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Josie tilted her head back and wiggled closer into my arms. “I like your brand of terrible things.”
“How did I find you? Hell, how have I not found you before? Damn, girl. The things I want to do to you.” My cock hardened at the myriad of images scrolling across my vision. “Before I put this on you, I need you to understand me perfectly. You stay with me, as often as possible. I’ll look after you in every way I can. But that’s a two-way door. There are certain things Iwant from you, no questions asked.”
“Like what?” Josie shivered against me.
“Wake up with me every morning. Breakfast, too. Let me work out the aches in that leg of yours, especially after something like this. If I ask you anything, anything at all, you answer me truthfully. Zero secrets between us. Remember, good girls get rewards.” I kissed her before she had a chance to say no. Unfair, and I was asking a lot of a kid who hadn’t graduated with her degree yet.
“Agreed,” she gasped, breaking the kiss first, then she dived right back in.
I let her play for a bit, indulging in tangling my hands in her hair, tilting her head back, and kissing her until she moaned in my arms. My heart thumped a steady rhythm, and I knew I’d gotten it right. Her. With me. My heart ached, swelling in my chest.
I swallowed and tried to focus. “What are you studying? Journalism?”
“Communications and Media. I can still work on my major.”
“Make it whatever you want. I’ll support you. Emotionally, financially if you need, but on the dollars front, I might know someone who can help with that. Let’s clean up, shower properly, then we need to have a chat with someone.”
A million questions lit her eyes, and the short, sharp, panicked breaths returned until I kissed the fears away and held her until she dozed on my chest.
Then I led her into the staff bathrooms and worked every knot from her body, making sure I worshiped her with my tongue as much as I could before the hot water ran out.
Chapter Seven
Josie
A few weeks later, I sat opposite Rafe’s desk in his meticulously clean office. A flurry of fluffy balls rolled across the carpeted area, bouncing into one another. Each bounded up and turned out to be the club owner’s pseudo-kids he’d inherited when he married Willow. The mixed families the club generated still amazed me, but as Knox had promised, I’d finally found a place where I was accepted. I didn’t see pity in any eyes, and I wasn’t shunned because I was broken.
I discovered more shifter peeps just like me who had never felt they had fit in anywhere but had found a family in Fray’s unique blend of brave and broken but supportive community.
“Ready for your first day?” Rafe slid into his desk chair with the grace of a billionaire-cross-mafia boss, though his fortune had one less zero after the dollar sign.
I winced, still experiencing sparks of guilt every time I looked in his direction. “Yes,” I whispered, working through what could have happened if I’d followed through on the intent I’d never been happy with when my previous boss sent me on assignment into Fray’s darkest shadows.
I’d come out changed though not unscathed. Knox had a whole lot to do with my healing process and the fact I had a new job. One where I didn’t have to hide who I was or be afraid anymore.
“You’re not happy to start today? Would tomorrow be better? Is it … a bad time of the month for you?” Rafe’s face offered only sympathy while mine blazed.
“No! No, today is a good day to start. It’s fine.” I swallowed nervously and folded my hands into a knot on my lap.
Rafe’s dominance blared at me from across the smallishspace without the help of anything to enhance it. “You’re fine?”
“Not in that sense.” More wincing.Floor, please open and send me back where I came from.“I was just thinking of what might have happened to you and Knox and to Fray if I’d… You know. If I’d done the job I was hired to do and brought the building crumbling down on party night. Or in the afterglow of it.” I bit my lip and stared at my knotted hands.
“I’m glad you have thought about it.” Rafe leaned back in his seat and rapped the desktop with the back of his knuckles. “I must admit that I had no hesitations in scaring the life out of you and throwing you out on your ass, alongside Knox for suggesting I take you on. But he fought for you, and you’ve both proved me right.”
So far.
The unspoken comment hung between us.
I knew Rafe didn’t give trust easily, but I was grateful for the chance he’d provided me in his community. “Knox thought you were likely to come in, claws and beak blazing, and roast us for dinner.” I offered a stilted laugh at the image that was all too easy to bring to the front of my mind.
Rafe’s shifted figure as a wedge-tailed eagle blew my mind, though I still hadn’t seen him change in person. I’d heard stories, though, and in the post-Christmas run, he’d put up a notice for the next monthly Sunday picnic that was held on a Monday, though I still had no real idea why.
“I prefer my meat raw.” Rafe’s smile dripped with sin for a long, quiet moment before he switched gears. “Lux will be your tour guide for the next few weeks. She knows the club, the patrons, and who I’d like to target in terms of advertising and promotions. Plus, there are a few side pieces I’d like on the website if you’re not above a little copywriting. In return, get your grades up. They’re good, but you can be better. I stalked you in my spare time.” He raised an eyebrow in challenge.
I kept my silence, and his grin grew wider.
“Get yourself on the Dean’s list, a few commendations, and I’ll pay your university fees off.”
