“Yeah, we do! Anyway, I just had to tell you about that, I knew you’d flip,” Rach mumbled as she flattened the last box of shoes. Thank God Mary Poppins’ box had officially emptied out.
“That was a
Mom rolled her eyes and shook her head as she smiled, and Rachel just looked at my dad like she was about to let him have it. At the last second, her head jerked back. “Wait.
“You have met your match, honey!” Mom cheered, and Dad just huffed in annoyance toward them, but shot me a wink.
“She doesn’t put up with your bullshit or mine. Son, I’m telling you, you better hold on tight to that one.”
“I will, Dad. Rach, are you done with the shoes?”
“I’m not sure. If you bring up my shoes again, I could probably sit here and re-arrange them, maybe set them up by color, size of the heel, and length of the boot.”
“Woman, get out of the damn closet. I have to put this up, and if you coordinate your shoes, I swear to you they will be in a pile on the floor the next time you come in here.”
“Logan Kash Ryan!” Mom chided at the same time Rachel swore, “I will gut you.”
My little Sour Patch. So damn cute when she’s threatening my life.
“Wait, what are you putting up?” she asked as she walked out of the closet that could fit a car inside it.
“Fake wall.”
“Uh. Why?”
“Kind of like a really cheap safe room. Actually, that’s a lie. It’s just for you to hide behind if someone were to break in or something.”
She laughed loudly and kissed my throat. “Kash, really? You’re being just a little bit paranoid. We’re not putting up a fake wall.”
Before she could move away, I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. “I almost lost you once, I’ll be working shitty hours and there will be a lot of nights you’re here alone. This is for my peace of mind, don’t be difficult.”
“Nothing is going to—”
“Rachel, stop. We’re putting up the wall.”
“You’re being paranoid!”
I kissed her hard once before pushing her gently away. “I probably am, but I don’t care. With all the clothes hung up, you won’t even notice it’s there. And if something happens, it’s there for you to hide behind. I love you, but I’m getting my way on this, okay?”
She rolled her eyes and gave my mom a look that Mom clearly understood since she started laughing. “All right, Kash. If you want to put up the fake wall to help you sleep at night—err, to keep you happy when you’re away—then have at it.”
Rachel
“OH MY WORD this is going to be a disaster,” I whispered as I pulled yet another shirt off my body and threw it on the bed before heading back to the closet.
I was so done meeting people in Florida. I had already established I was the Queen of first impressions gone horribly wrong with Floridians, and I could only imagine this one going the same. And, to make it worse, it was Mason’s family. Which meant I got to meet another family of someone that got shot because of me. Well, Blake . . . but still.
I’d been in Florida for two weeks, and though we saw Mason practically every day, I had yet to meet his parents or sister. To be honest, I’d much rather go through meeting Kash’s mom and dad again. Other than the humiliating first few seconds of meeting Marcy, the dinner had gone smoothly and I absolutely loved both of them.
But this particular meeting? I had a bad feeling about it. Call it bad juju, paranoia, premonition or an omen. I’d had my first dream about Blake in over a month the night before, and to make matters worse, Kash had been gone because he’d gotten a call for work as we were getting ready for bed. Ever since I’d woken up in a cold sweat at three AM, I’d been positive that this dinner was going to go wrong on so many levels. Blake being one of them. I was ready for him to be gone from my life. It was ridiculous that even in death, he still found ways to torture me.
Now I was running fifteen minutes late and I still couldn’t find something that would cover all my scars. I didn’t pay a lot of mind to them now, but after the dream, it was like they were neon signs on my body screaming,
I grabbed a thin, long-sleeved shirt and threw it on, but the MINE on my chest was flashing its bitchy, bright lights at me; so I grabbed a button-up shirt and pulled it over. Even though the top buttons couldn’t button without looking all kinds of messed up because of the size of my chest, the collar still covered the little scar.
“Rach, what are you wearing? It’s hot outside.”
His gray eyes were heating as they trailed over my non-existent ass, and while I loved that he was appreciating the view, this was about to be an epic fail of a dinner. I wasn’t in the mood to be checked out right now. I was having a mini-freak out.
“Yeah, but it’s also seventy today. Take off the shirt underneath.”
“I’m fine.”
Wrapping an arm around my waist, he pulled me so my back was against his chest and brought his lips to the sensitive spot behind my ear. “I know you’re fine, but you’re gonna be too hot,” he whispered, his voice dropping even lower as he began slowly unbuttoning my shirt.
Goose bumps covered my body when the cool metal of his lip ring brushed against my skin, and I felt myself getting ready to say I would do whatever he asked of me. He was such a cheater. He knew what that ring did to me.
“Open your eyes, Rachel.”
I did as I was told and found his gunmetal gray eyes looking directly into mine. Even through the reflection of the mirror, I could feel the heat from them and sense the want. His hands trailed over my chest, waist, and stomach; the pressure so light I almost couldn’t feel it, but it was doing insane things to my stomach and my breathing quickly escalated. I watched as he slowly took my top shirt off, the movement of his hands so calculated and controlled, I felt like we had just entered some form of foreplay. If I’d thought I had wanted to stay home earlier, I was definitely all for skipping this dinner now.
After he tossed the first shirt onto the bed, his hands did their barely-there touches over the swell of my breasts and down my waist again until he hit the hem of the long-sleeved shirt. One hand slipped under, and a breathy whimper of need sounded in the back of my throat when his warm hand caressed my bare skin. He smiled against my neck and nipped on it lightly. I wanted to shut my eyes and enjoy every touch, but everything in me was screaming to watch the most erotic undressing I’d ever witnessed or been a part of.
Like with the first, his movements were slow and controlled as he pulled this shirt higher, but now he gave little teases of fingertips being brushed against my skin. By the time it was over my head and he was letting it fall to the ground, my entire body was on fire and I was practically panting with need.
“Rachel,” his voice traveled over my bare shoulder like a caress, and I let my bodyweight fall against him.
“Hmm?”
Suddenly he was gone and I stumbled back a step before catching myself. I turned to see where he’d gone and my button-up shirt hit me in the face.
“What the—”
“Get dressed, we gotta go.”
“The hell, Kash? You can’t do stuff like that to me and then stop!”
