Page 23 of Take Me Slowly, Part 1 (Aurora Hollow duet #1)

LEAH

For some reason I couldn't explain, I paid for my own groceries and hurried out behind him. Fingers tight around the handles of my bags, I stopped on the footpath and scanned the street.

There he was. A hint of black wove through the strolling visitors to town. His back straight, looking ahead of him.

Careful not to hit anyone with my bags, I wove through the same gaps, following him past the Snowdrop Café and the Frosty Brew to the edge of town.

He stopped beside a black pickup truck, unlocked it and placed his groceries inside. As he closed the door, he glanced at the side mirror. His back stiffened. He must have seen me reflected in the glass.

"What the fuck do you want?" He turned around, his eyes blazing. "Why are you following me?"

"What makes you think I'm following you?" I asked. I had no answer for him. I didn't know either.

"Has it occurred to you I might be heading this way?" I wasn't the only one walking in this direction. He couldn't think everyone was following him, could he?

"You live in the other direction." He closed his mouth, his teeth clenched.

I arched my eyebrows at him. "How did you know that?" He clearly spoke without thinking, and then regretted admitting he knew anything about me. Especially where I lived.

"I saw you there one time." His mouth barely moved as he spoke. His gaze didn't quite meet mine. He was lying, but I had no idea why.

"Did you?" I cocked my head at him. "Or maybe you're following me ."

Wouldn't I have noticed him outside the front of the cottage?

He was difficult to miss, especially in a town this small.

As far as I could tell, he was the only one who dressed entirely in black.

I wasn't surprised to see his truck was black.

Everything inside it was probably black as well.

Did he live in a black house too? With black walls and black satin sheets on the bed?

I shouldn't be thinking about his bed. I certainly shouldn't be thinking about him lying on it, looking up at me, his eyes telling me to come closer. To lower myself onto him and ride him until we both screamed.

I forced the thought away. It didn't leave, but it reluctantly retreated into a back corner of my mind until later. At some point, it was going to be back in full force. Maybe when I had my vibrator in hand.

"Why the fuck would I do that?" he snapped. He let out a long sigh through his nose. "Sweet cheeks, you have a high opinion of yourself." One he apparently didn't share.

I straightened my head and glared. "The hell I do. I think you might be projecting, Josiah Lachance. I mean, look at you." I jerked my head forward. "You've nailed the whole brooding bad boy thing. Do you own anything that isn't black?"

"Nope," he said tightly. "Everything is black, like my soul."

I snorted a laugh. "That's fucking dramatic. You want to know what I think?"

"No. I don't give a shit." Keys in his hand, he started to turn away.

I decided to tell him anyway.

"I think you enjoy this. You like people looking at you like you're something they just scraped off the bottom of their shoe.

You like them blaming you for what happened to Coral Clarke, because then you're justified in blaming yourself.

If they look at you like you're trash, then you don't have to make the effort to be nice to anyone. You can go on brooding."

"You don't know shit," he said over his shoulder.

"Don't I?" I stepped closer. "Believe it or not, I'm not perfect." I ignored his smirk.

"I know how it feels to have people treat me like crap.

After a while, you start to believe the things they say.

Eventually, you stop fighting it, because it's easier to let them walk all over you.

But you know what? It's a fucking miserable way to live.

If that's what you want for the rest of your life, then…

" I let out a frustrated breath. "I guess I can't do anything to help you. "

"Fuck," he whispered. He turned around slowly, his gaze finding my face.

"You know what, you're right. You're not perfect and there's nothing you can do for me. Do both of us a favour and leave me the fuck alone. Whatever Girl Scout shit you're trying to do here, I'm not interested. Go and soothe your ego with some other sucker."

He walked around to the other side of his pickup, unlocked the door and slid inside.

Starting the engine, he revved it a little too hard before peeling away from the gutter and heading off down the road a bit too fast. A couple of pedestrians had to jump out of his way to avoid being struck.

One of them flipped him off, but I doubted he noticed, or gave a shit.

He was too angry for anything other than getting the hell out of town and away from me.

That shouldn't have stung as much as it did.

I startled as a hand covered my shoulder, the sudden pressure warm and firm.

Letting out a squeak, I spun around. The bags swung in my hand, hitting me in the thigh. I barely noticed. My heart raced from the surprise.

Riley stood behind me, his expression irritated, but not repentant at just having scared the shit out of me. Did he even realise he'd done it? His attention seemed to be on Josiah's truck, and the man driving it.

