Chapter Twenty Eight

I rode in Dawson's black jacked up Jeep Wrangler this time. He winked at me from the driver's side and I smiled back. "Where are we going? And do you always get up this early on a Saturday?" He chuckled.

"It's a surprise and yes I do. I get up this early every day. Life is too beautiful to be slept away." Wow. That was rather deep.

"But I love sleep. Is that a deal breaker?" I watched him appear to think really hard on it. He looks down at my hand before picking it up. He brings it slowly to his mouth and kisses it.

"As long as I'm the one you're dreaming of you can sleep all you want, gorgeous." I'm not going to lie. I swooned a little.

"I think I'm okay with that." He grabs my hand a little tighter. I smile at him. "What?"

"Hopefully you're a little more than okay with it, girl." He laughs again and looks back at the road. "We're almost there."

I watch as he pulls up to a small, locked gate. He gets out to unlock it and signals for me to drive his Jeep on through. I giggle in delight and hop into the driver's seat. When I go to slide back into my seat, he pulls me back down onto his lap.

"Oh, yeah. I like this a lot better." I'm sitting sideways in his lap, our head inches apart. Live in the moment, Riley. It's your turn to be bold. I nod my head.

"Me too." I grab his face and kiss him lightly but he deepens it. He has one hand on my hip and the other in my hair. I liked kissing Dawson. It just felt good. Kissing Trevor was a wild rush whereas kissing Dawson was a soft, steady flow. Easy.

Before I know it, I'm straddling him but before it can go any further he's pushing my slightly away. "As much as I like what's happening here, I actually brought you here for a different reason and I really don't want you to miss it." I pout and he kisses me on the nose, chuckling. "It's worth it, Riley. Trust me."

I stay where I'm at as Trevor pulls the Jeep on up a bit. When we get out I stare at him questioningly. "Are you going to murder me? Because that's the only reason I can imagine anyone would bring someone to the woods before daylight." He wiggles his eyebrows at me and takes my hand, leading me deeper into the brush. We finally stop and I look up.

"A deer stand? Are we going hunting?" He laughs and shakes his head.

"Girl just chill and climb on up. Stop with the twenty questions." I glare at him but does as he says. I'm glad I wasn't afraid of heights.

Before I can go through the little door I hear him tell me to close my eyes. I do as he says and carefully crawl in. He follows a few seconds later and tells me to keep my eyes shut.

"Okay, open them." I gasp. There's a pallet laying on the floor with pretty pillows. He has little tealight candles on both sides of the pallet. And the best part? He has a cooler full of Mountain Dew and sliced mangoes.

"What is this? And how did you know my favorite snack?" He laughs as he takes off his shoes and pats the spot beside him. I chunk my shoes off and join him. It's pretty cramped in here so there isn't much space between us.

"I told Nanny last night that I wanted to do something special for you and she told me she would make sure you were ready. I know it isn't much but I tried. And you haven't even seen the best part yet." He takes my hand. "And girl we've been going to school together since kindergarten. I saw what was in your lunchbox." He winks again and I laugh.

"This is amazing, Dawson. Thank you."

He nods and pulls me into him so that I'm sitting between his legs but facing the window. His back is against the wall and his hands are around my waist.

"You deserve all of this and more." I feel him kiss the top of my head and I lean back into him, perfectly content. "Now watch."

Just as he said it, I noticed the woods around us become lighter. I look up towards the top of the trees and am at a loss for words. He brought me to see a sunrise. "It's beautiful." I feel his eyes on me.

"It is nothing compared to you." I look at his handsome face. His eyes lock onto mine. I search them for any mirth, any mockery, for any sign that any of this was ill intended. And I found nothing. Nothing but pure adoration and it took my breath away. "You're missing it, baby."

"I don't think I am." I shake my head and kiss him again. He pulls me up so that I am once again straddling him. He deepens the kiss, but not in a rushed way. Just in a way that tells me he wants to enjoy the journey.

When we finally break apart we're both panting. We don't speak. We just stare at each other and breathe.

I reach for a drink and and the mango slices and he smiles amusedly at me. "What? I assume these aren't for decorations?" He snorts and shakes his head.

"I just had a life altering kiss and the girl on the other end of it is worried about snacks." I chew some more.

"Life altering, huh?" He nods his head.

