Page 57 of The Eleventh Hour
“Favour for a favour. I want to be able to contact you.”
I scowl. “That’s blackmail.”
He leans back and beams at me. “Why, yes, it is, child of mine. So, what’s it going to be?”
I reach across the desk, take the phone, and slip it into my pocket with another fierce mock scowl.
“Right, now that’s settled, let’s go see about getting this boy of yours a bed for a few nights.”
Rafael
Ipark the car and jog around just so I can take her hand and lead her into the warehouse. She is numb, sinking somewhere so deep in her pain that she’s almost unaware of the outside world. She’s transcendent in her agony.
I shouldn’t want her as much as I do, and yet, I find myself captivated. I sit on the white leather couch and pull her down into my arms. This need to touch her, be close to her, is impossible to deny.
For once, Dane is reading the room, and he’s taken his abrasive self to his bedroom. A nasty word from him might cause her to shatter.
“Talk to me,” I croon and run my hand up and down her spine. The tension is leaving her, she is turning soft and snuggling into me.
“I can’t.”
I tilt her head back and touch my lips to hers. It’s impulsive, and for a moment, I think she’ll turn away, push away, but she just blinks, and then lifts up and presses her mouth back against mine. Soft, tentative kisses that turn into open-mouthed explorations. She sets fire to my blood.
I don’t think I’ve ever kissed anyone like this, with so much intimacy. It scares me as much as it excites me. I shift us so that we are lying side-by-side, legs tangled. Touching at almost all points. It’s the sweetest torture. I don’t ever want to stop.
She breaks away, panting slightly, and the pain in her eyes is muted. Her eyes aren’t grey tonight, they are silver, I think, in a daze. I touch my lips to the corner of her mouth, and then the tip of her nose, and finally, her forehead before hugging her tight and burying my face in her neck.
“She was a sister to me.”
I pull back.
“When I came back, I came to find him. I couldn’t, so I just existed. I didn’t make friends, I didn’t contact my family. Cherise came in, and she was like a sister; funny, teasing, smart, kind, pushy.” She stops talking and shifts her weight so she’s pressed closer against me. “Cherise set me up with River. She knew I’d seen him and freaked. She organised for us to accidentally bump into each other. I was so angry with her.”
I exhale and continue stroking her back and the thigh draped over my hip.
“It’s not your fault,” I say fiercely. “You are not responsible for that monster’s choices.”
“But-”
“No!” I kiss her again, this time harder, trying to make her feel the truth that I feel inside me. I draw back. “My parents weren’t around much at all. I kinda raised myself. At fifteen, I was the passenger in a car that was in a wreck. The driver was a friend, and he died on impact. He wanted to go out and do something. I didn’t want to stay home, so I didn’t argue with him. But I spent years blaming myself. What if I’d said no? What if I’d just stayed home? He might be alive if I had made a different choice. As it was, I died three times that night.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, and I know that she more than anybody understands the guilt.
“It wasn’t my fault he got behind the wheel drunk and drove fifteen miles above the speed limit. It wasn’t my fault that he died and I survived. And it’s not yours.”
She reaches up and runs her fingers along my jaw. “Why are you so good? How has the world not destroyed you yet?”
I turn my face into her palm and leave an open-mouthed kiss in the centre. “I’m not good or bad. I’m just a man.”
She makes a disbelieving sound and giggles when I bite her thumb.
“For example, if I was a good man, I’d tuck you up in bed and walk out of the room,” I whisper. She shivers, and her thigh tightens on my hip. Satisfaction lights up inside me. I lean forward and bite her lower lip. “If I was a wicked man, you’d be naked, screaming on this couch by now.”
“You sound so sure of yourself.”
“Oh, I am.”
Her eyes are glazing now, her chest rising and falling rapidly. I roll my hips into her so she can feel just how much I want her. Her hands turn to claws and dig into my back as she arches against me.