Raven takes a leg, cracking it at the joint before pulling it apart. She cracks the leg twice after that, and meticulously pulls off the shell to expose the meat.
“You’re pretty good at that.”
“I watch a lot of YouTube,” she grins.
Dipping the meat in a lemon and garlic butter sauce, she pops a piece into her mouth. I can tell by the way her face instantly shifts to an expression of ecstasy that she likes it.
“So good,” she chews.
I laugh as we share our food, and slip back in to a comfortable groove with the previous conversation all but abandoned.
For now.
Hopefully what I have planned for later will put her mind at ease, because if it doesn’t I’m not sure how I’m going to handle Raven when the other shoe drops.
“It’s a gorgeous night,” she says, holding my hand as we walk down the beach.
The breeze coming off the ocean plays with her hair, and high above the moon in the clear, South Carolina sky brightens her features, making her absolutely glowing.
Hefting the duffle bag I’ve brought down off my shoulder, I nod to a spot up ahead. “Over there.”
Raven looks at the bag, curiously trying to grab for it, but I’m too quick and pull it away with a scolding chuckle. “All good things to those who wait,” I wink.
“I hate surprises,” she pouts, but I know she’s playing because earlier she said she loved them.
“Here,” I say, releasing her hand and setting down the bag.
Unzipping it, I take out a large comforter and spread it out over the sand. Raven looks on while I bring out two pillows, gasping when that’s quickly followed by two stem glasses and a bottle of 1997 Château Le Pin. I hand her the $1,700 wine to hold before bringing out a cork screw. When I tell her how expensive it is, I notice her fingers clench tighter around the neck to make sure she doesn’t drop the bottle.
“Sit down,” I smile.
“I can’t believe this,” she takes a seat on the comforter and I scrunch next to her, uncorking the bottle and pouring us each a glass.
“Take a whiff,” I say, bringing mine to my nose. She does the same and I ask, “How does it smell?”
She takes a deep breath and smiles. “Like smoky raspberries. Sweet.”
“The lady has a fine nose,” I wink. “Come on, sip with me.”
We each take a sip of wine, and my eyes never leave her face—eager to see her expression. Raven swallows the blend of old and new grapes, savoring the flavor before her eyes roll back in her head as the liquid hits her stomach.
“Oh. My. Gosh,” she giggles. “I think this is the best wine I’ve ever had, which isn’t saying a lot, really, since I’m not much of a wine girl, but you get the idea.”
“Well, stick with me and I’ll make you one. I love good wines.”
Her hand smooths over the comforter before her eyes travel to the big wide ocean spread out before us. She takes another sip of wine, a look of serenity befalling her face.
I gaze upon her beauty, feeling content with how happy she is. Words can’t express how she looks to me right now, sitting up on the beach with the shine of the moon bathing her in soft, warm hues of light. She looks perfect, and I can think of only one thing to make this night better.
“Look up,” I smile.
“What?”
“Look up.”
Raven cranes her neck back and looks up at the stars with me. There isn’t a cloud in the sky, and they twinkle back at us in all their glory until one falls from the sky.
“A shooting star!” she says excitedly.
I wait as she continues to stare towards the heavens. Another one goes blazing across our field of vision, leaving a long tail in its wake.
“Did you see that!” she shouts.
“Yup.”
“But how did you kn—there’s another!”
“There’s going to be a lot more before the night’s through.”
I set down my glass of wine and lay back on the comforter, resting my head on the pillow. Raven manages to tear her eyes away from the sky, and I pat the spot next to me, inviting her to lay down as well. She does, resting her hands on her chest.
“It’s a meteor shower. I thought it would be nice to lay out here and watch it.”
“Oh, Grant,” she coos. “This is beautiful.”
“Just like you,” I nudge her arm.
“You had this planned all along, didn’t you?”
“Honestly? Yes. I mean, I was going to bring you down here to celebrate the McCreedy account, but I think we both know how that turned out. Still, I wanted you to see this. It’s called the Perseid meteor shower, and it happens every year around this time. I thought it would be nice, just the two of us, to lay under the stars.”
Raven takes my hand in hers, and together we lay in silence watching the meteors streak across the sky, our heads resting comfortably on the pillows I brought.
“You forgot one thing,” she tells me.
“What’s that?”
“Straws for the wine, that way I wouldn’t have to sit up.”
I laugh as she props herself up on her elbows to take a sip of her drink. Watching her lips touch the glass, my mind has a flash of those same lips wrapped around my cock yesterday afternoon after we first arrived. Instantly I can feel the blood rushing between my legs, making it hard, but we’re not here for me.
There’s one other thing I want to do before this night is through.
For Raven.
She sets down the glass and as soon as her head hits the pillow I lean over to kiss her. As I taste the wine still lingering on her tongue, my hands begin exploring her body, moving over every curve, every inch of bare skin. She’s hot to my touch, whimpering as our kiss deepens, and when my hand finds the swell of her breast, a soft moan escapes Raven’s throat. A throat I slide my tongue toward, tasting her flesh.
“Grant,” she gasps, my hand moving lower toward the hem of her dress.
