But sometimes, maybe saying no was the wiser course.
I never was a quick learner, though.
I brought him a beer out from my apartment, reluctant to invite him back into my personal living space. This was business, and despite the fact that I might still take jobs from some of the old crew, there were certain lines I’d never cross with them again.
Letting them cross the lines that bled over into my personal life was one thing that wouldn’t happen.
“So…I got this thing lined up,” Tank said, twisting the top off his bottle of beer.
I lifted mine to my lips, an uneasy feeling already curling through my gut. Yeah, I should have bypassed the chance to chat over a couple of beers.
He paused, clearly waiting for me to ask what kind of thing, but I stayed quiet. I wasn’t going to take any lines he offered or anything.
When I didn’t take the bait, Tank shrugged. “It’s not a big deal or anything, but there could be some sweet money in it.”
Yep.
This was going to be trouble, a shitload of it. Lowering my gaze, I focused on the bottle of beer and started thinking of the various ways to tell him to get the hell out of my place.
I had come up with about five by the time he explained what he wanted – he needed a place to keep a delivery he was going to be receiving in a few days. I wouldn’t be involved in any way, blah, blah, blah, but of course, he’d be happy to pay me for my trouble, blah, blah, blah.
He finished and lifted his beer to his lips, taking a long pull from it as he waited for my answer.
I opened my mouth, ready to issue a polite thank you, but no, fuck off when a knock at the back door cut me off. The door swung open a second later, and I mentally started to swear a blue streak.
Tank reacted in pretty much the same way, only he didn’t keep anything on a mental level.
“Who the fuck are you?” he demanded, coming off the counter he’d been leaning against, aggression leaking from him as if it seeped from his pores.
I spun around, moving across the garage, already knowing who it was. I shielded Raye with my body, shooting a look at Tank. “It doesn’t matter who she is. She’s of no concern to you, Tank.”
“I thought you didn’t have anybody coming around after hours, Kane,” Tank bit off. “Who the fuck is the skirt?”
Raye’s dark blue gaze flitted to mine, nerves dancing there. She didn’t look at Tank, and whether it was experience or just instinct, I had to appreciate that. “Hey,” she said in a low voice. “Is this a bad time?”
“No. You’re fine.” Angling my chin toward the door that opened into my apartment, I said, “Why don’t you wait in there?”
She turned on her heel, and as she beat a fast retreat, I turned back to find Tank edging closer, his eyes dark and angry, his mouth in a tight set line.
“What the fuck, Kane? You always said it was safe to come by after the shop’s closed and now you got women running in and out of here? You trying to fuck me over?” he demanded.
His eyes shot toward the door where Raye had disappeared and every protective instinct I had welled up inside me.
“I don’t know where the fuck you got the idea that I’d never had anybody over at my place, ever, just in case one of you guys decided to show up,” I said, sarcasm thick in my words. “If I decide I want to have a female friend over, I think that’s my fucking concern and not yours. You want privacy, pick up the phone and make a fucking appointment.”
Tank opened his mouth, fury dancing in his eyes.
I took a step toward him.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” Tank asked, flinging a hand out. “I don’t need some chick seeing me here. I come here because it’s supposed to be a clean place, you’re supposed to be a safe zone where I can get my ride fixed, and nobody will connect me to you. And you fuck me over having a bitch here.”
“Call her a bitch again,” I invited. “See where it gets you.”
He opened his mouth, then shut it. After a few more seconds, he lifted a hand, pointing at me. “If this comes back to bite me on the ass, I’ll be back to kick yours, Kane.”
“Don’t you threaten me, Tank.” Clenching a hand into a fist, I stared him down.
“Just make sure your bitch doesn’t cause any problems for me.”
Closing the distance between us, I stared down at him over the few inches that separated us. “That’s your last chance. Say it again and pick up your teeth on the way out.”
He sneered at me, and on the way out the door, he flipped me off.
“Hey!”
He glanced back.
I threw his keys at him. “Take your ride elsewhere.”
He gaped at me.
I gave him a sardonic smile and pointed at the sign hanging near the entrance.
We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.
“I’m invoking my right, asshole.”
“Hey.”
Raye was sitting on my couch, hands clasped together between her knees. She jumped at the sound of my voice, and I winced. “It’s just me,” I said.
“I know. Sorry. Jumpy. I interrupted something,” she said, her voice hesitant.
“Not really.” I moved across the room and sat down on the worn-out, old oak coffee table. “He’s just somebody I used to know. He didn’t have to be an asshole to you. I’m sorry.”
I was half-prepared for her to bolt off the table and take off into the night, and the idea bothered me more than I liked.
Caring about people outside of my family was something I tried hard not to do, and here I was, worrying about what was going to happen in the next few minutes. It wasn’t because I didn’t care about Raye.
I did care.
I cared too much.
And I wasn’t too happy about it either.
Caring about somebody who was probably going to disappear from my life in a few short weeks – or less – was a complication I didn’t need.
It was even worse that it was somebody like Raye…somebody I didn’t deserve to have in my life.
