I was supposed to be trying to move on from Riley—and yet, here I was holding her body, smelling her hair, and fucking her until I was senseless.

All of it was for nothing. She wouldn't even tell me she loved me. Riley knew how much I needed her to say it and she flat out refused because she never really meant any of the times when she whispered it against my skin. 

What other proof did I need that she was just doing all of this to fuck with my life?

I backed away from the blond girl, shaking and full of sorrow-riddled disdain for her.  I hated everything about her and what she was doing to me, but I couldn't let her go either.  Riley made me weak and I was ashamed of how helpless I was whenever she was near me.  I couldn't even stay strong enough for a few hours to beat the compulsion.

I had to leave and find my next fix to dull the agony inside.  If I stayed near the girl any longer, I was going to implode.

I didn't even bother to towel her off me before I started tucking myself back into my boxers. My waistband was drenched by her and clung uncomfortably to my skin as I struggled to get my still half-hard dick situated correctly.  It took a lot of careful maneuvering to get the zipper of my jeans up without catching on the damp bulge sticking to the front of my body. 

After I finished getting myself right, I raised my eyes back to Riley to see if she was ready to go.  The green-eyed beauty was still holding on tightly to the sink, panting with her legs spread open like she was prepared to go another round.  I instantly regretted the first round since it fucked with my head so much already. Going a second round with her was entirely out of the question.

It would break me. 

My eyes lazily trailed along the spot where her thighs met.  It was bright pink and puffy from the violent pounding it had just received. I wanted to leave this place, but I couldn't make my feet move. I was never going to be able to concentrate on getting my body to work again until she put her clothes back on. 

"Get dressed," I mumbled to her.

Riley gave me a narrow-eyed glare that she dotted so well with her pouty little scowl.  She defiantly sat there in the same spot without moving to get another rise out of me. 

Riley was picking another fight.

"Get your ass up," I ordered for the second time. 

I didn't have to repeat myself often and I wasn't a fan of doing so. I was about to tear the room apart.  Most people were terrified of me when I was angry.  Not Riley—she missed the memo.  The stupid girl didn't even blink or budge an inch.  She froze in place with her too-big wide eyes boring a hole into mine. 

I clenched my fist until my knuckles were white. She was crossing the line and daring me to do something about it. 

"You are so damn stubborn," I yelled and grabbed a fistful of my hair. I attempted to yank my scalp off to lessen the heaviness in my head.

"Why are you being like this?" Riley snapped back as she finally jumped down off the sink.  Her bare ass swung back and forth as she walked across the bathroom to pick up her shorts off the floor.  She made sure to spin around and bend over with her ass in the air as she stepped into them.   She turned her head to make sure I was watching as she wiggled the denim up over her curves.

I ground my teeth together as I watched her purposefully trying to tempt me again.  Everything Riley did today was an act to feed into her nonsense—including the repeated punch to my gut over the pregnancy.  She was dangling it over my head, constantly using it against me.

What the fuck did she want from me?

"You know what you are doing to me, Riley. You know you are trying to trap me with this baby." I blurted out the exact words I heard Brynn utter last night to Aiden.

"Ezra, I would have never done that to you. I told you if you wanted out, then no one had to know it was yours. We were just having fun. This wasn't supposed to be like this.  I didn't know we were going to end up in a relationship." Riley clapped back at me like she was offended.

"Relationship? You think this was a fucking relationship?" I coughed out an unamused snort.

Riley would never admit the part she played in concocting this whole messed-up situation. She lied to my face repeatedly and would say whatever to get what she wanted.  This was never a real relationship to her. 

Riley was never in this as deep as I was.

"Then, what is this? Quit trying to act like what happened between us meant nothing to you.  You said you loved me. You said it first. I never asked you to say it." Riley screeched at me, reminding me how much of an idiot I was by admitting it to her in the first place.

I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing she had won and had me backed into a corner.  My feelings for her would remain my secret pain, just the same way I would never admit to anyone how badly the man who pretended to be my father had fucked me up too.  They both didn't deserve the pleasure they received from destroying me. Both of them had gravely injured me—in entirely different ways—but that wasn't that wasn't the point.

I would never be able to come back from what either one of them had done to me.

I saw my dad's darkening, bloodshot eyes forming in a misty shadow in the mirror directly behind Riley. He was standing there, shaking his head at me and motioning for me to fight her back.  His voice echoed in my head, calling me a pussy for not dealing with her the way he would have.

I stalked towards her and saw the first glimmer of dread dance over her.  Her body went rigid as I stepped over her and leaned down with my lips near her face. She sucked in a sharp breath and stared up at me wide-eyed. 

"I was bored and you were always there. It was so easy. You were ready for me the second you saw me. I should have known better than to fuck a needy little girl. Your type is always so clingy." My acid-laced words rolled skillfully off my tongue.

