Feeling the Moment (11 page)

“Wow,” I breathed.

He laughed. “Not what you were thinking, huh?”

“It’s not that. It just… Okay, yeah it is, but I wasn’t…” I stopped talking in an effort to keep from looking worse than I already did.

River laughed. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I hear it all the time from my siblings.” He wrapped me in his arms. “Let’s get you inside. I think we both need a good night’s sleep.”

We walked inside. River showed me around. Though he had top of the line products, that’s where it stopped. There weren’t rooms that were barely used. It all felt lived in, cozy. The house spoke to who River was. He wasn’t a flashy, nose in the air, felt he was better than everyone kind of person. He worked for his money and spent it wisely.

Covering my mouth to stifle a yawn, I looked back at River. “It’s beautiful.”

Leaning down, he kissed me passionately. “Do you have to work tonight?” He breathed as he rested his head on my forehead, his eyes still shut.

“No. I’m off the next two nights.”

“Go run yourself a bath and I’ll make you something to eat.”

Nodding my head, I started to walk away before turning around. “Which one was it?” I asked.

“At the end of the hall,” he smiled.

The burning sensation of his eyes on me heated my body so I decided to give him a show worth watching. Slowly, I stripped my shirt off, then my bra. Bending over, I stripped out of the rest of my clothes. Hearing a growl from behind me, I looked over my shoulder and I watched as River stripped of his clothes tossing them as he walked. My breath caught in my throat.

River’s chiseled body and heavy lidded stare, sent my heart racing. My eyes travelled his body, soaking up every inch of him. Just as my eyes landed on his large, erect, cock, he scooped me up in his arms and carried me into his bedroom.

He moved us up toward the center of the bed, resting my head on the pillows. River leaned down and kissed me deeply. Softly running his hands down my side, to my hips, before moving between us, River slowly circled my sensitive nub before pushing into me. My hips bucked up at the incredible feeling he was giving me.

“You may not get to soak in your bath again,” he breathed as he continued to push his fingers in and out of my entrance.

“I don’t care,” I shook my head back and forth. “I need you.”

“You have me, all of me.” He shifted between my legs. The tip of his cock putting slight pressure where I desperately needed him to be, I reached behind him and pulled him into me.

Both of us hissed out a breath at the amazing sensations being connected like this filled us with. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pulled him down to kiss me again. River moved his arms under mine to wrap around holding onto my shoulders. He held me in place as he thrust in me with hard deep motions.

Breaking from the kiss, he trailed kisses across my jaw line down my neck. I nibbled and licked down his neck and over his shoulders. He continued to rock into me. Slow, deep thrusts. Over this past week, when I had a moment to think, I knew I wanted to be with River. But I couldn’t push aside the fear of him hurting me. He could hurt me like no one else.

Fear kept me from coming back to him, but love is what will keep me with him now. Now that he’s back and we’re together, I can’t let him go.

“I love you,” he breathed next to my ear.

“I lo… Oh River!” I called out as my orgasm hit me hard and strong taking my breath away.

River began to push into me hard and fast. It sent the first orgasm into another one and as I hit my third orgasm, River roared his release. Collapsing his entire weight on top of me, I wrapped him tightly in my arms.

“No more running, Kim,” he whispered into my neck.

“No more. I promise,” I breathed.

Chapter Thirteen

There was an incessant ringing that dragged me from my peaceful sleep. River leaned over me and grumbled a hello. He pulled the phone away from his ear before handing me the phone.

“Sorry, I thought it was my phone,” he said softly.

“It’s okay,” I put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Ms. Rose?” Sheryl’s voice came over the line.

“Yes?”

“It’s Sheryl. I was calling to ask if what I’ve been told is true.”

“Which is?”

“Were you with Mr. Monroe while he was a patient in this hospital?”

“Well, uh,…” I started.

“Ms. Rose, it’s a simple yes or no.”

Looking over at River, who had fallen back to sleep, “Yes.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. The policy of this hospital is clear, Ms. Rose. I’m afraid that you are no longer working for…”

“That’s fine,” I smiled as a bit of relief washed over me. “I was going to leave anyway. I’ve had enough abuse for one lifetime.” River shot up to a sitting position looking at me in concern. “I don’t need the job. I quit.”

I hung up and quickly called the higher ups, letting them know that I was quitting before Sheryl could put a fire on my record. Once all that was done, I put my phone on the side table and curled back into River.

