Goddess Revenge: Goddess Series Book 4 (Young Adult / New Adult) (15 page)

“How was he holding you?” River asked, trying to sound detached again, but she detected a hint of pain in his voice.

“Um, I was standing like this.” She stepped back against the wall. “He, er, had both my wrists over my head,” she said as she crossed her wrists and raised them into position. “He had his other hand over my mouth, and he was stepping on my feet,” she whispered, looking away from River.

“Okay,” River muttered as he stepped up to her. He gently fisted his hand around her wrists. “I’m not going to step on your feet. I’m sure he did that so you wouldn’t knee him. Just don’t do that to me either.” He chuckled.

She laughed lightly. River was trying to ease her concerns about reliving last night, so she appreciated that. “Um, my head was turned to the side—like this—so when he stepped up against me, his mouth was at my ear.”

River placed his hand on her mouth and stepped closer. “Now when I clamp down on your wrists and mouth, I want you to think about shocking me with your body. Think about where I’m touching you. Ready?”

She shook her head, and River removed his hand from her mouth and sighed. She guessed he was thinking she said no because she didn’t want to do this. He was wrong.

“You’re not close enough,” she said, looking at him. “Casey was standing up against me.” She tried not to cringe when she said his name out loud.

River chuckled, putting his hand back over her mouth. “I know, but I’d rather you try shocking me against my hands. If I press up against you, there’s no telling where you’ll shock me.” Leaning to her ear, he said with a chuckle, “I’d rather be kneed in the groin than shocked there.”

She laughed against his hand and nodded in understanding.

“You ready?”

She nodded again, more purposefully this time.

River suddenly tightened his hands around her wrists and against her mouth, stepping as close to her as he could without touching her anywhere else.

“Do you like being taken against your will?” he growled in her ear menacingly.

River’s sudden change in demeanor jolted her back to last night. It almost seemed too easy for him to embrace the monster within. She felt her hands tingling like she wanted to strike him. She wanted to push him away. She tried thinking about that tingling feeling in her hands, willing it to the places where he was holding her.

“If I wanted—” River snarled, but stopped and stepped away from her. “Good, Legacy.” He smiled. “It was very light, but I felt a tingle against my hand on your wrist.”

“Did you feel anything against my mouth?” she asked.

“No. Just your wrists.”

She took a deep breath. “You were…convincing,” she admitted awkwardly.

“That’s the point. Ready to go again?”

She nodded, and he assumed the position.

“Remember, try to shock me wherever I touch you.” Then he locked his hands against her. “If I wanted you, you couldn’t stop me,” he snarled. He jumped away. “Good! It was stronger that time, and you did it against both hands.”

“Really?” she asked with a grin.

“Uh-huh. Okay, now this time, instead of holding you in position before we start, I’m going to start out by grabbing you like he did, but I want you to stay up against the wall, so I don’t hurt you accidentally, okay?”

“All right.”

While he was standing in front of her, his smile faded. He grabbed her wrists and threw them above her head while he clamped his other hand against her mouth. “You’re mine,” he growled. “I’m going to—
ahh!
” He jumped back. “Good girl.” He laughed while shaking his hands. “But this time, try to do it sooner. When someone attacks you, every second counts.”

He didn’t wait for her to give him the signal. He slammed into her, and she shocked him before he could even say anything.

Stumbling back, he said a little breathlessly, “Very good. Now I’m going to grab you again, but I’m not going to tell you where. We already know you can shock me with your hands, so try to fight the urge to push me away. I want you shocking me with other parts of your body like you’ve been doing, not your hands.”

“Okay.”

River stepped forward and grabbed her waist. Then he jumped back. “Damn, you’re getting stronger! That…that’s good, though,” he said, stepping back to her, yet hesitating.

“We can stop,” she said, trying not to get tickled at his pain. She shouldn’t be enjoying this, but she was.

“No, no. We need to see if you can shock me when it’s not my hands holding you.”

“H-how are you going to—”

He didn’t let her finish. He pressed his chest up against hers, leaving his hands off her. It must have worked because he stumbled away before he could say anything. Then he glared at her, renewed purpose blazing in his eyes, and threw his hands on the wall beside her. He quickly slid his leg between hers. She gasped. But she didn’t shock him.

