After Rain Falls (River of Rain, #2)

by C.E. Ricci

Every star in the night sky would have to burn out before it isn’t River.

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.

“How’s it fucking feel? Not just to be used like this, but to hate yourself for loving it. How’s it fucking taste, baby? Knowing your mouth wasn’t the last one to be wrapped around my cock.”

“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.

“People only obsess over each other when things between them are left unfinished.”

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

Every thought of you burns my skin. And knowing my sleep is the only place I’m able to kiss you, touch you, and feel the fire you consume me in…makes me crave the nightmares.”

Pills and booze were easier to swallow than knowing the person I love will never love me back.

“Too bad that isn’t the way the world works, mo grá. I carved my name into your heart and you branded your very essence into my soul. You can’t just forget that.”

Because he carved his name into my heart when he tore it from my chest. I don’t think there will ever be a day it doesn’t beat for him.

Because I love you. And making sure you understand that is more important to me than anything else.”

“What?” I whisper, sounding like I just swallowed glass. “You fucking heard me,” he says, his voice just as hoarse as he walks up to me. “But in case it was somehow lost in translation, I’ll say it again. I love you. And all I want is you too.”

I hold his eyes as I put my heart on the line for him. Hopefully, for the last time, as the words come out barely more than a whisper. “I love you too.”

“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.

“Your name was already inscribed on my heart and etched in my soul. The only place it was missing was inked on my skin.”

“When the person you’re meant to be with is tossed in your path, you grab them and hold on for dear life. And I don’t care how old we are. You hear it all the time about some people meeting their soulmate at the age of five or whatever. Who’s to say we can’t at twenty-one?” Rain’s eyebrows rise. “Are you saying I’m your soulmate?”

“You’re all I want. All I’ll ever need,” I tell him, my voice rough and filled with gravel. “And I swear to you, River. No matter what, I’ll follow you anywhere.”