"He shouldn't talk to you like that." He glared down the street as if he could blast lasers out of his eyes and hit Josiah and his truck with them.

"I kinda asked for it," I admitted. I sighed softly. "I said a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have said."

Was I wrong though? He was brooding and letting the town treat him badly.

On the other hand, he didn't need me to be as awful.

Something about him made me furious, but I didn't know if it was at him or for him.

All I knew was that I'd taken aim and let fly.

Giving him everything that was on my mind.

"He has that effect on most of us," Riley said. "Maybe Coral ran away from him." He smirked.

"Riley Crane!" I frowned at him. "That's a terrible thing to say. Whatever really happened, a little girl died." I had a dark sense of humour myself, but not about something like that.

"Because of him," Riley said, unrepentant. "I'm never going to stop reminding him of that." He wasn't even slightly sorry.

Of course, he spent almost a lifetime treating the other man like this, and seeing other people do the same. Chances were, he never gave it a second thought. As habits went, it wasn't a good one.

"Why?" I had to ask. "Why do you have to keep reminding him of something so horrible?

Do you think he doesn't know? Because what I see when I look at him…

" I gestured down the street, in the direction he'd gone.

"I see a guy who's beaten himself up for twenty years.

I don't think he needs, or deserves, everyone else piling on him. "

My breath was coming faster now, my irritation threatening to boil over. I already told Josiah what I thought, I was fully prepared to do the same with Riley. If he thought I wouldn't, he'd have to take a long, hard think again.

He closed the distance between us and raised his hand. I thought he was going to run his knuckles down my cheek, but instead he grabbed a fistful of my hair. He wrapped it around his fingers, tight enough that I couldn't pull away if I wanted to.

In spite of myself, my panties were ruined in moments.

Riley leaned in and spoke in my ear. "Don't defend Josiah. Don't follow him. Don't talk to him. Don't let him talk to you. What he touches, he breaks. I'm not letting him break you."

"He won't break me," I whispered back. "But you and Connor might."

He let go of my hair and stepped back, looking confused and angry.

"Is that what you think?" He looked as shocked as I was when he came up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.

Like he couldn't wrap his head around what I said.

Thinking maybe he'd misheard, but letting the words sink in gradually.

"Honestly, I don't know what to think," I said. "You and him are so possessive, but I hardly know either of you. I don't know why you've decided you want me."

I remembered what Josiah said about them wanting me to fall for them before they turned their backs on me. Was he right? They might not even go that far. They might want to fuck me and then walk away. They wouldn't be the first.

"Because you fit," Riley said. "With us. With Aurora Hollow."

"What if I want to fit with Josiah Lachance?" I lifted my chin, challenging him to think before he responded. "What if I wanted to fit with someone else?"

What were they going to do about it? Scowl at anyone I chose until he ran into the forest? What would that actually achieve? Apart from pissing me off. And potentially feeding bears.

"Do you?" His brow was scrunched. If I wasn't annoyed with him right now, I'd find it adorable. Why did men have to be so infuriating?

"I don't know," I said. "What I do know is I get a choice. The possessive mountain man thing is ridiculously hot, but I make my own decisions."

He blinked at me a couple of times, then smiled. "I've never been called ridiculously hot before."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course that's what you took away from that."

"I heard the possessive mountain man thing too," he said. Did he actually puff his chest out? "That's also accurate. We are who we are and we aren't going to change."

I resisted rolling my eyes at him. "I didn't say I wanted you to change," I said. "You don't get to control my life. Do you understand that?"

His smile didn't change. Didn't falter. "You say that now."

"I'll always say that," I insisted. Was he trying to imply that I'd surrender total control to him and Connor at some point? In the bedroom, maybe. Outside of that? Not a chance. The sooner they figured that out, the better.

"Okay," he said, clearly not believing or backing down a centimetre. "Anyway, I came to find you to see if you want to come with us. We're about to take the first group out on the white water."

"I thought you were booked out?" I said.

He shrugged one shoulder. "We are, but we have room for one more. And a picnic lunch after. You said you hardly knew us. This is a chance to get to know us and see what we do."

I always wanted to go white water rafting, and this seemed like the perfect place to do it.

If I was honest with myself, I'd like to watch them both in their element.

Like I had when we went up to the lookout.

When the adrenaline ran through me like a drug.

Once that rush faded, I felt flat, like I needed another hit. Why not take that hit today?

"Sure, why not?" I said as if I wasn't as excited as I actually was. "As long as you don't push me overboard."

"No, but you're going to get wet," he promised.

I bet I was.