Page 93 of Raven

“Yes.”

“I’ll be right there.”

When I hang up, I glance at Sonny. Oblivious to anything, he messes with the iPad, picking a movie to watch.

“What was that?” Maddy asks quietly, walking up to me.

“The two guards who went to drop off the package at the port”—I glance at Sonny and continue in a barely audible whisper—“were shot just now.”

Her lips part in shock.

“I have to go to the Center,” I say as I walk to the door, then pause and turn to look at her. “Don’t tell him. And thank you for dinner.”

She nods, then adds, “Be careful, okay?”

I don’t know if she says it just to be polite or because she cares. I hope it’s the latter.

35

MADDY

I am upset about what could’ve happened to Little tonight.

Little is upset Raven didn’t stay for dinner, and I can’t tell him why.

Raven is probably not upset about anything at all. These are our dynamics lately.

When Kai and Callie call and say that they are watching a Marvel movie, Little decides he wants to spend a night with them. So, Kai comes to pick him up. Kai carries a gun now—this is becoming the new normal.

When they are gone, I text Raven.

Me: Sonny is spending a night at K&C. In case you don’t have plans for later…

It feels like we go through the bad times better when we fuck it out. And there’s plenty of that going on in the last weeks. But this is only the second time I’m inviting him myself.

At eleven at night, the motion sensors outside my house beep with a notification.

My heartbeat spikes, always does—this could be an intruder.

But I pull up the porch camera and see Raven’s dark silhouette at my door right before he knocks.

He is taking our arrangement as some sort of experiment. With my body—he is meticulous about everything he does to me. With my mind—he calls me often, and we talk, and I long stopped teasing him about the reason for his calls because I long to hear his voice every night. I still try to get more info about him, and he slowly starts cracking, spilling little pieces about his past here and there.

I tell myself this is only about sex. But I’m lying and have to admit that in all my relationships in the past, however short, and the short flings, however exciting, none gave the range and depth of sensations Raven does. Go figure.

He is delicate and tender, in contrast with his sharp looks. When it comes to sex, Raven is a different person. I thought he would assert his ownership every time. Instead, he’s trying to wind me up to the point that I’m so deep in want that I lose all reservations and go along with everything he does to me.

Today, my body is still slightly sore from his last night’s invasion.

Last night, he used his fingers to spread me open and peppered little kisses up and down my thighs until I contorted under his touch and finally asked him for more. He chuckled in satisfaction like he always does. He likes playing with me. He made me come twice in a row with his fingers and tongue. Then he cleaned me up with his tongue, taking his time, so primal, like an animal, that I blushed head to toe as I watched while he only smirked when he got done, sat back on his heels, and stroked my wide-spread legs as he studied my nakedness. “You are such a delight, Maddy.”

But other times he is quiet, fucking me slowly, touching me as he does, or pausing altogether and occasionally nudging his hips as he whispers sweet filth in my ear. He often stops in the middle of it and locks eyes with me. I feel his thighs against mine, him lodged inside me. The stillness is more intimate than movement. But then he starts moving… It’s so physical. But his gaze screws with me mentally.

And he never takes his clothes off, not fully. I’ve long stopped asking for it.

Tonight, Raven is quiet, his stark features somehow even sharper as he tongues his cheek while making us drinks. I know all his moods by now. We make small talk, though he won’t talk about what happened at the port—the usual diplomacy—until he sets his empty drink down and says, “I want you on your bed, Maddy baby.”

Raven notices everything—my body language and my gestures, when my eyes start gliding over his body or his hands or drop to his lips. When I shift impatiently, wanting to get naked. And he knows when to gently order me around at the precise time when my body starts showing my craving for him.

---