Staking His Claim (6 page)

Elaina thought about it in contemplative
silence for a moment. "You don't think he's intense?"

"Raul? Absolutely, I think he's intense. But
he's also a great guy. I haven't known him very long, but Brian
trusts him. Trusts him and respects him. They have a solid
friendship, and I know my husband well enough to know he doesn't
give his friendship to just anyone."

"So you're saying you think I should
what--
go for it?"

"That's for you to decide. I was mostly just
curious. But I do think he's a good man and he'd never mistreat
you.
Ever
."

Elaina bit her lip and stared thoughtfully at
her aunt.

Janie continued, "And with your birthday
coming up, and the fact that I'm in full party mode, I don't know
how you're going to be able to keep your age under wraps for much
longer."

****

Two weeks passed as Elaina tried to come to
terms with her feelings for Raul. If only she could talk to her
mother one last time. She trusted Aunt Janie, but she desperately
needed one last conversation with her mom.

Obviously, she wasn't going to get it.

She searched her soul, trying to understand
her own self. With an inborn woman's intuition, she knew if she
started something with Raul it was going to be something serious.
She felt like she had control in that respect, at least for awhile.
As long as he was unaware of her age, she knew he would continue to
try to keep his distance. If and when she gave him the green light,
she figured he'd jump on it.

Trevor called and asked her out, and she
turned him down. She wasn't interested in him the same way he was
interested in her, and she didn't want to give him the wrong idea.
In the back of her mind, she wondered if she was trying to please
Raul. No doubt he would be pleased that she stayed away from
Trevor, and anyway, the last thing she was thinking about was
starting something with somebody else. All she could think about
was Raul Vega. She didn't need anything or anyone else clouding her
confused brain anymore than it already was.

She spent her days going over job prospects
in the small town. There was an opening for a teller at the bank,
and she applied for it. The interview went well, and she thought
she had a shot at the job. She waited to hear.

One day led into the next, and she couldn't
believe how difficult it was to stay away from Raul. She thought
about driving to his house more times than she could count, and the
knowledge that his number was programmed in her cell phone was a
temptation that was hard to ignore.

But she persevered, and in the end, managed
not to call or text him at all.

****

The day of Elaina's birthday party, Raul had
trouble with a mare in foal. The breech birth had been rough and
ended up costing him. He had to call a veterinarian out and by that
time it was too late. He lost both animals. Losing an animal in the
birthing process was never easy.

He was in a savage, black mood.

It had been two weeks since he'd seen her.
Two weeks in which he'd done his damndest to stay away from her. If
he could just make it through until she went back to school, he
could breathe easier and his damn conscience could shut the fuck up
for awhile.

Every day felt like pissing nails, his guts
ached for her so badly.

He arrived late to the party, after ten, and
it was in full swing. He grabbed a beer from the cooler on the
front porch and pushed his way into the house. Janie had pulled out
all the stops for Elaina's party, and the house and yard were
decorated in hundreds of lights and lanterns. The evening was
frosty but mild with no wind, and guests circulated from the house,
to the yard, and back again.

He popped the top and took a swig and tried
to contain the ferocious heat running through his blood.
Experiencing death first hand sucked, and he needed something soft
and sweet to knock the dark memory from his brain and force life
back into his veins.
He needed her
.

He'd managed to stay away from her for two
aggravating weeks, and now as he searched for Elaina, he had to
stop time and time again to speak to people he knew. The guest list
was varied. Older married couples interspersed with middle-aged
singles. Dotted around in groups were teenagers and young
twenty-somethings. He imagined Janie had invited them for Elaina.
He glanced around as casually as he could and tried to break free
from a neighbor who had heard from the vet about the loss of his
animals. Word travelled quickly. It was the last thing he wanted to
talk about, and he pulled away as quickly as he could.

