Anything but Minor (16 page)

Minutes later, we remained naked and wrapped in each other’s arms on his couch as his head lay on my chest and his fingers drifted over my skin. I feathered mine through his hair as he kissed me lightly on the side of my breast and then underneath it and continued over my stomach.

“Alice,” he whispered as neither of us moved in the quiet house that was only interrupted by the sound of our breathing. “I want you to be mine.”

“It was the sex,” I whispered back with a small smile he couldn’t see.

“No, it was the blow job,” he chuckled as I smacked his head.

“We’ll see.”

Rafe lifted his head and looked at me with a frown. “We’ll see?”

“Yeah, I think I’ll take a page from your playbook.”

“I don’t have a playbook.”

“Then I’ll think one up for myself.”

“That’s totally fucked up,” he said with a grin. “Challenge accepted.”

“Have you ever even
had
a girlfriend, Rafe?”

“Of course, plenty of them.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“What about you?”

“No.”

“Never?”

“No.”

“But you’ve had sex.”

“Twice with the same guy when I was twenty-one. It was anticlimactic the first time, and I was equally disappointed the second.”

“What happened?”

“We had sex.”

Rafe looked up at me with a frown. “No boyfriend, not even in high school?”

I grimaced at my revelation. “It’s not like I didn’t want one. It was just...impossible. You have to be seen to be visible, right? My mother was too much to deal with to try. I was asked out a couple of times, but could never date.” I didn’t mention the fact that I was holding out for Jake Ryan. He would never understand.

A few minutes of silence passed.

“Rafe?”

“Yeah?”

“Why me?”

“It could only
be
you,” he whispered as he lay back down and we both drifted off.

The next morning, I woke up to a very playful Rafe.

“Wake up and let me see them.” His deep voice pulled me into the room.

“See what?” I said, slightly agitated, sleep still beckoning me to cooperate. Suddenly aware I was in bed with a man, a beautiful man, with Rafe, my eyes flew open.

“There they are.”

“Rafe,” I said on a smile-filled whisper.

“You were hoping for someone else?”

“God no.”

His smile turned more endearing, and I realized he was fully dressed in gym clothes and covered in sweat. “It’s almost eleven. We knocked you out good.”

I stretched and then realized I was bare breasted. I pulled covers over me and clamped my mouth closed in fear of morning breath.

“We knocked me out?”

“Yeah,” he said as he lifted a brow and gestured to his crotch. “It was a team effort.”

I giggled like a four-year-old as he leaned in. “You. In. My. Bed,” he said on a deep groan. “I should lock you in here.” He stood and opened a dresser drawer and threw a Swampgators t-shirt at me. I pulled the shirt over my head. “Don’t move. I’m going to take a shower and then undress you again.”

“Okay.”

“Wow, we made you agreeable, too.”

“Stop referring to your junk as another entity, Rafe. It’s creepy.”

“We’ll shut you up again soon.”

He pulled off his shirt, revealing his perfectly cut chest, and then dropped his shorts and boxers to reveal himself fully hard. My mouth watered as a blush crept through my chest and my cheeks flamed. I was staring. God,
that thing
was inside me. Rafe smiled but said nothing else as he left the door open behind him. I did get out of bed as he showered and grabbed a shot of toothpaste from his tube and cleaned my mouth. I ogled him behind the bubble glass. I couldn’t make out much but a perfect butt and concentrated on that as I rinsed. I splashed cold water on my face and was just about to resume my place in the bed when I saw the open drawer full of t-shirts.

Andy’s words hit me like lead to the stomach.

“Every available woman in Charleston has the t-shirt.”

I knew I would eventually be jerked from the dream state I was in but had no idea how soon after I’d be pulled back into reality.

I’d just gotten my answer.

Pain seared my every limb as I choked back a sob.

Feeling sick, I pulled off the disgusting souvenir and shuffled to the living room to find my dress.

I found my cell and ordered an Uber. Four minutes.

Anger boiled through me as I made my way back into his bedroom and paced, the shower water still running. I channeled my inner Ouiser and quickly gathered the shirts from the drawer and called out to Rafe.

“I’m making you breakfast.”

I didn’t hear his response as I ran into the kitchen and set the t-shirts on the counter. There was at least a dozen. Putting my plan into motion, I heard my Uber arrive by the honk of its horn. I took a look around the living room to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything and briefly admired Rafe’s taste. It didn’t seem like the home of a playboy. Suddenly, I was saddened it was the last time I would see it. When I was sure I had everything that belonged to me, I closed the door but knew a huge amount of my pride remained behind.

