Page 33 of Raw & Vulnerable

There’s something different about the way he’s looking at her. He’s studying her face, as if he’s trying toseesomething. As if he’s trying to find something lost in her visage. Like someone trying to remember a face they saw years ago.

It’s utterly strange. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

The odd expression shifts away and his mouth twitches. “I can’t look at you now?”

“Did I actually say that or are you being difficult?” Minnie frowns at him. “What did I say about the volume of your tone?”

He rolls his eyes, scoffing sarcastically.

Lifting her chin at him, Minnie says in her best stuck-up, prissy voice, “Rules are rules, I’m afraid.”

His mouth hovers above her lips and he smirks as her breathing grows more shallow by the second. He’s playing off her wants now, drinking in the way she flushes. “The things I want to do to you don’t really mesh with being quiet, if you catch my drift.”

Flushing, Minnie feels ready to burst. It seems he’s not done with her after all. Why has he been gone all this time? As if he were avoiding her? Plus, what’s with his attitude? She can’t keep up.

She’s torn. The longing in her breast is a tangible thing, heavy and aching.

Biting her lower lip in a way that he observes with great interest, Minnie pushes her glasses up to the top of her head. “I’m not sure I do. You might have to explain it to me.”

A vicious sneer takes over his cruel lips, making him seem like the very sort of man that might commit acts of violence with ease. “Gladly.”

When his lips finally press against Minnie’s, the world burns away and her heart soars. He’s warm, tastes like fresh coffee and cinnamon, her body crying out to be as close as possible to him. His eyes and words may be harsh, but his lips are welcoming, full of tortured longing. When she comes up for air, Minnie tries to hide the bitterness she’s been feeling for days from her voice. “I didn’t see you around. I figured you’d just moved on and written me off.”

When he kisses her again, it’s aggressive, almost agonized, his teeth knocking against hers. He whispers roughly against her lips, “You’re the one who left.”

Pushing him back a bit so that she can give him a slight glower, Minnie stares at him. She doesn’t quite believe that’s a true answer, coming from him. How can a man feel that slighted when he’s the sort that picks up girls in bars? “Are you claiming I injured your male ego?” She gives him a slightly condescending grin, because she’s bitter, at war with herself, because she’s happy to see him, despite it all. “I’m sure it takes more than that, for a man like you. I don’t imagine you feel slighted by every one-night stand that leaves your bed at dawn. That’s all it was, wasn’t it? A one-night stand? Like a brag, to say you screwed the sweet librarian from the good side of town?”

The strange, slight emotion in his gaze flickers, there and gone. Minnie sees it; there’s more to this story, but he’d rather she believe the lie.

His hazel eyes examine the lines of her face, his features going strangely blank. His voice is hoarse, quiet. “It should have been.”

Hurt is like a knife in Minnie’s gut. Just to hear him admit that it was never meant to be anything serious is painful, a dull ache that only gets worse the longer she dwells on it. She can only console herself with the fact that he’s here and that has to mean something.

Trying to keep the hurt off her face, Minnie gives him a broken sort of smile that feels fake. “If that’s the case, why are you here?”

He looks away at that, his jaw and throat working, skeleton tattoo dancing. When Gage turns his gaze back on her, the air in her lungs burns.

There’s a strangely flat, cold, predator look in his eyes. It makes his gaze seem darker, like a pit. The reason for the expression is eluding Minnie. “Don’t you want to ask me what I did to earn a ticket to the slammer for years?”

It’s an odd, slimy question, feeling wrong on Minnie’s eardrums. She’s asked him multiple times before and every single time, he refused to answer, his hackles rising. Why is he trying to force it on her now? The only reason she can think of is that he’s trying to get a reaction, to scare her.

That’s utterlyirritating. What is he afraid of that’s causing him to try and push her away?

Minnie frowns at him. “I don’t care. You want to be someone better, don’t you? That’s what you told me. So, be the man I know, not the manyouknow. I don’t care who youusedto be.”

“Someday, you’ll want to know. It’s going to bother you-”

She doesn’t want to hear it. Standing up on her tip toes, Minnie rubs her nose against his, scowling at him. “Don’t. The man I’ve seen coming in here almost every day for weeks studies hard, works hard,trieshard. You can’t stand here and tell me that doesn’t speak volumes about you. I admire your drive; you’re a stronger person than I could ever be.”

His gaze softens at that, hands gentling on her hips. Those fiery eyes look at her lips, like all he wants to do is taste them again. “I tried. To stay away from you, that is. It turns out, I don’t know how to do that very well,” he says in a cryptic manner. “I should though. Stay away, I mean. You deserve better. I’m not a good man. Never have been. Worse than you even know; you’d see me different if you did. You shouldn’t admire me.”

Minnie brushes her nose against his jawline, feeling the slight stubble there. She remembers how it feels against her inner thigh, tickling her. Looking up at him again as earnestly as she can, Minnie says, “But I do admire you. Everyone makes mistakes. I’m not going to hold yours against you when you’ve been nothing but kind and gentle to me. That’s the man I know. That’s the man I want.”

The expression on his face stills, eyes settling on her own. There’s something in them that she can’t read, can’t decipher. There and gone, hidden, almostillin nature. It would be guilt, if she didn’t know better. What does he have to feel guilty about? Then, Gage gives her that crooked smirk of his, even if his eyes remain oddly distant. “You should be with a nice uptown boy that fucks to theGoo Goo Dolls.”

Okay, now he’s just being absurd. The tense feeling in the air suddenly dissipates and Minnie is glad to see it go.

Snorting at his sly crudeness, Minnie feels a genuine smile shape her lips. “I’m not really a fan.”

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