Page 70 of Broken Pieces

I lean forward and press a chaste kiss to her neck. An addicting taste of sugar and salt. I want to lick her entire body. I control my voice, so it doesn’t get to husky. “No. The punching releases the emotion. But you still gotta talk about it.”

“Well then mister, why were you punching the bag then?”

I chuckle into her ear before blowing a cooling breath across her neck. She shivers and I know how much my touch is affecting her. “I asked you first.”

I am waiting for her next excuse but am surprised when she answers truthfully. “Tacoma has been acting weird. I don’t know what it is. But she keeps saying things that are so unlike her. She sounds depressed, despondent. I feel like she is hiding something. Like something bad happened to her and she is covering it up with her overenthusiastic attitude.”

“Did you ask her about it?”

Rae groans as I hit a tight muscle in her back. “I did. But she got pissed at me. Told me I don’t know anything. That I am young and naïve. She called Laney and told her to pick her up. It’s her last night here and I wanted to find out what was going on. Anyway, that’s why I was up here. She pissed me off.”

“Do you feel better now?”

“Not really. A little but I still want to know what’s going on and why she said that shit to me.”

I pull Rae back into my chest and wrap my arms around her stomach. “I don’t think your naïve, Blue. I think you’ve seen more than most people do in their lifetime. I bet Tacoma knows that too. I bet she also doesn’t want to be lectured by her younger sister.”

Rae relaxes into my arms at my words. “You are probably right.”

“I usually am,” I say with a smirk.

She tries to elbow me in the ribs but misses. “So why were you going at the bag so hard when I came up here?”

I don’t want to answer her question. As much as I don’t want these damn feelings circulating through the air. I’m a ship lost at sea, the waters choppy, the wind rough. I want to dive into the deep waters where it’s smooth, where love won’t tear you apart.

Not that I am in love with her. I can’t be. But falling is a definite possibility.

I lean into her neck and whisper in her ear. “You.”

She spins in my arms. “Me? What does that mean?”

I jump headfirst into the choppy water. “The feelings I get when you are around.”

“Feelings? Like what?” Her eyes darken, lust filling them. I can tell she thinks I am only talking about sex and that may be best right now.

“I know I shouldn’t want to touch you every goddamn minute of the day, but I do. I want you near me, touching me, riding me. I want to be inside of you all the time and it scares the shit out of me.”

She turns into a seductress right before my eyes. “And what’s so wrong about you being inside me all the time?”

Fuck. Before I know it, she is crawling up my body and straddling me on the table. It doesn’t take long for us to lose our clothes.

And with every groan and every thrust, I know without a doubt I am falling for her.

* * *

Tacoma left today.

I was hoping that meant Rae would be in my bed immediately especially after our conversation yesterday, but I haven’t seen her in hours.

I glance at the clock. It’s after ten at night and she still isn’t home.

Still isn’t in my bed.

I decide to walk to the house and see if she is there. Maybe she fell asleep reading somewhere.

It’s a Thursday night so I know there are guests here, which is unlike her to be hanging out inside. But I have a strange feeling that she is avoiding me.

Maybe not so strange. Things have been heated between us. Every morning she leaves my bed before I get up for work.