AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Two
Raven
“Don’t move,” Rhys growls.
I swallow hard at the thunderous scowl etched into his handsome face, trying to burrow deeper into my own naked embrace as shivers wrack my body.
How did I get here? I wonder, watching him as he storms from the bathroom. The muscles in his upper arms and back bunch and coil, shifting as he turns slightly to fit his broad frame through the door. I’m naked and soaking wet, drenched in tears and shame. Meanwhile, he looks like he should be throwing tires down a football field instead of investigating violent crimes.
He might be the biggest man I’ve ever met. He’s undoubtedly the hottest…and the grumpiest. I’m pretty sure his forest green eyes see right through me. They pick the dirty thoughts out of my head as if I spoke them aloud. It’s impossible to look at him and not think them, though. He’s so damn sexy to me, like a storybook hero.
If, you know, storybook heroes were cranky giants with windswept dark hair, uneven lips, bold tattoos, and skin permanently bronzed from the sun. And if they also happened to star in every dirty dream you have and be your deceased father’s best friend and personal security guard. I don’t think there are many storybook heroes like him.
I also don’t think he’s particularly happy to see me. Not that I blame him since I just showed up unannounced on his doorstep with a suitcase. I didn’t intend to come here at all, but my dad always told me to trust Rhys.
He’s a good man, poppet. One of the best I’ve ever met. If you’re ever in trouble, you find him, you hear me? You find Rhys. He’ll protect you.
I think I’m in trouble now.
My whole world is falling apart at the seams. I have no home. No family. No money. Nothing.
Right before my nineteenth birthday, my mom died in a car accident. I didn’t think I was going to survive it, but I had my dad to help me through it. Now, he’s gone too. Three months ago, he was killed in a robbery gone wrong. Whoever broke in didn’t expect to find him at home. They murdered him and ransacked the house. Seattle Police Department still has no leads.
They’re dragging their feet while my world slowly collapses.
Little by little, my stepmom chipped away at everything I had left. She canceled my credit cards first, saying it was time I learned how to be responsible for myself. Then she canceled my tuition payment for my final year at Berklee; only she waited until the last minute to tell me. It’s too late to apply for scholarships for next year. I won’t graduate.
She also waited until I flew home today to tell me I couldn’t stay with her this summer. I’ve spent every summer with my dad since my mom died. I have nowhere else to go. I always knew she didn’t like me much, but I never knew how much she hated me until I landed at Sea-Tac, and she dropped the bomb on me. She couldn’t even be bothered to do it in person.
I just want my dad back.
“Are you crying?” Rhys growls.
I jump, my gaze flying upward.
He’s standing in the doorway, a pile of clothes in his arms, a look of horror on his face. It’s the same way he looked at me when I cried the day he picked me up from the airport three months ago. The day after my dad died.
This bristling, scowling giant was so kind to me then. I don’t remember much from that week, but I remember him. He was a bright spot in the dark, my port in the storm.He just walked right up to me at the airport, wrapped his arms around me, and promised me I would be okay.
I hadn’t cried until that moment. It didn’t feel real until then. But in his arms, the tears finally came. I sobbed while he held me, not caring that everyone passing by could see me. Not caring that they were probably taking pictures. If they did, I never saw them. Rhys wrapped me up in his arms and shut out the entire world.
All week, his presence kept the world at bay. He took care of everything while I drifted through the whole awful affair in a fog of grief. I ate because he made sure I did. I slept for the same reason. I survived because he was beside me, lending me his strength. I don’t remember the details. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the service. I don’t know who spoke. Who shook my hand. Who hugged me or offered their condolences. I don’t know who was kind to me or who whispered behind my back. All I remember is Rhys sitting beside me the whole time, his rough hand clasped tightly around mine.
“Why are you crying, Raven? What the fuck happened?” He grows before my eyes, bigger, fierce. Dangerous, my mind whispers. “Did someone hurt you?”
Only my heart, I want to say. The only thing that emerges from my lips is a pitiful, wretched sob. I clamp a hand over my mouth to stifle the sound, embarrassed that I’m crying in front of him again. I did enough of that three months ago.
“Fuck,” he swears, crossing to me in two steps. His strong arms close around me.
I let him drag me up against his chest. I’m too damned cold and miserable to resist. I’ve missed him. More than I want to admit. More than I think he’d like to know. Rhys doesn’t like me much. I think I’m an obligation to him, someone he pities.
To me, he’s the standard by which I’ve measured every man since I was eighteen and met him for the first time. None ever competed. None ever compared. They weren’t handsome enough or strong enough, or brave enough. They didn’t scowl enough or growl enough. Their eyes weren’t the right shade of forest green.
They didn’t make me ache.
Rhys does. He has for three long years. He doesn’t know it, but I’ve been in love with him since I first set eyes on him. The only time we ever met before my dad died, he took one look at me and seemed to hate me on sight. It wasn’t like that for me. I took one look at him and felt like I was staring at the sun. He blazed so brightly that he blinded me, leaving behind a permanent, lasting image of himself.
I came alive that day in ways I never was before. For the first time, I understood the desire I’d only ever experienced through song. I’d sung about the piercing ache so many times, but I never truly understood it until then. How deep it went, how much it changed you. How completely it eclipsed everything.
