Saving Rain

by Karen-Anne Stewart

  Raina stays in the shower for as long as the hot water holds out before wrapping the towel around her and grabbing the brush. Wiping her hand down the mirror, she clears a space off from where the steam has covered the glass. Anger rushes through her as she examines the bruises on her face. She looks away, not able to look at herself, as anger, disappointment, sadness, and fear pulse through her veins. The fear is what enrages her the most. Grasping the edge of the counter, she tries to control her erratic breathing. Slowly, she raises her head to stare back at her reflection, and shame engulfs her, leaving her breathless again, as the purplish-blue bruises remind her that the first person she chose to date hurt her. ‘You deserve this,’ her father’s words echo, over and over, in the recesses of her mind.

  Pushing the dark thoughts out of her head, Raina starts to dress and is pulling her yoga pants up over her legs when she hears a knock at the door. “One moment, please.”

  Kas waits impatiently outside, the last half-hour torturing him, wondering if she is okay. “Everything alright in there?”

  Raina opens the door and steps out in her white yoga pants and a soft green t-shirt that makes her eyes sparkle like emeralds. Her auburn hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail with some wet curls falling around her face.

  “I’m sorry I don’t have a hair dryer,” Kas can barely manage above a whisper as he looks at how beautiful she is, in spite of the bruises. He brushes one of the wet curls behind her ear, “How ya feeling?”

  Raina has to make herself not lean her cheek into his hand. “Better,” she smiles.

  The smell of something delicious attracts her attention, and her stomach growls at the aroma. “Something smells wonderful,” she states, suddenly famished.

  Kas smiles appreciatively, “I’m grilling steaks.” His gaze turns to worry, “You do eat meat, don’t you?”

  Raina laughs, and Kas feels such a strong pull towards her at the soft, tantalizing sound. “I eat meat,” she quickly states, putting him out of his misery wondering.

  Relief flashes across his face, and he flashes a smile that goes all the way to his eyes, “Good, because I grill the best steaks in D.C.”

  Her bewitching laughter fills the room again, and Kas can’t resist from taking her hand while leading her towards the kitchen.

  Raina loses her ability to breathe when she feels the warmth of her hand in his, and she has to remind herself that he doesn’t mean anything by it, he’s just being kind. But how her heart wishes there was more to it than that.

  “I thought we could eat on the deck since the weather is so nice, if you want.”

  “That sounds great.” The feeling of belonging starts to seep back in, but she ruefully pushes it back, knowing that it would be too much to take when the time comes that she’s healed from her wounds and her brief break from reality is over, and she will be on her own again.

  Chase is in the kitchen throwing a potato into the sink. “Crap, that’s hot,” he blurts out as he turns on the faucet and sticks his hand under the water.

  Kas laughs, shaking his head as he throws him an oven mitt, “That’s what these are for, moron.”

  Raina giggles at their playful banter. “Warm water is better,” she gives Chase her advice as Kas leads her through the French doors, onto the deck. “Can I help with anything?”

  Kas shakes his head and points at her with the tongs he is using to turn the steaks, “Nope, you are my guest tonight, so have a seat and relax.”

  Chase comes onto the deck with a plate of potatoes and a bowl of salad, placing it on the table before heading back inside.

  The table has already been set, and Kas points to a glass with ice in it, “I know you like iced green tea, but all I have is regular tea, is that alright?”

  Raina’s mood is immediately lifted at the realization that Kas has paid attention to what her favorite beverage is. “Regular is great,” she says as she pours herself a glass from the pitcher he has left on the table. “Do you want me to pour you and Chase a glass?”

  Coming back through the doors, Chase holds up his hand filled with two bottles of beer, “Already got it covered.”

  The fleeting look of panic and fear flash through Raina’s eyes before she leashes the wayward emotions and regains her neutral composure again.

  Kas and Chase exchange worried glances before Kas speaks first, “I don’t feel like a beer tonight, I think I’ll have some tea, too.”

  Chase follows along casually, “You didn’t forget to put the sugar in this time did you?”

