I'M GLAD Y'ALL ARE LIKING THE STORY! PLEASE KEEP LETTING ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK I LOVE FEEDBACK! DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN GIRL MEETS WORLD OR THEIR CHARACTERS! WARNING: THIS CHAPTER WILL HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF MATURE EVENTS IN IT.
Chapter Seven *Desire*
The wind is in her brown hair. The speed she is going to let go of all the hurt she feels, is helping. Riley doesn't care where she is riding to. She only cares about her and Beauty, finding the peace she always gets when she is riding. She ignores the heart break. And ignores the tears that keep escaping from her eyes. She wants to ease the pain.
They ride down a path, not slowing down, but not going so fast to where Riley can't enjoy the ride either. They are moving in perfect sync. It's like Beauty knows exactly what Riley needs. An escape from this world. An adrenaline rush. A healing through their bond.
They have a perfect harmony.
Ride more. Worry less.
Riley is repeating that in her mind over and over again. She refuses to let her mind stray to what happened at Chubbie's. She refuses to let them ruin what seems to be the only thing to keep her calm.
Meanwhile, Lucas runs up to the front porch to find Pappy Joe still awake, rocking in his rocking chair, looking out into the distance. "Is Riley inside?" He asks once he is front of him.
Pappy Joe shakes his head and points out into the distance. "She took Beauty out for a ride. She seemed upset." He gives his grandson a pointed look. "What happened?"
Lucas starts down the porch steps in a rush and looks behind him as he says, "A mistake happened. But I'm going to fix it!" He picks up speed, and doesn't wait for Pappy Joe to reply. He has to fix this. He is not going to let Annie ruin his chance with Riley. He walks into the stables and to Faith's stall. He neighs in excitement to see Lucas. Lucas smiles at his childhood horse before he prepares Faith for the ride. "We are going to find Riley and Beauty. I know you have the speed in you boy." He encourages his horse. He walks out with Faith into the night, and quickly gets on him. He slightly kicks, and they start riding to try and find her.
Riley finally stopped by the lake, to let Beauty get some rest and drink some water. She wanted to keep riding, to keep her emotions at bay, but she didn't want to wear her horse out.
This is where they all went camping.
She picks up a rock and attempts to skip it against the water. No luck. The rock plunges into the water with not one skip. The rock hit the bottom just like her love life. She kind of laughs at herself. But then the laugh gets louder and harder. It echoes around her in the night. But then the laughter turns into crying. She begins to cry with such force that she wheezes out. She tries to calm her breath, to calm the storm raging inside of her.
Beauty nuzzles her.
Riley wipes her tears and pets her along the white mane. Riley takes in a few deep breaths of the fresh air. "Thank you Beauty." She tells her beautiful partner. "You know exactly what to do." She lays her head on Beauty, and just closes her eyes for a moment. That's when she hears another horse trotting towards her.
Lucas had heard the commotion from Riley. He followed the sounds and it led him to the lake where they camped out. He spots Riley with her head on Beauty. He gets Faith to stop and slides off the saddle and his feet hit the ground. He ties Faith down and walks to her. "Hey."
She lifts her head. "Hey."
He hears the hurt in her voice and makes his heart break. He wasn't trying to hurt her. That was never his intention. He tells her exactly that, hoping she will believe him.
Riley ties Beauty down also and then turns on her boot heel to finally look at Lucas. She must seem like a mess to him. Her hair is in messy waves from the ride. Her eyes are rimmed red from the crying while her face is a little puffy. "Well you did hurt me. I'm tired of the lies. I was about to tell you I want to be with you. Of course that was before I saw you and Annie kiss."
Lucas tries to take a step toward her but she shakes her head at him. "I didn't kiss her. She kissed me. I pushed her away as soon as she did that. I don't want her. I don't feel anything towards her. I want you!" Those three words echo out into the trees and wind.
"We will never work."
This time Lucas doesn't oblige to her shaking her head. He stomps to her and holds her face in his hands. "I'm not going to let you do that again. You are not going to push me away. What happened back there meant nothing. All these years I have loved you, Riles. Do you really think I would do something like that to you? You are the one person who knows me more than anyone. Am I really that kind of guy?"
