Clifford Arbor: The Seduction of Raven Peters (5 page)

"What about Patricia?"

"Patricia is nothing. Stop bringing her up," Jackson warned.

"She always comes up, Jackson. You’re going to have to face facts she’ll want some cash or something."

Jackson knew how much Harley hated Patricia.

"It’s what I have to do to get her to leave us alone."

"Just let her show everyone the pictures. Everyone in town knows we’re a couple anyway.

She has nothing on us."

About a year after the divorce and the accident which had taken Tyler, Patricia came calling, blackmailing Jackson for money. She threatened to post all of the naughty pictures of him and Jackson together if he didn't pay what she wanted. The woman wasn’t satisfied with the pain she caused Jackson by killing a loved one. Clearly she wanted his soul.

"I don’t care about the pictures. Everyone in town knows about us. I’m not ashamed of you, Harley. But she has pictures of Tyler and that I couldn’t bear to see that, let alone live with."

Jackson stopped, standing up to go stare out the window. The window that overlooked Raven’s House. "I don’t want these people remembering Tyler in any other way than with love for the young man he was before he met Patricia. Those pictures could taint their image of him. I couldn’t bear that. Tyler’s gone but she’s going to show some respect for his memory."

Jackson took a swallow of beer but stood stil in the window. Harley stood beside him, beer in hand. Too much time had been spent dwelling on the past. No matter which way he looked at it, Patricia was always going to screw with his emotions. He wasn’t going to let her stop him living his life any longer. The only power she would have was the power she thought she owned. And Jackson was going to start by making his and Harley's future involved the woman over in that house.

"We need to show her we want her," Harley began.

"I think it’s going to take a little more than wanting her," Jackson sighed, leaving the window to take a seat back at the table.

"Well let’s make plans. Let’s plan the seduction of Raven Peters," Harley offered as he joined him at the table.

Raven drenched the omelet she was preparing with lots of Swiss cheese and was about to put it under the grill when her doorbell rang. She shoved it under the grill, intending to ignore the door. Anyone who was calling this late at night wasn’t bringing good news and she didn’t wish to spoil what remained of her evening.

The doorbell went off again.

"I’m going to ignore it," she chanted to herself. Standing by the open grill, her stomach rumbled from the aromatic smells wafting up. She loved her cheese golden and crispy. Not chef material but certainly her material.

Doorbell.

Doorbell.

Nope, she couldn’t ignore that. Whoever was out there refused to take a hint. Raven checked under the grill to see how her dinner was doing before she ran to the door. She checked through the peep hole and stopped, shocked. Harley was standing on her porch with a bunch of white roses.

Why is my sexy neighbor standing on my doorstep with white roses? Is he lost?

Raven couldn’t resist checking her reflection briefly in the mirror near the door while taking a deep breath to calm her erratic beating heart.

"One...two...three..."

Raven opened the door with a smile on her face hoping she didn’t look as flustered as she felt.

"Hi." Raven cringed inside. Too high pitched and way too happy.

She glanced down at the floor squeezing her eyes shut taking a tiny second before she glanced back up.

"What...um...why are you here?"

Her manners all but left her.

What is one supposed to say in these situations? Hi sexy, want to come in and lick me all
over? Bad thought. Come on Raven you’re a strong woman. Independent. You don’t need a
man to make you feel special.

"
Any reason you’re banging on my door?" She smiled hoping her words sounded teasing rather than scolding.

I’m so bad at this.

His smile, the one that made the dimple in his left cheek appear, his blue eyes twinkling more than the ocean when the sun was shining down glistening over the surface, made her heart flutter.

How could she be angry with this man?

"I came to bring my very beautiful neighbor some flowers." Harley lifted the bunch of expensive white roses.

On a closer look they had a tinge of pink to their petals. Very beautiful and delicate.

"This late at night?" Raven questioned, unsure what he expected in return. Hot man or not, she wasn’t prepared to ruin her reputation for a pretty face.

But it was a damn fine face.