“Mmm,” I murmur, taking her earlobe between my lips and sucking it.
She shivers, and asks, “On the beach?”
“Don’t worry. It’s just us.”
“Are you sure?” she squirms.
“Perfectly sure.” I begin lifting her skirt, my hand traveling seductively up the inside of Raven’s thigh.
Our eyes lock and I grin, gazing down upon everything this woman has become to me. A friend, a lover—someone I never expected to be anything more than a brief pain in my ass.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I want to make you come while you watch the sky fall all around us.”
My lips ease their way down her neck to the cleavage laid bare before me, while my hand settles on the soft mound of warmth between her legs. I rub softly, her panties dampening beneath my touch. My breath quickens while I stroke her cleft, applying pressure to her clit until soft cries of pleasure betray her.
“Keep watching the sky, baby.” I slide down the blanket while sliding up Raven’s dress.
Her legs part, and I take hold of the panties that house her treasure. Slipping them down and around her ankles, I lay prone on my stomach, staring in wonder as she’s spread out before me. Breathing in her scent, I glide my index finger between her lips, listening to her gasp at that first touch. Then I slowly—torturously—lick up and down her cleft with the tip of my tongue, causing her to squirm for more.
“Are you watching the sky?” I ask.
“Mmhmm,” she murmurs.
“Good.”
I replace my finger with my entire mouth, lapping at the tender, scorching flesh while her wetness coats my upper lip and chin. Raven shudders beneath my touch, trying to squirm around on the blanket, but I place my hands on her breasts, holding her firm. My tongue furiously works over her pussy, slipping in and out of her opening while my nose tickles her clit. I could eat her out all night and go back for seconds, that’s how good she tastes.
Applying more pressure, I flick my ton
gue hard over her button before suckling it between my lips and giving it a gentle tug. Raven’s thighs tighten around my ears, but I can still hear the soft waves of the ocean trickling up to the shore.
“You taste so fucking good,” I breathe over her before diving back in.
Raven’s fingers find my hair, grasping for it the more intense my motions become. Rolling my hips forward, I press down on the packed sand, trying to alleviate some of the pressure on my cock. I want to yank off my pants and fuck the fuck out of her, but she tastes so good all I really want to do is lick, suck, and finger her to orgasm.
Spreading her open with my thumbs, I swirl around her pink, poking in and out of her until she’s begging for more. Her cries go up to the meteors falling all around us, and I chance a look at the sky to see them all. At its zenith, the Perseids deposits 80 or more meteors an hour. We’re a long ways away from that point, but there’s still a steady stream of them streaking across the slice of black I can see.
“Beautiful,” I purr, meaning both the shower, and her pussy.
Eager to make her come, I slip a finger inside her while rapidly tonguing her clit. She pushes my mouth into her while grinding her hips forward. I gasp for breath taking as much of her as I can until I hear her shallow breaths and feel the tightening of her fingers in my hair.
“Come for me, baby,” I beg. “I want to taste you.”
“Don’t stop,” she pleads. “Don’t stop.”
I don’t. I keep finger fucking Raven’s scrumptious pussy while sucking on her clit. I keep at it until her thighs tremble and her stomach tightens as she arches her back before her release floods my mouth, and her fingers claw at the sand instead of my hair.
“Holy fuck,” she pants. “That was better than this morning.”
I tease her twitching clit with the tip of my tongue before taking a few, final licks of her. Gliding back up the blanket, she eagerly takes me in her mouth, viciously kissing me all over before sucking on my tongue. I love how wild she is at times like this when all her inhibitions break down. Not that Raven is an inhibited girl, but it drives me crazy to see her go crazy, tasting herself on me.
Before I know it, she’s throwing me on my back and unbuckling my pants.
“Raven, I—”
“Shut up, it’s your turn.”
“I didn’t do that for me,” I say as she yanks my trousers around my knees.
“I know, and I’m not doing this for you.”
She takes hold of my cock and mounts me, gliding down slowly over my girth until it’s buried deep inside her.
I don’t struggle.
I don’t protest.
I just lay my head back on the pillow and watch the sky come crashing down as Raven fucks the stars out of me.
- 22 -
Raven
Ringing. Far away. Like a car alarm off in the distance.
My eyes flutter open from sleep. Drowsy.
Movement beside me. Hurried.
I stir, rolling over.
“Hello?” Grant says.
I murmur something and reach for the blankets, dreaming of the sky.
“What?” I hear him say. “How long?”
Pacing on the hardwood floors. Back and forth, back and forth.
His voice penetrates the haze, but I don’t know.
Don’t know who he’s talking to. Don’t know what time it is.
All I know is I’m tired, and want to sleep.
I drift…
drift…
drift…
Clothes being haphazardly thrown into a suitcase. Shuffling into shoes. He sits next to me and kisses my forehead. Strokes my cheek with his fingers.
“I love you,” he says distantly.
I mumble something incoherent to myself. Feel his lips on mine.
I smile.
He whispers, “I’m sorry.”
And when I wake in the morning, he’s gone.
“What do you mean he’s gone?” Tito hands me a cup of coffee.