Still, it was forty-five minutes after he
arrived before he found her. And when he did, his mood turned even
more black and ugly. The fire in his gut smoldered with feral
jealousy as his tortured gaze saw her and the animal inside of him
tried to break free.

She was outside in the gazebo, holding a
glass of champagne, surrounded by a group of young people, both men
and women.

That wasn't the part that made him see
red.

Trevor stood beside her with his hand
playfully twirling in her hair. He wasn't touching her anywhere
else, but it was enough to send rage and jealousy spinning through
Raul.

He stood on the pebbled pathway, downed half
his beer, and tried like shit to gain some fucking control. He
wasn't going to jump. Trevor was basically a good kid and Raul
absolutely couldn't go over there and kill the little prick. His
feet took two steps toward the gazebo and he froze.

He was
not fucking going to go
over there and jump down that kid's throat.
He wasn't
.

He lifted the beer, drained the rest and
crushed the can. His throat tightened and he waited for Elaina to
see him.

When her eyes lifted and fell on him, she
stilled. Completely.

He was twenty feet away but he could see the
tremble in the hand that held her champagne.

It made him feel slightly better.

Her head tilted to the side, away from
Trevor, and he watched as she surreptitiously lifted her hair off
her neck and made it fall from the younger man's hand.

The kid let his hand drop as he turned away
to laugh at something one of the other girls in the group said.

As Raul stood and watched the scene in front
of him, he heard the rumble of an engine and looked across the way
and saw Brian on a tractor, hauling a twenty foot trailer full of
hay around to the back of the house.

One of the girls screamed, "Hayride!" and one
by one the kids took off toward the trailer loaded with hay and a
cooler full of drinks.

Elaina stayed still and Trevor reached down
to pull on her arm. She hesitated, watching Raul.

Raul shook his head at Elaina, giving her a
silent command to stay where she was.

Another girl in the group, one Raul
recognized as one of the Monroe twins, began pulling on Trevor's
other arm, trying to get him to move in the direction of the
trailer.

Raul walked toward the gazebo and looked at
Trevor and the Monroe girl. "You best get going. You're gonna miss
your ride."

Trevor balked, obviously not wanting to leave
without Elaina. But the little Monroe girl was persistent, and
before long she won the fight and was pulling Trevor down the drive
while he threw looks of longing in Elaina's direction.

The tractor rambled off and Raul wasted no
time. He picked up Elaina's hand and dragged her away from the
gazebo, away from the lights of the yard, and marched her twenty
yards from the noise of the party. He swung her around until her
back was against the implement barn, and he had her caged between
his arms in the darkness of the black night.

Elaina's breathing was coming shallow and
speedy. She hadn't seen Raul in two weeks, and the sudden sight of
him watching her like a predator in the night had the blood pulsing
through her veins in a loud, clamoring testament to the feelings
she'd been trying to understand. She felt a rush to her head as
within mere moments, she was propelled away from the party and held
hostage by the most uncivilized man she had ever encountered.

He hung over her, his breath rattling out of
his lungs, his eyes brilliant in the dark night. They stood
together, breathing raggedly, eyes on each other.

He reached down, took both of her wrists in
his calloused hands and pulled them over her head and pushed them
up against the rough exterior of the barn.

She sucked in a breath as he leaned into her.
Tendrils of fear added to the sharp, hot bite of sexual excitement
that lacerated her insides. Liquid heat pooled in her panties as
currents of pleasure and need coursed through her system.

"What'd I tell you?" He hissed the words at
her.

Elaina stared, eyes wide, shocked into
silence, unable to answer.

He pushed his torso into hers. "What'd I tell
you?" he demanded as his tone became harsher.

She shook her head, unable to calm her raging
heartbeat enough to answer him.

"I told you to stay the fuck away from
him.
I told you not to let him touch you. I told you not to let
him kiss you. Did he fuckin' kiss you again? You let him fucking
touch you again?"

"N-no."

"Am I gonna have to beat the shit out o' him?
Is that what it's gonna take?"

