by Kali Argent
“You’re kind of a big, marshmallow, huh?” Abandoning the DVDs, she stepped over Rafe’s legs and fell down beside him on the couch.
He looked a million miles away, though, and Cecily jumped when he slapped the arm of the sofa and cursed a blue streak. “I forgot all about the delivery at the club.”
“So? Call and explain, Rafe. I’m sure your boss will understand it was an emergency.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He sounded less than convinced, though.
“What about your other sisters?” Cecily asked, changing the subject to distract him from his worries. “Do they have any kids?”
“Sara passed away about six years ago, hit by a drunk driver while she was walking home from a party. Never married, no kids.”
Maybe she should have left well enough alone and stuck with the topic of work. “I’m so sorry, Rafe.”
Nodding, he took her hand and began playing with her fingers while he spoke. “Elena has two boys, but her husband’s a naval officer stationed in Europe, so we don’t see them much.”
“That has to be hard.” Melissa was the only family Cecily had or needed, and she wouldn’t know what to do without her sister. “What about your parents? Do they live close?”
“They’re your typical retirees, moved to Florida and go boating on the weekends.” He laughed, though his tone lacked any humor. “I see them once a year or so.”
Cecily had never been the sharing type, but after the day they’d experienced, she felt it only fair to give him a glimpse of her past. “My dad died when I was sixteen, and Mom went a little nuts after that. When I turned eighteen, I filed for legal custody of Melissa and moved us here to Indianapolis.”
He sat up a little straighter and shifted on the cushion to face her. “That couldn’t have been easy. You weren’t much more than a kid yourself. How old was Melissa?”
Cecily still remembered her in a ponytail and her new pink hightops on the first day of school. “Twelve, and no, it wasn’t easy. I worked three jobs, and most months, we still ended up at the food bank.” Leaning back, she stared up at the ceiling and chuckled. “We used to live here, you know? Apartment 5B.”
Neither of them spoke for a long time after that, and as the silence stretched on, Cecily’s stomach twisted itself into knots. “Did I overshare?”
“What? No, no, no.” Rafe palmed the back of her neck and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “I guess I was just stunned for a minute. You tend to do that to me.” He kissed her lips again. “You are truly remarkable, Miss Baker.”
“Rafe?” As much as she wanted to tell him how much she admired him, how amazing she found him, the words stuck in the back of her throat. So when he tilted his head in question, what came out of her mouth instead was, “You really do smell.”
Just like always, though, Rafe took it in stride, laughing as he pushed up from the sofa and pulled his shirt off over his head. “Make yourself at home while I jump in the shower.”
Cecily nodded because she didn’t trust herself to speak. She’d never seen so many muscles before, and her body lit up at the sight of Rafe’s cobblestone abs. When he exited the room, she released the breath she’d been holding and dropped her face into her hands.
Get it together. It’s not like you’ve never seen a naked man before. True, but she’d never seen a naked man as attractive as Rafe. When the sound of running water reverberated down the hallway, Cecily jumped to her feet and began pacing the narrow strip of carpet between the television and the coffee table.
“What am I doing? I should go. I should just leave. This is insane.”
“Cecily?”
Gasping, she whirled around to find Rafe standing at the end of the hall with only a towel slung low on his hips. “What the hell are you doing?”
Rafe held his hands up in surrender and backed away. “I was just going to say you’re welcome to join me, but I can see this is a bad time.” Strutting out of the room, he laughed all the way back to the bathroom.
He couldn’t be serious. He’d only said that to get a reaction from her. They always joked around, but that didn’t mean anything. She should just call a cab and go home. Better yet, she could walk. It would give her time to clear her head.
“Stop it,” she chastised herself. A gorgeous, kind man had just invited her for some naked fun in the shower, and there she stood, inventing reasons to refuse. “What’s the worst that can happen? He doesn’t call you tomorrow?” Been there, done that.
Sucking in a deep breath, Cecily straightened her spine, squared her shoulders, and exhaled in a whoosh. Then she stripped out of her clothes, right there in the living room, and marched down the hallway, following the sound of running water to the bathroom.
The door stood ajar, and tendrils of steam curled through the crack, bringing with them the clean scent of soap and toothpaste. Shit. Okay, maybe it had been a while since she’d done this.
Slipping into the room, she pressed a hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles. The aquarium motif, along with the Finding Nemo shower curtain, was too much. Likely, he’d decorated for his nieces, but the thought of such a big, masculine man showering amongst sea horses and anemones tickled her.
By the time she’d composed herself, her anxiety had returned full-force, and her hands shook as she uncapped the mouthwash and tipped the bottle to her lips. Unfortunately, she hadn’t factored in how quickly men showered. Just as she spit into the sink, Rafe turned off the shower and pulled back the curtain.
It was like the dreams she’d had in high school, the ones where she showed up naked to class and everyone laughed. Only, Rafe didn’t laugh. He didn’t blink, either. Water droplets dripped from his hair and ran down his body in small rivulets, but he didn’t reach for a towel, didn’t move at all. He just stood there…and stared.
“I…uh…crap.” Spinning around to give Rafe some privacy, Cecily grabbed a towel from the hook on the wall and tossed it to him. “Sorry. I’m…I…I’ll just go.”
