After Rain Falls (River of Rain, #2)

by C.E. Ricci

Because in the cold light of day, if I had to choose, I know who it would be. I wouldn’t have to think twice. It’s River. Every star in the night sky would have to burn out before it isn’t River. And maybe even then, my mind replays his words from two nights ago.

He should’ve tattooed his name across every available inch of my skin in exchange for my sanity because in the end, I’ll never be anything but his. Until my dying day, I’ll belong to River Lennox.

“There was a point in my life when I thought your cum was the sweetest thing I’d ever tasted.” I grind the words out, desperate to gain control over the war inside me. Giving in to my desire to kiss and hold and fucking love him is the last thing I can do right now. “But I was wrong, baby. I think I prefer the taste of your tears.”

He is the object of my obsession, the gravity for my orbit, every star in the night sky, reminding me that I’m not alone. He’s the center of my goddamn universe. And I just broke him. So no, the person I hate…it’s not Rain. Not even close. The real person I hate is myself.

So, I know this is it. What rock bottom looks, feels, sounds, smells, and tastes like. It looks like all your dreams being doused in gasoline and set ablaze by those you love the most. It feels like the most intense heat, burning hotter than the sun with anger and disdain radiating in licks and flashes of fire. It sounds like the cracking and breaking of your very soul. The foundation of who you are being unable to defy gravity any longer when the embers become too heavy before it collapses around you in shambles. It smells like smoke to the point you can’t fucking breathe anymore without suffocating. And it tastes like salt and embers. From the ashes sticking to the tears streaming down your face as you watch your world, everything you’ve ever worked for, go up in smithereens. Without a single clue how to stop it.

“This goes so much deeper than need and desire. The way I ache for you? It’s fucking toxic.”

I’m going after what makes me happy. Digging in and getting what I want. What makes me glad to be living each day. And Rain… he’s all that for me. No matter how sideways things have gone for us in the past and no matter how we seem to hurt each other. He’s the oxygen. And he makes me feel alive.

“This is gonna come out sounding stupid and fucking corny, but my world begins and ends with you. I see you, the real you. The you kept hidden from everyone else. I know who you are, baby. And despite the shit we went through and all the shit we still have to overcome, I’m undeniably in love with you.”

“I might have you, but you own me. Every inch. Every thought. Every moment of every day, Abhainn. You own me.”

He’s mine. Only mine. Just like I’m his. And I know now, we’re no longer an almost. We’re everything.