Revenge (Book 3 in the Rise Trilogy)

The Rest of My Life

The Rest of My Life

"Psst, Riley? Hey, Riley, wake up, sweetheart."

I groan as I feel a light shake wake me from my deep sleep. I squint up at the dark figure above me.

"What is it, Connor?" I mumble quietly. "Come back to bed." I roll over on my other side and ignore the pouting puppy dog face looking down at me.

"Please," Connor pleads. "I need to you to come with me.

He rests his warm hand on my exposed shoulder not covered by the blankets.

I sigh in annoyance as I slowly roll over in our warm and comfy bed. "Now?" I complain in my tired scratchy voice. He nods with a small grin. I groan again. "It's too early for this."

"Yes,now," Connor chuckles light as he looks down at me. "I promise it will be worth it." He slowly leans down and kisses my forehead, "Get dressed and meet me down stairs, okay?"

"Okay," I whisper softly before slowly sitting up. I sigh again as I rub my eyes and look around our dark room. It's not even light outside! "Connor better be happy that he's not in this room with me," I mutter.

Dragging myself out of my cozy bed, I rest my feet on the cool wood and walk over to our dresser. I brush down my hair and pull on one of Connor's white large shirts over my light blue tank top and dark brown pants.

I find Connor standing at the foot of the manor looking a bit anxious as I slowly come down the steps. But that fades when we lock eyes and he smiles at me.

"Good morning, beautiful," he says calmly as he reaches out and gently caresses my face before leaning forwards to press his warm lips to mine for a lingering moment.

"Shut up," I mumble as I fight the blush crawling its way up my cheeks when he pulls away. "Where are we going?" I give him a puzzled look as I rub my tired eyes again.

Connor grins. "Come on," he says while reaching out to take my hand and lace his large fingers into my small ones. Together, the two of us walk down the dark pathway through the quiet homestead

"I hope you have good reason in waking me this early in the morning," I say to Connor. "I was having a good dream."

Connor chuckles. "I promise, it will be all worth it." He suddenly releases my hand. "We may have to cut the walk a bit short." He takes off down the road sprinting like crazy without me.

"Hey!" I shout and a laugh escapes my lips. "Connor!" I take off after him, laughing along the way. "Wait for me!"

It's not too hard for me to catch up with the big oaf. He may be stronger than me, but I'm way faster. And he knows it.

When I do catch up to him, I haven't realized that he's taken me to the edge of the homestead where we sometimes leave from here to get to the frontier. I follow him up the side of the cliff as he moves swiftly up to the very top.

"Thanks," I say to him as he pulls me up with him. "What's next?" I tease. "Another chase through the frontier?"

Connor chuckles. "Not exactly. I want to show you something." He takes my hand again and leads me along a pathway that I know well.

The sun is beginning to rise over the ocean horizon that can be seen clearly from here. It casts a pale pink glow across the vast darkened night sky.

"Why did you bring me to this place?" I ask as we stand in the bed of wild flowers that has engulfed this overhang on the cliff side.

"To watch," Connor replies as we watch the beautiful golden rays of sun slowly come up above the water.

"Wow," I whisper as the summer sun spreads out across this beautiful stretch of land. "It's so beautiful."