@onlydevilsleft {{xx}}
They say familiarity breeds contempt. If that’s true, Beth Dutton knows every single person in the world the way she knows herself, but she’s always been that way. Riley can’t say he blames her. He knows what its like growing up without a mother, though he killed his own in a different way. He knows that the layers of evil she surrounds herself are just a wall so that she can never be hurt again, and so he lets it go. Because he knows what that’s like, too.
The confines are tight and he doesn’t like them any more than she does, though he can honestly say that he hadn’t been expecting to find her in the same closet. It wasn’t that he feared John Dutton, but he didn’t want to explain himself being half-dressed and prowling the halls, slipping from one room to the other. Nor does he want to explain what exactly he was looking for because he likes all his remaining pieces where they are. He lets Beth attack him with the same kind of indulgence Lee might have. It isn’t until she gets to the pertinent parts that he raises an objection that starts with the famous Riley smile, the one that shows off his teeth to full advantage, and they are every bit as sharp, as pointed, as his little sister’s. “First of all, Bethany, while you are a beautiful and capable woman, I would sooner stick my dick in sulfuric acid than so much as show it to you. And even if I didn’t legitimately fear you chewing it off with them lower teeth of yours, I count Rip as one of my friends. “Second, that’s where I came from and she’s gonna start wondering where I went if I don’t get back, so you lecturing me is only delaying that. Though I will point out, I have never wolf-whistled at Cara once. I got me some manners, thank you very much. And as for that last bit?” He leans in and down. Puts his mouth so very close to her ear that she can’t help but hear him. “You can tell her whatever you want, honey, an’ she’ll make up her own mind, without you babying her.” He shifts long enough to brush a brotherly kiss to her temple. When he straightens, he tips his imaginary hat to her. “Ma’am.”