Page 14 of Raw & Vulnerable

Minnie leans back slightly, feeling quite overwhelmed. Cornered. The urge to curl into him is at war with the animal sensation of needing to flee. “Because, you don’t know me.”

There’s a flash of teeth, very straight. White. Sharp. “I know you like books. You like to be in control and you’re an utter neat freak. You’re a little know-it-all goody two-shoes who has never hurt a fly in her life. You drink green tea while you read Edward Poe.”

“Edgar Allan Poe!” She corrects by default, scowling when he sneers mockingly.

“See? A know-it-all. I know you.”

Minnie chews on the straw in her water glass. Her mouth feels so dry, like the desert. What is she supposed to do in a situation like this? She can’t possibly go home with him! Not only that, her sister would probably fear for Minnie’s sanity. Her sister, who is probably watching this exchange with interest. Or, perhaps flirting at a nearby table, who can say? “I don’t…I don’t know. It’s not that I don’t want to…”

Let’s face it, she wants him. Bad. It’s just that she doesn’t know what to do with all that need inside of her, mixed with all the emotional baggage that pulls the strings in her head.

He takes the glass of water from her and puts his mouth on the cup edge, looking vaguely disappointed that it’s not vodka as it reaches his tongue. His other hand, the one with the snake and skull, slides upward from her knee subtly, resting heavily on her thigh.

She should move his hand, but she doesn’t, secretly enjoying the heat and weight of it, the way his fingers grip her tightly. Minnie feels tense, like she’s waiting for all hell to break loose, because here she is, wishing he would move his hand further up, between her thighs…

Pressure is only a sensation at the back of her mind, her ever present neuroticism dulled by her interest in him.

“What’s next on your stupid list ofwhy you can’t?” He’s teasing her, the look in his eyes telling Minnie that he’s not used to being told no. He thinks she’s going to say yes if he crosses off every reason she has.

“I don’t have a list. I’m just…I don’t do this sort of thing.” She’s overwhelmed by his proximity and the knowledge that he’sactuallycoming onto her. She hasn’t exactly missed his occasional glance at her body while at the library, but she always wrote it off as a typical male gaze. “Y-you know. I don’t know if I believe you. You’ve never really shown any interest in me otherwise.”

“At the library?” The eyebrow with the scar through it rises. “You want dirty details, is that it? I’ll tell you how it is then,” he says. Under the bar, his hand moves further, less than a centimeter away from the apex of her thighs. Minnie gasps, feeling faint. Is he going to touch her through her jeans, right here under the bar?

“I’ve been watchin’ you since you came in that door,” he tells her, breath hot on the shell of Minnie’s ear. “I almost couldn’t believe it was you. My dick got so hard, watching you smile up at the idiot taking your drink orders.”

Her breathing goes shallow, dipping with his voice, his tone curling in her belly. Desire, a knife of ecstasy in her core. She wants him so bad; she’s been thinking of him when she’s alone and now that he’s here she doesn’t know what to do with herself.

It was supposed to be a fantasy. He wasn’t supposed to actuallywant herback.

Minnie’s vision is covered in stars when his fingers press against her center, rubbing subtly against her through her jeans. She exhales shakily, feeling out of control, not sure she can stop herself from wanting this, it’s all she’s been fantasizing about for weeks.

Want and desire are burning her up and she feels swollen and wet, empty. She wants to be underneath him. She wants to be wanted by him, full of him, the reason for his pleasure. Needing to ground herself, she clutches the edge of the bar, trying to ignore the stickiness of the unclean surface.

She exhales shakily as his fingers expertly circle and press, his eyes on her face, hungry, eating up her expressions.

“You see, I wanna kiss your sweet little cunt,” he rasps into her ear, sending heat coursing through her veins. “It’s all I can think about.”

No one ever talks to her like that. Filthy, vicious.

Minnie tries to rationalize his lust for her, tries to lessen it. “That’s…just because I don’t have my glasses on. And…I’m not wearing my usual boring clothes. I just look different…”

Gage chuckles, a masculine sound of confidence. “That’s where you’re wrong. You think I haven’t thought about you in the library? Fuck, sometimes I just want to bend you over the study room table and eat you out from behind until you cum on my face. I wanna nuzzle your little clitty with my fuckin’ nose while you squeal for me. I’d write my name with my fuckin’ tongue up and down your slit, get you nice and wet for my cock.”

Her face must be scarlet, because she’s equal parts mortified and completely aroused. The bartender is giving her a knowing look and Minnie feels her heart race madly in her chest. Her center of being is aching with longing and she wishes he could just get her off right here, in front of everyone, under the bar.

But, that’s completely improper and she needs to dodge this bullet before she does something she regrets. Her sanity and dignity are catching up with her, barely hanging on by a thread.

She’s not equipped to deal with a man like this. The thought is like icy water. She’s sensitive, gentle; everything he isn’t. She requires a considerate hand and she’s not sure she can trust a man she barely knows with the task. Her nerves are ever fragile.

Clearing her throat very delicately, refusing to look at the sinful man beside her, Minnie quickly excuses herself. “I’m going to the ladies’ room. Um. Excuse me.”

With that, she gets up and practically races for the bathrooms down the far hall. There are only single bathrooms, three of them, so she ducks into the farthest, hoping she can cool herself down before going back to her sister. The single toilet and sink greet her, Minnie grimacing at the dirty floor. It’s sticky. Oh, she hates public restrooms with a passion.

Just as she’s about to shut the door behind her, someone else slips in.

Chapter 7

“Lord almighty, I didn’t mean for you to follow me in here!” She gasps in dignified shock, her voice loud in the enclosed space.

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