If she could have hit herself in the forehead and told her evil twin to shut the hell up, she would have. Instead she smiled and pretended she didn’t have a battle of the good, moral girl and the slut fighting for the right to make a decision.

"It’s not even eight. The night is stil young," He teased, never taking his eyes from her.

If eyes were connected to hell and damnation, this man owned them. His voice spoke innocently but his tone and the gleam in his eyes told a whole other story that definitely included her and him and a very large bed.

Remember your reputation, Raven. Screw the reputation, just dive in and have Harley for
dinner.

There they went again. Good versus bad.

"Do I smell something burning?" Harley sniffed the air, moving forward.

"Shit, come in," she yelled over her shoulder.

She let him close the door as she ran back to her cheesy omelet. Golden brown. The cheese bubbling perfectly the way she liked it. She suddenly felt happier for having a grill with its own mind. It would only heat up when it deemed it needed to. Raven grabbed her plate, placing the omelet on it, moving the frying pan to the washing bowl. All she needed was a knife and fork with plenty of bread. Yum. The perfect greasy supper without much work.

"Sorry about that. Dinner."

Raven went over to the breakfast bar, facing him on the other side of the work surface. She noticed the roses still in Harley’s hands and his twinkling eyes still assessing her. She suddenly felt conscious of her shoveling technique. Raven slowed down, looking at her plate.

"What’s the matter?" Harley asked.

"Do you want something as well?" she offered, her eyes straying to the bread and butter.

"No. Feed yourself. It’s nice to see a woman actually eating." He sat down to watch her.

"Sorry. I’m a woman who needs to eat." Taking a huge bite of the omelet onto her fork, she sandwiched it between a piece of bread, the butter melting from the heat. She took a bite, moaning her appreciation for her food. She took another huge bite, her belly grumbling for more. She saw Harley smiling amused.

"Sorry," she mumbled between mouthfuls of food.

She wasn’t eating like a slob just enjoying her food.

"No worries. Like I said, this is a whole new experience for me. I take it you can cook,"

Harley told her.

"At the moment. But let’s face it, eggs and cheese aren't a hard thing to get wrong," Raven said between mouthfuls of food.

"Some people would take exception to that comment," he laughed as he spoke.

"You notice how I didn’t mention toast? Let’s just say I can’t cook a single slice of toast," she confessed.

Harley chuckled.

"I’m not kidding. Do you know you can set the fire alarm off with a piece of toast and I’ve managed to flame gril a slice, too? Not nice at all mind you but I can stil do it."

Harley was flat out laughing now.

"You ever want to destroy a piece of toast, you’ve no need to look any further." Raven took another mouthful letting him get over his fit of laughter. She smiled, pleased she could make him laugh even if toasting a slice of bread was the hardest thing she’d come across. Once he stopped, Raven offered him some of her omelet. It was rude to keep eating and not offer him something and she was pleased when he took a small bite. Raven held her breath as he savored a mouthful, moaning as he did. Suddenly her stomach tightened, her nipples harden, and a yearning overtook her so deeply she struggled to get her composure. How would it feel to have his mouth on her body? His lips trailing a path along her skin? Did he like licking a woman’s pussy? Her thighs clenched together trying to stem the flow of cream dripping from her pussy. Too long without a man.

She offered him another bite of her sandwich and he took the fork, somehow managing to lick over her finger in the process. She tensed.

The fight against good and bad was happening again.

Be strong, Raven.

"W-what," she cleared her throat. Trying to talk when her body was in chaos was not the brightest of ideas. "What are the roses for?" Raven pointed at the beautiful bunch of flowers resting in his arms.

So perfect.

"Jackson sent them over as a peace offering."

Her heart jumped a beat at the mention of Jackson. She’d really gone at him today at work.

She shouldn’t have done it. He’d meant nothing by it. That was another flaw of hers, reading too much into something. An action, a word.

These were just apology roses. It meant nothing.

"Thank you." She reached for them but he stopped her.

"You eat your dinner." He went into her kitchen.

