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 core 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.

“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.

That was when I realized the error – no condom.

She felt it, too, arching under me and bracing her hands against my chest. “Kane?”

“I need a condom,” I said, panting against her lips. “Tell me you have one.”

She shook her head, eyes wide.

“Fuck!”

But when I went to pull out, she locked her ankles just under my ass. “Do we have to stop? I’m on the pill. I started after…” Her eyes clouded, and I bent my head, kissing her hard and fast.

“Don’t think about that. Don’t think about him,” I ordered her. “Not here with me. Not ever, if I can help it.”

“No. Not here,” she agreed. “But…” She arched against me once more, her nipples stabbing against my chest, another wicked temptation in a sea of them. “But…do we have to stop?”

I stared down at her beautiful face. Common sense warred with want. “We should. It’s the smart thing to do.”

“I’ve tried to be smart my entire life,” she said, a smile playing on her lips. “It’s overrated.”

When she undulated under me, I was lost. “Fuck smart,” I said hoarsely.

With a groan, I sank all the way inside her, experiencing the bliss of being skin to skin for the first time. She was hot, wet silk around my dick, and it was the sweetest ecstasy I’d ever known.

“You feel so good,” I muttered against her ear.

“You, too.” She shivered under me.

I withdrew and thrust back inside, keeping it slow, wanting to savor every moment.

But nothing that good ever lasted.

She tightened around me, the muscles in her pussy milking my cock until I squeezed my eyes shut against the sensation. I almost saw stars the next time she did it, and I slammed into her harder than before.

She cried out.

“Raye?”

“Do it again,” she pleaded.

Who was I to reject a lady’s request.

I did as she asked, and what had been slow, almost sweet turned dirty and frantic, bordering on rough. Her nails dug into my shoulders, her mouth biting into mine as she sank her teeth into my lower lip. I thrust my tongue into her mouth, and she responded by sucking on my tongue the same way I’d like to have her sucking on my prick.

It drove me crazy, and I had to fight not to let go of my baser instincts.

Warning tingles raced up and down my spine, and I clenched a hand in the sheets beneath her, trying to ride it out.

But she came around me, her silken tissues starting to spasm and grip me tighter than a fist.

Her climax triggered my own, and those chills racing down my spine turned into something with all the force of a neutron bomb. It hit low and fast, and I exploded.

I groaned into her mouth as the orgasm slammed into me. She spasmed around me, milking…squeezing…draining me dry.