“He cornered my father. He had his hand around his throat, literally cutting off his air supply. He told my father that if he ever touched me again, he was a dead man.”
Ian closed his eyes, grateful to the half sibling he’d never bothered to get to know. The man he was irrationally jealous of.
Riley’s harsh laugh recaptured Ian’s attention. “My father threatened to go to the cops. Can you imagine the irony? Alex told him to go right ahead. Then he followed up his words with a knee to my father’s groin and warned him that was just a preview. He said I was off-limits, and he dragged me out of there.”
She shook her head, obviously lost in the memory. “I know my father believed his threats, because at seventeen, Alex was massively huge from working out for football.”
“What happened next?” Ian asked.
“I called Melissa at work; she came home immediately. She refused to stay with him after that. Alex stood watch while we packed. Melissa told my father I’d be living with her until I was eighteen and if he had a problem with it, to take her to court. With Alex looming over him, he backed off. That was the last night I saw him or heard from him until I got back from Arizona.”
Ian narrowed his gaze. “Which brings us to now.”
She nodded. “There have been hang-ups on my home answering machine. I never thought it was my father. Then I returned to work to find out he’d left a message while I was away. He said I owed him. And then Friday night, after I got home from shopping, the phone rang, and the person was breathing into my ear. I hung up, and the phone rang again. I answered it yelling, and it was Alex. He wanted to know what was going on. I said it was nothing. He didn’t believe me…so I told him.”
“Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you trust me enough to let me in before now?”
He forced himself to remain calm, not to yell or show her just how frustrated and angry he really was. Not now, when he finally realized that if he flipped out in any way, he could very likely lose her for good.
“It wasn’t a question of whether or not I trusted you, it was humiliating, admitting I grew up that way. Besides, I’d put him so firmly in my past, I never thought about him, talked about him, or wanted to revisit those days.” She glanced away.
Once again, he gently redirected her with a touch of his hand. He wanted them communicating, not shutting each other out.
“Do you think I want to deal with my family history? But it’s between us, thanks to Alex. I’m trying with him. Because of you.”
If he was going to make that kind of effort, he needed to know she’d reciprocate in kind.
“What do you want me to say? I should have told you, and I didn’t.”
“Because you have trust issues.” And here, he’d thought those issues were all his.
She blinked in surprise. “I suppose I do.”
Part of him understood, as he was still working through his own. Another part wanted her to know she belonged to him. That she could come to him with anything, would come to him first, and know he’d give her everything she needed.
Him.
No one else.
TWELVE
Ian stood with Riley in his living room, the night sky sparkling with stars visible through the large windows. Her revelations about her childhood had humbled him. She was stronger than he’d given her credit for, her relationship with his half brother something he understood much better now.
But that understanding didn’t calm his racing heart. And he couldn’t help the irrational fear that Alex would always come first for her. Irrational because she hadn’t decided to tell Alex about her father before Ian. The timing of the other man’s phone call had dictated that choice. And irrational because his jealousy over what she’d told Alex, and when, was based on the insecurities of the child Ian had been, not the man he was now. At least, that’s how he should be viewing things.
His mother had begged him to let the past go. If there was ever a time to do that, it was now. The question was whether he could.
“Ian?” Riley asked in a soft voice.
He turned toward her.
She stood in her bare feet, her hair tumbling over her shoulders, her eyes wide and more vulnerable than he’d ever seen them.
She reached for his arm. “I’m sorry I kept you in the dark.”
“I know.”
“So you’re not angry?”
He shook his head. “No, angry wouldn’t be the word I’d use.”
“Hurt?” she asked.
“I was.” He pulled his tie off and held it in one hand. The desire to drag her into the bedroom and tether her to his headboard was strong.
She bit her lower lip. “And now you’re not?”
“Now I understand you better. Which was all I ever wanted. To understand what bound you and Alex beyond basic friendship.”
She swallowed hard, the soft lines of her throat moving up and down. “And now that you know?”
He walked over to her. “Now, you and I are going to come to an understanding.”
“I don’t want to lose you,” she said before he could elaborate.
“That’s not what I want either.” In fact, he wanted her bound to his bed, where he’d know she belonged to him, he thought, winding the tie around one hand.
But then he wouldn’t know she was there willingly. Olivia’s words came back to him. His sisters and his mother all put up with his over-the-top behavior because they were related. They had to, as Olivia had so kindly pointed out. But she was right. If Ian wanted Riley to trust in him enough to come to him first, he needed to extend that same faith.
That didn’t come easily to him at all.
“So what now?” she asked.
Now he proved to her he was worthy of any leap of faith he wanted her to make. “I can handle your friendship with Alex. It’s an important part of who you are, and I wouldn’t ask you to give that up.”
She blinked, her eyes filling with tears. “Thank you.”
“But…you either trust me or you don’t. You either instinctively come to me first or there is no us. On that, I can’t compromise.” And he didn’t know if she could give in on this point that meant everything to him.
“Done.”
He blinked.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tightly, sealing her lips against his. Stunned, he couldn’t move. Hell, he wasn’t sure he’d even heard her correctly.
She tipped her head and looked into his eyes. “First, last, always, Ian.”