by M. S. Parker
It felt good to have somebody validate my feelings about him, but I didn’t elaborate as we headed out to the sales floor. The morning shift was happy to be relieved, and once we’d traded out, I offered to handle bringing in the new stock from the back of the store.
The first few hours passed easily enough, but that dreaded lull in the afternoon came as expected, and Emery left for her lunch hour right as I was debating whether to take mine or not.
The store manager was in the back, and I was alone in the front when the bell tone signified a customer. The sight of the man filling the doorway caused bile to churn in my stomach. It was the absolute last person I wanted to see.
Don’t panic.
Kane’s voice from the lessons he’d given me rose up to murmur from the back of my mind, and I tucked them deep inside. Don’t panic.
It was harder than I liked because, as he stood there, Chad took a long, slow look around the sales floor, and I couldn’t help but notice the way he smiled when he saw it was just him and me.
Think that’s going to be your advantage, dickhead?
I couldn’t help the spurt of anger that rose inside me. The asshole had come back here, looking for me. I knew he had. To harass? To hurt? How far was he willing to go? How far was I?
As he took a step in my direction, I edged away, careful to keep something in between us the entire time.
When you can, you want to keep him from getting close. That’s always the best tactic. Got it?
Like we were back together in his garage, Kane’s voice guided me.
“Raye…” Chad smiled at me, his lips peeling back from his teeth in a broad, easy grin.
“Did you need something, Chad?” I asked, keeping my voice calm and level.
He hitched up a shoulder. I noticed that at some point in the past two years all that muscle had started to go a little soft. He was still big and solid, but there was a layer of fat that hadn’t been there before.
“We just never had much of a chance to finish talking.” He edged closer, eying me over the table I kept between us. “I thought maybe I’d drop by again. See if you wanted to go out…grab a bite to eat.” His lashes drooped low, and he added, “We could catch up on old times.”
“There’s nothing I want to catch up on, thanks.” I held his eyes levelly, surprised I had the guts to do it.
A grin spread across his face, and I could see the laughter in his eyes.
Laughter…and knowledge.
He knew what he was doing to me.
The piece of shit.
“Aw, come on, Raye.” He moved a little faster and tried to come around the table to corner me.
I dodged in the other direction, feeling a little foolish at the Ring Around the Rosie game we were playing, but I wasn’t letting him get close to me either.
“What’s the matter, Raye?” He gave me the same wide, charming grin he’d flashed a hundred co-eds. “You look a little spooked. You got ants in your pants or something? Stop dancing around and talk to me.”
“I don’t want to talk to you. If you’re not going to buy something, maybe you should just leave.”
His mouth tightened then, and he moved toward me once more, quicker this time. My high heel caught on the display, causing me to slip a little. That tiny hesitation was just enough for him to pounce, and he caught me up against the table.
Instinct took over, and I reacted, striking up with my hand the way Kane had told me to.
Of course, he hadn’t told me it would hurt.
I jabbed Chad straight in the neck, and he stumbled back, his face red as he choked for air. The red slowly turned to rage, though, and he swiped out with a hand.
I wasn’t where I had been, and he came up empty.
When he swung out again, he swung wild, and I stepped outside his reach, slapping both my hands against his arm before shoving him off balance. “I’m not the easy target I used to be, Chad. Leave me the hell alone.”
He spun around to face me, his eyes huge and furious.
But when he took a step toward me, I jutted my chin up. “Leave me alone,” I warned him. “Come near me again, and I’ll call the cops.”
He sneered at me. “Yeah, like that worked out for you so well last time.”
“I’m not some scared little freshman, desperate for people to like her anymore,” I said, curling my lip at him. “And this isn’t your town. If I call the cops, people are going to listen to me.”
He scoffed and opened his mouth to speak, but I didn’t give him the chance.
“And what’s more…if you keep fucking with me, I’m going to go online and ruin you.” I took a step closer to him and glared at him in challenge. “What do you think your boss and clients will think when you’re accused of being a rapist, Chad?”
“You little cunt…” He lifted a hand, his face florid with rage.
Fear bloomed inside me, but I didn’t take back what I said. “What’s the matter? You scared?” I challenged.
The creaking of the door was the only indicator that something had changed.
I heard it.
Chad didn’t.
He advanced on me, and I stood my ground. I had a witness. If he touched me, I was taking him down.
But before his hands came down on my shoulders, my manager said, “Raye, is there a problem here?”
The sound of her voice had never been so welcome, yet at the same time, I was disappointed that she stopped him before a physical threat had been witnessed. Turning my head, I looked at Pauline and met her gaze. “No, ma’am. Everything’s fine. This gentleman was just leaving.”
The look Chad gave me on his way out the door was a familiar one. I’d seen it a dozen times – no, more – during my freshman year in college. I’m not done with you, that look said.
I managed to suppress a shudder as I turned to focus on my manager. Pauline gave me a concerned look, her dark eyes softening as she studied me. “Raye, is everything alright?”
