leave my mom. This town. This is my home. It's all I know.
But I really want to be with him. I want to be happy, and Brad makes me so happy.
What if I did it? What if I finally did what makes me happy and left here? Maybe this is my chance. Brad's offering me a way out. Maybe I should take it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Riley
"I'll do it," I say to Brad as I burst through the door.
"Do what?" he asks, giving me a kiss.
"I'll go to New York with you."
"Are you serious?" He holds me back, looking at my face. "This isn't a joke, right? You'd actually come with me?"
"It'll be tough leaving my mom, but you're right. I can't take care of her forever. I want to do this, Brad. For me. For us. It's scary, but I want to do it."
He brings me into his arms. "We'll make this work. I know you're scared, but we'll make it work. We'll start looking for apartments today if you want."
"Maybe later. Right now I want to do something else." I kiss him as he reaches behind me and shuts the door.
"You sure you want to do this here?" he asks as we kiss our way over to the couch.
"We can't go to my place. My mom's there with Lou." I yank at his shirt.
"We could go back to the lake." He lifts his shirt up and takes it off.
"Too far of a drive. I can't wait that long."
"Me either." He lays me down on the couch.
It's Saturday morning and we're at Nate's house. Brad and I have never even held hands here. We were too afraid we'd be caught. But Nate went to Dallas yesterday for a job interview and is staying there until Sunday. His mom is spending today with her boyfriend, who Nate still doesn't know about. And Brad's parents, who were supposed to arrive today, decided to arrive tomorrow instead. That leaves us with the house to ourselves.
"Let's go in my room," Brad says as he kisses my neck.
"It's too far." I undo his belt. "I want you now." I raise my hips and grind them against the thick bulge in his crotch.
"Damn, Riley," he groans as his eyes rake over my body. I'm wearing a really short skirt, which got even shorter when I lifted my hips. "I want you so fucking bad."
I smile. "Then take me."
He leans down to kiss me as his hand goes under my skirt, straight to my panties, stroking me. We haven't done it since we were at the lake. That was a week ago, and the last time we were alone together. We tried to meet before now but couldn't. When Nate got the call about the job interview he insisted Brad help him get ready for it by pretending to interview him. Then Nate's mom asked Brad to help her get the house ready for his parents' visit, leaving no time for us to meet up.
"So good," I moan as Brad pleasures me with his hand. I reach between us to feel what will soon be inside me. "I want it," I say as I touch him. "I want it now."
He smiles against my mouth, then kisses me, filling my body with those glorious tingles that spread all the way down to my toes.
The front door opens and we freeze.
"What the hell's going on?" a guy yells.
It's Nate. I can't see him, but it was definitely his voice. Shit!
Brad's on top of me, his hand still under my skirt. He slowly removes it and turns around, sitting in front of me.
"Nate. You're back."
Nate storms over to us. "What the fuck is going on here?"
"We were just—" I rush to explain but don't know how. Nate knows what was going on. He saw it with his own eyes. The couch faces the door. He saw what we were doing.
"How long?" he demands, seething with anger.
I rush to get up. "Nate, calm down. It's not what it—"
"Not what it looks like?" He huffs. "You really think I'm that stupid? I saw his hand up your skirt. I saw him kissing you. I saw you touching his—" Nate whips around and storms to the kitchen. "How could you do this to me?"
Brad gets up and walks over to him. "We didn't do anything to you. You did it to yourself. We wanted to tell you, but you made it impossible. You kept saying you didn't want to see Riley with someone else, even