Chapter Eighteen

River


*Fuck!*

Seeing Chevy like that, I wanted to kill that fucker for touching her. She had completely shut down. I don’t know why she didn’t fight him but I’m not mad at her.

Frustrated that she didn’t do anything about it? Yes.

Mad at the situation? Fuck, mad doesn’t even begin to cover it.

But mad at her? Most definitely not.

She didn’t want him to touch her. That much is evident from the tears I saw streaming down her cheeks as he worked his fingers against the flesh between her thighs.

Chevy slides from my arms. Immediately, I feel the loss, and pull her back into me, wrapping my arms around her waist and burying my nose in her neck, inhaling the scent of her strawberry shampoo.

“Do you want to leave?” I murmur, placing light kisses against her skin and not giving a fuck if it’s rude to leave or not. Right now, I just want to take care of Chevy.

With a hiccupping sob, she nods her head *yes*.

“Oh, please don’t go…” urges Corrine. “I know what has happened isn’t ideal, but we just got you back, please don’t leave us already.”

I’m appalled that all that Corrine can think about is herself and the fact that if we leave, she won’t get to show off her long-lost daughter, rather than what Chevy may need, but at the same time, it doesn’t really surprise me too much.

“Ideal? Are you fucking serious right now? Chevy should never have had to go through that. That fucker…” I stop myself before I say something that I can’t take back.

“That fucker is done!” Cam interrupts during my pause, “He will never touch her again, if he does, he will be either dickless or dead.”

Nodding my head in appreciation of Cam, I take a few deep breaths trying to calm down. “If Chevy wants to leave, then we’re leaving. Taking care of her is my top priority right now.” I spit out, wanting to say more but biting my tongue.

“I’m so sorry…” sobs Chevy from my shoulder and it pisses me off even more because she has nothing to be sorry for.

“No, baby.” I whisper in her ear, “you have nothing to be sorry for.” Placing a kiss against her hair, I pull her tighter against me and finding her hand, I thread my fingers through hers, all while relishing in the fact that she is leaning on me for comfort instead of closing herself off.

“Can I call you later?” Caprice asks, her voice lacking its typical enthusiasm.

“Just wait a second.” Cam butts in, “I need to know if what he was saying is true. Was there something going on between the two of you before?”

Tears build in her eyes once more as she shakes her head. “I don’t know.” She cries, “I’m so sorry for all of this…”

“That’s enough! You’re treating her as though she is the one at fault, when *she* is the one that was just violated in *your* home. She doesn’t have any memory of you or him or of anything or anyone else for that matter, so how the hell do you expect her to know if something had been going on between them?” I wait a beat before continuing, knowing that that’s not really something that they can argue with. “Exactly, she can’t! And even if something had happened, he still had no right to do what he just did in there.” I say, pointing back down the hallway. “Now, thank you all for the invitation, but Chevy has been through enough so, if you will excuse us, we’re leaving.”

Leading Chevy towards the door, I see the look of reluctance on Cam’s face. I understand that he wants answers, but she can’t give him what he wants. Maybe there was something going on between Drake and Chevy before, maybe there wasn’t but at this point, the only person who knows for sure, unfortunately, is Drake.

Once outside, I lead Chevy towards the passenger side door, closing it once she’s climbed inside. Glancing one last time at the brick house with the red door, I round the truck and climb into the driver’s side of the truck.

Chevy’s got her thumb between her lips, gnawing on the nail, her head somewhere else when I start the truck and pull away from the curb.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask, knowing that if she doesn’t talk about it that she will obsess over it until it consumes her.

"There’s nothing really to talk about.” She responds, that faraway look from moments ago, still plastered on her face.

“What do you mean?” I hedge, confused on why she would think what happened to her is nothing.

“I mean, I honestly don’t know what to say. Physically, I was there but mentally, it’s like I was somewhere else,” Turning towards me, the vulnerability behind her eyes causes my heart to clench, “I just can’t make sense of it all.”

“Do you think it’s possible that maybe there was something between the two of you at one time?” I really don’t want to know about her past relationships, but if I can help her work through all of this, then that’s what I’m going to do.

