Page 19 of Guarding the Shadows
If I am honest, I felt relieved when Raff gave me breathing space from the shock of seeing him, and left to go over to the venue to risk assess the place. Once he’d left, I decided to rest for a while. Leaving Benny to watch TV in my sitting room area, I took off my dress, pulled a tank top on to cover my boobs in case Benny came in for some reason, then laid on top of my bed to rest for an hour.
Usually I was great when it came to napping, but I was so keyed up since Raff had come back on the scene, that my mind was running at a mile a minute. Seeing him again had sparked memories of the times when we’d been close. I’d enjoyed his company until chemistry started to form, but I’d known he was taken and wasn’t able to show it.
I chuckled to myself when my mind jumped to earlier and how jealous he’d appeared around Benny. It made me wonder,now that Raff was free, whether I possessed enough gall to go after the man I wanted. Fear of rejection gave me some doubts until I remembered a T-shirt I had back in high school which read,“Stop staring and jump into the fire.”
Once he came back from the venue, I teased him like crazy for the hour before we made the trip back there. I almost broke through that cool exterior and restraint of his, by tempting him more than I usually would. For a man who was supposed to maintain his distance from me, he probably borderline failed.
“Can you help me with my dress?” I’d asked, sounding far more coy than normal. Wearing my little, tight-fitting red dress, I interrupted Raff as he read something on his cell phone. Glancing up, the poor guy’s eyes flared, and he coughed like he’d almost swallowed his tongue. With a reluctant shake of his head, he almost choked when he attempted what appeared to be an uneasy swallow.
“S-Sure,” he’d stuttered. He growled at the back of his throat when he tried to clear his voice, then slid off his chair, stood and quickly adjusted his pants. This drew my attention down to his groin. When my head jerked up to look at his face, he’d immediately followed my gaze. Glancing back up, his eyes met mine and he shrugged, because it wasn’t as if either of us could have pretended not to notice his thick erection had stretched and displaced the material at the edge of the right-hand pocket of his pants.
“Do you need to get a handle on that before you tend to my zipper?” I teased, blatantly nodding down at his hard-on.
He chuckled, then rubbed the back of his neck. “At least I know it still works,” he remarked. The smile he gave me was endearing and my heart gave a little lurch.
“Were you worried about that?” I asked, because by then I had no filter or any idea when … or even how to shut up.
“I guess it’s been a while,” he remarked, circling his finger in front of us for me to turn around. I did as he gestured, and the moment he saw my back he blew out a breath and murmured, “Jesus.”
I glanced over my shoulder in time to catch the look of lust swirl in his eyes. “Fuck, Beth, I’ve been around you for months, and I never noticed these tattoos before.”
“That was because you weren’t looking. You were oblivious to other women while you were with your ex,” I replied.
“Not oblivious,” he admitted. “Just quietly tortured,” he remarked. Before I could reply, a shiver of ecstasy ran down my spine because Raff ran his fingers between the fine lined tattoo of the constellation star sign Aquarius.
“Aquarius … the water bearer, yes?” he asked, tracing between the tiny lines. Wet heat soaked the flimsy lace panties that I wore, and I knew I’d need to change them.
“Uh-uh,” I muttered, my mind too blank to form a proper answer.
“This is so fucking hot,” he mumbled, almost to himself, before he flattened his hand and slid it up to the nape of my neck, wrapped his hand around it, and held it there. For a moment I thought he’d turn me around and kiss me, but he didn’t.
“Fuck, what am I doing?” he muttered angrily, and dropped his hold on me.
“Huh?” I asked as he pulled the two sides of my dress together at the back.
“Are you sure Benny doesn’t get hard every time he does this for you?” he asked when he finally got around to my zipper.
“Nope, we’re just good friends,” I insisted.
“Have you asked him?”
I chuckled. “Trust me, it’s not like that at all between us.”
“Then I need to inform you, Benny is most definitely gay.”
17
Raff
I took Beth back to our new hotel on the outskirts of town. After reluctantly leaving her in the suite with Benny, I made a reconnaissance run to assess the risk, where Beth was playing.
For a small venue there were exit doors everywhere, none of which were alarmed, and I guessed it would have been easy for the guy to slip in and out of the venue without creating attention.
After pointing out several risks to the manager, I knew I could cover most. But he agreed to hire two extra security guards to cover the one area at the back on the lower level that I wouldn’t be able to see once Beth was on the stage.
Confident in my findings and that Beth could perform safely, I headed back to the hotel for an hour of downtime before I took her over to the venue.
From the moment I stepped foot back in the suite, Beth was in maximum tease mode, flouncing around with the bedroom door open, wearing only a small pair of lace panties, and a skin-tight tank top.
