Cassie's Choice Read Free Page B

shown, through example from these men, that it solved nothing to get angry. That it was better to put that emotion into something more positive, use it to strengthen the resolve to work harder and be a better person.
    But on that night, all reasoning had flown out of the window. Riley had wanted to rip the guy’s head off for going anywhere near Cassie. What had made that reaction all the more alarming was that Riley had agreed to the ménage in the first place. He had thought he could handle it. Huh, just thinking about it caused that anger and resentment to rear its ugly head again.
    Meeting the blonde bombshell Cassandra Davies, best friend of his long-term buddy Phillipa ‘Pippa’ Rogers, had been one of the best moments in his life. Riley had felt an immediate and explosive attraction to the older woman. Four years may not have been a huge age difference, but for the eighteen-year-old Riley the twenty-two-year-old had been way out of his league. Owing to some unexplained phenomenon, Cassie had shown an interest in him—surrounded by her pick of muscled, famous footy players, Cassie had chosen him .
    For the next eleven months they had been inseparable, Cassie and him. They had hung out with Pippa and Mitchell ‘Rook’ Harris or with the rest of the Jets rugby league team after a game. Often, they had just spent time alone, watching television snuggled under a blanket on the sofa in Cassie’s house or making love. The sex between them had been both emotionally and physically satisfying, off the charts fantastic, but Riley had worried that his experience in that department might have been lacking.
    He had tried hard to be everything Cassie had needed in a man, not that it had been a chore—no, making love to Cassie, hearing her scream his name in the throes of passion as he had made her body climax, had been one of the most satisfying times in Riley’s life. He had read every sex book he’d been able to get his hands on. It had been the most enjoyable study regime he had ever undertaken. Some of the sexual positions and description he’d read about had left him shaking his head, sure that he would never be able to manage them. But he had tried—the rewards worth every effort.
    Riley had adored Cassie’s body, the shape of her breasts that filled his hand to perfection, her lithe sporty figure and toned legs. The way her hips flared out and fitted beneath his own, as if she had been made for him, and the taste of her arousal on his lips, the sweetest nectar in the world. He had always made sure that he’d pleasured her first, using every new technique he had been able to learn, before he took his own.
    Riley had believed it was love, that emotion that drove him to distraction with need to be at her side every minute of the day. Counting down the minutes until they were both through with their daily responsibilities and able to cling to each other again. It was close to obsession what Riley had felt for Cassie, but he had never voiced those emotions to her—afraid that she would rebuff his declaration for that of a foolish eighteen-year-old. Cassie had never spoken of her plans for the future in regards to their relationship, or what she might want for them going forward, so Riley had just taken it day by day. Until that stupid life-changing moment.
    Thinking about that night always brought with it a dose of pain for Riley, as well as anger and frustration, but mostly it reminded him of what he could never have. It was not right to want to own someone, possess them so that no other would even look their way, let alone dare to touch them. That was what Riley had felt that night—he had wanted to hide Cassie away from the world, drag her to some isolated place where she would only have him for company, to love and need.
    And he had wanted to seriously hurt Mike.
    People shouldn’t think that way, and Riley knew he shouldn’t think that way.
    But he had been unable to stop the possessive demon that had taken