Riot Hearts: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Saints of Crow Book 1)

by Livy North

  The venue was impressive. Because of the darkness outside, the big windows reflected the neon lights swiping over the floors inside. Loudspeakers thumped waves of music into the air, making my eardrums tremble. A bar was to the left upon entry with a lounging area on the right-hand side. The DJ table was set up in the back and the middle of the room was cleared for a dance area where people were already moving to the beat.

  A glass of something was shoved into my hands, and I looked up to see River take a long sip from his glass.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled, sending a lopsided smile his way.

  He only muttered a reply I didn’t hear before he slipped away from me. A few minutes later, I noticed him lounging with his foot resting on his knee in a lounge chair in the corner. He was a bit of a loner, or wait… not a loner, he just didn’t like these people.

  “Are you going to attempt to have any fun?” I asked over the music as I walked over to him. He shook his head.

  “Fine. Whatever.” I shrugged and returned to the dance floor.

  Letting myself loose for the first time since what seemed like forever, I downed the rest of my glass before retrieving another from the bar. I gulped that down and then sipped on another before I had the guts to dance on my own.

  After a few hours of dancing and not minding anyone, I was mildly buzzed. Okay, fine, I was a bit more than buzzed, but I wasn’t drunk. A sheer layer of sweat covered my naked shoulders and forehead. I swung my hips to the beat with my arms above my head, eyes closed, and losing myself in the music.

  “Hey, pretty face,” a voice murmured in my ear from behind me. Turning around, I was met by dark eyes and a smooth face.

  “Hey,” I replied, scanning the guy who was currently trying to match my movements.

  He was tall, dark, and handsome. He reminded me of River except he didn’t have his blue eyes and for some reason, he didn’t have the same appeal.

  Ugh, what was I saying?

  “Wanna dance?” the guy asked, flashing a cute smile at me.

  This guy looked like the dorky version of River, and I had to stop myself from laughing out loud at that thought. He was real pretty, and his hair was full and grabbable.

  “Isn’t that what we’re already doing?” I let him grind up against me. The alcohol was buzzing in my veins, and I was feeling both hot and lightheaded.

  “You’re sassy.” He laughed with a grinning. “I bet I could take you on, though.” His tentative hands found my hips. They were warm and I liked how they felt on me, so I let them stay.

  “What’s your name?” he shouted over the music, his eyes roaming my body.

  “What’s the fun with names?”

  “Mysterious,” he murmured. “I like it.”

  He spun me around so he was grinding up from behind. His breath fanned my neck and his nose skated over the side of it.

  This wasn’t me. I didn’t lead people on, and I didn’t have any plans to do anything but dance with this guy. But I leaned against him and I didn’t want him to let go yet. His closeness felt good and it was a long time since I had felt that.

  “What’s your name?” I asked back.

  He chuckled darkly. “If you’re not telling me yours, you’re not getting mine.”

  I shrugged. “That’s fair. Probably won’t remember it in the morning either way.”

  The guy chuckled and it vibrated against my ear. “You’re looking mighty fine, mystery girl,” he said, hands gliding over my hips and arrowing down over my stomach.

  I groaned and convinced myself the tingling feeling I had in my core and between my legs came from the fact that I had a teensy bit too much alcohol in my blood.

  Leaning back into the guy, I closed my eyes and let my body move freely to the music.

  I needed this.

  I deserved this.

  Being with River was a demanding task, and I deserved some free time.

  I almost didn’t get to finish the thought before the guy was ripped away from me, making me stumble backward as I didn’t have him to lean on. Turning around, I searched for him. He wasn’t behind me, but then I spotted his head farther down the room, moving away from me at an impressive speed but keeping his eyes in my direction like he was searching for me.

  At first I was confused, but then I saw an equally tall guy dragging him off with a frown on his face.

  River.

  “Wait!” I shouted after them in a pout, but my voice was drowned in the music.

