Page 19 of Raw & Vulnerable

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When Ariel announces that she’s staying at her place for the week at a minimum, Minnie returns to work, feeling like the walking dead. She realizes that she needs to face him eventually, like an adult. Her co-workers welcome her back and ask her if she’s feeling better.

“Mostly,” she replies with a watery grin. “Probably a twenty-four-hour thing.”

The morning passes by as it normally does, giving her a false sense of security. She drinks her tea; she browses books and shelves them. Then, she catches sight of him writing on one of his notebooks, working on something from in one of his class books.

His eyes lift upward from across the way, as if sensing her gaze on him. The expression that shifts across his face isn’t exactly friendly, just flat, like a shark with empty pits for eyes. Minnie flushes and turns away quickly.

They don’t talk that day.

They don’t even talk the next.

Minnie figures that’s it, she had her twisted affair, her sick experiment with danger, the bad guy. The villain. She mentally dismisses him and denies her own feelings on the matter. Feelings, such as missing the way he talks, sharp, sarcastic. The hypnotic way that his cruel lips pull her in, the way that she can’t look away when he catches her gaze.

The way he looked when he had his fingers curled inside of her, like there was nowhere else he’d rather be, but crawling into her flesh.

She wants him to…do things to her. Things that she shouldn’t want. Regardless of her concern around who he might have been, who he is, she wants him to run his hands down her naked sides, leaving trails of fire in his wake. She wants to beg him to be gentle with her, just to see him smirk at her, like he’s thinking of saying no when his hands easily say yes.

Minnie wants to feel the strength in his hands as he pins her down, owns her. She wants to see the contrast of his tattoos pressed against her skin. She wants to trace the snake that winds its way down his arm, to feel his tongue worshipping her between her legs.

She wants him to prove how weak she is, she wants to feel a certain amount of helpless underneath the press of his strong body. The feel of his desire hot against her naked thighs, smearing her with his liquid lust.

It’s been averylong time since she was last with a man and she wonders if he’ll fit inside her, if it’s going to hurt when he pushes his well-endowed cock inside of her. Perhaps it will be quick; perhaps he’ll just bend her over like he said he wanted to, just a faceless girl to work into from behind, thrusting like a buck in rut, grunting, gripping her hips so tight that she bruises…

…A visual of kneeling between his thighs, naked, while he strokes himself, eyes black with lust, aiming his cock at her breasts, the tattoos on his abdomen flexing with his movements…

Lost in her heated thoughts, sitting under one of the trees on the well-manicured library front lawn, she barely notices when someone plops down into a crouch beside her. Surprised, Minnie looks up, nearly spilling her ramen.

He sighs, eyes caught on the long noodle connecting her mouth to her small instant noodle container. “Yo.”

Slurping the noodle away sloppily, Minnie swallows and stares into her soup. She feels strangely elated that he’s approached her, though her heart still feels a nervous flutter. There’s no doubt about it; she’d hurt him, somehow, that night. With her words. “You’re talking to me again?”

Gage makes a frustrated noise, lips tightening as he looks away from her, elbows resting on his knees. There’s a tick in his jaw. Minnie wants to touch him, but she doesn’t. His body is coiled tight like an electric wire, live and feisty.

“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings that night,” she whispers to him, not sure what else she should say. She’s not even sure she should be apologizing, but she does feel bad, because he seems to think she doesn’t want him because of his past. That’s only partially true. “I just…I just didn’t know how to react. I didn’t mean to…be rude or anything. You…are overwhelming.”

He rubs his forehead, agitated. He’s quiet for a moment. Then he says, “Apologizing isn’t my thing, Minnie.”

“So, don’t apologize.” Nobody has time for false words that mean nothing at all.

The men that abducted her never apologized and that was far worse.

He looks like he’s struggling with something. Minnie wants to touch his arm and tell him it’s okay, he doesn’t need to get this spun up about it. They can just make nice and move on. Then, he speaks.

“I probably came on too strong. Too fast for a nice girl like you.” The words come out stiffly, like it’s costing him his life to say it out loud. “I…I wanted you. Bad.Real bad. I had this…fuckin’ idea in my head about how it would go. I’m not used to girls playin’ hard to get.”

Minnie isn’t sure if she should be flattered or offended. “I wasn’t playing hard to get…I’m not playing at anything.” She pauses, because she has to ask. “So, you often just find chicks in bars and…screw around in public? Upon just meeting?”

He makes a small little contemptuous noise in his throat. “Well, yeah.”

Minnie makes a face at him. “Lovely.”

“Don’t be like that,” he says, a hint of exasperation creeping into his rusty baritone. “I always wear a condom.”

Minnie makes a gagging noise and sticks out her tongue. “Thank the lord for small favors. You know, it’s a huge turnoff to tell chicks that you get around. Are you aware of that?”

He leans closer to her, one knee touching the grass, the heady scent of him washing over her. His arm snakes about her waist, squeezing her hip in a manner that has her scoffing at him. “But what if it’s just practice until I get to you?” Gage teases lowly, his voice filled with sex and an echo of need. “I’d do you in my car, right now, if you’re down for it.”

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