Before I could make my next move, heat spread across my cheek where Riley's small hand landed. I looked in the mirror behind her, and my dad's image was gone. It was replaced by my face with a tiny blazing red handprint covering my cheek.  I blinked a few times at my reflection, expecting him to come back to terrorize me for for letting her get away with it.

He didn't appear again—he was gone.

Did I even really see him in the first place, or did I imagine it?

It wouldn't be the first time I hallucinated that he was there when I was strung out, but it never happened with just Oxy in my bloodstream. That was why they were my favorite vice.  I could take as much of them as I wanted to delete him from my life. 

They didn't work to erase Riley, though. Nothing ever would. 

The spot where Riley smacked me was starting to burn a hole into my skull.  She hit me hard enough that it might actually leave a bruise.  I rubbed the blood away as it rose to the surface and stared down at the insane girl.

If she was anyone else, I would have put her on the floor for what she did.

Luckily, Riley resembled Mighty Mouse as she tried to stand up to me. I began laughing at her absurdity. I couldn't help myself. She had completely lost her mind.

Riley stomped off and went over to the door. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach the slide lock. 

"How are you getting home, Ry?" I mocked her while she fought to get it to move.

"Don't worry. I'll find a way." She huffed, finally getting enough leverage to make the rusted metal slide budge.  She threw open the door and began to walk out. 

I wasn't finished with her.  Not by a long shot.

If I let her walk away, that would be it and I wasn't ready for it. It would happen because I wanted it to, not because she did.

"Let me guess, Aiden's already in the parking lot waiting for you. You might as well blow him and put him out of his misery."

Riley spun around and stood as tall as she could. She looked up into my eyes with a smug smirk on her face. She turned her head and delivered the next blow.

"I already have."

I—I—I—my brain stuttered by her confession.  I shouldn't have been surprised when she admitted they were together, but I didn't want to hear the truth from her.   She was using her relationship with Aiden to lure me into battle again.  Riley knew I was near defeat and she wanted to tip the scales in her favor by wearing me down further.

"I don't believe you," I whispered and slunk down, trying to convince myself it was all a lie.  Riley and I weren't going to be together because of her stupidity about having the baby, but I didn't want her to be with anyone else either.

"He likes me when I am on my knees, begging for it in my mouth." She raised both eyebrows as her eyes twinkled with fire. 

"Don't fucking say that." I choked out a sob. She had some other guy's dick in her mouth and was drinking down his cum while my baby was growing inside her.

I knew it—I fucking knew it.

A million daggers were plunging deep into my chest. I couldn't stop them.  She was torturing me for her own amusement and I had no armor left. 

"Why are you so upset? You and I are not in a relationship." She sealed the deal by throwing my own words back at me.

I ran my hands over my face to try to conceal the tears.  I sniffled and tried to silence the pain she had inflicted on me.  I stared at the dirty ground, unable to look in her direction.

Riley walked over and placed her hand on my lower stomach and rubbed it gently, trying to console me. She was my executioner and my savior at the same time.

I couldn't look at her without seeing the image of her on her knees in front of Aiden with her tongue out, whimpering for more. Her pregnant belly would be swollen soon, with her skin pulling tight as my baby filled her. It didn't matter to either one of them. Her lips would still be around his cock, using his cum as her only nourishment.

Why was she keeping my baby if she wanted to be with him?

"Get out," I yelled and pushed her away.

If I weren't so high and broken, Riley would have gone flying back into the sink.  Instead, she shuffled her feet sideways to catch her balance and twisted to catch the door handle. She gave me a tear-filled, pleading look as she pulled the door open and made a run for it.

And yet again, my dumbass was right behind, mindlessly chasing her up the trail.

It didn't take long for me to catch up to her.  I almost caught the back of her heels a few times when I accidentally overestimated how fast she was going.  I wanted to grab her and pin her body down on the ground to yell at her some more for what she had done to me. 

But, I was too angry and unhinged that I was afraid I might hurt her if I did.

Instead, I paused for a few seconds to give her a few feet of distance between us in case I lost control again. 

When Riley broke through the clearing, she picked up her pace and headed directly towards the direction of where my car was parked in the lot.  I pulled my keys out of my pocket and clicked the button to unlock the door for her to get inside.

I would at least take her home and get her out of the heat. Maybe she would be more rational if she had a few seconds to cool off. Then, I would find a way to convince her to let me come inside. I could disappear for a few minutes to raid her parent's medicine cabinet for anything I could find to deplete the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

I just needed a few more pills today. That was it—only a few more to get by.

Riley crossed her arms and walked right passed the unlocked door towards the main road.

Where the hell was she going?