  Kas shakes his head. “No man, it’s all sweetened. Be careful not to drink too much or you might melt,” he jokes, trying his best to dispel whatever fearful memory they had inadvertently caused to resurface.

  “In that case, I’ll take some tea. Gotta see if you got it right this time,” Chase calls over his shoulder as he returns the beers to the fridge.

  The sun provides the perfect amount of warmth for the afternoon as they eat their meal.

  “You were right about the steaks,” Raina compliments Kas as she carefully stands up and starts to take her plate to the kitchen.

  “I’ve got it,” Chase gives her his knock-out grin as he takes it from her.

  “I don’t mind helping,” Raina states, feeling uncomfortable with them waiting on her.

  Kas places his hand on her shoulder and gently guides her back inside. “Like I said, you’re my guest. I want you to rest today. Tomorrow I’ll put you to work scrubbing floors,” he teases light heartedly.

  The afternoon has turned into evening when Raina opens her eyes after Kas had insisted she lay down and rest. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but her eyes had closed almost as soon as her head hit the soft pillow. Yawning lazily, she takes a moment to enjoy the comfort of the large bed before holding her breath as she gingerly rolls off, onto her feet. She brushes her teeth quickly and heads back towards the living room, realizing Chase is still there when she hears both of their voices.

  “Hello, sleepy head,” Chase teases, ruffling her hair as he turns away from the documents, standing in front of them where they are spread out on top of the table.

  “I didn’t mean to interrupt anything,” she says while pointing to the papers.

  “You’re not interrupting anything, we were just going over the case,” Kas tells her as he quickly closes the file.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to keep you from work. You don’t have to stay with me tomorrow, I’ll be fine.”

  Gently taking Raina’s arms in his hands, Kas turns her to face him. “You have nothing to apologize for, Raina. You are not keeping me from anything.”

  “You haven’t been to work in two days. I don’t want to cause you any problems,” Raina states, lowering her eyes.

  Kas takes her chin in his hand and lifts it up, so she is forced to look at him again. “You’re not causing me any problems. You didn’t do anything to cause a problem. I’m off the next couple of days, besides, when Dexter found out what had happened, he was furious. He was glad to know that you’re here and that you’re in good hands,” he finishes with a mischievous wink.

  Dexter is Kas’ superior and is fiercely intimidating on the outside, but his agents are like family, and he takes care of them. Raina was considered one of his as soon as he met her. Dexter makes judgments on his gut feeling, and he had said that his gut had told him that Raina is a fighter and would be an asset on the case Kas has been working on. He had pulled her from the translation position so she could focus on the case with Kas. Translation is still a large part of the job, due to so many of the girls they have already recovered from the traffickers being from different countries and their having broken English, at best.

  Kas frowns as he takes Raina’s hand and softly rubs his thumb across the abrasions on her knuckles. The cuts and scrapes prove just how much of a fighter she is, the raw, red contusions showing how ferociously she fought against Chris, who is twice her size.

  Chase grabs the remote and flops over the back
of the couch. “How about a movie?”

  They spend the rest of the evening eating popcorn and watching movies, and Raina absolutely loves the utter normalcy of it.

  The next morning, Raina awakens early and takes a quick shower. She runs her fingers through her hair before slipping into leggings and an oversized sweatshirt, her jeans are still too rough against her sore abdomen. Quietly, she slips out of her room and tiptoes past Kas’ door, into the kitchen. She admires the efficiency of the layout, noticing that it is small but set up for maximum cooking potential with its new appliances and ample counter space. Most of the space is provided by the island in the middle that has a rack above it holding the most used pots and pans.

  Raina quietly takes out what she needs from the fridge, setting it out on the counter as she begins to make the pancake batter with as minimal noise as possible. She decides that Kas must be a very light sleeper because, not two minutes later, she hears his footsteps on the wood floor.

  “Good morning,” he tells her as he yawns and runs a hand through his bedhead hair.

