Songbird (Songbird, #1) (24 page)

I
WOKE
in the night still wrapped in Riley’s arms. They were warm and comforting, and I didn’t want to leave them, but my hip was sore and I needed to take some pain relief medication, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to walk tomorrow. Riley’s breathing was even and peaceful, and I tried not to disturb him too much as I slipped out of bed and headed for the kitchen.

There was enough light in the apartment from the street lamps outside to not need to turn on any lights, and I was going to be quick, so I didn’t bother with a robe.

I was reaching for a glass when I heard Riley enter the room.

“Are you okay? I woke up and you were gone.” He came over behind me and rested his hands on my hips. “Although this is a nice surprise,” he whispered in my ear as he pressed up against me, his warm breath sending shivers down my spine.

He slipped his hands around my waist and then worked them up to my breasts, cupping the weight of them as he nuzzled my neck. I let my head drop back onto his shoulder and closed my eyes. He ran one hand up to my jaw and gently eased my head around until our lips met, before tracing a row of butterfly kisses down my neck and back to my shoulder. He was pressed hard against me, and I could feel his arousal as he moved his hips teasingly, the firmness of his body igniting my own passion.

I reached around behind me, holding his hips in place and pushed back, enticing him further, then pulled my hips away slightly so I could run my hand up the length of him. He moaned softly at the movement and then pushed his knee between my legs to open them wider.

His hand slid down my body, over my abdomen and settled between my legs, where it skilfully went to work, setting my body alight, before repositioning himself and entering me.

He rotated his hips as the speed of his movement increased and I braced myself against the counter, relishing every sensation. His caress never faltered, his mouth endlessly kissing my shoulders and neck as my arousal increased and my body shuddered. He supported my weight as my legs turned to jelly, before I heard a guttural grunt escape his lips and felt his body tense behind me … and then relax.

I woke with a start. The security door was buzzing, and I looked at the clock beside the bed through half-closed eyes to check the time. It was 9:48am. I gave Riley a nudge. Kelli and Cooper were coming over to go to the beach at ten, so it was no doubt them.

I quickly let them in as Riley jumped in the shower, and I joined him.

“We’ll just make ourselves at home then, will we?” Cooper called.

We hurriedly soaped each other up and rinsed off. It was disappointing to have to rush—the feel of Riley’s taut muscles as my hands glided over his body made me want to explore him more—so I made a mental note to do this again after we got home this afternoon.

Luckily, Cooper had thought to bring Riley’s bag over so he could get dressed. Within fifteen minutes we were ready to go.

“What the hell happened to you?” Kelli asked when she saw my bruised leg.

I had pulled on shorts for our day by the sea, so the bruising was clearly evident. She glared at Riley, her first instinct to blame someone, but I quickly told her it was Shithead and promised to tell her all about it as we walked to the beach.

The beach was practically deserted when we arrived. It was a Sunday morning, and I think we were the only people out of bed. We spread out our towels and stripped off.

Kelli examined the extent of the bruising on my leg and arm, the finger marks now clearly defined, as Riley lovingly covered my back with sunscreen. Then the guys went for a swim, and Kelli and I stretched out on our towels.

I filled Kelli in on my night with Riley without going into too many sordid details, although I did mention I was a little sore. We laughed at how cool it was to be best friends dating best friends, before making a pact to not interfere with each other’s relationships for fear of ruining our friendship.

“Ugh, get off me!” Kelli exclaimed. Cooper had snuck up and stretched out on top of her, his cold, wet body zapping the heat out of her sun soaked back.

He jumped up, and then in one swift movement picked her up, and threw her over his shoulder before running back down to the water laughing his head off. She kicked and screamed the whole way there, and I couldn’t help but laugh along with him. It was so typically Cooper.

Riley was standing beside me watching the commotion, shaking his head, and then he held out his hand. “Would you like to come in?” he asked, before helping me up and scooping me into his arms like I was a bride being carried over the threshold.

“Now
that’s
how you carry someone into the water,” Kelli yelled at Cooper, exasperated, before jumping onto his back with arms wrapped around his neck, trying in vain to pull him under. Cooper, in turn, was pretending he had an annoying mosquito on his back that he was trying to shoo away.