23
Raye
“Who was he?” I asked, not certain if he’d tell me any more than he’d already said.
I was right. Kane glanced away, clearly uncomfortable.
I’d already pieced together enough and wondered how to approach this without making it seem like I’d been nosing around in his past. Then I realized, no matter what, he’d know I’d asked about him. Might as well come clean.
Softly, I said, “Michelle told me you’d done time in prison – that’s where you met Jake.”
His entire body went taut, his gaze flying to meet mine.
“I wasn’t asking about you…not exactly. She just…” Huffing out an awkward breath, I said, “She sort of figured out that you and I kind of…hooked up. She was a little worried – she told me you don’t do relationships. I told her I wasn’t looking for one and we got to talking. I asked her how you and Jake met, and she told me.” I met his eyes levelly. “I’m not worried about your past. It doesn’t have to define you any more than mine has to define me.”
I wanted to believe that, too.
Kane leaned back, his weight falling onto the hands propped up behind him. His dark eyes held mine as he studied me, his long hair falling into his eyes. “You’re not concerned that I did time.”
“I know Michelle trusts you.” Lifting a shoulder, I said, “She seems like a good judge of character and…” Uncertain how to continue, I looked away for a long moment. How did I explain to him that I felt safer with him than I’d ever felt with anybody? All those good guys that a girl should want in her life…they hadn’t made me feel safe. I had good reason to not feel safe around some of them, too. But Kane…he’d rushed out of a crowd on New Year’s Eve to chase off a couple of guys who’d been hassling me.
He’d been there for me that day when I ran into Chad, and more, he hadn’t just been there – he’d recognized my fear and offered to help me overcome it.
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“You make me feel safe,” I said finally. “I don’t think you realize how rare that is for me.”
His eyes held mine, but the uncertainty I’d glimpsed there still hadn’t gone away.
“I don’t know how you can feel safe around me,” he finally said. “That guy that just left…I knew him back when he and I used to run together in the same gang. That’s part of why I went to prison, Raye. I got caught up with the wrong guys. And I’m not going to blame being with the wrong kind of people when I was a kid. I knew what I was doing, and I knew it was wrong, and I did it anyway. I got caught running drugs in Texas and had to do time in prison. That’s how I met Jake. You still so certain you feel safe around me?”
“Are you involved in any of that now?” I watched him, my heart racing.
“I…no.” He shook his head. “I smartened up. I’ve got people who count on me, and I’m not going to fuck up like that again. But sometimes the guys come around, needing work on their cars or shit like that. I don’t tell them no.”
“They’re part of your past.” Lifting a shoulder in a shrug, I said, “It’s probably hard to do that. But none of that changes how I feel around you.”
“And what the hell would Jake think?”
“Jake’s my brother. He’s not my parent,” I said calmly. Cocking a brow at him, I added, “And I don’t plan on telling him. Do you?”
With a nonplussed look on his face, Kane blew out a breath and tore his gaze from mine. He still looked uncertain, unsure how to process any of this.
I bit my lip as I shifted around on the couch, rising so that I could move forward. At my movement, his gaze returned to mine, and he held still as I pressed my lips to his. He’d prodded me into making moves the other night, but now I was doing it on my own, and I was insanely nervous.
Lifting my hand, I placed it on his cheek.
Rough stubble scraped against my palm as I edged closer. His mouth opened under mine, but he didn’t do anything else to deepen the kiss.
I took the initiative and slid my tongue across his lower lip, echoing the way he often kissed me.
He tasted like beer, and under it was the familiar taste I’d come to associate with him. Kane. He tasted like Kane, and I loved it.
His head craned back as I moved to stand in front of him, my head bent low as I continued to kiss him. I shivered as he moved his hands to my hips, his big palms restlessly kneading my waist.
Dipping my tongue past his lips, I sought out more of his taste and was rewarded when he closed his mouth around my tongue, sucking with a deep, sensual rhythm that weakened my knees. The sensation sent a thrill rushing through me, and the shivers in my body increased, arrowing down to center in my core. I wanted to wrap myself around him and rock against the heat that always emanated from him.
He’d be hard and ready, I thought, and the slick wet tissues between my thighs grew slicker, wetter in preparation. Drawing back, I stared down at him as I struggled to catch my breath.
Kane’s eyes glittered as he stared up at me from under his lashes.
I rested my hands on his shoulders, slowly stroking down, letting myself enjoy the feel of hard, roped muscle under my hands. “Can we take this off?”
Kane pushed up from the table, sitting straighter in front of me. “You do it.”
It was the first time I’d ever undressed a man and my hands tangled in the fabric as I drew it up, then away from him.
Dropping the shirt down on the table next to him, I stared at him, my hands returning to his shoulders. Despite the fact that it was winter, his skin was a mellow gold, and the scrolling ink of tattoos marked almost every inch of his upper body. A phoenix, mouth open in a defiant scream, spread across his right shoulder, the wings sweeping down from over his chest and back. There was a dragon on his left shoulder. I traced my fingers over the feathers of the eagle’s wings, studied the dragon’s scales.