Thinking she wasn’t as quick to hurt him since he was touching her on the lower half of her body now, he tried goading her again. “You’re not strong enough to stop me from taking what I want,” he snarled while he slid his leg between hers, inching higher, higher…

Nothing.

He clamped his outer leg against hers, so now her leg was trapped between his.

Still nothing.

He leaned against the top half of her. She guessed he was hoping she’d shock him all over once she started shocking him in a place where he knew she could. But as he pressed himself up against her, all she could think was how sensual he felt. She knew he was being rough with her and talking dirty to scare her, but the surprise of his behavior had waned. She knew what he was doing, so she wasn’t scared. She was, however, starting to have other feelings as she felt his body press up against hers, his breath on her ear.

She felt the tension in his body ease, and he leaned back to look into her eyes. He kept her leg locked between his. “What’s wrong?” he asked, but as soon as he did, he started to smile. He pulled away from her completely with a huge grin on his face, and she knew he could sense she liked him being that close to her.

She rolled her eyes, looking away from him. “You being able to feel my energy is getting old,” she mumbled.

He chuckled. “Well, I was blocking you while we were practicing. My natural instinct is to protect you, so I had to shut out your energy to focus.” He took a step closer. “But, umm, when you didn’t shock me, and I asked what was wrong, your energy came flooding back.”

She sighed, shaking her head. “I think we’ve practiced enough. Besides, Calli wants me to go Christmas shopping with her.”

“Yeah, I think this was a great start. You just need to make sure you keep practicing.” He walked away and grabbed his jacket.

“Sir, yes, sir,” she said with a chuckle.

River laughed too as he walked back to her and putt his jacket on, but then he became sober as he gazed into her eyes. “Um, Legacy, I’ve been thinking…about our conversation a couple of weeks ago.”

“Yes?”

He sighed nervously. “I, er, had this whole speech planned yesterday, but then …” He shook his head at the memory of what happened. “Anyway, I’ll get right to it.” He stepped closer and looked at her with gentle eyes. “I’d like to take you out.”

She stared at him, trying to understand his intentions. They went out all the time. Heck, he always paid for her when they went to lunch together. He’d come over and watched movies at her house and at Calli’s. This didn’t tell her if he’d decided to stay friends or try for something more.

“On a date, I mean. Just the two of us,” he clarified.

Oh
. “Um, sure.” She nodded.

He smiled lightly. “How about Monday?” he asked.

“Monday? Why Monday?”

“There’s something specific I’d like to do that we can only do on Monday.” He started to step away. “But there’s nothing wrong with a Monday date,” he said jokingly. “Our first date was on a Monday.”

“Right.” She laughed. “The Italian restaurant, my first week on the job.”

River nodded as he made his way to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yep. I’ll be at Calli’s at noon for our gift exchange. You going to tell me who you got?” she asked with a laugh.

“Nope. You’ll have to find out tomorrow.”

“Crap. Calli wouldn’t tell me either.” She chuckled.

“
You
aren’t supposed to be asking, baby.”

She shrugged. “And?”

River laughed carelessly as he walked out and to his car. She watched him drive off before she hopped in her own car and headed to Calli’s. She was surprised when River stayed on the interstate rather than get off at his exit. She didn’t know why she was surprised, though. He didn’t say he was going home.

She arrived at Calli’s and met her outside. They jumped into Calli’s car since she loved driving it, and Legacy loved riding in it. While they were on the road, she told her BFF about the police report and River coming over to help her with her abilities.

“He, um, asked me out on a date. We’re going out Monday night,” Legacy blurted after she’d finished describing River’s earlier torture session.

Calli’s eyebrows furrowed briefly, and then she smiled. “Does this mean you’re letting go of your vendetta?” She sounded hopeful.

“No, but, er, I’m not going to focus on it either. I’ve decided if we’re going to be dating, then I’m going to let go of my plan to retaliate until the time is right. I can’t risk the chance of him questioning me again.” As she said the words, she felt horrible. River had spent all morning helping her hone her shocking ability, and here she was, talking to Calli about hurting him.

