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“Hi,” she said. Actually, squeaked is more like it. Her throat was suddenly very dry. “Can we talk for a second?”
His back was straight and his chest was thrown out. The muscle in his jaw jumped and his furious eyes skirted away from hers. “What do you want to say, Abbe?”
She realized that she was too late. Something in him had switched off, and he’d already decided she wasn’t worth the effort. Coming here was a horrible mistake.
“Sorry. Nothing. Sorry,” she repeated, backing away from him and turning around at the same time. She couldn’t see anything, and her feet felt numb and clumsy. She almost ran right into his uncle Gabriel, and he had to sidestep her as she blundered past.
“Dammit, Abbe,” she heard Rafe growl. He grabbed her arm to stop her from falling over and started pulling her in the other direction. “Go ahead without us,” he nearly shouted back to his family as he steered her toward his private elevator.
He practically punched the console with his key card and stood holding onto Abbe’s arm, not looking at her, as he waited for the elevator to arrive. She shifted on her feet, glancing up at his forbidding expression, feeling very much like she was being marched to the principal’s office to get expelled. When the elevator got there, he pushed her inside and backed her into the corner as the door closed.
“Why the fuck do you drive me so crazy?” he said, caging her there.
“I’m really sorry. I couldn’t see it from the outside, and now that can, I get how breathtakinglystupidI was, and I will never—”
She didn’t get a chance to finish what she was going to say because he was kissing her and pushing her legs apart with his knee. She fitted herself against him, riding up on his thigh and scuffing her breasts against his chest as she struggled to get him closer.
The doors opened and he threw himself away from her, taking her arm again and pulling her along behind him as he stormed through his apartment to the master suite. He tossed her onto the bed and started unbuttoning his clothes.
“If youevergo out with that prick again,” he whispered.
“I won’t,” she said, pulling her shirt off over her head and immediately reaching for his belt.
While she undid his clothes, he started pulling off hers, practically ripping them off her body. He trapped her head in his hands and kissed her, pushing her back until she was in the middle of the mattress and lying pinned beneath him. And then he suddenly slowed down. He pulled his head back to look at her, smoothed her tousled hair off her face and out of her eyes, and kept his hips poised above hers even though she was arching beneath him, trying to catch him, and slide him inside her.
“Are you punishing me?” she asked as he kept angling himself away.
He kissed her deeply and entered her slowly, every bit of him tight and straining like he was holding back an ocean. Writhe as she might, he wouldn’t go faster. He used his size and his strength to pin her down and make her wait, building the moment until she thought she would cry. When he finally let her come, it was because she had begged him for it, had promised him anything and everything, and because he couldn’t stand it any longer, either. They stayed silent for a long time afterward, both of them shattered.
The sun had long since set, and the only light in the room came dim and askance through the doorway. Daisy came in and jumped up on the bed.
“I can’t see you anymore,” Rafe said, and sat up to turn on a light. When he did, he looked at her lying in the sheets, and his face twisted up comically. “Why are you covered in glitter?” he asked.
Abbe lifted an arm and saw some. “Oh, crap. Sorry. It’s all over your bed now. We dressed some of the animals up in Halloween costumes. I had to hold onto Mabel. She was the Good Witch Glinda, and she was not okay with it,” she said as Rafe crawled back into bed with her.
“Why are you torturing your animals?” he asked, snuggling against her.
“To get them adopted,” Abbe replied. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but humans love seeing animals dressed up like little humans.”
“People are weird,” he decided. “And not just rich people.”
She debated telling Rafe about what was really happening at the shelter. She had avoided it on purpose because he had the kind of money that could solve her problems, but she didn’t want their relationship to be about that.
He lifted his head so he could see her expression. “What is it?” he asked, sensing her inner turmoil.
“Nothing,” she lied. If she told him now, would he always wonder if she was with him because of his money? The thought was unacceptable to her. Besides, she was used to solving her own problems. “I sort of ran out on Charles and left him to shut down the shelter. I didn’t even bring my iPad so I could watch the animals.”
“Do you want to go get it?” he asked.
Abbe sat up. “I kind of have to or I’ll be worrying all night,” she admitted.
He sat up with her. “Okay. We can sleep at your place,” he said.
“No,” she replied, laughing. “I’ll take the T. You don’t have to—”
“Abbe. I’m not letting you go alone.”
Watching him get up and go to the closet to find something comfortable to wear, Abbe felt this overwhelming need to tell him something.