“What’s going on?”

“I quit my night job,” I laughed.

He laughed softly, “Now I’m not complaining because I get more time with you, but why did you suddenly quit?”

“Because I can’t do it anymore. Because I don’t need to. The stress that place has given me has made me sick, literally. I was already contemplating quitting. This was just the push I needed.” My face dropped then as I realized something.

“What’s wrong,” River asked as he stroked my back.

“The regular donations I was giving the shelter will stop now,” I frowned.

“Well, I’m donating every week, so, I’ll just add in your amount,” he smiled softly.

“River, I can’t let you do that,” I breathed as tears filled my eyes.

“If this shelter is important to you, then it’s important to me. So why don’t we go down there today and set everything up. And if you want to, you could work for me,” he grinned big. “I could use an assistant that knows what she’s doing.”

Laughter forced the tears down my cheeks. “And what do I know, Mr. Monroe?” I asked seductively.

“Mmmm, everything sweetheart, definitely,” he whispered as he rolled on top of me, resting between my legs.

# # #

One week later…

River and I have spent every day together this past week. We drove out to talk to the girls about the donations. The girls pulled me aside, leaving River with their men, to talk to me about him. They wanted all the details, but as much as I loved these girls, I just wasn’t close to anyone like that, except maybe River.

I’ve stayed pretty much every night at River’s. Last night was the first night I hadn’t stayed there. I could have, but he was gone on a trip so I just stayed at home. River is supposed to be home tonight and I can’t wait. Standing inside his house without him here only serves to amp up how much I miss him. But as I look out the window for the millionth time, being in his house right now waiting for him to arrive felt more like home than being in my apartment. I miss him. Two days and one night seemed like years right now.

The time seemed to be ticking by so slowly. My excitement edged up higher and higher with each passing moment. With each click of the second hand, my feet began to dance in spot. Excitement to see him and fear of telling him had me holding my stomach in hopes of not getting sick from the nerves.

A car pulled up in front of the house. My heart hammered in my chest as I waited for him to exit the car. The front door opens and a burly looking man steps out with sunglasses on. My heart slowed its frantic pace when I didn’t recognize the chauffeur. River has always used the same chauffeur. He told me it’s because he has had a hard time trusting people, especially after he made his money.

As the back door of the car started opening, the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end. A shudder shook my body. It was almost as if the house grew suddenly freezing. A tall man in a suit stepped out of the back. He clenched the lapels of his jacket as he adjusted it on his shoulder.

The mystery man looked side to side before speaking with the man that had opened his door.

“Damn it, I wish I could read lips,” I mumbled to myself from behind the curtain.

The suited man started up the steps and my heart started hammering from fear, gut wrenching, heart shattering fear. Yet, even as scared as I am, I still found myself walking toward the door when the man knocked. My instincts told me to run and hide, but my feet still inched forward toward the door.

Opening the door, the man on the other side looked shocked to see me. But almost as quickly as the shock appeared, it was wiped and replaced with a blank, almost cold look.

“Hello, ma’am. I’m here to speak to River,” the man tried to be polite, but it was too forced to seem genuine.

“He’s, uh, not here at the moment.”

“Not here, huh? When will he be back?” It was almost growled questions.

Squaring my shoulders, I stand taller. “In a little while. Now, you can either come back at a later time or call him,” my voice was a hell of a lot stronger than I felt.

“Why don’t I wait inside?”

The man stepped forward as he asked. It took everything out of me to stay where I was and not retreat from the close proximity of this man. The overwhelming dangerous vibe came from his eyes. In my head, I’m already cursing myself for opening the door at all. Something told me that he’d just forced his way in had I not.

“I told you what you can do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some things to get back to.”

Hurriedly, I closed the door and turned the lock. Quickly, I set the alarm and ran as fast as I could into his office and hid under his desk. The desk was solid dark oak. There was no space in the front like the desk at my house so I could safely hide under here without them seeing me from the door.

Carefully, I pulled out my phone and dialed River’s number. The whole time I’m dialing, I’m listening for any signs that they’ve entered as I feared they would. His phone goes straight to voicemail.

“Damn it! River pick up your fucking phone! I’m in big trouble,” I whispered into the phone.

Hanging up, I kept calling and calling, but it kept going directly to his voicemail. The sound of the alarm had me jumping under the desk. As I jumped, I hit my head on the bottom of the desk. Knowing that I’m running out of time, I quickly type out a text.

