by M. Malone
Or maybe he’s meeting someone… a female someone.
Diana scowled. Theoretically, she shouldn’t even care. She didn’t want him. Uh-huh. It wasn’t like he was her boyfriend. And she wasn’t stupid enough to think a man who looked like Rafe was a monk. Yesterday there’d been a certain closeness between them. But it wasn’t like he’d made a move. He might be off to see someone. She needed to be careful of that before she started to believe the madness.
She checked the app on her phone and cursed. He was moving a lot more quickly than she was. She’d need some assistance if she wanted to keep up. Also, he had the advantage of knowing where they were going and she didn’t, which was now glaringly obvious.
“Oh no. Wait!” She held up her hand to signal a man who was getting out of a cab right behind her.
“You need this one?” The man smiled at her in a vaguely flirty way, but Diana ignored him, pushing past and catapulting into the back seat of the cab.
“Please hurry and make the next left.”
“You in some kind of trouble, lady?” The cabbie glanced at her in the rearview mirror, but at least they were moving.
“Not exactly. I’m following my boyfriend. I think he’s cheating on me.” It was the only thing she could think of, but apparently it wasn’t interesting enough for the cabbie to care because he just shrugged and stepped on the gas.
She was able to direct him to the corner where the GPS showed Rafe.
Her cabbie signaled and stopped at the corner up ahead. Diana gave him a twenty-dollar bill and hustled out of the car.
“Thanks!” She glanced around but couldn’t see him. What the hell? According to GPS, he should be right— Oh, there he was, ducking down an alley.
She scrambled after him, nearly getting run over in the process. She inched closer to the alley entrance. Then she heard clanging trash bins.
“Fuck off me, man!”
The shout rang down the alley, and Diana instinctively shrank back against the wall. What was that?
There was a stick on the ground near her feet, and she hurriedly picked it up. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. What the hell had she gotten herself into? Belatedly, she realized just how dumb this plan was. She should have at least brought a weapon.
Why yes, let’s follow Rafe into an unfamiliar part of the city and then down an alley. Smart girl.
But then there was another shout, one that sounded kind of familiar. Was that Rafe? Diana clutched the wooden stick harder. That sounded like him. By now the low timbre of his voice was something she was getting used to. Her instincts told her to run, but instead she held her ground.
Inching forward toward the sounds of scuffling, she paused right before the corner. She peered around the edge, keeping low to the ground, hoping she wouldn’t be seen.
Rafe was on the ground, grappling with some guy. She couldn’t even see what he looked like because every time she thought she’d catch a glimpse of his face, he’d move or throw another punch. Diana held a hand over her mouth, not wanting to make a sound and possibly distract him.
Although it didn’t look like he needed any help.
Holy hell, the man could move. Diana winced and shrank back again as Rafe and the other man grappled and rolled until they were finally both on their feet. It was like watching a fiercely choreographed dance with kicks and punches flying. The only difference being that someone could end up dead.
The thought was sobering. Because not only could Rafe end up dead, but she could too. How did she know the other man didn’t have some friends around who might come along and find her? This was truly not one of her best ideas. She was backing up, thinking she could run back to the main road, when her foot hit a bottle. It went skittering into the alley, the sound ricocheting off the concrete and brick.
Both men glanced over at her. The other guy smirked before turning back around, obviously not judging her as much of a threat.
Rafe, on the other hand, looked gobsmacked. His mouth fell open. “Diana? What the hell are you doing?”
While he was distracted, the other man drew a knife. In that moment, Diana could have sworn her heart stopped. In slow motion, she watched the gleam of sunlight on silver as the long blade was exposed. And she reacted without even thinking.
“No!” She sprang forward and raised the wooden stick in her hands over her head.
The guy heard her, but it was too late for him to react. She brought the stick down with all the strength she had, clubbing him over the head. He swayed, and Rafe rushed forward and put him in a headlock of some sort. The seconds ticked by, and the guy slowly slumped, landing in a crumpled pile.
Rafe stepped over the body and grabbed her arm. “Come on. We have to get out of here.” He wasn’t giving her much choice, so even though Diana was still in shock, her feet had to move to keep up with him, otherwise she would have been dragged. Finally she managed to find her voice.
“Who was that?”
Rafe didn’t even look at her. “That doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t matter? I just killed a guy. Oh my God, I think I just killed somebody.”
“I promise all you did was stun him.” They’d gotten back to Grand Street, and Rafe held up his hand to hail a cab. One stopped immediately. He fixed her with an intense look. “Don’t say anything until we’re back at home. Got it?”
She nodded numbly as they climbed into the cab.
He had his phone out in a second and made a call. “You tracking him?”
She couldn’t hear the other end of the line, and it was killing her.
“There was a complication, but the muscle he hired is incapacitated.” More talking she couldn’t hear. He added, “Not what you think. I need to take Diana home, then I’ll come in for debrief.” Again silence, before he slid his gaze over her. “Not sure yet, but I’m going to find out.”
His dark gaze stripped her bare in the back of the cab. There was a part of her that wished he could see through her. Then he could unmask all the lies and just see her.
