I feel like I’m being wishy-washy, but I need some answers. “I’m sorry, I want to pretend it doesn’t matter, but there’s so much I don’t know.” I truly wish I could just accept him and his past the way he seems to have accepted mine, but the fact that I was a stripper isn’t going to get him killed, and the shit he’s involved in can easily get people hurt or worse.
Countless things cycle through my mind, but I pick one of the most important to begin with. “Human trafficking?” I can’t bear to actually say more than that.
Rafe shakes his head quickly. “No. I don’t fuck with that or street prostitution.” I take note of the fact that he said street prostitution. I already know it happens at the club. I don’t see a big distinction between the two, but he must.
“Drugs?”
He nods.
“Murder?”
Another nod, this time slower.
I take a deep breath. “What about enemies?”
“I have them,” he replies. “None of them will touch you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
I snort. “How can you promise that? I mean, yeah, I’m kind of worried about it. What about my mom? We don’t have a fancy house with a security system, not like it will help much if the cops show up.” I’m angry, but not for the right reasons. I should be pissed at him for putting me in this situation in the first place.
“I can promise to keep you safe,” Rafe states with an unshakable confidence. “And the cops aren’t going to bust through the door and arrest you.”
“I’m not just worried about me, you dummy!” Yelling at a man who just told me he’s committed murder may not be my smartest move tonight.
The corner of his lips turns up, and he gives me that lopsided grin that drew me in from the first moment. “You’re worried about me?”
“You’re actually smiling right now?”
Rafe stands and stalks over slowly, giving me time to tell him no or to move out of his way. When he lowers himself to his knees in front of me, I nearly forget how to swallow. “Of course I’m smiling. If you’re still worried about me after all that, then I can fix everything else,” he promises while sliding his palms up my thighs.
“How can you fix it?” I search his face, pleading for it to be true.
“All I need is a little time and for you to trust me.” He watches me just as closely, examining my reaction.
“You promise my mom is safe?” Rafe nods, still meeting my eyes. Goddamn, this is nuts, like certifiable. If I stepped back for a moment and explored this from the outside, I would tell myself to run as far and as fast from Rafe as I could before I get in too deep. Problem is, I’m already there. Call it first love or obsession and infatuation, but it doesn’t change how I feel. I want to be here, even after what he just told me.
There’s some part of me that recognized what Rafe was from the very first moment I noticed him. Dangerous, I admitted to myself that night at the club, but I overlooked it later because I liked the way he looked at me, like I was already his, like he knew me, the real me.
Sensing my acceptance, Rafe leans forward and seals his lips to mine. When he pulls back, I place my hand on his jaw, feeling the light stubble that always seems present. “Don’t make me regret this, Rafe,” I beg. It’s not just my heart on the line, and we both know it.
“Never. I’ll give you everything, Lucy Lawson, because you ask for nothing.” He shrugs like it’s the simplest thing in the world, but I know what I’m asking for is a lot more than nothing.
Chapter 25
Ican smell her before I even open my eyes. I turn to the side and reach for her, but the bed is empty. I bolt upright and look around. The room is dark. Like a bull, I stumble out of bed and barge into the bathroom, but it’s dark too. Did she leave after all?
I look around, trying to remember where I left my phone so I can track hers. Goddamn, I knew I should have locked the bedroom door. I should have just taken her to my loft in the city, she never would have been able to get out of there.
There’s a faint glow coming from the kitchen when I head out to continue my search for my phone. Lucy pops her head out of the fridge and looks at me with wide eyes. “Jesus, you are always scaring me. Why don’t you have any food?” She’s wearing the robe I got her. It flows over her body and is cinched tightly at her waist. I just stare at her for a long second. She didn’t leave me. “Rafe?” She shuts the door, and the room dims, taking away my view of her.
“Why are you awake?” I don’t mean to sound accusatory, but my brain hasn’t gotten the memo that everything is okay.
“I don’t know, new place. I haven’t slept in a bed that wasn’t my own in…over two years.”
“I thought you left,” I admit, and I sound like a pussy.
Lucy takes a few steps closer to me, but we’re still separated by too much space, so I close the distance, wrap my arms around her, and pull her against me. “Why are you awake?” She traces a finger over my bare chest.
“Because you weren’t there. I was about to hunt you down and force you to see reason.”