  Raina can’t tear her gaze away from the sheer sexiness of his hot, disheveled just-awakened look.

  “You know, I was kidding yesterday when I said that I was going to put you to work,” he teases as he grabs orange juice out of the fridge and takes two glasses out of the cabinet behind her. “You don’t have to cook breakfast, I’m known to make a mean omelet.”

  Raina shrugs, “As good as that sounds, I want to cook, if that’s okay.”

  Kas pours her a glass of OJ and hands it to her. “I told you that you don’t have to ask permission for anything here,” he reminds her, giving her a drop-dead gorgeous smile.

  Returning his smile, Raina hopes he can’t see that he’s turning her insides to mush as she shyly takes the glass, “Thank you.” She takes a sip while peeking at him through her thick lashes over the top of her juice. Her eyes slowly drink in his stubbly chin and his white t-shirt that is half tucked into loose checkered pajama bottoms that hang just below his perfectly muscular v-shaped torso. For reasons she can’t explain, her heart flutters as she stares at his tan bare feet.

  Raina feels her insides start to quiver, and heat spreads through places that excite her, causing her to turn away. “Thank you for everything you have done for me,” she says, suddenly shy, putting the glass on the granite counter top next to her. She starts to stir the pancakes, thinking that the heat radiating off of her could cook them in three seconds flat.

  Kas puts his hand on hers, stopping her from stirring the spoon, “I haven’t done anything special, Rain.”

  But you have, she thinks to herself, remembering last night and how it felt so normal just to be able to sit in between two men, eating popcorn and watching movies, without having to worry about anything else for a little while.

  “How do you like your eggs?” Kas asks her as he expertly breaks one open, one-handed, on the lip of the bowl.

  Standing here, in his kitchen, with him cooking next to her, Raina’s heart fills with gratitude at how he has just giving her another special moment that she can tuck away and cherish when she goes.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The next couple of days pass much like the previous one with Kas and Raina waking up and cooking breakfast side by side, then taking a short walk around the yard and down the road to work out some of the soreness. Chase pops in around lunch time to check on her and to give any profiling updates he has on the case before heading back to his work. Raina knows that Kas took off to be with her, and she has a mixture of appreciation and guilt over this.

  When twilight rolls around, Kas interrupts Raina while she is looking through the collection of novels on his bookshelf and asks if she is up for a drive. Raina readily agrees, she is beginning to go stir crazy. Being in such close quarters with Kas twenty-four-seven has left her hormones screaming and writhing with unfulfilled need.

  The warm spell has continued, and the clean night air is refreshing when it lightly blows against her skin as they walk to the jeep. Kas opens her door and helps her in before climbing in himself, cracking the windows so they can enjoy the crisp breeze. They stop at a local pizzeria and order a pizza to go on their way.

  Kas drives her to a place called Hains Point, where the view of the moon and the reflection of the cherry trees glimmer over the slow ripples of the Potomac River, putting on a stunning show. He has to remind himself to breathe when he looks at Raina, seeing how the wind softly blows her hair. “Truly breathtaking,” he whispers, his voice low and husky from desire.

  Raina, mistaking his meaning, smiles, “It certainly is.”

  Letting out a small chuckle, Kas shakes his head before retrieving a blanket and the pizza from the back of the jeep. He grabs a folded card table and chairs, throwing the tartan blanket over the top. He knows that the traditional picnic of plopping on the ground to eat would be very uncomfortable for Raina in her current condition.

  Raina takes in the picnic setting Kas has created, and she is overcome and touched by his thoughtfulness.

  “I come here sometimes when I need to clear my head,” he states, looking at Raina as she stares out into the magical beauty of the scenery around them. “Or, when I’m searching for answers,” he continues, his tone just about a whisper as he studies her.

  “It’s so beautiful,” Raina exclaims, her silky voice filled with awe and her eyes soft and dreamy as she watches the reflections slowly dance on top of the watery, onyx stage.