“I wish I knew,” she murmurs, going back to chewing on her thumb nail momentarily before dropping her hand back to her lap with a sigh, “after seeing the way that he responded to you being there with me, the thought crossed my mind. Caprice did say that I had a thing for him back in High School, maybe it was actually more than just a schoolgirl crush?”

She stares at her lap for a moment before mumbling something that I don’t catch. “What did you say? I didn’t catch that.”

“Could what happened somehow be *my* fault?” She questions, looking up at me with tears in her eyes. “Is it possible that what he said was true, that there was something going on between us? What if him touching me like that in a dark hallway with everyone just a room away was normal for us?”

“I want you to listen to me and listen to me good, understand?" Without waiting for her to respond, I continue, "Regardless of what there may or may not have been between you and Drake in the past, Chevy, he had no right to so much as lay a finger on you. Do you understand that?" She nods her head and sniffs as a tear trails down her cheek.

"Fuck!" I growl, smacking my hand against the steering wheel, "I want to beat the shit out of that fucker for touching you!” I growl, my anger blazing once more, but I try to tamper it down so that I don’t upset her more than she already is.

Silence settles between us for a while, with just the sound of the road beneath the truck tires the only sound filling the void as we both get lost in our thoughts, not even having the sound of the radio to break up the silence this time.

“River?” she says just above a whisper after we’ve been on the road about half an hour.

“Yeah?” I say, glancing in her direction and take in her stiff posture. I can't really get a read on her at the moment, so I just try to steel myself for whatever happens to come out of her mouth next.

“I just need to know…” she hesitates, mulling over her words before continuing, “what are…” she starts but then stops, but then trying again she says, “what is this?” she finally finishes.

“What is what?” I ask, needing her to elaborate so that I don’t make a fool of myself for assuming she’s talking about one thing, when she’s actually talking about something else.

“*This. Us.* This past week you were so distant, and I know that you said it was because you were scared but then today, you were so tender and affectionate and it’s just so confusing. I just need to know what it all means." She says, sounding incredibly insecure. As she turns towards the window, I almost miss her whispered words, "Was it just because of what happened?”

Talk about putting a man on the spot. I open my mouth, trying to respond but nothing comes out as I’m at a loss for words. I know what I need to say, what I want to say but I don’t know if she will reciprocate but that’s what this is all about, right?

*What I feel for her is so much stronger than just the normal,* 'hey, I like this girl," *feelings but I don’t think she’s ready to hear just how far I’ve fallen for her.*

I am glad that I decided to take the long way back instead of the interstate though, because if we’re going to have this conversation right now, I need to pull over.

I turn off onto the next dirt road that we come across and park, killing the engine before I turn back to her. Raising my hand to her cheek, I brush away a stray piece of hair, the need to touch her having become too strong to ignore any longer.

As I stare into her beautiful eyes, I realize that if I try to tell her how I feel, I’ll go too far and scare her away. So instead, lifting my other hand and cradling her face between them both, I pull her into a kiss that will hopefully relay everything that I feel but can’t yet say.

At first, it’s just a soft meeting of lips, but it’s not enough. With Chevy, it will never be enough. I angle her head so that I have better access and when she opens for me, I take full advantage, our tongues dancing in a rhythm of their own.

Chevys hands find the hem of my shirt before slipping beneath, her nails scraping along my skin, eliciting a deep throated growl from me. My cock is aching for attention, the need to be buried deep inside of her overwhelming, but I know that after what happened earlier, that it would be a very bad idea to even try.

Reluctantly, I pull away, resting my forehead against hers as we both try to catch our breath. “You’re mine.” I growl.

“I am, am I?” she asks with a twinkle in her eye that tells me she is, at least for the time being, definitely recovered from earlier and is back to her sassy self.

I move in for another searing kiss, making sure there is no doubt in her mind that I’m claiming her, right here, right now. “Fuck yeah, your mine.” I say, pulling away.

“Well, that definitely clears things up a bit,” she says laughing, “let’s go home.” She has an ear-to-ear smile on her face and I love knowing that I’m the reason for it.