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“Stick out your tongue.”
She frowned, hoping he was in the mood to give her chocolate. She could hope it was melting.
Instead, something slimy slithered across her taste buds. That awful smell hit her next. She curled inward as her stomach bucked. Damn, she didn’t have her hands free to clutch it, but she did something even better; she spit the pickle out.
“Stop. That’s not acceptable! Open again. By god, you will chew and swallow.”
“B-but I answered you.”
“As answers went, it was a weak one, and well you know it.”
“No, that’s the serious, honest truth. Why would I stay where I’m not wanted? Where I just seem to fuck everything up?”
That wave of his displeasure came at her again, this time like a towering tsunami. “You will not use that language, Raine. Do you hear me?”
Seriously? She was supposed to amend her vocabulary, too? But that strict voice…even without seeing him, Raine knew he’d unleash something really unpleasant—like a whole jar of pickles—if she didn’t cooperate.
“Yes, Sir. I’m telling you the honest truth, Sir.”
Liam paused for a long moment. “All right, then. If that’s the truth as you see it, we’ll let that go for now. Open.”
“Am I getting the pickle?” She cringed.
“Open now!”
Raine did, knowing she probably looked like a toddler spitting out its vegetables. Sure enough, he plopped the pickle on her tongue again.
“Chew and swallow.”
Crap, she felt like she might throw up. But she managed to hold her breath and choke it down.
“Wine?” she croaked.
He placated her, putting the glass to her lips and letting her take a few long swallows.
“Thank you.” The flavor of the fermented grapes was a relief.
“Who are you thanking?”
What was his sudden preoccupation with formality and protocol? “You, Sir. Thank you, Sir.”
“Better. Who taught you to cook?”
How did they get from running away to knowing her way around a kitchen? “I taught myself, Sir. It’s better than starving.”
“Fair enough.”
For her effort, he rewarded her with a juicy bite of the roast beef that did a blessed shitload to remove the terrible pickle flavor lingering.
“Why were you in the alley the night Hammer found you?”
What kind of question was that? “Because I had no place else to go and the one behind Shadows wasn’t crowded with drug addicts and pimps searching for fresh meat.”
He grabbed her jaw in his hand. He didn’t squeeze hard or hurt her, but his grip let her know that he could. “Are you willfully misunderstanding my question?”
“No. Sir,” she added hastily. “If you want to know why I chose Hammer’s alley over another, that’s the reason.”
Liam sighed, and she sensed him re-gathering his patience as he released his hold on her jaw. “Let’s try again, then. Why, at seventeen, were you spending the night in an alley rather than under your parents’ roof?”
“I ran away. I was making the situation there worse, according to my dad. So I left.”
Those were some of the hardest words she’d ever spoken. Funny how the awful man’s rejection still had the power to hurt her years later. She needed to get over it, but Raine had discovered telling herself that logically and actually being able to do it weren’t the same thing.
And on top of Hammer’s rejection… It was like a can being crushed, then recycled, only to be crushed again.
Her breath hitched as she choked back a sob. Crap, she’d been a teary mess all morning. Maybe she really should just move on. This wouldn’t be the first time she’d lost her place in the world. She’d survived after leaving home and found something better. Maybe she could do that again. One door had closed, then she’d opened another, right?
Right. But Hammer had been the first man to break her heart. Getting over that and the loss of home at once wouldn’t be easy.
“I believe that’s how you see the situation,” Liam murmured softly.
She leaned forward to lay her cheek on the bed, but found his thigh instead. The human comfort was too much to resist, even knowing that giving him control now only gave him the power to hurt her later. But when he started softly stroking her hair, she couldn’t resist nuzzling him a bit more.
“That’s a good lass.” He caressed the side of her face with his fingers, then nestled them at her nape and lifted her face to him. “Mouth open.”
Dutifully, she complied. The sinful flavor of that good dark chocolate burst over her tongue. She moaned long and low, smacking her lips.
Suddenly, Liam bent and took her mouth in a ravaging kiss, stealing inside and ransacking, taking her tongue. Immediately, she tasted the roast beef, pineapple, and wine in his kiss. Then they shared the chocolate flavor, and he ate at her mouth hungrily before suddenly lifting away.
“Watching you eat is a sensual experience, especially when I give you that chocolate. Christ, you make a man hard.”
