AN/ Hello again! Thank you all for being so loyal to my story with sporadic updates and all. I hope you're all not mad. Well here's another update of my favorite story, Risks are Necessary. This chapter had to be broken up because of the fact I wanted to meet my deadline and the other twist had to be timed just right.

Chapter 20: Only a Kiss Part I

A leap of faith with your heart can do more damage than one that can break your neck

Jeff drove down the interstate in Matt's SUV trying to make good time for the meeting. The snow had stopped but the roads were incredibly slick. The roads were icy in some parts more than others causing Jeff to skid and slide around the road like a hockey puck.

"Riley are you okay?" Jeff said as he regained control of the truck.

He looked over to see that Riley had fallen asleep in the short twenty minute span that they had been on the road. He had been meaning to talk to her about what had happened earlier in the day but he figured that having her asleep was better than getting into a fight with her or having her complain about his driving.

Jeff let out a sigh as he turned off the highway and stopped at an intersection. They were twenty minutes late but he hoped that everyone would get over it. Jeff decided to make a short stop to surprise Riley long enough for him to talk to her.

What he couldn't get over was the fact that things were changing between he and Riley. They had become used to seeing each other occasionally on surprise visits. Jeff was more than happy to able to see Riley everyday but for some reason he was unsure how to handle her. She had become more irritable and unhappy as the days passed. He had a feeling it was about more than the traveling. If only he could get inside of her head to know what she was thinking when she ran off. He was hoping that this was only temporary. There was nothing more that he wanted than to be able to see her every day and he didn't know if he would be able to function if things went back to the way they were. He wouldn't get used to that again.

Jeff pulled into the parking lot and lightly shook Riley's shoulder and brushed back a stray hair. A loose piece of her brown hair had been his excuse recently for touching her after the random chaos had passed. Just like he used to, just to assure her that nothing was going to change between them; to calm any fear that she had and to calm his fears as well.

"Riley, we have to hurry. We're late for the meeting but I wanted to take you somewhere first," Jeff said stuffing one of his gloved hands into the pocket of his jeans.

Riley opened her eyes slowly and groaned as she opened the passenger side door. "Jeff what are you doing?" she asked not realizing where they were.

She yawned again and began rubbing her hands together in order to regain some level of circulation. Jeff grabbed her hands and enclosed them in his and laughing when he realized how cold her hands were.

"Your hands are like a corpse's," he said rubbing her smaller hands with his.

"Well I would have grabbed my gloves but I couldn't find them. Who knew it would be so cold out here tonight?" The elevator had reached the nineteenth floor and they were now facing one another.

"I did," Jeff said with a smirk on his face. Riley shook her head. "What? When there's nothing else to watch on television, cold fronts are entertaining!"

Riley shook her head as she was being led by Jeff down a pathway. Jeff was still absent mindedly holding one of her hands in his and stroking the side of her hand with his thumb as they walked.

"Well I promised you that we'd take a walk tonight, and I was afraid that if we did it after the meeting it would be too late and you wouldn't want to come," Jeff said trying to help Riley keep her balance as they walked over the ice. There were no starts to be seen in the sky and only a sliver of the moon hung overhead. The next night the new moon was set to begin, and when that happened, the night would be completely dark.

"Where are we?" Riley asked shivering.

"We're at the beach. Do you hear the waves or smell the salt water?"

Riley listened to the faint sound of the waves crashing against the rocks on the shore. The smell of the ocean breeze was relaxing even though the temperature was not. Jeff directed her to a spot on the edge of a hill and they both sat down.

"Why are we here Jeff?" Riley asked wrapping her jacket closer around herself.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about something. And in order to do that, I had to make sure to do it somewhere where there was no where for you to runaway to or slam doors in my face. This just happened to be a spur of the moment decision."

Riley nodded and looked up at her friend who was now sitting behind her with his arms around her shoulders.

"Well there is technically no place for me to run but instead of shutting a door in your face, I could just push you off the cliff and call it an accident," she said with a satisfied smirk on her face.

"You have a point there," Jeff said scooting back a few inches away from Riley joking.

"Of course I was hypothetically speaking Jeff. I wouldn't really push you off a cliff. Then who would put up with me?" Riley said laughing.

"You have a point there." Jeff paused to collect his thoughts.

Riley could tell that whatever they were going to discuss was going to be serious. Jeff never paused that long unless it was serious. Sure she hadn't seen him do it since her goldfish died when they were twelve but she could still tell when something was on his mind.

