“Everything’s fine, Clay,” I say dismissively as I clutch the black briefcase in my lap.
Everything is not fine. Last night, I didn’t even recognize myself. I’d slipped up.
River is the enemy. He’s sexy as all fuck, but he has no place in my world. Yet I naturally gravitate toward him, fooling myself that it’s just for sex.