Under my hands, his flesh was warm, and his chest hitched as I stroked my hands down.
He cupped my ass in his hands and tugged me closer. “Come here.”
I ended up sprawled on his lap, one hand curled over the back of my neck, the other gripping my hip and holding me steady as he rocked up against me.
Heat spilled through me with every movement of his hips, and I was whimpering by the time he brought his mouth to mine. “I can make you come just like this, Raye,” he told me. “Want me to do it?”
Dazed, I met his eyes.
I didn’t doubt his words, but I wanted to have him inside me when I climaxed.
I lacked the breath to speak, though, and he took my silence for acquiescence. He rose from the coffee table and moved to the couch, stretching out on the cushions with his legs sprawled out before pulling me down on top of him. He arched up against me and every roll of his hips, he used his grasp on my butt to rub me over him.
I was whimpering and shaking by the third or fourth, writhing against him by the sixth.
And by the time he hit his ninth or tenth stroke, I was coming, chanting his name and grasping his wrists as if I feared he’d pull away.
He didn’t. He pulled me even closer and moved faster, each movement more furious, more demanding. It was almost enough to trip that lever of fear that was never very far away. Almost.
But not quite.
As the climax shivered and rolled through me, he rocked forward and spilled me onto the couch.
I barely noticed much of anything, including him stripping my jeans and panties away. I did notice the heat of his hands as he pushed my thighs wide and bent over me, pressing his mouth to the slick wet flesh between my thighs. “You’re so delicious,” he whispered against me.
I lay half sprawled against the couch, my hips hanging over the edge. Staring up at him as he rose to kneel over me, I sucked in desperate gulps of air.
He covered my sex with his hand. “I want to fuck you like this. Can I?”
I blushed to the roots of my hair. Panic fluttered inside me.
But I nervously nodded.
He reached down, and I heard foil ripping.
I didn’t look away from his face as he rolled the condom on, nor did I look away as he bent back over me.
The head of his cock probed me. He had one hand under my ass, lifting me just the slightest. As he started to enter me, I gasped at the sensation, the weight on my lower body forcing me to accept him, forcing me to yield to him. He took me slowly, making me excruciatingly aware of who was filling me with his cock.
The intimacy of it hit me in the core, and I closed my eyes, my face turning away. But Kane cupped my cheek, guided my face back to his. “Look at me, Raye.” His palm slid down to my neck, his thumb aligning to my jawbone as he angled my head back. “Look at me,” he said again.
Then he rolled his hips, filling me completely before withdrawing, pulling out until only the head of his cock held me open.
I moaned, shivering around him, aching to feel more, but he was already withdrawing.
The next thrust took him deeper, faster.
The one after that was harder, all but knocking my breath from my lungs.
“Raye…” Kane’s lids drifted shut, my name a harsh grunt on his lips. His cock jerked inside me, the head of it passing over me in a way that sent shivers of pleasure slamming through me, and I couldn’t keep from twisting against him, seeking to deepen the sensation.
More…
I wanted to beg him for it, but a fist had clamped itself around my throat, and I couldn’t breathe.
More…
He did it again, and a harsh whimper of pleasure ripped out of me as he butted the head of his cock right up against me one more time.
I reached down and caught his wrists, my eyes seeking his out, desperate for more but unsure how to tell him. He swiveled his hips in the cradle of mine this time, and the sensations that lit inside me stole the breath from me, and I cried out, my nails biting into his skin as I rocked against him, seeking to deepen the contact.
Mor
e…more…more…
Kane reared forward and bent over me until his face filled my vision. His hands came up, cupping my breasts. I moaned, arching up against him as he circled my nipples with his hands.
“I fucking love your tits, Raye,” he muttered. “They’re so damned pretty.”
He bent low then, catching one nipple in his mouth. He sucked it deep, almost to the edge of pain before letting go and switching sides.
When he lifted, he stared down at me with glittering eyes, his face harsh with hunger. With need.
He drove into me, harder than before, deeper.
Panic flared.
The pleasure flared.
They mingled and became one, and I shoved my hands against his chest, uncertain if I wanted to push him away or pull him closer.
The climax slammed into me, hard and fast, stealing breath, thought, and reason.
When it ended, my mind was spinning itself in dizzying circles, and I couldn’t keep up any of the thoughts racing through my brain.
Kane hefted us up onto the couch and laid down, my body sprawled out atop his.
His heart slammed into mine.
Mine raced like a caged rabbit’s, and I laid there with my hands fisted against this chest.
What the hell…
My mind ran in circles, over and over, that one thought the only clear one.
What the hell?
“What do you think about ordering some pizza?” Kane murmured, nuzzling my ear.
I jerked at the sound of his voice, then sat up. My eyes landed on the clothes that had gone flying, and the sight of my pretty, green silk blouse served to calm my brain, surprisingly.
It was one of the shirts I wore to work.
Work.
I had to work tonight.
“I can’t,” I said, my voice weak. “I’ve got to be at work in a few hours.”