I rinsed off quickly, the only thing on my mind was Alice and her lips. I wanted to drive every moan possible from her body and watch her eyes as she came. Those beautiful brown eyes did things to me I couldn’t explain and didn’t want to. Her stare was like a drug, and I couldn’t wait for my next fix. I was leaving today for a four-game series in Savannah and wouldn’t be back for another two weeks. I wondered briefly if she would make the drive down to attend a game and stay with me after. I wanted her there, and the thought made me smile. Being inside her had set my soul on fire. I couldn’t remember the last time a woman had quenched my thirst. And this woman...this woman was
everything
. She’d completely rocked my world last night with her skill set. I almost didn’t believe her when she’d told me she’d only slept with one other man. I would erase that asshole from her memory. She’d denied me when I’d asked her to be mine, and honestly, I was up for the chase. It was all I had done since I’d met her, anyway. I looked forward to it, and as soon as I walked out of the bathroom, it was game on.

I was toweling off when the awful stench of something burning hit me, and I called out to her.

“You okay in there?”

Seconds later, the alarm went off, and I hustled to the kitchen to see the shirts on the counter and one smoking on the stove.

“What the fuck?!” I looked around the living room. “ALICE?” But I knew it was pointless. She was gone. I pulled the ruined t-shirt from the stove and ran water over it before I silenced the alarms. I stood confused in my kitchen as I thought of what she could possibly be thinking when it hit me.

“Fuck.”

I looked down at my phone in the back of the sedan and sighed. “Hi, Mom.”

“Alice, how are you?” I rolled my eyes. Her tone seemed indifferent, as if the call was obligatory.

“I’m fine, Mom.”

“I’m well, thank you for asking.”

“I apologize for not asking. I’m distracted.”

Just then, a beep interrupted our call, and I ignored it when I saw Rafe’s name. I looked at my phone just as the driver pulled into the bar parking lot.

Rafe: Call me NOW!

I hadn’t said a word to the driver aside from the address but knew he was paid so I exited the car and got into my Prius. It was only fitting I took the drive of shame in last night’s clothes while I spoke with my puritan mother.

Rafe made you feel this way. Don’t forget that.

“What’s distracting you?”

“Work, of course,” I said with a dry tone—a tone acceptable to her. Any sort of excitement or animation on my part had always been deemed unnecessary. The woman was allergic to happiness.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll handle it. You’ve always been a smart girl.”

“Thank you.” A compliment was a nice change of pace. So I asked her genuinely, “How are you, Mother?”

She spent the better part of twenty minutes telling me about church, about a small bridge club scandal that involved...she lowered her voice to a whisper “
infidelity
with one of the player’s husbands with another’s wife.”

I listened halfheartedly while mentally kicking myself for letting myself feel for Rafe.

He’d been so gentle, so completely perfect. I let a single tear slip down my cheek.

Friendship over.

Alone again.

I ended the call with my mother and decided to hit the store before I went home. Carbs and movies had to fix this. I had nothing else. I pushed my cart down the aisle in last night’s dress, completely dazed. I had only grabbed a box of Twinkies and was sure I’d spent an hour just circling the store.

“Hey, you,” Kristina greeted me from out of nowhere. “You must live close.” She eyed my dress and gathered her conclusion which, unfortunately, was the right one. She saw my face fall as I nodded my head in agreement and then let the budding tears fall.

“I’m such an idiot.”

Kristina quickly looked around us and moved toward me. “No, you aren’t. You’re just a victim to his charms like the rest of us. Come on,” she said as she put my box of Twinkies in her cart and began grabbing everything I would have, had I been in the right state of mind.

“You’re coming with me,” she said as she grabbed two bottles of wine. “We’ll make it a lazy ‘Fuck Men’ day, and hang at the pool.”

“Where’s Dillon?”

“With his grandmother, thank Jesus. I was going to do this alone, but now I have you.”

“I won’t be much for company. I don’t have a suit,” I said as she pulled a few bags of assorted chips and threw them in the cart.

“I’ve got you.”

Pain seared through me as she looked on at me with sympathy.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I thought I was onto something.”

“We all do,” she said as she pushed the cart in front of her and me along with it.

An hour later, I floated in a large inflatable pool in a borrowed bathing suit with a plastic cup of red wine in my hand. Despite my circumstances, I smiled at a perfect looking Kristina who looked stunning in a silver bikini as she danced around her yard, picking up toys as Lana Del Rey sang about her heart.