“Legacy, I don’t think—”

“Let it go, Calli. I don’t want to think about the plan anymore. Not until I need to. I have to believe I’m falling for him. I can’t do that if I’m harping on the plan or second-guessing myself.”

She nodded. “Have you heard from Adin?”

Her heart squeezed in her chest. “No,” she breathed.

“He’s probably just giving you the space you need to deal with River.”

“I can’t think about him either. If I think about Adin, River will notice my energy change.”

Calli groaned, but didn’t press either topic. It was an impossible situation. Legacy would groan, too, but she’d never stop.

They spent the afternoon indulging in a different torture session—fighting the crowd at the mall. Why anyone would wait until the last minute to Christmas shop, she had no idea. It was a madhouse. Grown people shoving and yelling over the latest gadgets—it was absurd!

They finally left, and when they got back to Calli’s house, Calli said she was going to walk down to the pond in her neighborhood to relax her nerves, but Legacy went straight home. It was too cold for her to be walking around outside.

She literally collapsed on her bed as soon as she walked into her room. She wiggled out of her pants and sweatshirt before rolling under the covers, not bothering to brush her teeth. She slept peacefully until her current recurring dream disrupted the calm.

Just like always, she sat in a field, meditating under a vibrant sky. As she meditated, clouds rolled in, and she heard her mother’s voice.

“Watch out, for he lies. Evil lies inside the good,” she said softly. “He’s setting you up.”

Legacy woke up with a jolt.
Setting me up
? How could River be setting her up? She already knew he lied to her, played her, and he himself worried he’d be evil like his mother. But how could he be setting her up? Unless it was all part of his lies.

Not knowing what to think, she went downstairs to talk to Lissa or Olive to see what they thought about her new dream, but when she got downstairs, she found a note Lissa had left on the counter stating she and Olive went Christmas shopping.
Poor girls
, she thought.

Legacy ate some breakfast and went back upstairs to shower and get ready for her afternoon at Calli’s. Once she was ready, she grabbed Calli’s gift and headed out the door. When she got to Calli’s house, the gate was opened, so Legacy parked and went in.

“Calli?”

“In here,” she yelled from the den.

Legacy walked in, and Calli and River were sitting by the Christmas tree Calli’s parents had professionally decorated. Holding the gift in her hand, she took a seat beside the both of them.

“Who goes first?” she asked with smile, but she was strangely nervous.

Looking at Legacy, Calli said, “Why don’t you give your gift to whomever you got? Then that person can open the gift. Then the person who opened your gift can give the gift that he or she brought, and so on.”

She giggled. “Ok-a-ay, Merry Christmas,” she said to Calli as she handed her the bag.

Calli squealed, yanking the bag from her hands. She tore out the crepe paper and pulled out the limited edition winter MAC collection Legacy had gotten her.

“Oh my gosh! Where did you find this? Dillard’s has been sold out for weeks. I even went online to order it directly from MAC, and it was sold out.”

“I ordered it through Nordstrom’s,” she said while Calli opened the cosmetics to get a closer look at the colors.

Calli threw her arms around Legacy and said, “Thank you so much. I love it!”

“You’re welcome.” She laughed and heard River laughing too.

“You’re turn, Calli,” River said.

She put down her makeup and grabbed the gift she’d purchased. Calli looked back and forth between the two of them with a huge grin on her face. “Because we know who Legacy got and I know who I got, I already know how the drawing turned out.” She laughed.

With a smirk on his face, River said, “Me too.” When Calli frowned at him, he continued. “This can only go one of two ways. We know that Legacy got you, and I know who I got. The only person who doesn’t know yet is Legacy because she went first.”

“Uh, that’s not fair,” she said, laughing. “I’m not going first next year!”

River and Calli laughed too. Then River stared at Calli. “Hand it over,” he said with another chuckle.

Calli handed the gift to River. “Merry Christmas, River.”

Which meant that River would be giving Legacy a Christmas present. His eyes flashed to hers, and she was sure it was because he wanted to see the look on her face when she realized he’d be giving it to her.