“Wait until they’ve been together for ten years,” he said as he continued his charade. “He’ll be throwing her over his shoulder too.”

I smiled at the thought of being with Riley for ten years. Could we sustain a relationship the way that Kelli and Cooper had? They had known each other and had a normal relationship before it became long distant and sporadic. We were starting off as long distant. I knew there would be times when I wouldn’t see Riley for weeks or even months, and worse still, times when we wouldn’t even be able to speak.

How would I cope with not knowing where he was or what he was doing? I knew I had to trust him, and he had given me no reason not to. But trust was not easy for me; my insecurities were a difficult beast to tame. But I had to try. Riley was worth it and he had been nothing but honest with me so far.

I looked up at his face. He was looking down at me, smiling lovingly.

“If you throw me over your shoulder in ten years’ time,” I said jokingly, “I’ll kill you.”

We packed up our things but stayed sitting on the beach a while longer as the sun set, turning the blue, cloudless sky into magnificent shades of red, orange and purple. I rested my head on Riley’s shoulder and he sighed contentedly. I was enjoying this simple moment, where nothing else mattered but the colour of the sky, the sound of the ocean and the warmth of each other’s skin.

We started the walk back to the apartment, the prospect of having to say goodbye weighing heavily on my mind. We hadn’t made any plans for the future. I didn’t know when I would be seeing Riley again, which concerned me a lot.

Cooper and Riley were talking excitedly about the training exercise they were going on the next day that they affectionately referred to as The Drop.

Apparently they were to jump out of a plane into the ocean in the middle of the night, where one of the six guys would then inflate a life raft and signal its position with a flare. It sounded like the craziest thing I had ever heard, but they were actually looking forward to it.

They would then have to make it back to shore and navigate their way through a tropical rainforest and into the desert, then onto their designated completion point. All this was to take no longer than three weeks.

From the landscape they were describing, I guessed they were being dropped somewhere up north near Darwin, but the location had to remain undisclosed.

“What happens at the end of the three weeks?” I asked, trying to sound casual. “Do you get time off?”

Riley smiled down at me, knowing where I was heading with the question. “It takes a few days to recuperate as it’s quite taxing on the body; they usually give us a week off, but I was thinking of taking two to fully recover.” He looked down at me out the corner of his eye with a sly smile. “I usually spend the first few days eating peanut butter sandwiches and drinking bottles of
Gatorade
. Sure would be nice to have someone to look after me.”

“I guess I could manage that,” I said cheekily, relieved that we now had plans that stretched further than eleven pm that evening.

He squeezed me close. “You didn’t think I would leave without knowing I was going to see you again, did you?”

I shook my head, then remembering the tickets to Fiji Riley had bid on at the ball said excitedly, “We could go to Fiji when you get back. Use the auction tickets.”

Now I had something to focus on while Riley was away; booking our flights and confirming accommodation availability.

Not to mention working out extra hard at the gym to get my body into tiptop bikini shape.

We said goodbye to Kelli and Cooper when we reached the apartment, and they said they would be back at ten pm to drive us to the airport, which only gave us just over an hour together.

First port of call was the shower. I took great pleasure in the time it took for Riley to lather the soap over every inch of my body, running his hands teasingly over my breasts to my hips, and up and down my back. He shampooed and conditioned my hair, then massaged my scalp with his strong hands. The feeling was bliss.

Then it was my turn to explore Riley’s incredible body. I ran my hands over his chest, tracing the contour of his muscles with my fingers, then down his washboard abdomen. He closed his eyes and sighed as I continued down, gently stroking him with my soapy hands. I washed his hair and afforded him the same lengthy scalp massage he had given me, eliciting more soft sighs as I worked over his head then down his neck to his shoulders.

We finally turned off the water and dried each other off before wrapping the towels around us. Then we headed into the bedroom to get dressed.

Riley was sitting on the edge of the bed, gazing up at me suggestively, and I had an overwhelming urge to do something we had not yet done, so I knelt down in front of him and opened his towel. I looked up at him and a slow, sexy smile spread over his gorgeous face as he leaned back a little, allowing me full access.