“It’s okay, River. I’m here now. We’ll deal with all this shit together. As a team.” He squeezed me tighter, his arms shaking, and I tapped his shoulder. “Come on, big guy—I need to breathe.” He finally let me slip to the ground, and I looked up into his face. His eyes were shiny, making me feel awful all over again.

Leaning down, he kissed me reverently. “Please don’t leave again.”

Stroking his hair back from his head, I smiled up at him. “I won’t, not if I can help it.”

That would have to be enough.

River tucked me tightly beneath his arm, and we walked toward the club. “So what’s the plan?” I asked him.

“No plan. We’re going to live our lives how we want, and if other people have a problem with it, they can go fuck themselves. I’m going to show my girl a good time, drink, dance, and party with our friends. It has nothing to do with anyone else.”

Chapter Forty-Two

RIVER

Nova moved on the dance floor like she was made to dance. Her arms were looped around Rigby’s neck as they bounced around to the DJ’s tunes amid the mass of other human bodies. Fuck, she was so beautiful, and I didn’t miss the eyes of the other men around her as she danced with complete abandon.

They wouldn’t get close, though; I knew that. She only had eyes for Rigby right then, as the song changed to something with a slower, more sexual beat. He ground down against her, and it was so fucking erotic, with his hands on her ass and his thigh pressed between hers so there wasn’t an inch of their body not touching. They may as well have been fucking on the dance floor.

My lips quirked as I turned my eyes away from the intimate scene. If Rigby kept working his magic, we’d all be going home with her tonight, and I’d worship her body in a different kind of dance. Devan was talking to Julieta, who was sweaty and smiling widely after stepping off the dance floor herself.

Muss nudged my shoulder with his. “You guys really have no jealousy? Engman is down there basically being pornographic with your girl, and you don’t care?”

We were sitting in the VIP section—the good side, not the side they gave to any person off the street. Ludo was on Muss’s other side, sipping straight vodka like a psychopath.