Falls like rain, p.1
Falls Like Rain, page 1
Reese Rivers Presents
Falls
Like
Rain
Copyright © 2023 Reese Rivers
Falls Like Rain
Ebook Edition
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover Art by:
Erika Bester
Author Note to Readers
First and foremost, I can confirm…you can have sex on the back of a horse!
If you are a new to me reader you won’t know this about me but everyone else who has sped through my back list of books knows I like to jump around in the subgenres of why choose romance. I put my own Reese spin on contemporary, paranormal, enemies to lovers and even zombie (my favorite book). I read EVERYTHING in romance but I really enjoy the palate cleanse of a sweet small-town romance when I just want something light, easy and fun. So, here’s my take on that with a small town, second chance, why choose romance. It’s not too deep or angsty and so far the feedback has been that it’s like an R rated Hallmark movie. That was exactly what I was hoping for. As always, my MFC digs deep to find the strength to overcome, heal and live the life she wants and finds major orgasms and love along the way. Hope you enjoy this somewhat sweet romance as much as I did writing it.
xoxo
Reese
Possible Trigger Warnings
There is one instance of a sexual assault grope through clothing.
Parental loss factors in heavily for the start of the book as her dad passing away is what brings our MFC home.
Sex, sex, threesome and foursome detailed sex and probably too much swearing. If that bothers you, please pass on this book.
Rain – 10 years ago…
I slide down from the saddle on Maple’s back straight into Rex’s arms with a grin.
“Come on! Just give me a hint? You know I hate surprises,” I whine but he just huffs a laugh and drops a kiss on my forehead and then one on my lips before stepping back to take the reins.
“Nope, not happening. You have to wait for your official birthday tomorrow.” His ocean-blue eyes heat up as he grabs my hand and pulls me back against his chest. “It’ll mean more once you choose me.”
Some of the happiness inside me dims at hearing that but I sass him back with, “I told you, all of you, a thousand times, I ain’t picking so get that right out of your head, Rex Kingston. And if my birthday gift depends on that then you can just stick it up your ass and keep it!”
He growls into my neck causing a shiver to run through me but it doesn’t sway my decision one bit. The Kingston boys have been making me shiver since I turned fifteen but I will never choose between them, I love them all too much to do that. I yelp when he smacks my ass and dance away with a laugh.
Rex leads our horses to their stalls and I head deeper into the barn where I find Chase and Luke hanging out. As soon as Chase spots me, he’s on his feet and getting right in my face.
“Damnit, Rainy! What did I tell you about doing trick riding out in the field? You’re going to break your pretty little neck one of these days.”
I roll my eyes and push him back onto the bale of hay he just launched himself from and then drop into his lap.
“Oh, hush! I’ve been standing on Maple’s back since I was eleven and Rex dared me to do it. Your such an old woman, Chase.”
I tilt my head back to stare up at him with amusement but also love for him worrying about me all the time. His arms wrap around my waist as he settles me more firmly in his lap and he buries his face in my hair with a groan.
Luke chuckles softly and flips my booted feet into his lap giving my calves a stroke.
“We just want to keep you safe, Sunny. I don’t know what I’d do if anything ever happened to you.”
My expression softens, Luke has an unnatural amount of anxiety about losing people ever since his parents passed away in a car accident. I lean away from Chase to reach for his hand and give it a squeeze.
“You never have to worry about that, Luke. You’re stuck with me for good,” I tease. Color tints his cheeks as he tightens his fingers around mine.
“Does that mean you’ll pick…”
“Urgh! Enough with this picking nonsense! You’re just as bad as Rex is with it.” I pull my hand from his as he gives me a bashful smile and then I lean back against Chase again while glancing up. “At least you aren’t hounding me about it,” I tell him causing a rumble of laughter against my back.
His warm breath washes across my ear and cheek as he whispers, “Don’t have to when I know you’ll be mine after tomorrow.”
I let out a sigh of annoyance but before I can reply, Lannister Kingston, the twins’ father and Luke’s uncle strides into the barn. His hard, turquoise eyes scan over me and the position I’m in with both boys’ hands on me and grow even colder when Rex steps up next to us and places a hand on my shoulder.
“What are you lot doing in here?” He barks out, causing me to scramble off of Chase's lap and push to my feet. “You boys were told that the back fencing needed to be checked and repairs done. Get going right now.” His mean eyes land on me. “I’m sure you have chores to mind at your own place, girl. Best get back to them before you find yourself in trouble you can’t smile your way out of.”
There is a hint of a threat in his stern tone. I straighten up to my full height and square my shoulders. The boys might be afraid of him but I’m not. Hate him? Yes. Afraid of him? Hell no. I send him a tight smile.
“You bet, Mr. Kingston. I just need to brush down Maple and I’ll be on my way!”
He grunts his annoyance and then jabs a pointed finger toward the barn doors, motioning to the boys to get gone. Each one of them brushes a hand against me as they file out with promises to see me later and with a final glare my way, their father follows them, leaving me alone in the cool dimness of the barn.
