Swallow

Chapter 1.22:

I slowly cracked open the door to sneak a quick peek to see who was standing on the other side.

I should have known I would be Aiden. Riley couldn't do anything without him sticking his pointy nose into the air to sniff her.  Even in the darkness of the hall, I could see him twitching and pumping himself up in case he had to come in swinging.

I held the door for a few seconds longer as he tried to muscle it open from the other side just because I felt like being a dick. He started shoving at the door as hard as he could and I let go of the knob at the same time.  I wanted to see him come tumbling in the room ass over face.

Unfortunately for me, Aiden caught himself smoothly like it never happened.

Aiden glared at me the second he passed by. It felt strange having him barge in right in the middle of our argument. His eyes went searching for Riley immediately. His stance grew rigid the second he laid his eyes on the beautiful little thing on the bed with her legs buried under the covers.

Riley's eyes were puffy and red.  There were still some tear trails staining her cheeks.  But it didn't matter to me; seeing her like this made me want her that much more.

"What the hell is going on in here? What did you do to her?" Aiden tried to use his shrill man voice like it would scare me.

He was extremely fortunate she was in the room with us right now or he might not have had any limbs by the time I was done with him. The searing burn of my temper rising up was pooling in the base of my skull.  The combination of Riley turning me down and Aiden's intrusion was testing every ounce of patience I had right now, which wasn't much.

"I didn't fucking do anything to her. I told her what happened last night." I hollered at him.  I felt the need to defend myself before Riley could interject and say something to make it worse. Aiden looked at me like he couldn't believe I told her.

The switch flipped inside his head and he backed down immediately. If it wasn't from understanding, then it was from fear. He didn't give a clear indication of the reason, but I was hoping it was fear.

Intimidation tactics were my only shot at breaking him away from her.

Aiden walked over to the bed and sat down next to Riley. He moved his hand over to touch her like he always did. Riley recoiled just enough to make Aiden's cheeks turn a pale shade of pink.

It might have made me smile a bit knowing that she let me lean over top of her and whisper filthy things in her ear, but she wouldn't let him even touch her to comfort her.

Currently, I was winning if we were keeping score.  Not that I had given her much of a chance to run from me. 

"Sorry, sorry." He mumbled as he looked down at his feet. I had never seen Aiden look so small before.  Riley was breaking his confidence without even realizing it. 

It fucking thrilled me.

"I'm just a bit jumpy after last night." She looked at Aiden with a small smile trying to reassure him she was fine. He exhaled a big sigh of relief that there was not more behind her reaction than that. Extraterrestrials on Mars could have felt the wind he blew out of his mouth.

"I didn't tell JD what happened. He left a little bit ago to take Anna home. He knows there was a fight in the kitchen over a girl. That part went around the party fast. He was upstairs with Anna before it all happened. Mark doesn't even know it was you since he was hooking up with that girl with the purple hair from the bar. It can stay between the three of us unless you want to tell JD yourself." Aiden explained to her.

Riley shook her head and gave me a little surprised look when she heard about Cookie and Mark spending the night together. If I would have slept with that troll last night, I would have said it. There was no reason to hide it.