Page 72 of River of Deceit

I turn to look at the professor. “Don’t hold it against him, sir. It was all my fault. I’ll take the full hit to my grade.”

I hurry after River, not answering when the professor asks what my name even is. I find River waiting for me outside the lecture hall, his expression furious.

“Oops,” I say with a small smile. “Sorry.”

“No,” he growls, taking a step closer to me. He’s trying to bemenacing, but I just find it hot. I hold my ground. “You fucking aren’t.”

“Yeah, not that much.” I run my hands along his arms. “But what was that reaction? I didn’t even pinch you.”

River glowers at me, and he’s the one who takes a step back. “Yourfriendsare fucked up, that’s all,” he says, crossing his arms against his chest. “Drop it, Pandora. Now what do you want, that you had to get me kicked out of class?”

“You ignored all my texts,” I point out. “How else was I going to get your attention?” I try to get a better look at his ass, but the jeans cover everything, and they aren’t even particularly tight. “Fucked up how?”

He lets out an exasperated sound. “None of your fucking business.”

I scowl. “Wait, what? You can’t keep secrets from me. Not when it’s about the people who might have killed Rachel.”

“Yes, I can, if you want me to get into the frat,” River says steadily. “You don’t get to know everything, Pandora. You’re better off not knowing any of this anyway.”

He should know by now that the more he tells me no, the more I want to know.

“But they hurt you,” I say. I try to touch his ass again, but he swats my hand away.

“Leave it. I can handle a bit of pain,” he growls back.

I try to imagine what they did to him. A whipping? A beating? A belting? River would have taken the pain stoically, and my body gets a bit warmer when I envision his face scrunched up in pain.

I want to see it too. That would be so hot.

…I have enough sense not to say that out loud, though.

I place my hands on his hips and step closer. “Thank you,” I whisper, leaning in to kiss his jaw. “I know you did that for… for Rachel.”And for me.

He grabs me by the hair and yanks me closer, kissing my lips hard. “Don’t do this again,” he murmurs against my mouth. “Youwant to talk, you do it on my schedule. I’m not failing my classes because you’re too impatient to wait even twenty minutes to talk.” He releases me and pushes me back so hard I almost stumble.

I steady myself and glare at him. “If you hadn’t ignored me for two days in a row, I wouldn’t have had to resort to desperate measures. Like stalking. That thing you were doing to me?”

“I wasbusy,” he emphasizes. “In case you aren’t aware, hell week is called that for a reason. If you want me in Chaos, you need to let me do what I need to do.”

“You’re too busy to let me know that you’re okay?” I step into his personal space again. “You can think what you want about me, River, but I know ‘hell week’ isn’t a piece of cake. So of course I was worried about you.”

He eyes me suspiciously, then sighs. Running a hand through his hair, he replies, “It’s been harder than I expected, all right? I needed to decompress when I wasn’t running around doing their stupid errands or being humiliated in front of the entire fraternity.”

“Yeah? What kind of shit are they making you do? Besides beating you?” I wish I could see his ass now. I want to run my hands over the bruises and make him squirm. I bet I could make him hard if I alternate my touches, painful and pleasurable all at once.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says. “What’s going on with your investigation? Made any progress?”

I lean against him and huff. “Nope. Blaze and Asch haven’t contacted me again either. Maybe Blaze had enough after he fucked me outside the greenhouse?—”

River grabs me by my upper arms, squeezing tight. “He did what?” he snarls, his eyes flashing dangerously. “You let him fuck you like that?”

“Uh, should I not have?” I ask. “He had me pinned on the soft dirt, his hand around my neck. He kept squeezing, cutting off my air…”

I can practically feel River’s jealousy. “And you got off on that, huh?” he challengesme.

“I might have.” I wrap my arms around his torso and settle my hands on his ass, making him grimace. “Did I give you the impression I was vanilla? You’re really unobservant if yes.”

He squeezes my ass tightly. “No, I don’t think you’re vanilla, or celibate, or even a one-person woman,” he replies. “It shouldn't surprise me that you’re into public hate-fucks either.”