  Kas spends several minutes just watching her, admiring her, as she is lost deep in her thoughts. After a few moments, the delicious aroma of the pizza and its loaded toppings are too tempting to ignore, and they spend the next half-hour eating pizza, talking, and laughing. Kas shares stories about his large family made up of his dad and his two uncles, three aunts, eleven cousins and his grandparents. He laughs as he remembers the summer when they all went together to visit his grandparents.

  “My grandparents have a farm with a large farm house and a guest house, so we all went there for a visit one summer when I was eleven. It was great for all of us kids to be able to take off into the corn fields and play until sunset, without any of the parents having to worry about us.”

  Leaning against the back of the chair, Raina carefully tucks her legs underneath her while she listens attentively to Kas’ story.

  “My grandfather had bought a puppy a few weeks before we arrived, and he was wound tighter than the eleven of us rolled into one. We were told to not let the puppy near the animals, but I guess we were too distracted by playing because the puppy came running when we were feeding the chickens, and he took after them like a speeding train ready to derail. All you could see was a melee of chickens flapping and squawking, the puppy barking, and feathers flying. The dog chased those poor chickens all over the yard, through the mud puddles from the previous night’s storm, and every last one of us kids was wet and muddy from trying to catch that darn dog.”

  Kas’ head leans back as he laughs at the memory. “The puppy was better than any quarterback I’ve been up against as he dodged and ran through our legs, and then went straight into the door that one of us must’ve left wide open. Our parents were mortified, my grandmother was in hysterics, and my grandfather was laughing so hard he was doubled over as the puppy ran through the house and jumped on the couch with those muddy paws. My grandfather thought all of the commotion was hilarious until the puppy jumped off the couch, overshot the turn, and ran straight into the TV stand, knocking it onto the floor, causing pieces to fly everywhere. The darn dog must’ve known that ‘all you know what’ was getting ready to break loose, because he sat down and looked up at everyone with those large, innocent puppy dog eyes.”

  Kas’ hearty laughter echoes through the spring night air, sending sweet chills up Raina’s arms. “I thought my grandfather was going to tan all of our hides, but he took mercy on us and just took us outside and hosed us down instead. After we were mud free, he sent us back inside where we spent the nex
t few hours cleaning up the muddy disaster. Pops came out better in the end anyway after our parents went in together and bought them a new large screen TV. We spent the next two weeks doing extra chores to repay them. That was one of the best summers I’ve had.”

  Raina watches how happy Kas looks recalling his favorite childhood memories, and instead of jealousy for something she never had, warm comforting feelings run through her, knowing that he has those memories to cherish.

  Once all the pizza is gone, Kas refuses to let Raina help him pack up the table and chairs, sending her off to enjoy the view instead. He plays with the radio until he finds a station he likes. He leans against the trunk of a cherry tree with his legs out in front of him, one foot resting casually over the other, and his thumbs tucked into the edge of the pockets of his well-worn jeans. He watches Raina run her hand tenderly down one of the blooming branches of the cherry tree. His heart does funny things when he sees a smile spread across her luscious lips as she inhales the sweet cherry aroma. He is taken aback by the intensity of his desire to take her in his arms and press her soft, feminine body against his firm, masculine frame. He wants nothing more right now than to get lost in the scent of her as he holds her in his arms, slow dancing under the moonlit blossoms of the cherry trees.

  As if Kas’ thoughts beckon her, she slowly turns around. When their eyes connect, the truth hits Raina like a bolt of lightning. She realizes that she has fallen in love with him, helplessly and unequivocally in love.

  That night, under the pale light of the moon, the full impact of the harsh meaning behind the saying ‘truth hurts’ slams into Raina just as viciously as a sucker punch. For the first time in so many years, she has to fight back tears that threaten to spill from her eyes. Every fiber of her being wants Kas, needs him. Her heart, her body, and her soul cry out for his love. The thought of him not loving her back hurts worse than the sharpest sting from her father’s belt ever could. Looking at him looking at her, she does what she does best and forces her emotions deep inside, plastering a smile on her face as she walks lovesick and deflated to the jeep.