“I’ll be fine,” I told her.
I just hoped I wasn’t lying.
Thirty-Five
Kane
Let me decide…
Her words kept circling around in my head, and I wished I would have thought to ask her what she needed to decide on.
I mean, I knew what I thought she’d meant, but I wanted to be certain.
I still thought she deserved somebody better to take care of her, but she knew I wanted her. No. I more than wanted her, I wanted to be that guy.
And if she wanted me like I wanted her, there was no chance in hell of me walking away from her. From us.
But I needed to be sure that was what she’d meant.
How you going to be sure of that, genius?
There was only one way, logically, and that was for us to have one of those relationship talks.
The idea scared the shit out of me and for good reason. I’d never been in a relationship, so the idea of a relationship talk was new to me. New and unfathomable.
I was approaching a lot of unfathomable territory with her, though.
Like…do I go and see her today?
Should I give her space?
I had no idea what the right thing to do was, or if there was a right thing.
What I did know was that I couldn’t quit thinking about her and I most definitely did want to see her, so when the time came for me to close up shop, I did so in double time, moving through the routine quicker than normal so I could get the hell out of there.
Once I was done, I headed uptown, eager to see her. I hoped she was still at work because I had no idea where she lived.
That was another thing I hoped to change.
I wanted to know where she lived, what she did when she wasn’t working and what sort of things she liked, what she hated.
I also found myself brooding about what she’d told me.
It made sense.
As much as I’d hated to hear her story, none of it had surprised me. I’d known there was something at the c
ore of the fear I’d often seen in her, but to hear the whole thing…
The urge to protect her, to keep anything else in life from hurting her again was almost overwhelming.
Maybe I’d ask her if we could go out to dinner and we could have that…talk.
If not, I’d ask if I could at least see her home. I didn’t like to think about her going home alone late at night. Not by herself. She’d already been through enough, and nobody knew better than me what kind of low-lives loitered in the New York City streets.
I’d been one of them and I sure as hell hadn’t been the worst.
As the subway came to a stop, I gripped the pole a little tighter and tried to pretend I wasn’t nervous about seeing her. Getting nervous about a girl, brooding about a girl. Things that were so unfamiliar to me, I couldn’t even process them.
The doors to the train car slid open, and I moved with the flow, exiting out and heading up the stairs into the chilly night air. It was a block to get to Raye’s work from where I was, and I shoved my hands into my coat pockets, walking fast.
Outside the store, I paused, staring inside for a brief moment as I took everything in.
It was the kind of store I didn’t normally frequent and not just because all it sold was women’s underwear.
It had classy all but written across the plate glass window.
Classy. One thing I was not.
I could see my reflection in that window, just barely, but I didn’t need the reminder to know what I looked like. At least I’d changed clothes and wasn’t covered in car grease, although I doubted it would make much of a difference to the ladies inside the shop. I could see one of them now, dressed in sleek black, her hair pulled away from her face, moving around the pretty store as she did whatever it was shop clerks did when they weren’t waiting on people.
I had no doubt none of them would want to wait on me.
This might have been a mistake, I realized.
Don’t be a chickenshit, I told myself. Go on inside.
In the end, my desire to see Raye won out, and I pulled the door open, slipping inside and hoping that maybe I could go unnoticed by the staff.
Fat chance of that.
It wasn’t busy in the store, just a few customers here and there, and the moment I pulled on the door, a bell-like tone sounded in the air.
A woman’s voice called out, almost songlike, “Good evening, sir! We’ll be with you momentarily!”
I fought the urge to hunch my shoulders and retreat inside the heavy work coat I’d pulled on against the chill of the day.
I tried to get lost among the racks of silk and lace, but a guy as big as me, a guy as rough looking as me tended to stand out when surrounded by pretty pastels and rich red silk. Finally, I stopped trying and ended up standing by a table with a display of silvery blue lingerie. I found myself thinking how Raye would look in some of the pieces on the table and was about to check the price when I sensed a pair of eyes on me.
Glancing up, I saw one of the store clerks watching me with a disdainful look scrawled across her expression.
Blood rushed to my face. The look was a reminder that I was out of place here.
Screw the bitch, I told myself.
Part of me wanted to leave, but the other part was determined to find Raye.
Would she be embarrassed to find me here?
That idea pissed me off, and I snatched the pair of panties off the table to distract myself. The price tag on them sure as hell proved to be a distraction. That much for a scrap of silk?
What the hell?
“Sir. Can I help you?”
Please don’t be the snooty bitch, I thought.
I looked up and found a woman who was beyond pregnant standing in front of me. She gave me a polite smile, then glanced at the panties I was clutching in my hand.
I must have looked like an idiot.
“I…um…”
She waited patiently, like guys came in here and stuttered in front of her all the time.