I turn away from the door and go to Maple’s stall, getting to work on brushing her down. I lose myself in the repetitive motions of the brush as I think about the fun we have planned at the lake for my birthday tomorrow so I don’t hear the stall door open when I’m almost done. It’s the hard hand on my shoulder spinning me around and pushing me against the rough boards that has me gasping.
“I’ve tolerated you long enough, girl. Every time I turn around you’re here messing with my boys. That’s over now. I want you gone. The last thing they need is a trailer-trash whore derailing the future plans I have for them.”
I suck in a shocked breath that quickly turns to anger and I try to shove him back from me but he doesn’t budge.
“How dare you! I’m no whore and I’m not going anywhere no matter what you say!” I spit at him with fury.
A cold chuckle is his response before he holds up a fat envelope in front of my face.
“This is five thousand dollars and it’s the only money you’ll ever see from a Kingston. You’ll take it and leave town tonight. If you fight me on this or tell my boys anything about this conversation there will be consequences. I’ll start with Luke. He’s lived off my charity long enough and now that he’s turned eighteen, he can get the hell off my land. He won’t see another dime from me and he sure as hell won’t be getting a piece of this land. You go and I’ll pay his way through college and add him to the will for an equal share. Otherwise, he leaves tomorrow with whatever he can carry on his back and he won’t be welcome back here again.
“If that’s not enough to convince you, I’ll move on your dad’s land. I know how tight things are for him. I’m good friends with the bank manager. A few well-placed words, an increase on the mortgage interest and maybe he won’t be able to afford those payments anymore. It would be easy for me to slide in and make him a lowball offer he wouldn’t be able to refuse. Then you're gone anyway.”
He taps the envelope against my chest and then glances down at my heaving breasts. The look in his eyes has me taking back my statement that I’m not afraid of him as he leans even closer.
“Or…you stay, play the whore to the Kingston men. And it’s only right that you start with the head Kingston.”
Nausea sours my stomach at what his words imply but it’s the hard hand that jams between my jean-covered thighs and squeezes me painfully that has me snatching the envelope out of his hand and shoving him off of me in desperation.
Maple snorts and stomps at the tension in the stall as I fly to the other side of it and turn to face him. I want my voice to come out with all the sickness and rage I’m feeling but it quavers and stutters instead.
“I go and you l-leave Luke and my dad alone?”
He gives me one hard nod so I crush the envelope in my fist. I want to throw it at his feet, tell him to go fuck himself but if I have to leave, I’ll need it. Instead, I suck back all the hate I want to spew at him and nod but I can’t help taking one shot at this bastard before I go.
“I’ll go. You might think you’re doing this for them but I promise you, one day, you will die all alone and unloved and you’ll only have yourself to blame.”
He huffs an ugly laugh at my words and motions to the door so I quickly leave the stall. My feet fly over the fields that separate our two properties as tears roll down my cheeks. I want to go to my dad and tell him everything, scream to the world what a monster Lannister Kingston is but I know I won’t because I remember.
I remember Luke’s face and his small broken voice saying he had no home after his parents died and I can’t be the reason this one is taken from him.
I know how hard my dad works every damn day to keep us fed and I can’t be the reason he loses his home either. So even as my heart is breaking, I pull my phone out of my back pocket and send the text.
Text: VAULT!!! I need you to pick me up across the field tonight at eleven. Don’t tell anyone, Mags!
Mags: Locked and ready to blow if opened. Where are we going?
Me: I need to catch a bus out of town
Mags: What the ever-lovin’ hell happened???
Mags: Rain? Rain?
Mags: I’ll be there
Rain
People say fate’s funny but she’s not. She’s a cunt. That bitch will string you along, showing you glimpses of everything you think you want, lead you down the path of all your dreams, and then laugh when she cuts your throat and circles you back to where you started from. Like I said, cunt.
I cringe at the vulgar word that comes so easily to my mind. That’s not who I am anymore. I worked damn hard to leave that raw, untamed girl behind. I swear, the closer I get to where I began, the more that girl pushes back in.
I stare through the windshield of my car at the single-wide trailer lit up by my headlights. I’ve been frozen here behind the wheel since I drove up the dirt lane twenty minutes ago. I can’t bring myself to shut the car off and get out. It’s like if I don’t leave the car, none of this is really happening. The only thing I see as I stare at the run-down trailer that I lived in for seventeen years and three hundred and sixty-four days is me slipping out of the cracked bedroom window. I snuck out with an envelope of cash and a backpack full of clothes hours before the clock ticked over to my eighteenth birthday.
My eyes slide away from the trailer and across the fallow field, tracing the path I took that night to where my best girlfriend waited for me in her rusted-out Dodge Neon that was held together by duct tape and primer. That car held together enough for her to drive me the hour to the closest town that had a bus going through it.
I ran to protect them and hoped to find something more, something…better - and I forced myself to not look back. I held true to that for ten fucking years. I found more, I thought I found better - and then that cunt laughed and laughed and took it all away with one phone call.