"Raul,
Jesus
, you're scaring me--"

"I'm scaring you?
You're scaring me
shitless, Elaina." The blood left his face, turning it white, as
the intensity of his emotions ripped through him.

"C-calm down, nothing happened." She tried to
get him to understand. "I haven't been seeing him, I promise." He
held tight to her wrists so she reached out to him the only way she
could. She pushed her face into his neck and tried to soothe,
"Shh."

He dropped his head and sucked in oxygen. He
waited for the count of three seconds and then moved his lips to
hers.

He kissed her softly, taking light sips from
her trembling lips.

"You don't know that boy, baby. He's got a
reputation with women." He spoke between kisses, his lips lifting
from hers and then going back for more. "He wants to fuck you. You
know that? That's all he wants." His words were basic.
Primal.

She trembled violently in his arms as his
mouth moved to her ear, feeling him suck in a breath. He kept
talking, his voice lowering to a ragged whisper in her ear. "He
can't fuck you, Elaina."

His hands released her wrists and dropped
down until his arms encircled her waist completely. He hugged her
to him, running his hands up and down her back. "I get that you're
too young for me. I can't have you yet." His hands clenched tight
in pure possession. "But baby, you need to take care. You belong
to me
--"

She jerked in his arms and caught him off
guard. "I don't belong to you---"

His head whipped up to glare at her face and
his hand grabbed her chin and lifted it. "You're gonna fuckin'
belong to me. Just as soon as you get grown, I've told you before.
But you need to take care, protect what's mine, or all bets are off
and I'll move in now. Your choice. I'll give you time and space but
you gotta promise.
Nobody fucks you
. Now.
Promise
now."

"I don't understand what you're asking for,
Raul. You're asking me for a commitment? Without us being
together?" Confusion creased her forehead into lines. "You what?
You want me to go about the business of my life, but promise my
virginity to you?"

Raul felt the sucker punch to his
stomach.

"You still a virgin, baby?"
God, he wanted
it to be true
.

Elaina closed her eyes and let out a whoosh
of breath. She hadn't meant to say that. But she figured he already
guessed it anyway. Shit, she was only making her situation worse.
He was going to shit a brick when he found out she was lying about
her age.
Not exactly lying
.

She did know one thing. She wasn't confused
anymore. She still didn't know if she was ready for this yet, ready
for someone like him. But God, she
did
want him.
That was
for sure
. His intensity be damned. She'd learn how to handle
it. She had to. She hadn't thought of anything or anyone but him
for weeks now.

The temptation was going to eat her alive. He
was
so incredibly hot
. He was temptation personified.

She squeezed her eyes shut tighter. She
wanted someone like him to take her virginity. She wanted him to be
the one.

She just needed some time. Some time that she
knew she wasn't going to get. She needed to make up her mind. She
needed to reconcile herself to his intensity, quick-fast. He
was
so
intense.

He wouldn't be easy to handle.

His fingers clenched around her face and
demanded an answer. "You still untouched?"

Well, now, that was a different question.

She took a deep breath and attempted to
answer him. "Virgin, yes. Untouched, no."

"How touched is touched?"

She felt a flush come over her face and
couldn't answer that question.

His hand jerked her chin up and his eyes
seared into hers. "You still got your cherry?"

Elaina gasped and began shaking harder.
Jesus Christ.

His voice dropped as he continued. "Answer
me, Elaina."

"Y-yes. I mean, I think so--I guess so."

Raul learned a lot with that shaken
statement. She didn't touch herself. At least not internally. And
she probably still had her cherry. He was going to find out. But
not tonight. He couldn't trust himself tonight. But he would know.
He needed to know.

"Okay, now for my promise." His eyes
glittered down into hers.
"I'm waiting."

Elaina searched his eyes. Could she promise
that? Did she want to? And what about him? The question came from
her mouth, "What about you?"