Play With Fire

Is there anything stronger than hate? It certainly isn't love, but Riley soon discovers that it may be lust, and is hell bent on teaching the young klansman sheriff a lesson in race relations but this kkk member might be too much for even Riley to handle.

Chapter One:

When they offered her a scholarship Riley simply couldn't say no. It was a small school, world renowned for their rowing program, and for the ability to pump out Olympians and world champions, which was strange for a little school in the middle of the south. But it didn't matter all Riley cared about was not having to pay for school and having her own little off campus apartment, that the university had offered to pay for. Her first experience at university had been great, in fist year she had partied with the best of them and gotten okay marks, but once she began to take rowing seriously for the first time in nine years, it was clear that she needed to go somewhere with a better program, her coach had suggested it.

So here she was. The train was stopped and she was getting out with one huge hockey bag , a back pack on her back and another rolling trunk. She has slept for most of the way and was surprised to see that the train station was exactly as she had imagined, exactly like all the others. It was terribly dusty and looked like it hadn't rained in days there were people sitting on benches who looked like they were waiting for others. An old man slept on the bench, dressed in navy blue suit. She didn't notice at first that the groups gathered were primarily white, and a little girl in the corner was throwing her dirty looks until the girl's plump mother snatched her hand and pulled her along with the rest of the family. The woman threw a look back at Riley and snarled something at her self, beginning with an N and ending with two syllables she never wanted to hear in her life.

The casualness of the woman struck Riley, who was obviously confused and simply stood there on the platform not really knowing what else to do. Perhaps she had heard the wrong thing? No one used those kinds of words anymore, it wasn't politically correct, especially to use it in such an ordinary way on someone you didn't know.

"Excuse me? Miss Hudson?" she heard someone's voice call from behind her she whipped around to see a tall blonde man with a distinctively Australian accent standing in front of her.

"Hello." She spoke unsure of herself, he mind still elsewhere.

"I'm Nate Wessgrove, assistant coach." He told her offering her his hand, she shook it , thinking that perhaps his display of cordiality meant that the woman had just misspoke. "Do you want me to hold something?" he asked her and she nodded, he took the large hockey bag and slung it over his shoulder, an odd occurrence for a man dressed in a grey suit and white shirt.

"So I hear you're the next best prospect." Nate began as they walked towards the gravel parking lot. Riley smiled and nodded.

"that's what they keep telling me." She told him. "so you just coach?" she asked as he seemed far to young to be a coach, he looked at her and smiled weakly.

"Yeah bad surfing accident back home a couple of years ago, so they offered me this coaching position, which means I get to finish my masters and help groom you young champions" Riley shrugged.

"I duno about champion makes me sound like some kind of an award winning horse." She was clearly still out of it, and couldn't form proper sentences, she couldn't get over that woman, the small child's glare, the way she snatched her hand away. The group of them no one said anything to her. They just walked away, she had said it, she had said the n-word. But maybe it was just a slip of tongue a verbal typo.

"Hudson!" Nate called and she realized that she had stopped and was standing with him beside a shiny green pick up truck that had the University of Creston's logo, a large tree with far reaching roots, emblazoned on the side of it. She looked down into the trunk to see that her hockey bag had already been thrown in, she pushed her trunk in as well and carried her knapsack with her to the other side of the pick up and got in.

Nate started the truck and they sped off through the gravel parking lot, she could feel him starring at her, his eyes barely leaving her face. But she didn't turn to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was getting to her. "Is there something wrong Hudson?" he asked curiously, she raised an eyebrow and turned her head away from the window to look at him.

"actually yeah," she began. "I don't know really, if its even valid. But I think some woman at the train station called me a nigger…" she felt awkward saying that to a white man, and Nate who looked away seemingly ashamed, didn't really help the situation. He sighed gently his eyes now continuously on the road as she looked at him.

"You really didn't know?" he asked, she was still confused , didn't know what? He sighed again since she wasn't answering and he could feel her questioning gaze without having to look at her. "I cant believe they didn't tell you." He continued slamming his hand down on the steering wheel. "Listen Riley, Creston is a great university, the best for rowing. But the town, well its a breeding ground for the Klan, the neo-Nazis and the skinheads, its where they first attempted to call a truce and band together." Riley's mouth was open, she sat there starring at him she felt like she had been hit by a ton of bricks. "I mean the school is fine, white supremacists aren't really the most educated group of people. But off campus, is a whole different world, its like being back in the sixties. Just really. Watch your back." She shook her head.

"What do you mean, I don't understand how, why…" he bit his lip.

"I mean crosses burning, white sheets on parade, don't go out at night alone, some students don't return. Don't call 911 because they're in on it too." She shook her head again.

"No, no that's not possible, how can the police be in on it?" and at that very moment they heard the sirens wailing as a taupe colored county sheriffs vehicle pulled up behind them causing Nate to pull over on the barren stretch of road.

He threw her a scared look, it seemed like a warning.

"don't say anything." He whispered, and she felt like she had just entered into a horror movie.

A man in a sheriff's uniform walked up to the window and tapped on the glass with his stick. Nate rolled down the window, he was wearing a large brimmed hat and a khaki uniform, his eyes were hidden behind a pair of aviators that only reflected the image of her face and Nate's.

"Hello there sheriff." Nate spoke calmly, the man smiled he seemed to be chewing on something.

"Now now there Nate I'm only a deputy," the man spoke. Still chewing the gum, he had a strong and chiseled jaw line that Riley couldn't help but notices as she starred at him wondering what was behind his reflective glasses. He could see her starring up at him and turned his attention to her starring her down from behind his glasses, she couldn't see him but she could feel it, shivers ran up and down her spine but it was something more than fear. "Who do you have with you today Nathan?" the man asked.