Her one solace, she loved the kitchen. Except her toaster. She watched him, her eyes following his every move, every muscle rippling underneath his shirt. Her mouth watered and not for the food which had tempted him moments ago. Would he let her lick a path from his nipples to his cock?

Cock. At the thought she wondered if he was long, short, thick, circumcised? He would have to be big. No way was a man so confident with himself if he wasn’t well packed in that department. For a brief moment she thought about Jackson but she cut the thought off quickly. Harley was here and it was rude to be thinking about another man.

Good versus bad moments.

Imagine having two men thrusting their cocks inside your body. Devoted to you and only
you. Harley is here, think of he and Raven and not two men together at the same time.

It seemed Miss Good was losing a battle with herself.

Either way Raven couldn’t be ashamed of what her body wanted and it was becoming clear she wanted the two men who happened to be her next door neighbors.

He found a vase and arranged her white roses beautifully.

"Would you tell Jackson not to worry? I went off the deep end and it’s not his fault at all. It’s my fault. I have this thing where I read way too much into things." She finished her dinner and went to the sink speaking as she walked.

As she moved to face Harley again, she came chest to chest with him. He surrounded her, trapping her between his hard body and the sink. He moved so fast Raven didn’t have time to protest, make a sound or do anything but let it all happen. She wouldn’t complain. His heady, masculine scent invaded her senses making her ultra-aware of him, stopping any reasonable thought process she could have had. Who could think with hormones colliding like this? Raven certainly couldn’t. She licked her lips. Nervous? Hell yeah. It wasn't every day she had a sexy, hot man press her up against the sink in her own home. Especially if you counted the other hunk pressing her up against bookshelves at work.

Men from all sides. Yummy.

"Jackson has a habit of saying the wrong thing. He doesn’t consider you a quick fuck or a test drive. Far from it."

Raven wished she could break the spell and move away. No thought processes at all.

His arms moved, resting on either side of her body, blocking her in, his face on level with hers. Harley was so close she could smell the savory cheese omelet she’d just fed him on his breath. She stayed silent. Waiting.

She couldn’t move anywhere. Part of her didn’t want to move. Her eyes seemed to melt into his. He took her away from who she was and what she was supposed to be doing.

His eyes held a promise.

A promise that he wasn’t going anywhere and he was here to stay.

She licked her lips. No way would Raven analyze what his eyes were saying. There was too much meaning for that. She couldn’t trust herself to take such responsibility on her shoulders. Especially if it meant something completely different than she thought.

Raven needed to get some control of the situation.

"Why did he send you?" she whispered, her heart pounding.

Kiss me.

Miss Bad was back again
.

"He sent me and the flowers as a peace offering, Raven." One of his hands came up to caress her cheek.

His rough hand felt so good against her smooth skin. Fire burned where he touched.

Without thinking, Raven moved into his touch.

"So soft." Raven was sure she heard him moan.

"Why you and not him?" She closed her eyes giving herself up to the intoxicating press of his body, his smell. She could barely think with him so close. Everything felt so good and so right. She didn’t want to give it up, even though deep down Raven knew she would have too.

"Because I’m good with the kiss and make up part." Harley’s words held the promise his eyes portrayed. Raven was pleased she hadn’t been reading too much into it.

Kiss me. Kiss him.

Raven could hear the good versus bad and they both wanted Harley Banks to kiss them.

"Um," She moaned, closing her eyes, allowing him to hold her. "So many promises."

"I’m going to kiss you, Raven." His other hand came up, cupping her face. "Open your eyes for me. I want to see your green eyes."

Raven obeyed. Opening her eyes, she saw the intent, the promise. Oh, boy, she wanted everything he was willing to offer.

"I want you to see who wants you."

She would not, could not tear her eyes away. She wanted this. She wanted to finally feel like a woman, to be respected like a woman and finally, after so long without having her needs met, to have the attention her body cried out for.

"I know who you are, Harley. I want this, too." Miss Good and Miss Bad had disappeared leaving her to struggle with all the decisions.

"No turning back."