“Cecily, wait.”
She made it no farther than the hallway before Rafe caught up to her. “Can I please put some clothes on for this conversation?”
“If that’s what you want.”
He sounded sincere, maybe even a little disappointed, but if she really wanted to walk away, Cecily knew he’d let her. Therein lay the problem, though. She didn’t know what the hell she wanted.
“Look at me.”
“I’m a little clothing-optional here, if you haven’t noticed.” God, this was humiliating.
“Trust me, Cecily, I’ve noticed.” He moved behind her, close enough for her to feel the heat of his body, and skimmed his fingers across her shoulders. “Your skin is so soft.” Rafe brushed her hair to the side and whispered his lips over the back of her neck. “Do you even know how beautiful you are?”
Goosebumps broke out over her skin, and Cecily chewed the inside of her cheek to hold back her moan when a rush of heat welled between her legs. Rafe’s hands slid over her waist and across the expanse of her stomach, moving lower in hesitant strokes, and Cecily couldn’t fight it any longer.
With a deep breath for courage, she spun around and launched herself into Rafe’s arms, attacking his mouth with a fevered desire she’d kept bottled up for too long. Rafe didn’t hesitate as he lifted her off her feet and stumbled backward toward his bedroom.
His arms locked around her in a steel cage, holding her protectively as he fell onto the foot of the bed and rolled her beneath him. Looming above her, he captured her mouth again, thrusting his tongue between her lips as he caressed the swell of her breast with his knuckles.
Fire burned through Cecily’s veins, and moisture slicked her skin. A familiar ache started in her lower belly and moved southward, intensifying into a deep throb with each stroke of Rafe’s tongue against her own. Tangling her legs around his waist, she arched against him, silently begging for more contact, more skin, just…more.
A whimper bubbled up in her throat when Rafe rolled away from her,
but he returned quickly, brandishing a cellophane envelope between his teeth. Once he’d unsheathed the condom from its packaging, he covered Cecily’s mouth again, sucking hungrily at her tongue and nipping at her bottom lip until she felt strung too tight.
Insinuating himself between her legs, Rafe blanketed her body, covering her from sternum to hips as he pushed into her, stretching Cecily’s inner walls and filling her completely. The scared part of her, the part she kept locked away, warned everything was happening too fast. A much louder voice, the part of her currently shattering into a thousand pieces demanded to know why she’d waited so long.
Her breasts tingled where their skin met, and her body trembled as they undulated together in a tangle of limbs. The pressure built, growing inside her until she couldn’t contain it any longer. When Rafe swiveled his hips, touching just the right spot inside her, Cecily cried out as she bowed up from the mattress.
Then everything melted away—all of her worries, her fears, her insecurities—leaving that one moment of pure, white-hot pleasure.
* * * *
Coming awake during the night, Cecily grinned as she rubbed her cheek over Rafe’s chest. Of course he would snore. He also ate with his fingers, left the toilet seat up, and used too much salt. She liked those things about him, though, liked that he wasn’t perfect all the time.
Easing out from under his arm, Cecily rolled out of bed and tiptoed toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
Sighing, she turned to find Rafe propped up against the headboard. “Home.”
“Can I see you tomorrow?”
Cecily should have known he wouldn’t push her for more than she was ready to give. Old habits die hard. Crawling back into bed, she straddled Rafe’s lap and leaned in for a kiss.
“I’m not ready for the whole sleep-over thing, but Melissa’s right. I’m better when I’m with you.” She pushed a lock of hair back from his forehead and trailed her fingers down his cheek. “I’m a fairly self-aware kind of girl, so I know it won’t be easy. If you keep showing up, though, I’ll keep trying.”
“Deal.” Rafe raked his fingers down her back and nipped at the underside of her jaw. “Now, go home.” He kissed along the column of her throat and across her collarbones. “I’ll come by tomorrow morning and bring you some of those beignets you love so much.”
“I still have to call a cab. At this hour, it could take a while for someone to get here.”
“Mmm hmm.” Fisting one hand in Cecily’s hair, he pulled her head back on her shoulders and scraped his teeth across her shoulder. “So we have some time to kill?”
No, things wouldn’t be easy. She could be moody, stubborn, self-centered, and just flat-out difficult. Cecily meant what she’d said, though, and every day, she’d try to give just a little bit more. Anything worth holding on to came with risks, and she didn’t want to look back on her life one day with regret and what ifs.
“We might have twenty minutes or so.”
Rafe flipped her over, pressing her shoulders into the mattress as he laved kisses across her stomach and down the curve of her hipbone. “Only twenty minutes?”
Every nerve ending in her body came alive, and Cecily couldn’t remember why she needed to leave in the first place. “I’ll call the cab later.” Then she stopped thinking, stopped talking, and fell into another perfect moment of bliss.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Born with a silver tongue and a pen in her hand, Kali spends her days sleeping (she's part vampire) and her nights crafting scandalous romances with larger-than-life heroes.
Self-proclaimed patron goddess of reclusiveness, Kali currently resides in the Midwest with her oddly supportive family and tragically misunderstood cat.
Seriously, though, the cat is evil.
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