Nate turned to Riley as if it was nothing , but he too noticed her intense gaze focused on the sheriff. "Oh, just a new student, an amazing rower, you should come down to see the practice sometime. They really are amazing especially the eights, such team work." Nate rambled on realizing it was doing more harm than good.

"new student? Hmm." She watched as the sheriff turned his head to look at the contents of the trunk. "Those your bags then, girl?" it stung that he called her girl, it didn't quite seem appropriate or correct, she hadn't been called a girl since she was twelve.

"Ah no, those would be mine." Nate piped up, the sheriff smilled condesendently.

"Nate, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, and would you please step out of the car." He directed the second part of the comment to Riley, who threw Nate a nervous glance, he seemed clearly distraught and completely powerless.

"Just do what he says." Nate instructed quietly turning the car off.

Riley got out of the truck and was surprised to see the sheriff standing there on her side of the car, his aviators now resting on his chest where his shirt opened to reveal a sliver of his tanned chest.

She caught her self starring into his steely blue grey eyes, the complete and utter coldness of them seemed to burn her insides as she walked towards him. Her eyes never leaving his, and his never leaving her's. she stopped about a foot in front of him. Afraid of what going closer could do, she could already feel the tension building.

"come to the back and stand with your hands on the trunk." He told her backing off a bit allowing her to pass. She did what he said, she was completely scared she had never been stopped by a police man in her life. "Legs apart" he ordered in a gruff voice, and at that moment she realized what was happening, but she spread her legs anyways and stood against the trunk.

She squeezed her eyes shut, and felt his hands work their way up her arms gently patting her . he touched her shoulders and she trembled gently as he worked his way down her torso. She was surprised that he wasn't hurting her, shocked even and she let her eyes stay closed on their own. She heard the door of the truck open,

"Please get back in the truck Nate" The sheriff commanded, his hands smoothing over her hips. An inaudible sound escaped her lips as his hands slid back up her torso a bit, under her cotton shirt. The feeling of his skin on hers made her gasp slightly as she kept her eyes closed and bit her lip not wanting to make any more sounds that would offer him the satisfaction she knew he wanted to hear. She felt guilty for enjoying it as his hands moved over her stomach. But she couldn't help the way her body reacted to him and she knew that it had never reacted in that way to anyone else before, and probably never would. He worked his way down her legs, and back up again until he was once again at level with her.

"you be careful now miss." He breathed in a husky voice into her hear, his lips so close she could practically feel them, he was standing close enough that she feel a bit of his weight pushing onto her body. He stepped back and left her standing there gripping onto the edge of the trunk still unable to collect herself from their encounter.

"is that all then sheriff?" she heard Nate ask in a loud voice as he slammed the truck's door shut, it caused Riley to open her eyes and to also step back from the truck.

"Well she doesn't have any weapons or drugs on her, but I'm going to have to check her bags." Riley turned around to look at him questioningly, but he had already but his aviators back on so all she saw was her own reflection starring at him, seemingly hurt. She didn't understand how he could have touched her like that, and made her feel how she had, but still think of her as a threat. It just did not make sense.

"Is that really necessary Sheriff ? I think we both know she's not carrying anything illegal." The sheriff laughed coldly and opened the back of the truck, and motioned to his car. Another man got out, one she hadn't noticed, he wasn't wearing the wide brimmed hat that the sheriff was but had on almost the same uniform.

"I think that you and I both know it's absolutely necessary, after all we don't want her kind bringing in anything into our respectful little enclave of god's green earth." Riley's eyes widened, and for the second time she felt like she had gotten hit.

"My people?!" she asked loudly as the other officer unzipped her hockey bag and began rifling through it tossing the contents into the trunk her clothing was all over. The sheriff turned to her. "My people?" she repeated at him, he seemed to be unmoved, Nate pulled gently on her arm.

"Don't fight back, he wants you to." Nate spoke quietly and she still seemed to be enraged but appeared to be more visibly calm. They went through her trunk next, and when finding nothing left it all there.

"Well then, you don't seem to have anything illegal with you, you're free to go." The sheriff told them striding back to his SUV, the other officer followed behind him. They got into the car and drove off into the distance as if nothing had happened. Riley still shell shocked looked up to Nate for some explination, but she could tell he had none.

"Peyton's going to be the next sheriff, he isn't yet but everyone calls him sheriff, and he's better than the last one, he would have hauled you off to jail and strip searched you for talking back to him." She shook her head

"How can they do that? Its illegal." She told him.

"Not here," he responded as she stuffed her clothes back into her bag, "the sheriff's office has always been run by klansmen, but theyre trying to appear to be less… racist, so they got a good looking neo-nazi kkk member to do their bidding, he's just the façade they're the one's pulling the strings."

Riley shook her head again absolutely speechless.

"I don't believe it." She breathed, Nate nodded.

"Looks like you've stepped into the hot plate." He told her in his Australian accent. She looked up at him confused.

"I think you mean 'stepped into the fire'" he squinted a bit as if to show he was thinking, and then nodded.

"Into the fire." He repeated.

A/n: wow I couldn't stop writing. So this is only a draft I hope I can write another chaper soon because even though it took me the better part of a day it was amazingly fun to write, the dialogue needs some work as I feel that Riley didn't talk so much and the tension between her and the sheriff (Peyton) needs to be more clear

But other than that! I hope you enjoy

And my apologizes for using the N-word but it had to be done in this situation and will probably be used again considering the fact that this whole story basically deals with extreme supremacists groups.

Please read and review!

And again thanks for reviewing on Doc Martens, My love. Sorry for not continuing it and I hope you like this one instead