Me:
Someone is here. They’ve just broken in. I’m scared, River. I love you.

Just as I hit send, I hear the office door bang open. My hand covered my mouth in hopes of muffling my scream that escaped without warning. The thuds of heavy footsteps entering the room had my lungs shrivel up and stop functioning. My heart stopped beating all together. And my body froze like water on a winter day. Tightly shutting my eyes, I prayed in my head for them to leave. Suddenly there was no more noise other than the alarm sounding and I opened my eyes.

Letting out a breath, I turned my head to climb out.  A chill that ran deeper than my bones and stopped every function my body had. Pointing right at me was a barrel of a gun. All air left my lungs and washed across the barrel making the hollowed whistle noise, only heightening my terror.

“Get out,” the burly man growled.

Swallowing was next to impossible in my desert dry throat. On shaking hands and knees, I crawled out from under the desk. It took every effort to stand up and not have my legs buckle from under me.

“Now that I have your full attention, where is River?” The man in the suit growled.

“He-he’s not here,” I stammered out much to my dismay.

“When will he be back?”

“I…” I tried to swallow. “I don’t know.”

Wrapping my arms around myself, I tried to keep the violent shaking that my body wanted to do away. Kim Rose wasn’t weak. I’ve faced down men like him before in my time on the streets. The fear didn’t consume me then and it wasn’t about to consume me now.

“Who are you to River,” he asked as he ran his finger down my cheek to under my chin, lifting it up to look at him.

Jerking my head away from his touch, I glared at him. “Who are you?” I asked, purposely avoiding his question.

“I’m an old friend of River’s. He left without saying goodbye and well…”

Laughter escaped before I could stop it. It was both nervous laughter and at his ridiculous answer that he was trying to feed me. If looks could kill, his glare right now would have sliced me up to little bits and pieces on the floor.

“You’re no old friend. I know a thug when I see one,” I countered, feeling more at ease with the situation.

He backhands me and I fall onto the desk, my phone skidding across the desk and onto the floor. Burly guy still pointed the gun directly at my head. In my anger at the man in the suit, I’d completely forgotten about the burly dude with the gun. Suit man walked around the desk and collected my phone from the floor. As he looked at it, a smile spread across his face.

“We’ve hit the jackpot Tank.”

“Why’s that boss?”

“It seems we have a love interest of River’s.” He looked up at me. “I didn’t know he did relationships. You must be something special.”

Instead of smarting off again, my cheek still throbbed from the last hit, I clamped my mouth shut and just stared at him with a blank face.

Suit man nods at the guy he referred to as Tank and suddenly a thick, strong arm banded around me holding me to his chest as he forces me to go with them. Kicking frantically, I nailed him in his shins, stepped on his toes. Honestly, I was trying for his nuts, but he held me too close for that. All I knew was that I couldn’t let them leave with me. If they left with me, I should just kiss my ass goodbye.

“Control her Tank,” suit man barked.

Scream. Scream with everything you have
, a voice inside my head yelled at me. So, I did. It was high pitched, long, anything I could do in hopes of either annoying them or distracting them enough to escape. As I screamed, I thrashed harder in Tank’s hold. Kicking harder now, it was my last shot at getting out of this alive.

“Tank! I said control her!” Suit man growled with a glare at the burly man named Tank.

My screams continued. The longer I screamed the scratchier my throat became, but I wasn’t about to give up. Giving up now would mean my death and there was too much to live for to die right now. Right when I was so close to everything I’ve ever wanted.

My valiant effort to stall them was slowing them up some. Tank couldn’t move forward as fast as the man in the suit could. He kept teetering off as I thrashed or paused momentarily when I got a good kick in.

Keep them here. Give River time to show up and save you.

I kept repeating this over and over in my head. My heart was hammering in my chest. What was River into that would have a man like this coming around? Why has he never told me? Did he not trust me enough with whatever he had in his past?

No matter the amount of questions that ran through my head – and they were flying through my head at warp speed it seemed – I didn’t give up my effort of stalling them long enough to get help.

We were nearing the entryway and my heart beat so fast that I was dizzy with the surge through my body. Just as we rounded the corner into the entryway, I got one really good kick that had Tank momentarily loosening his hold on me.  It wasn’t fast enough for me to escape and as I heard the man in the suit bark at Tank again, a sharp pain shot through my head starting at my temple and everything dimmed before completely fading away.