Once they arrived outside Rafe’s place, he handed over money for the taxi and then tugged her arm. They didn’t speak on the elevator ride up either. But as soon as they crossed the threshold, she jumped on the offensive. Better to strike first, right?
“What the hell was that?”
Rafe sighed and leaned on the mantel. “Oskar needed me.”
“Oskar? The guy who works for your brother-in-law? Viking-looking dude who flirted with me?”
“Yes, him.” He paused for a second and then scowled. “You think he looks like a Viking?”
Diana rolled her eyes. “That’s what you’re focusing on?”
“He’s my partner. Sometimes. Someone we need to get off the street finally showed his face. He took off running and Oskar went after him. I stayed to deal with his muscle.” His gaze narrowed a hair. “And then you showed up. I would love to hear the story of how that happened.”
Rafe DeMarco was a hard son of a bitch to read. He looked calm. Composed even. There was no tension around his lips. Even his voice was low and soothing.
But her instincts told her she needed to play this as close to the truth as she dared. Her life might depend on it.
She held up her bag. “I was shopping. They didn’t have my size at the store on Second Place, so I grabbed a cab and went to the one on West Thames.” It was a calculated risk. Bootsman Shoes was on practically every other block. “I was coming out when I saw you turn into that alley. Well, at least I thought it was you. I wasn’t sure until I saw you fighting with that guy.” She didn’t have to fake the trembling in her hands. Adrenaline and fear still coursed through her. “I mean, he had a knife. And I—” Her brain replayed every action she’d taken. The concern that she’d hurt the guy was real. The fear. It was the first time since she’d started this whole thing that she was terrified she was making a mistake. She was playing in a sandbox with actual killers.
“What in the world possessed you to follow me
down an alley? Didn’t you realize you could have been hurt?”
“Well, excuse me for saving your ass. Next time I’ll let the random thug slice you into sashimi!” He was mad at her for helping him? Asshole. “And what about you? You think traipsing down dark alleys after people who want to hurt you is a good idea?”
“It would have been fine. That was nothing but a workout.”
She blinked. “A workout? He had a knife! Seriously, what is wrong with you? Where would you have been if I hadn’t come after you?”
He opened his mouth, then snapped it shut and hung his head. A low chuckle escaped and his shoulder shook. “I’m trying to decide if you’re reckless or just insane. So far, I’m leaning toward the latter. How this works is while you’re here, I take care of you, not the other way around.”
She crossed her arms. “Funny. That still doesn’t sound like thank you.”
Rafe barked a laugh, then scrubbed a hand over his face. “Shit. I’m sorry. And thank you.” He reached for her hand. After a pause, Diana accepted it. “There are things in my past that I never talk about. It’s as much for your safety as it is for mine. But I need you to just trust that I’m more than qualified to handle an asshole with a knife.”
Normally that would have sounded like a line to Diana, but she knew coming from him, it was the complete truth. She squeezed his hand back. “Okay. But I just need you to acknowledge one thing.”
“What’s that, Diana?”
She secretly thrilled at the way his voice lowered to a near growl when he said her name. Because her vagina would swear she had skin in the game.
“I just need you to acknowledge that I totally saved your life back there.”
After a beat, Rafe let out a roar of laughter.
Diana stared. A completely unguarded, laughing Rafe was vajayjay kryptonite. Wow. Something pulled deep and low in her abdomen just as her nipples tightened to pebbles.
At her gasp, he sobered quickly. The air changed around them, and Diana shivered. She knew what was coming before he even moved, but there was no bracing for it. He gently tugged her against him, giving her every chance to pull back, but no matter the commands her brain gave, her body refused to comply. Sorry, brain can’t come to the phone right now. She’s been body snatched by the libido.
Rafe slid his arms around her, bringing her body against his. His lips were gentle but demanding. A spike of electricity flared between them, scorching her lips when his tongue dipped in. With a low groan, he shifted their angle, kissing her deeper and ripping a moan from her as her whole body started to melt.
She didn’t have the defenses to fight off those long-dormant feelings. Somewhere in the far recesses of her mind, alarm bells rang, starting as a low buzz but quickly intensifying to a sharp clang.
He dragged his lips from hers and stared at her. His muttered curse echoed her own feelings. “We’re going to pick this conversation back up. But right now I need to call this incident in to the office.”
Diana wished she had something pithy to say, but at the moment her brain was still struggling to rev up and her libido was about ready to cut somebody.
chapter seven
Rafe wasn’t sure how to dispel the awkwardness that lay between them now, so he went with the old standby. Ignore it.
“I’m just going to make that call and take a shower. You can order some food. If you want, I mean. You’ll find a bunch of takeout menus by the phone.”
Diana didn’t seem any more eager to look him in the eye. “Right. I’ll figure it out.”
She spun on her heel and went into the kitchen while Rafe continued down the hall to his room. What the hell was wrong with him? You’d think he’d never kissed a woman before. Memories of her lips, warm and firm against his, sent another shot of adrenaline through his veins. He’d never had a woman respond to him the way Diana did. So open and completely uninhibited. His response had been just as incendiary.