  Shoving my way forward, I headed after them, slowed down by my high heels and wavering balance. To no surprise, River was much quicker, and I didn’t reach them until we were by the end of the room in the corner. I latched onto River and shoved him off the guy I’d been dancing with.

  “What are you doing?” I shouted, anger flaring inside of me.

  “Me?” he blurted in disbelief. “The question is, what are you doing?” His eyes were dark and furious.

  “I’m having fun. You’re the one who attacks a random guy!”

  “Random guy? What happened to your standards, Emory? And what the hell are you doing dancing with some random guy?”

  I gaped at him. “Who do you think you are?” I exclaimed. He so did not get to ruin my night.

  “Man, you need to relax.” The mystery guy held up his hands in surrender. “We were just having fun.”

  One second was all it took before River was up in his face, anger coming off him in waves. “Then go have some fun elsewhere, Romeo.”

  “Get off him,” I growled, reaching for River’s arm. He snatched my wrist up easily and leveled me with a predatory glare.

  “Don’t mess with me right now, Nightmare.”

  My eyes narrowed and I ripped my hand out of his grip. “What is your problem? Why are you so upset that I was dancing with someone?”

  “Because you’re my date!” he roared

  “Whoa.” The other guy’s eyebrows raised. “You’re with this dude? I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know. I wouldn’t—”

  “I’m not with him!” I exclaimed, feeling a bit lightheaded. I shoved River’s chest so we were face to face. “I can dance with whomever I want.”

  “If you’re going to dance with someone, you should be dancing with me,” he grumbled deeply, gripping my hip and tugging me closer.

  Something flared up inside me and I stepped away from him.

  If he wanted to play dirty, then so could I.

  Spinning around, I strode over to the other guy, gripped his neck, and pulled his face down to mine. My lips barely met his before someone grabbed my arm and yanked me around. My shriek was cut short when I was hiked over a shoulder and the breath was knocked out of me.

  “Not tonight, you’re not,” River growled, a sound coming from deep in his stomach.

  “Let me down!” I hammered on his back but to no avail. Of course, there was no point, River was too strong for me physically. “Seriously, put me down. I’ll walk, okay? I’ll walk myself, just put me down!”

  River didn’t put me down until we were in our suite and he’d slammed the door shut.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I roared, hitting him in the chest but he didn’t budge.

  “You were dancing with some other guy and you expect me to be fine with it?” His eyebrows were raised, and his jaw ticked.

  “Yes!” I shoved harder at him, tears of exhaustion prickling my eyes. “We are not together!”

  “On this trip, we are,” he argued fiercely. “What do you think people will say about you, about me, about us if they find out you went home with some other guy?”

  “Stop it!” I sputtered. “You don’t get to be like that. And you don’t get to blame it all on business and appearances. You don’t get to be so mysterious. And you don’t get to blow hot and cold like that. I don’t get what your problem is… I have never done anything to you. You say you hate me, and you treat me like you do, but at the same time you can’t seem to stay away from me. You always approach me to tell me how much you hate me.
How much you despise my family. Why? Why can’t you just stay away?”

  His nostrils flared. “You want honesty? I don’t know. Fuck, Emory. I hate you so much, you set me on fire. I just want to...” he trailed off. “I don’t fucking know. I just know how you always push me to the extremes.”

  “Oh my God!” I exclaimed. “You can never give a straight answer, can you?”

  “Quit it, Emory,” he bit out, his jaw clenching. “You don’t want to have this conversation right now.”

  “No, you stop,” I clipped. “You don’t get to invade my life only to walk away when the conversation gets tough for you. When you came back from England, you could’ve chosen to stay away. But you didn’t. You’ve been the one who always needed to antagonize and provoke. I think the reason why you felt the need to invade my space was because your family is a mess. You are a mess.”

  By now, you would’ve thought I’d run a marathon based on my labored breaths. My nostrils were flaring, and my eyes hardened. No one got a rise out of me more than River did only by being himself.