But before he had a chance to speak, his cell phone alerted him of a text message from Matt. Jeff pulled out his phone and read the message.

"Okay, we need to go Riley. The meeting is cancelled because of the snowstorm that is heading along the coast," Jeff said grabbing Riley's hand and pulling her up with him.

They walked back to the car and drove back to the hotel and by the time they arrived, the snow had begun to fall again. Riley had fallen asleep again and Jeff could tell that she wasn't going to have an easy time walking back to the room on her own. Jeff lifted her out of the car and carried her in his arms. Riley sleepily sighed and snuggled against his chest, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Jeff grabbed the key card out of Riley's carrying case and opened the door to her hotel room. Jeff laid her on one of the twin beds and he sat at the foot of the bed watching protectively over her. "I just don't want things to change but…" Jeff paused and sighed before standing.

Riley had been awake since she had been removed from the warmth of Jeff's arms and placed on the cold bed. She curled up on her side and shivered. The room was still dark and she was freezing. She knew that Jeff was still in the room because she could feel his weight on the bed.

She could tell something was weighing on his thoughts significantly. By now he would have said something about it instead of letting the silence persist and letting her "rest". She heard Jeff say something under his breath and felt him stand up. She couldn't let him leave until she had a chance to talk to him.

"Jeff?" Riley asked into the darkness still keeping her eyes closed.

"I'm sorry Ry, did I wake you?" Jeff apologized now sitting back on the bed.

"No," she assured him, rolling over on her back and seeing Jeff sitting in his original position on the bed. "What was it that you wanted to talk about?" she asked in a quiet voice.

Jeff hesitated. It was no surprise to Jeff that he harbored some sort of feelings for Riley. As her friend he loved her more than life itself. But he hadn't realized that he was in love with her until Christopher had entered the picture. He became terribly jealous but hid it from Riley. He only wanted for her to be happy. He got up again and turned on one of the lamps and returned to the bed. He viewed it as a crush at the time and he thought that after she had dumped Christopher that it would go away. But for the last few months, his feelings intensified. Electricity ran though his body when he held her hand and his emotions had become more in tune with hers. But how was he going to express his feelings to her without loosing her friendship?

Riley blinked adjusting her eyes to the light. She analyzed the expression on his face. He was very hesitant to tell her what was going on. She couldn't think of anything that would make him feel that way.

"Jeff, whatever it is, I'm here for you. I mean without you I don't know how I would have made it through these last couple of months. In case you didn't notice, the roles have reversed again. I'm grateful for that," Riley said now moving to a sitting position behind Jeff. "I also wouldn't push you off a cliff because there would be no one like you to catch me when I would fall."

"And I'm sorry for acting like a complete bitch this last week. I know I haven't been very nice to Shay but she just rubs me the wrong way. I guess jealousy can drive me to act a little petty and…"

Jeff cut her off. "Did you just say that you were jealous?" he asked furrowing one of his eyebrows in confusion.

"Um," Riley paused and cringed realizing that was what she had indeed said.

"You do realize that you have no reason to be jealous right?" Jeff said still not turning around to face his friend. "I mean you're beautiful, smart, funny, and enigmatic at times but still fun to be around. You're not afraid of being yourself and that within itself puts you miles ahead of Shay. Compared to her you have no reason to feel insecure."

Riley paused and took in everything that Jeff had just said. Jeff was silently kicking himself for his sporadic speech and there was a sharp silence between the two. "Jeff, why are you saying this?" she asked reverting back to her very quiet voice.

"You've already taken a step off the cliff. There's no harm in taking a fall," Jeff thought as he took a deep collective breath and turned for the first time to look into Riley's eyes. He couldn't read them because her eyes were searching his for some indication of what was to come next.

"I'm saying this Riley because I'm in love with you. I love you more than life itself and I fear hurting you more than I fear death," he said, his heart sinking to the bottom of his stomach when he realized what he had just said.

Riley's heart stopped as she tried to form a sentence, a phrase, a word, anything that would help let him no that she felt the same. "What a great time for my words to fail me," she thought to herself. But where words had failed her, Jeff's instincts succeeded and he closed the distance between them with a kiss.

AN/ Finally! I should be getting tons of grateful reviews. At last the moment you all have been waiting for. It took me exactly a week to make sure I had gotten everything as close to perfect in this chapter. I have part of the next chapter written (about a page) so that should take time off of the time it takes for another update. Darling Nikki is next on my list. Review people!