After a quick status update with Oskar, Rafe hurried through a shower, inspecting his skin while the water pounded on his back. There was a shallow cut on his inner arm. He hadn’t escaped the knife completely it seemed. Considering how shocked he’d been to see Diana standing in that alley, he was lucky he hadn’t taken a knife to the heart.
There was something about the woman that got under his skin. An image of her, soft and needy after the kiss, grabbed him by the dick. Jesus. He was harder at just the thought of her than he’d been for any woman he’d had under him. She distracted him. That made him sloppy.
A dangerous thing.
Not to mention the fact that her story about seeing him while out shopping didn’t quite add up.
Scowling, he cranked the water all the way to cold. The shock to his system wasn’t nearly enough to eradicate all thoughts of her, but it made his erection go down. Slightly.
He toweled off and then walked into his room to find clothes. While he stood in the doorway to the closet, his mind went over the events of the afternoon again and again. She’d shown up in the alley at the worst possible moment, a point in her favor to telling the truth. If she’d been following him all along, he would have noticed. Not to mention she would have had time to find a good hiding place. Add to that the shock on her face at watching him fight. No one could fake that expression. Diana had been terrified.
But despite things having a rational explanation, something about the situation still didn’t sit right with him. With a growl of frustration, he yanked on sweatpants and a T-shirt before leaving his room.
The only way he’d get any real answers was to talk to Diana. Carefully.
Diana stood with her back to him in the kitchen, taking something out of the oven.
“You cooked for me?”
“I can’t take credit for it. I found the lasagna in the freezer. But I figured this would be faster than ordering out.” Diana rocked on her heels as she spoke.
For the first time in a good long while, Rafe had no idea what to do or say. And for someone who was so used to having all the answers, it was unnerving as hell. Diana had cooked for him. How could something so simple twist him up? Because you like it. He shoved the thought aside and glanced up at her. She gave him a sheepish smile.
Rafe’s gaze drifted back to the lasagna in front of him. His stomach grumbled and his mouth watered. It smelled fucking incredible. She’d made a large salad to go with it and laid out place settings at his small dinette table with napkins neatly folded under the silverware. A small candle burned in the center of the table.
He hadn’t even realized he owned a candle.
Rafe approached the table cautiously, the way you might approach a bomb. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”
She shrugged and gave him another one of her timid smiles. “It’s no trouble. Go, sit down. I’ll pour you a glass of wine.”
Again, Rafe shifted on his feet, unsure of what to do. Other than Nonna, and occasionally his sister, no one had ever taken care of him like this. He had no idea what to do with the kind gesture, and a simple thank-you somehow didn’t seem like enough.
As he looked around the room, it hit him that this was the closest he’d been to living with someone in years. Her shoes were next to his, lined up by the front door. The lap blanket she’d used earlier while watching television was thrown haphazardly over the end of the couch in the living room.
The fruit his housekeeper had purchased was now arranged in a clear glass bowl on the center of the kitchen island. When was the last time he’d had fruit on display? Uh, try never. The thought made him smile.
Slowly, she was doing things to make his apartment seem like home. More than he’d ever done. Hell, he’d never even had anyone over. And he’d been here for a year. How fucked up was that?
“Seriously, Diana, this is great. But you didn’t have to do this.”
She brought over a plate with salad already served out. “I figure you can serve the lasagna yourself. I can never plate it well.”
He laughed. �
��I got it. You go ahead and pour the wine.”
Her smile slid a little when their fingertips grazed. He saw a flash of heat. Or was that panic? He was unsure. Either way, he served them both. She brought over the wine, putting the larger glass in front of him.
When she sat, her smile was tighter, but she said, “Go on, eat.” She started in on her salad with gusto, and he followed suit. When she took a large gulp of wine, he watched the way her tongue peeked out to lick her bottom lip before sipping, and he had to bite back a curse.
What are you doing here? He wasn’t used to feeling unsure.
The whole thing was just a mess. He’d never had problems with women. Probably because those encounters were just sex. But he liked Diana. He sort of felt responsible for her, though he had no right to those feelings. She wasn’t his.
He’d found her last Friday night. And she didn’t seem any closer to getting her affairs in order. He knew she’d called for her cards, but that always took a while. So for the time being, he was responsible for her, and he didn’t want to take advantage of that.
Those truths still didn’t stop him from wanting to taste her lips again. He wanted to know if he had imagined that flash of heat, the connection. And of course, his dick, persistent as it was, wanted to know if the promise of heat could deliver.
He took a bite of his lasagna, the garlic and tomato hitting his tongue with the perfect blend. He moaned. “I forgot how good Anna’s lasagna is. Do not tell Nonna, but I think this is almost as good as hers.”
She took another large gulp of wine even as she laughed. “I won’t tell. I still owe you one for the whole saving-my-life deal. Thank you for that, by the way. I’m not sure if that point made it across since I was too busy being a brat that day. Although I suppose we’re even now after I took out that guy in the alley for you.”
He shook his head. “We’re not even because I’m not keeping score. And you don’t have to say thank you. It’s no big deal.”
She gave him a pointed look. “You mean you rappel down the side of a cliff to rescue damsels in distress every day? And here I thought I was special.”
