I’m on my knees at the end of the bed and she’s in front of me, her legs spread. I taste her, my fingers spreading her as I take what’s mine. My tongue dances over her as I sink my finger inside.

“So wet for me,” I groan against her. “I’m going to fuck you over and over and over…”

She moans and puts her hands in my hair. My pulse pounds as I pump slowly with my fingers, her breathy gasps ramping me higher.

“So expressive, Anastasia…” I say as my finger rubs the top of her channel, the place I touched on the rooftop that sent her over the edge. “You wanna come on my fingers?” I ask gruffy as I look up and hold her eyes. Hers are blown, completely dilated.

“Yes,” she breathes as she twists on the bed.

“Hmmm, I’m glad our first time is here, with the snow and the stars.” I suck her pearl into my mouth, my teeth grazing the skin.

She whimpers and tenses, her body tightening.

“That’s it,” I purr.

“River…” Her hands fling down and grab the comforter, making fists as she arches up and calls my name again. Her core clenches, spasming around my fingers as her body flushes a pink color. Her head tosses from side to side, her lips parted as she tries to breathe.

“Anastasia…” I growl. “Damn. Beautiful.”

Her body vibrates, still reverberating from the aftershocks as I take my time, working my hands up her thighs to her waist and her chest.

“Take me. Own me for real,” she says.

Easing between her legs, I take her hips and brush my cock over her entrance, then up to her clit, moving through the slickness.

She shudders. “Don’t tease me…”

I can’t. I want her too bad. That first pump is slow, halfway in, and my heart pounds as I pause and say roughly, “Eyes on me, baby. Never look away. All those days I spent trying to not look at you, I want it all now.” I push and slide in deeper, pivoting my hips to twist inside her.

She bites her lip and holds my gaze.

I dip my head to hers, pressing our foreheads together as I thrust in and out, faster, then harder. My fingers dig into her hips, holding her as she takes it.

Details fly at me: the song on repeat, the smell of her, the sweat between us, the sound she makes when I slide out then push back inside…

Her hands clench my shoulders, her nails digging in, leaving marks. “River…” she calls out as her legs wrap around me.

She’s mine, all mine.

“You feel so good…” I sigh as I tilt her hips up to go deeper, our eyes never drifting. I see the future there, don’t know how it’s going to work out, don’t know when I’ll get her in my arms like this again, but this, this, give me all of it, every moment.

My thumb brushes circles over her clit as I move inside her.

She digs her heels into my back, arching, wanting more.

“River…”

“I’m there, baby, there, let go, let go…”

She stiffens, shuddering breaths coming from her mouth as she writhes and goes over the edge, and I go with her, roaring her name as I shout my release to the universe.

Much later, we end up on the floor in front of the crackling fireplace with a quilt underneath us and a fur blanket on top of us. She lies facing me, we can’t stop staring, and my arm is around her waist, my leg tucked in between hers. She runs her hands over my face, humming as she traces my eyebrows, the lines of my jaw, my lips. I nip at her with my teeth and she giggles.

“I wasn’t bullshitting about sex meaning more when you care about someone. It’s never been like that for me,” I say quietly.

Color rushes up her face. “Same. Pent-up feelings finally released after a year?”

“Mhmm.” After a lingering kiss, I ease up to sitting, grab a pair of underwear, and slide them on.

She arches a brow. “We’re done?”

I laugh. “Baby girl, hold your horses. This revenge hottie isn’t going far.”

She throws a pillow at me and I dodge it, then grab it and throw it back. It pops her in the face. She huffs as she gets up, wraps the blanket around her, and makes a dash for me. She collides into my chest, and I stumble and sail back, hitting the bed with her on top of me. We dissolve into laughter.

“I tackled the football player!” She fist-pumps the air.

I flip her over and tickle her until she’s gasping and squirming. “Stop…please… I’m sorry…”

I laugh and lean back. “Okay. Pause for a sec.”

“Okay,” she says sweetly—and then throws a pillow at my back. I whip around and give her a look.

“You’ll pay for that.”

She rolls her eyes.

I dig through my suitcase and pull out what I need.

I plop back down on the bed and set the package in front of her with light hands, but inside, nerves fly…

She bites her bottom lip. “This is wrapped in Christmas paper. River… I didn’t know we were doing gifts. I didn’t have time to get you anything…”

“Nah, it’s not about that. I’ve had part of this for a while anyway.” I nudge it toward her. “We won’t see each other for a while and…” it’s killing me “…I wanted you to have something you could look at over the holidays.”

She gives me a lingering look, then opens the rectangular box with careful hands, slowly pulling back the silver string around it. She pulls out the book and flips it over to read the title. “River, oh my gosh…The Outsiders…in hardback, too, and signed to me.” Her eyes glitter with emotion.

I lie down next to her. “Mhmm. I figured since you gave me yours, and I kind of wore it out and wrote in it, I’d order you a new one off the author’s website.”

“You’ve had this?” She clutches it to her chest, her smile huge.

“After I finished the book, I started looking for a new copy for you.” I pause. “There’s something inside.”

She opens it and a piece of paper flutters onto the bed. Dipping her head, she picks it up and scans it, her lashes fluttering against her cheeks. “You wrote a note?”

“Mhmm. I typed it. Can’t write worth a damn.”

She rolls over to me and fits herself to me, snuggling her back to my chest. My arm goes around her as she reads it.

I know exactly what it says.

I called Lila while Anastasia was in class on Friday, then went to her apartment to see the original note I dictated to Donovan. Lila knew exactly where it was, in her nightstand, and I took a picture of it then went home to get to work. I sat at my desk for two hours, checking my spelling over and over, before she came over to help me pack.

* * *

‘You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.’

Let me introduce myself. I’m River. I’m your current boyfriend. Cross my heart and hope to die—not really, but you know what I mean.

There are three things about you that caught my attention:

First, you’re smart, too smart for me, but for some reason, you don’t care.

Two, if you had wings, they’d be the colors of the rainbow.

Three, you touch me, and I have peace. You’re a River-whisperer. Dad told me to take care of Mom, be a good brother to Rae, and wait for Anastasia. He somehow knew you were mine.