My fingers squeeze the steering wheel tighter making the diamond ring on my finger pinch my skin. I drop my eyes to it in the dim light just as a flash of lightning rips across the sky making it shine mockingly at me and wish I had left it on the counter of the condo. The cold rock on my finger was supposed to represent the next stage of my life, my future. But that phone call sent me to Jason’s office in search of comfort, seeking support. What I got instead was a full view of him slamming his dick into his assistant while she was bent over his desk. When he looked up and spotted me watching, his eyes went colder than I’d ever seen them before. He looked annoyed, frustrated that I was interrupting him. There was absolutely no guilt in his eyes as he pumped a few more times into her to finish himself off.
He caught me just as the elevator doors opened and grabbed my wrist so hard that I have a pretty ring of black and blue bruises circling it. My throat was locked up in a double knot of grief from the phone call telling me that my father was dead and losing what I thought was my future with a man who loved me. He squeezed my wrist harder with a jerk making me look up at him.
“Go home and wait for me there, Rain. We’ll discuss this when I get there later.”
I yanked my arm trying to get free but he just squeezed harder, making the delicate bones grind together painfully.
His jaw clenched and his tone was filled with warning when he told me, “You will want to consider very carefully any rash, knee-jerk reactions you might want to have regarding what you just saw. It changes nothing.”
He stared hard into my eyes and then dropped my arm, gesturing me into the waiting elevator.
As the doors closed between us, I took a good long look at him because he was wrong. What I saw changed everything and there was no going back. I had felt like a zombie leaving his office building and getting a cab to our condo. I felt nothing but emptiness as I numbly walked through the ultra-modern space on the top floor with sweeping views of the city. Clothes were thrown in heaps into suitcases, bathroom toiletries swept into a bulging bag and every last trace of me was removed from that condo until I called the doorman up to carry it all down to the underground parking garage and into my car.
I was robotic as I opened my banking app and transferred out the money I had contributed to it, leaving his much bigger amount behind. I didn’t want a cent of his money.
I didn’t even feel a hitch of sadness when I sent the wedding planner an email telling her to cancel everything and that the wedding was off.
I drove away from him, my life, and a broken future all the way back to here where I had started and where I had run from all those years ago. Maybe that’s who I am, a runner. Maybe that’s all I’ll ever be, a woman who runs from everything.
I stare at that ring on my finger as the storm moves closer and lightning flashes across the sky until I can’t take it anymore. As thunder cracks and rumbles, I let it all out and I scream and scream and scream. When my voice is gone and I can’t scream anymore, I push open the car door and walk halfway to the rickety steps to the trailer but my feet come to a stop. I can’t. I can’t go in there yet and face the emptiness, the memories.
The hair lifts on the back of my neck when I hear a horse whinny in the distance from behind me. Goosebumps race across my skin. I know, even before I turn, what I’ll see. I can feel the storm building, getting closer as I turn and face the direction my heart used to live and wait. Lightning flashes and lights up the heavens again and there they are. Outlined on the hill are three men sitting on horses looking my way.
We stare at each other across the distance until the lightning dies and drops us back into darkness. And that’s when I dive back into my car and quickly drive away because I finally feel something. I feel everything and the regret choking me now tastes a lot like fear. I drive back to town to find a room for the night and I swear I can hear that cunt, Fate, laughing in the storm.
Chase
Luke throws tack down hard on the kitchen table, scratching the old wood even more than it already is. I don’t bother looking up from the dredges of my coffee cup.
Even though the sun is just now rising I’m already a full pot in after giving up on even trying to find sleep for most of the night. I doubt any of us got much sleep last night after seeing her standing in front of her dad’s beat-up trailer. We had been out wrangling a few mothers and calves who were too stupid to come in from the storm that was brewing when I saw the headlights flashing down the long driveway to the trailer.
I don’t know why it was a surprise to see her there. We knew she’d come back to handle her daddy’s affairs but it still felt like a mule kick to my gut to see her that close after so long. Ten fucking years without one damn word from her had hardened and withered the place inside me that she used to own, leaving nothing but a thick layer of hurt covered up by anger.
Judging by the scowl on Luke’s face, he feels the same. Rex, well, he passed through the house last night just long enough to snag a bottle of whiskey and then disappeared somewhere back out into the storm.
Luke grunts as he drops into the chair across from me and drags a hand down his face. I lean back in my chair and just wait, knowing it’ll take him a minute to build up to asking. He’s always been slow to speak his thoughts, a product of never quite feeling like he belonged with us. Luke’s time in the Marines burnt away the sweetness he had as a boy and gave him a harder edge but that uncertainty never quite went away, especially when he’s dealing with strong emotions.
He fidgets with the tack he brought in to repair and finally tosses it back down on the table with a deep sigh.
“Do we have to see her? I doubt she’ll be here for long. Can we just…not?”
I rub my mouth to stall, hating her a little bit more for coming back and cracking open his wounds. I curse under my breath before answering him.
