I lift my glass and raise it up for a toast, “To fine wine on a rainy night,” I say.
She taps her glass to mine, “And to men knowing what a woman wants.”
I nearly choke on the sip of wine I’ve just taken. The little vixen is coming on to me, probably because of the fucking mixed signals I’m putting out there, not intentionally, because the truth is I’m a conflicted mother fucker. And I know I don’t wear it well.
“So, give me the news,” I retort, “You sounded so excited when you called.”
She takes another sip of wine, and grabs a slice of cheese, and starts talking. By the time we finish off the bottle of wine, and start on another, Carson has confided to me in order of occurrence, details of her recollection dreams that started after her assault up and including today’s events. The fact she’s alleging one of her current professors and his wife are members of the sex trafficking ring, gives me grave cause for concern. I admit the coincidences could be just that: a coincidence, but I don’t want her personally digging around in this any longer.
The problem is her damn stubbornness. I know all about that trait of hers firsthand. I both love it and hate it. I also know in this particular situation it must be handled delicately, because she’s definitely psyched up about what she’s learned. And quashing her determination will be no easy thing. But there is no way in hell I’m going to let her continue on this 'Nancy Drew' mission. It’s too dangerous and she’s likely only nipped the tip of the iceberg.
If Armentrout is the brains behind all of it, Carson isn’t safe being on campus with him. Period. If he’s the one who personally assaulted her? Well, I can’t even think about what I’ll be tempted to do to him and the rest. I need to calm the fuck down right now. I have to present a calm and reasonable demeanor to Carson. I have to convince her now is the time to involve law enforcement.
“Babe,” I say softly, my fingers playing with a lock of her shiny brown hair, “you know now is the time to go to the authorities on this, right? I mean, I’ll go with you to make a report.”
She scoots closer to me, laying her head against my shoulder. “But Krew, I can’t prove anything. I still need to talk to Shelby, you know, like we talked about the other day? You said you’d take me there. She can confirm my suspicions. She’s a witness. We can get her to fill in the gaps if we play it right.”
My fingers lift her chin so that I can look into her eyes and make her understand that she’s got to stop playing detective with this. She’s stubborn and determined, and I need to make sure she knows this is about protecting her; keeping her safe.
“Carson,” I say huskily, gazing into her incredibly blue eyes, “I want you to promise me you won’t go to your classes tomorrow. I don’t want you near that Armentrout guy. Will you promise me?”
She reaches for her glass of wine, eyeing me coyly. She’s definitely got a buzz going, so maybe getting her promise on this won’t be as difficult as it typically would be. She takes a long sip of her wine. And then sets the glass back on the table and looks over at me. “But if I miss all of my classes tomorrow and then again on Wednesday, I could fall behind.”
“It’s only two days, Carson. Hell, I didn’t show up for a lot of my lectures when I was in school.”
“Seriously, Krew? You know, I’m glad I didn’t know that little tidbit before I allowed you to turn me into a human pretzel during my physical therapy for Chrissake!”
She gives me a wicked smile, and I have to chuckle. “Yeah, just so you know, it was only my elective classes I blew off, hell, everyone did.”
“But that’s just it, these are my core classes. I hate missing two days in a row.”
So now I get softly stern with her. “If I could get out of the appointments I have tomorrow, I would, but it’s just too last minute, babe. Don’t make me worry about you while I’ve got somebody in pain on my table, please?”
She scoots up and over onto my lap, facing me with a wicked grin gracing that sexy mouth of hers. “I suppose you want me to stay here where I’ll be safe, am I right?” she says, her eyes locking with mine.
“Maybe,” I reply, my hands now bracing her hips as I feel my dick harden. She feels it as well, rocking her hips back and forth slowly a couple of times, knowing she’s driving me crazy.
“Carson,” I growl huskily.
“Krew,” she replies sexily, her tongue flicking across her plump bottom lip, tempting me beyond reason. “You need to make it worth my while if you want to get your way,” she croons.
She’s such a vixen.
My hands move from her hips cupping her face and bringing her mouth to mine so I can fucking devour her. All caution is thrown to the wind because having her here is the most important thing to me right now.
Our tongues mate in a primal ritual, as my hands glide downward, over her breasts that are covered by the thick material of that damn sweatshirt I gave her earlier. I grab the bottom of it as our lips part and she holds up her
