Songbird (Songbird, #1) (18 page)

“Okay, let’s start with the situation you were in the other night.” Riley grabbed me and pulled me onto his lap, simulating the way the drunk had done it at
Songbirds
.

“Now the guy was trying to kiss you, right?”

“No, actually, he licked my face,” I replied, remembering the incident.

Riley screwed up his nose in disgust.

“And his hand was here,” his jaw clenched, “up your dress.” He placed his hand on my thigh.

“It was, um, slightly higher.”

He raised his eyebrows. “What, here?” He slid his hand higher.

“Higher. He was trying to rip at my underwear.” I cringed at the memory.

“Oh fuck, Tara, I had no idea. I should have beaten the crap out of him.”

He looked away as his jaw worked overtime, clenching in fury. His body tensed around me until he finally drew a calming breath and was ready to continue. Then he raised his hand a little higher, but not quite as high as the drunk guy had.

He looked into my eyes. “Okay, so show me what you did to fight him off.”

I tried to push Riley’s hand away from my leg, and at the same time push his face away from my face. It was useless; it was like trying to move a brick wall.

“That’s never going to work. The guy will always be stronger than you,” he explained. “You have to work with the movement of his body, or take him completely by surprise, or both.”

“So what should I do?” I had no idea.

“Firstly, don’t push at his hand.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. Was I supposed to let him grope me?

“Grab the jerk’s finger and yank it backwards as hard as you can. Break the fucker if you can.”

Okay, that made sense
.

“Then, while he’s leaning in to you, move in the same direction but faster, so you can get some space between your body and his, then raise your elbow and break his nose, or you can try to ignore his hand up your skirt for a moment and use your outside hand, heel first, to crack his nose.”

I liked the sound of this; it was clear and I could visualise it. We practiced in slow motion a few times until I felt comfortable with the scenario.

“Next,” he said, “we’re going to go over another scenario that I hope you never find yourself in. Lay down on the floor, face up.”

I lay down as instructed and Riley sat straddled over my hips, pinning my hands over my head. He let his guard down for a moment and I saw the hint of a smile creep into his glorious blue eyes before he returned to business.

“Okay, so I know you’re really flexible.” There was that smile in his eyes again. “But I’m not going to try to teach you anything too complicated, like trying to get me in a headlock between your thighs.”

Now I was trying to keep a straight face. He looked at my expression. “This is serious, Tara,” he lightly scolded, but he wasn’t very convincing.

I cleared my throat. “Sorry, I’m listening; you don’t want your head between my thighs, check.” I bit my lip.

“I said I don’t want to be in a headlock.” His eyes were positively glowing now.

“Okay, got it.” I bit the inside of my cheek.

Now it was his turn to clear his throat. “Common thing that will happen here is this.”

He seemed to just shift his weight and before I knew it he was in between my legs, pushing my knees out with his. I caught my breath; he was now pressing down on top of me. This had very quickly become very serious.

“Try to throw me off,” he instructed.

I struggled but it was absolutely no use. His body didn’t budge while I tried in vain to move.

“If a guy is going to rape you,” he paused and looked into my eyes with a pained expression, “he is going to have to shift his weight to get to his pants.” He rolled to one side and imitated unzipping an imaginary fly. “Now I’m off balance and only using one hand to hold you, right?”

I nodded.

“Now work with me, not against me. I’m already half rolled off you.”

I nodded again. His weight was no longer crushing me; I had a little bit of room to move.

“Now bend the knee that is on the free side and push so you roll me over.”

I did as directed and rolled myself on top of him.

“That’s better,” he whispered.

I stayed perched on top of Riley, my breathing a little ragged from the exertion.

“Can we do that again?” I asked as I sat up, now straddling his hips, my hands resting on his chest.

“Sure, just give me a few minutes,” he said, diverting his eyes.

We took a five-minute break, and then reconvened and assumed the position.

“This time I’m going to use more force and as you’re rolling me over, try to bring your knee up into my groin,” then he hesitated. “Just pretend. I still need to be able to dance with you tonight.”

“Okay, but don’t hurt me.”

“I would never hurt you, Tara, I promise.”

J
ASON ARRIVED
with champagne in hand and a whopping apology.

“I’m so sorry I interrupted
the kiss
last night. I feel dreadful.” He pulled an exaggerated pained face. “And he was
sooo
hot, too!”