She tries to look away from his sea green eyes but he won't let her. She gets stuck staring into them. She searches them, trying to decipher what is going through his mind. She sees the same look he has always given her, since the day they first met. The kind of look he has never given anyone else. The look that is for her, and only her. "No you aren't." She finally answers.
"So be with me." He tells her.
She backs away and shakes her head. "This was a wake up call. We almost ruined everything we have. I couldn't handle it if we weren't able to talk to each other anymore like we do. I can't lose you. This is too important to ruin. Me and you can't get ruined, Lucas."
Lucas sighs and thinks about everything that has happened within these few weeks. So much turmoil. So much has happened. "We do our best but sometimes it's just not good enough. We buckle our seat belts. We wear a helmet. We stick to the lighted paths. We try to be safe..." He trails off as he stares at the girl in front of him.
She waits for him to continue, not understanding where he is going with all of this.
"We try so hard to protect ourselves but it doesn't make a damn bit of difference because when the bad things come, they come out of nowhere. The bad things come suddenly without a warning. But we forget, that sometimes that's how the good things come too." He finishes telling her, hoping she gets where he is coming from.
And she does understand. She gets that there is good that comes out of bad. But what if the bad comes back? "Lucas..." She shakes her head, trying to find the words to say to him.
He interrupts instead. "I am deeply sorry for hurting you. I am so sorry because I am so in love with you, and I will spend the rest of my life telling you that. I will apologize everyday if that's what you need. But, please don't walk away from us again, Riles. I would do anything to be with you. I love you."
Fresh tears fall down her face. Before she can say anything, he closes the distance between them. She stares up into his eyes again and falls deep into them. "I am in love with you too." The words come out of her mouth with no restriction. She wants to be happy with him. She puts the future and her moving away to the back of her mind.
Lucas smiles down at the beautiful girl he has loved for so long. Hearing her say those words brings tears in his own eyes. "Then let's be together. I'm done waiting for us to happen."
The doubt that was flooding her heart before, evaporates. She nods her head as a smile stretches across her face. "I'm yours."
Those two words, makes Lucas lose all of his control. He has wanted this girl for so long and now she is his. He pulls her in closer and kisses her with all the passion he had been holding back. It's years of want. Of love. Of need. His hands are in her hair and her hands are squeezing his arms.
They kiss for a long time, hands on each other, tongues twirling around together. They do this until Lucas backs away.
He grabs the blankets that are on the horse's backs. He lays one on the ground and the other to the side. He gets his pack he has tied to the saddle and takes out some supplies that he keeps inside. A little bottle of lighter fluid and a lighter.
Riley grabs random sticks from the ground and puts them on the leftover ones from the last time they went camping.
Lucas walks over to it and pours the lighter fluid over them. He flips open his lighter and starts to burn the wood. It takes it only a few minutes before it's going good. He puts the supplies back and then turns to his girl. He looks at her with intensity over the flames. Her pale skin glows from the light, making her look like an angel. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Instead of answering with a yes, Riley slips off her t-shirt. She takes her boots and jeans off after that, leaving her in her bra and panties and stands there, looking at him with the same intensity he has. She doesn't feel nervous. She doesn't feel insecure. All she can feel is her love for him.
Lucas slips his clothes off too, until he is only in his boxers. He closes the distance between quickly. He grabs her and kisses her with same passion he had before.
They slowly lay against the blanket, Lucas on top of her, and continue the kissing. Her hands graze his bare back, while his lips kiss at her neck. He nips at it lightly before he starts kissing down to her chest.
She moans against his lips, a touch she never felt before.
He does different new things to her that she has never experienced before he slips his boxers off. He takes off her undergarments too and then they just stare at each other.
They take it all in. The firelight. The thing they are about to do. He looks into her eyes to make sure again that this is okay.
"I want to Lucas. I love you." She whispers.
He smiles before lowering down. "I love you too."
They let the desire they have been holding back take control.