I feel absolutely wrecked, both mentally and physically. Handing him the note I found on the kitchen bar when I woke up, scrawled in Grant’s penmanship, I say “Gone, gone.”
“Raven, had to run back to the city on business. So sorry. Will call you later. G.”
He reads the note once more and hands it to Frankie, whose lips move when he studies it.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” I say after taking a sip. “We came here to get away from business, and now he’s running back to it?”
“Maybe that McCreedy guy you were telling me about had a change of heart?”
I run my fingers through my disheveled hair. I can’t imagine how I look. When I got up and patted around the beach house only to find Grant missing, I threw on a robe and came right over here. Thankfully the boys were already awake. Guess they didn’t have as long a night as we did.
“No,” I groan. “I don’t think so. He was pretty adamant on the phone about signing with Danziger.” I spew Alan’s name through clenched teeth. Just the thought of him invading what has been—up to this point—a fairly adventurous getaway makes my skin crawl. “And besides, the phone rang at some godawful hour, that much I remember. I don’t think McCreedy would call in the middle of the night.”
“Do you remember anything else?” Frankie asks, setting the curious note down.
I shake my head. “Not really. I was pretty out of it. We stayed up late watching the meteor shower and—well, let’s just say my brains were pretty scrambled.”
“”On the beach,” Tito’s eyebrows wiggle as he tries to lighten the mood.
I’m too worked up for mood lightening, though. I want to know where Grant is.
“I think maybe he said I’m sorry, I don’t know.”
“Sorry for what?”
“Leaving? I don’t know, Tito. This is all so…frustrating.”
I scowl into my cup of coffee as a million different things run through my mind. Why did Grant leave? Who was he talking to? Important questions that have no answers, and coupled with how guarded he is about his past, I can’t help but think the worst. Like maybe an old flame summoned him for some unthinkable reason.
But I can’t think like that, otherwise I’ll drive myself insane. The way he deflected our conversation last night at dinner was bad enough, and I was fine with that, I really was. At the time there was no use poking and prodding and ruining a perfectly good evening over trivial matters, but now all I want to do is poke and prod because something tells me this isn’t a trivial matter.
It’s something serious.
If it wasn’t, why would he cut and run in the middle of the night?
“Have you tried calling him?” Frankie asks. Tito and I both stare at him for a moment. I blink, and he frowns. “Come on, guys. I thought that was obvious.”
Grabbing my cell from the pocket of the comfy bath robe, I bring up Grant’s number and hit the green call button. Pursing my lips to the side, I gaze back at the guys as they look on with keen interest, listening as the ringing in my ears feels like it’s getting more pronounced with each passing second.
Along with my escalating feelings of dread.
“Hey—”
“Grant! Where are—”
“You’ve reached Grant Huffman. Sorry I can’t come to the—”
“Fuck,” I hang up. I don’t have to say anything to Tito and Frankie. Their faces already tell me they know the call went to voicemail. Instead I moan, “What should I do?”
Tito sets his mug down and gives me a hug. I hesitate at first. The idea of any human contact right now isn’t very appealing, but soon I warm up to his embrace, placing my head on his chest and heaving a long, unsure breath.
“It’ll be okay, baby doll. Frankie and I will take you out to breakfast. We’ll get your mind off things for now, okay?”
“Okay,” I pout.
I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable or not, but when your boyfriend high tails it out of Dodge in the middle of the night,
it’s hard not to feel insecure about something like that. Like maybe I did something off-putting. I know in my heart that’s ridiculous—that it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with that phone call—but at a time like this, thoughts you wouldn’t normally get have a way of creeping into your brain.
“Scrambled or fried?” Tito asks.
I pull away, realizing for the first time how hungry I am. Those crab legs last night were good, but not very filling.
“Pancakes,” I muse. “A big stack of blueberry pancakes.”
Tito beams with delight. “Then let’s get dressed.”
Slipping into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, I tie my hair back in a haphazard ponytail while trying not to think the worst. Going into the bathroom to brush my teeth, I stare into the mirror. It not only reflects my face, but it also reflects the trepidation I’m feeling, and I stand there, gazing back at myself for a long while before I start wondering what I’ve gotten involved with.
Who I’ve gotten involved with.
I don’t want to have these thoughts, but they sneak in like a burglar threatening to hijack my brain at gunpoint. Aside from what I’ve seen and felt, I don’t really know Grant at all. I don’t know his track record, his history with women. For all I know he could be a lying, cheating bastard, and that’s what he’s doing right now. Fucking some other woman while I’m standing here, being made the fool and oh, that’s just Raven, she’s a freaky lay but I’m not really in to her like I’m into you, baby.
I shut my eyes tight, holding back the sting of tears that threaten to cloud my vision. That’s already been clouded enough it seems. Tito and Frankie will be waiting; I don’t want to hold them up.
Heading downstairs, I’m just about to put on my sandals when the phone rings. Scrambling into the kitchen, I snatch it off the bar.
My pulse quickens when I see his name on the caller ID.
“Raven,” he says flatly when I answer.
“Grant, where the hell are you? What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry. I had to leave. I can’t explain it all now, but I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Made In America Page 17