“Don’t worry about it, Jase, it wasn’t going to go any further.” I sighed. “It’s too soon for that, and besides, he
is
so hot that in the back of my mind I can’t help thinking that he can’t really be that serious about me. He must have been with heaps of girls.”

“But he’s with you now—or at least, he wants to be.” It was Kelli. She had let herself in using her key, and came to sit down next to me on the couch.

“You know I was worried about you getting involved when you first met,” she said, taking my hands. “But I’ve asked Coop about him numerous times, and he told me he hasn’t seen Riley with a girl, or even talk about one he likes since he moved to Sydney.”

“So you’re trying to tell me someone who looks like a sex god is celibate? No way, I don’t believe it; he could get any girl he wanted.”

“And
you
could get any guy
you
wanted, Tara, but I know with you there is no correlation between looks and sleeping around. The only thing you can do is talk to him, or just not sleep with him, but I can tell you with all honesty that the guy is crazy about you.”

Sighing, I looked up at Kelli. “You know I’ve only been with two guys, and the last one shit-canned me in the sack ,in case you’ve forgotten. It doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”

The truth was I was inexperienced, and Shithead blaming me for his cheating had shaken my confidence. I was sure Riley would be expecting more than what I could give him, for me to know more than I knew. I couldn’t stand to disappoint him. He would never want to see me again, and I would never have the confidence to be with anyone else if I failed with him too.

“So are you worried about Riley or you?”

“Both really, but mainly that I could be totally crap.”

“Oh, I know the answer to this one!” Jason piped up with his hand in the air, weighing in to the discussion.

Kelli and I looked at him, eyebrows raised.

“What? Just because I bat for the other team, it doesn’t mean I don’t know how the male libido works.”

We shrugged and nodded. He was right, of course.

“He won’t care,” he said matter-of-factly. “He won’t care if you’re not swinging from the chandelier or doing back flips like a gymnast. You wrap those long legs of yours around him and he will think he’s died and gone to heaven.”

Laughing, I wondered in the back of my mind if that could really be true.

Wanting to change the subject off Riley and sex, I told Kelli and Jason about the self-defence lesson and that Mal was going to start classes on a permanent basis, and how we should attend. I recalled all the details of that morning and then the dinner the night before at the Moroccan restaurant.

Kelli listened intently, analysing every action, comment and facial expression, while Jason
ooh
ed and
ah
ed and cooed with delight. “He sounds dreamy. I can’t believe you’ve turned him down to this point.”

We continued chatting until our hair was styled, our nails painted, and it was time to get dressed.

I’d decided on my fire-engine red dress, so I’d painted my nails to match. Because the dress was one shouldered, Jason had swept my hair up off my face, and then very cleverly styled it so it fell in soft curls over one shoulder.

Kelli’s dress was a bright blue halter-neck, so she too had her hair up to show off her bare back.

We sat back and finished off the bottle of champagne while we waited for our dates to arrive.

The door buzzed at six thirty pm and the butterflies took flight in my stomach. I opened the security door, and then, as was customary, stood back and held the apartment door open, waiting for the guys to make their entrance.

Riley appeared at the top of the stairs behind Cooper. He was in full army dress uniform. It was a khaki-coloured ‘suit’ with polished buttons, and two rows of ribbons pinned to his chest over his left pocket. He looked mouth-wateringly spectacular, and my jaw dropped involuntarily open.

“Your panties are in so much trouble tonight,” Kelli whispered.

Cooper stepped through the door and let out a low whistle as he passed. “Hey Fox,” he said, then, seeing my reaction to Riley, lightly used one finger under my chin to lift my jaw back up to its correct position.

“Thanks,” I muttered, then stepped out from behind the door.

Now it was Riley’s turn to freeze as his jaw dropped to the floor. We stood motionless for a few seconds taking each other in.

Kelli was right. My panties were in danger, but I needed some answers first.

I forced myself to close my eyes for a moment. I couldn’t think straight with the most beautiful man on the face of the planet staring at me with those piercing blue eyes, like I was the most beautiful woman.

I knew he wanted me, I could see it written all over his face every time he looked at me, so why shouldn’t I just go for it? I was twenty-four and single; there was certainly no law against it, but I’d never been into casual sex. It just felt wrong.

I needed to know why he’d broken up with his girlfriend, but most importantly, I needed to know what this connection between us meant to him. Was I just something for him to do for a few days while he was in Melbourne, or did he see a future? Would he come back?