"Wanna know why?" Did I? Was I ready to hear his answer?

"Because after that, there is no way in hell I will ever let you go again." I swallow. Apparently his question had been rhetorical.

"I thought we were taking things slow." His eyes looked a little sad at that. "I don't mean it in a bad way. It's just, I just got back. Literally just got out of my first sort of relationship." He nods his head in understanding.

"I get all of that, Riley. It's just for me though, this doesn't feel rushed. This feels like one of those 'about damn time' moments because I have wanted you for so long." I watched him turn his baseball cap backwards and nearly kicked my own ass. Damn, he looked good. "But I would rather wait a little longer than push you away." I nod my head and put my drink down. I crawl back over to him.

"You know this doesn't mean that we have to stop kissing, right?" He laughs and pushes me onto my back. He leans down and kisses my neck.

"I had really..." kiss "really..." another kiss on my neck "had hoped that it didn't." I moan slightly and watch his eyes turn a little darker. "Fuck, Riley." I lean up and take his lips with mine. He lays his upper half on top of me and begins exploring my body with his hands.

When I kiss my way to his neck I thought he was going to lose it. He moans loudly and runs his hand under my shirt. I froze which made him freeze. "Too fast?" I nod my head.

"Sorry, I just...uh have limited experience in this department." He snorts and shakes his head. He props his head up on his hand and just looks at me.

"Don't be sorry. I'm glad you have limited experience in 'this department.' As perfect as I might seem, I have one major flaw." He lightly caresses my face. "I'm a very, very jealous person."

"Oh yeah?" I look at him.

"Oh, yeah. I want all of your attention, your kisses, your laughs. I want it all." He leans down. "I want all of you, Riley Brinks." He claims my lips in a long, slow kiss.

"What if I told you that I wasn't worth it?" He gives me a sad smile.

"Then I would tell you that was the silliest thing I had ever heard."

My brown eyes meets his green ones. I don't know how long we stare at each other before my phone ruins the moment. I look down and see a message from Trevor on my screen.

Trevor Lyles: I'm glad I got to hear your voice last night. I've missed you.

I look up at Dawson and his face tells me he read it as well. I don't like the sad look in his eyes. "Dawson it's not whatever you're thinking." He shakes his head.

"Then what is it, Riley?" His head is looking down now, I can't see his eyes.

"He called me last night and I felt that I at least owed him an explanation. So we talked it out. I made it clear that I was not going back, that there was nothing for me there. That all we could be was friends." I watch Dawson nod his head.

"Okay, but I feel like he isn't going to give you up that easily. He knows your worth the fight. But so do I." I shake my head.

"He's on the other side of the country, Dawson." He nods again.

"Riley, I knew after that first kiss with you that if you ever left again I would be right behind you. But anyway, the day is yet young and we must live it to its full potential! Let's go!"

I was shocked by his sudden change of mood but I wasn't complaining so I obliged and followed him out of the stand after we blew the candles out.

The next place he took me to was a local alpaca farm that I didn't even know existed. I squealed in delight and jumped out of the jeep. "I didn't even know this was here!" He laughed.

"Neither did I. I found it on Google last night." He takes my hand and pulls me to the ticket booth. He pays for our tickets and I can't stop dancing. I do that when I'm excited.

As we're walking inside he spins me out and allows me to do a twirl and pulls me back into his chest. "You're the most incredible person I've ever met, Riley Brinks." He kisses the top of my head and we make our way to the feeding area.

"So what really happened in California? I just can't see your dad letting you come all of this way by yourself." I look at him and sigh.

"If I tell you, you have to promise to not tell a soul. Not even Nanny. I don't want people to pity me." He nods his head.

"Of course. I promise." I turn my attention to the cute and fuzzy creature in front of me.

"Well, it turns out that my dad isn't actually my dad." I fill him in on the rest of the details while keeping my eyes trained on the alpaca.

I feel him grab me and pull me in for a very welcome hug. "I'm so sorry. I'm even more sorry for making you relive it. You deserve so much better than all of that." I wipe a stray tear and nod my head.

"It actually felt good to talk to someone about it. Thank you." We move on to the grooming area and begin to brush one.

"You can always talk to me, Riley. About anything and at anytime. You know that, right?" I nod my head. I did know that. And I was grateful for it.