A door opened, and a familiar voice called out, saving me. “I’ll see you later…” There was a little gasp. “Kane?”
“Raye,” I said, tearing my gaze away from the sales clerk.
Raye was already halfway across the store to me by the time I’d made my way around two of the delicate looking tables, and we met in the middle, me catching her up in a hug.
Somebody whistled.
I pulled back, not letting myself kiss her because that probably wasn’t the thing to do in the middle of her place of employment. I wanted to, though, and the sight of her eyes shining up at me made the impulse that much stronger.
“I was going to see if I could take you out to dinner.”
She rose up on her toes and tugged my head down to meet hers.
Well, okay. If she was going to kiss me while she was here at work, who was I to argue with her?
We ended up at a chain restaurant on the square, one I’d only eaten at once or twice. Raye had commented that she loved the food there and that was all it had taken.
She’d grinned at me when I took her hand and pulled her inside, but now that we were sitting down at a table, she looked…pale. Strained, really.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“I’m just stressed about school.” She hitched up a shoulder. “I’ve got a heavy class load this semester, and between that and work, I’ve probably taken on more than I can handle.”
“Should we have skipped coming here?” I asked.
“No!” She shot me a smile. It was faint, but real. “I need some food. I never eat much more than a salad or canned soup when I’m working, and I’m starving. Besides, I love eating here. I can’t do it too often because I’m always strapped for cash, but I love this place.”
Her answer made me relax a little, and when the server appeared, she ordered a cocktail while I stuck with beer.
After we’d finished studying the menus, we placed our orders, and once more, an odd, strained sort of silence fell.
“You sure everything is okay?” I asked again when I noticed she was folding the napkin up into a small triangle.
She gave me a wan smile. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look stressed out. If me showing up at your work was a problem–”
“No!” She shook her head. “It wasn’t that.”
“So, there is something.”
Raye bit her lip, then slowly nodded. “Yes. There was something.” She huffed out a breath, and I realized how tense she was, as if one wrong move might make her shatter.
“Want to talk about it?” I prodded.
She slumped back against the seat and closed her eyes. When she finally opened them, the expression I saw there filled me with conflicting urges – I wanted to hug her up close to me. I wanted to pummel something.
She looked scared and upset.
Leaning forward, I took her hand. “What’s wrong, Raye?”
She looked uncertain for a moment, then a heavy sigh escaped her, and she started to talk.
The bastard who’d hurt her was named Chad.
Apparently, he’d shown up at her work that day and had gotten in her face. Plus, it wasn’t the only time he’d been around. It was the first time he’d gotten confrontational, though.
As she told me about how she’d handled it, I wanted to hug her tight. One, because she’d handled the piece of shit like a pro. But for another reason, she shouldn’t have had to handle the asshole.
“Want me to dig him up and tear him apart?” I offered once she finished talking. “The two of us can…have a chat. He won’t ever touch you again by the time our conversation is finished.”
Raye laughed, the sound light, almost easy. “No. I’m good.” She turned her hand over in mind and squeezed my fingers. “Thank you. Talking about it helped.”
Me beating the piece of shit up so he never bothered her again would help more.
It was an idea that held way too much appeal for me.
&nbs
p; “Stop,” Raye said, her voice gentle but firm.
Flicking my eyes at her, I cocked my head.
She gave me a knowing look, her hand tightening on mine. “I know what that look on your face means. But I don’t need you to tear him apart for me. I just…hell. I want to just forget about it.”
“I can help you with that.” I lifted her hand to my lips.
Heat softened her dark blue eyes.
“I like the sound of that.”
“I like the sound of that,” Raye said, her voice breathy as I kissed my way down her torso, straight on a path down.
I’d just told her I had a goal in mind to kiss every last inch of her.
It was just one of the fantasies I had involving her.
She keened out my name as I thrust my tongue into her cunt, loving the way she rocked up, both her knees and her hands coming up to urge me on. Her knees squeezed at the sides of my head, her heels digging into my back while her fingers tangled and twisted in my hair, pulling me closer. Not that I could get much closer.
I had my mouth sealed to the heart of her, and I didn’t ever want to stop.
My cock pulsed, and I amended that. Eventually, my dick would get its way and be seated inside her, but for now, I was happy to just eat her sweet pussy and listen to her moan.
Moans that turned more frantic and urgent as I lingered here, tugged there, sucked and nuzzled. She became demanding, something that hadn’t happened before, and the sound of her begging me, “Right there…just…there, Kane…don’t you dare stop…” was about the hottest damn thing I’d ever heard.
She came hard and fast, but even as the climax worked through her, she didn’t let go of my hair, demanding I give her more.
I climbed my way up her body and slanted my mouth over hers, feeding her the taste I’d stolen from her.
“Open for me,” I muttered against her lips, using my knee to spread her legs wider.
She wrapped them around me, and I felt the hot, wet kiss of her pussy. Without thinking, I arched my hips and pushed inside her.
