Page 68 of The Fighter
Raven lifted her wrist higher and mouthed, “Say something.”
Having no choice, I imitated Boulder’s voice, “Everything is fine. Raven is with me.”
“Thank you, sir. Have a nice evening.”
“You too, and oh, one last thing… if it gets too late, we’ll just have Raven stay for the night.”
“Understood, sir.”
Finishing the call, Raven gave me a crooked smile. “Thanks,Dad. I feel like such a rebel.”
I rolled my eyes but smiled. “That’s because you are. If your dad finds out about this, he’ll kill me.”
“For pretending to be him – I doubt it.”
“Make yourself comfortable while I get us something to drink. And just for the record, if he doesn’t kill me for impersonating him, then he’ll surely kill me for the things I plan to do to you tonight.”
My last comment was gutsy, and I watched her from the open kitchen to read her reaction to my words.
“Why? Are you going to hurt me tonight?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t see why my father would kill you. I’m here voluntarily and as long as whatever happens between us is consensual, it’s no one else’s business.”
When she spoke like that, it was easy to forget how much younger Raven was than me. Bringing over both beer and wine, I asked what she preferred.
“Hang on, I’m just telling my drone to come here.” After closing down the remote connection on her wristband, she gave me a smile. “I’ll take wine, please.”
I poured Raven a glass before joining her on my leather couch.
Raven’s hands were shaking a little when she swallowed half the glass of wine and gave me a poor imitation of a confident smile. “Are you afraid of me now?”
I was nervous and dried off my sweaty hands on my pants before reaching for a beer. “Of course not.”
“Then why are you sitting so far from me?”
Moving closer, I took a big swig of my beer and set it back on the table.
Raven emptied her glass and looked up at me. “So?”
Our eyes played the invitation game of switching between looking deep into each other’s eyes and down to each other’s mouths, and when she wet her lips, I knew I should just kiss her, but confusing questions in my mind were holding me back. I was nose to nose with her and could almost feel her lips on mine when I pulled back and placed my hands on her shoulders. “Raven, what are we doing exactly?”
Her eyes blinked. “You were about to kiss me, I think.”
“Yes, but the thing is that I’m not sure I understand what your motive is. I mean, you’ve made out with me and flirted with me to distract me from knowing that you were still investigating after I had ordered you not to. But this… what is this?” I swung my hand between us. “I agreed to help you solve the case, so why are you here? What is your motive this time?”
“Do I need a motive?”
I rubbed my forehead. “No, but I like to make sense of things, and your mixed signals are fucking confusing.”
“It’s confusing to me too.”
Sighing, I waited for her to continue.
“I’m an explorer by nature and for years I’ve wondered about sex. I guess that when you came home that day and found me here, an opportunity to explore presented itself, and so I took it.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You make it sound like you would have done it with anyone!”