  Our gazes locked, and conflicting emotions flickered in his eyes as well as mine, but we both saw the want and lust in each other.

  He reached for my face and smashed his lips on mine. I launched myself at him, kissed him back, and wrapped my legs around his waist. He wrapped his arms around my back and squeezed me close, and I dragged my hands through his soft hair. I relished in how his closeness felt, how weirdly safe I felt. His touch was like a flame, burning me.

  As he toppled over to the bed, I knew we were an explosion waiting to happen, especially because we had just lit the fuse.

  But what was worse was that I didn’t care.

  Right then, I didn’t care that I was supposed to hate him or that he supposedly hated me. I only knew the way he made my insides catch fire, and how I’d never felt so desired before.

  My back landed on the soft mattress and River climbed on top of me like a hunter ready to devour its prey.

  “Fuck, Nightmare. You’re out to destroy me.” The throaty deep voice sent shivers through my core and straight to the spot I knew was ready for him.

  “Says you,” I teased.

  “You’re baiting me,” he whispered, his head falling down and he sucked on my collarbone.

  “Is it working?” I took the opportunity to nibble his earlobe.

  “Yes,” he growled, biting down on my skin.

  My eyes rolled back into my head, and I’d accepted the fallout this night was going to have. River’s big hand cupped my breast. He kneaded it while he peppered my jaw with hot kisses.

  I moaned, reaching for the bulge in his jeans. He stifled a groan when I worked him through the fabric of his pants. Using both hands, I got the belt off and stuck my hand down.

  My hand wrapped around his hard length and he groaned, biting down on my lip.

  I loved that I could make him feel this way.

  I pumped my fist up and down. River grabbed my arms and spun us around so I was on top and my wetness rubbed against his hardness. My dress hiked up so my butt was in the air. His hand grabbed it and he squeezed it roughly. His hands were over every inch of me, and he flicked my hard nipple through my dress.

  His hand snaked up my dress and rubbed me over my panties. “You’re so wet for me, aren’t you, Nightmare?”

  Uncivilized muffles were all I got out in return.

  I was about to lose myself in him completely, but suddenly, River spun us around again, rolled off me and sat up. Eyes fluttering open again, I stared right into the ceiling before sitting up.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, and I hated how utterly bratty I sounded.

  River did his belt again and raked a hand through his damp hair. “Not ruining you completely.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re drunk. You’d hate me in the morning.”

  I blinked at him. “I already hate you.”

  “And you’ll hate me more when you realize you wanted me tonight. But know that I didn’t do anything. Because you might be right. I might not hate you.”

  Frowning up at him, his lips twitched into a mischievous smile. “Little Nightmare, don’t you see? You might be the only one who can hurt me.”

  Fuck.

  That was the only thing I could think of when I woke up.

  Last night had seriously fucked with my head. I had no idea what was going on with my brain. My dick had taken over and I was reduced to a horny bastard. My ego was bigger than ever, too. I loved how embarrassed Emory got when she realized she’d been all over me, and I had convinced her that she wanted me.

  But last night I’d wanted her, too.

  I had really wanted her. So much so, I had to go jerk off in the shower just so I could fall asleep without doing what I promised myself I wouldn’t do.

  I hadn’t been able to get her out of my head ever since she walked out in that off-shoulder dress that exposed all the parts of her I wanted to bite.

  Being with her for a few days had done the opposite of what I thought. Instead of loathing her even more, I found myself doubting my own self. Instead of getting annoyed at her, I found myself intrigued by the way she constantly spoke back. How she challenged my beliefs and the values I’d been raised with.

  Emory might have lost face last night, but so had I.

  She turned me on something fierce, but I wasn’t ready to not hate her. I still hated her and everything she was. So why the hell did I kiss her?

  I thought I’d been right when I cut things off with her before we did some serious damage, but in the light of day, I didn’t feel as good about it as I should.

  Maybe I needed to fuck her out of my system.

  Obviously kissing her out of my system wasn’t enough, because kissing her had done nothing to calm the conflict inside me.

  With a huff of air, I pulled myself up at the pull-up bar. I had hit up the hotel gym in the early hours of morning when Emory was passed out in bed. It was early, but the sun was beaming through the glass windows of the empty gym, and rain still lingered in the morning fog clouding the sky.

  Sweat broke out over my forehead and bare chest, and my stomach ached. I marveled in the discomfort because that was a feeling I was familiar with—a feeling I knew how to handle.

  When it came to her, I couldn’t handle anything.

  I wasn’t in control, and I loathed that above all else.

  Exhausted, I let go of the bar and my feet hit the floor with a thud. My chest rose and fell heavily as I crossed the floor to wipe my forehead with my towel.

  “I know grumpy is your default mood, but you seem off today.” Seb’s voice was choppy through the phone. Seb and Nico were on FaceTime on my phone, and I’d put them at the bench next to my water bottle. “Seven reps? You usually do at least fifteen on a bad day. Are your muscles turning into mush?” He wiggled his brows.

  A growl lodged in my throat. “Seb?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Shut up.”

  I wish I could say I hated my brothers for still supporting my father, but I couldn’t. We argued, we fought, and we competed, but they were my blood. I could never hate them.

  His body language softened. “You know I’m just teasing. How’s New York treating you?”

  “Fine,” I gritted out. “Just fine.”

  God, I was pathetic. What was wrong with me? I hated Emory for thousands of reasons. I wasn’t going to abandon all those reasons just because she made my dick hard. Lots of girls made my dick hard.

  So why did I jerk off in the bathroom to the image of her last night? Not just her body, but her. All of her. Her sassy mouth and challenging eyes that regarded me.

  “Uh, Riv?” Seb said, voice gruff and a little strangled.

  “Yeah?” I flipped the cap of my bottle off and took a sip.

  “You’ve got a situation.” I looked at the screen of my phone and Seb pointed down.

  Looking down, I was mortified. I stifled a curse and shifted it aw
ay. Goddamn it.

  Maniacal laughter filled the room. When I looked at the screen again, Seb was trying to fight a smile, hiding it behind his fist, while Nico didn’t look as amused.

  “Did you find some hot New Yorker to screw around with last night?”

  I snorted. “No. Emory and I share a bed. Do you think she’d allow it?”

  Sebastian grinned. “Right. So why do you have a boner early in the morning when you’re on FaceTime with your brothers and there’s no one else in the room with you?”

  “I need to go,” I growled, picking up the phone.

  Sebastian waved his arms in protest. “Wait, I was just teas—”

  I hung up on them and tossed my phone into the bag on the floor. Exhaling hard, I sat on the bench and ran my hands over my face. My entire world was tearing apart at the seams and everything was her fault.

  I’d been fired from the family company that I was going to inherit.

  I’d lost my common sense.

  I’d been reduced to a party planner.

  I babysat a nineteen-year-old in New York City.

  And everything was her fault.

  So why the fuck did I kiss her again?

  And why had I planned to do so much more?

  I might’ve convinced her I was doing it to embarrass her, but I couldn’t fool myself the same way.

  Crushing the empty water bottle in my hand, I tossed it to the floor before continuing my workout. For the remainder of the hour, I pushed myself to the max. Sweat was dripping from my hair and my heart thundered in my chest. My jaw ached for clenching tightly for so long. I couldn’t help it; my whole body was tense, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

  My phone rang again. When I saw it was Sebastian, I reluctantly took it. “What do you want?”

  “How’s Emory?” he asked immediately.

  My face scrunched up. “Why do you ask about Emory?”

  “Well, because I think you should look out for her, that’s all.”

  “Why do you sound so worried?”

  “No reason. I’ll let you get on with your day.” He hung up and I sighed. What the hell was that about?

  Finishing up, I dried off with a towel and slung it over my shoulder before I headed up again.