Page 54 of Raiden

He slows the kiss down, taking his time after a minute, savoring me like he did that whiskey that I can still taste on him. He strokes my tongue with his, making me moan with the mad need to be closer. I grasp his wrist and bring his hand around to my thigh. He pushes up my dress, hooking two fingers inside my panties so he can feel the slick, burning heat of me and know just how badly I want him.

He strokes one finger down my slit while he caresses my tongue with his in tandem. I push against his hand, trying to get him inside of me, but he won’t give that to me.

He cups the back of my head instead, digging his fingers into my hair while he keeps smoothing his finger down my slit, bumping against my clit frustratingly and against my entrance like the worst tease.

He tilts my face to the side and kisses me deeper, taking his time like he wants to memorize every detail of my mouth.

I know my panties are soaked.

The vibrations of the music pulse through these walls, up into my back. My legs are starting to tremble. I’m glad Raiden has me pinned to the wall. Another minute and I’m going to be leaking all over his hand, coating my thighs as I soak through the lace panties. Still. He kisses me like he’s in no hurry to get to his room.

I want to get to his room.

I need to get to his room.

I want his cock down my throat, in my pussy, filling up my ass. I don’t fucking care where—I just need him. It’s all I can do not to sink to my knees and take him out right there and prove to him that I have just about no gag reflex.

I slide down a little as my legs start to buckle, catching the flash of black behind Raiden in the hall.

“Ray. Oh my god.”

Raiden whips himself in front of me, reaching around to the back of his jeans for a weapon. I don’t know if it’s there or not. If it is, he doesn’t draw it. “Christ, Gunner!”My hand flies to Raiden’s chest to steady myself, his heart hammering underneath my fingers. I wasn’t the only one who just got startled out of my skin. “The shit you sometimes pull is abnormal as fuck, you know that?”

Abnormal as fuck about sums it up. The way he’s watching, propped up against the wall like a disinterested corpse, eyes glowing like two terrible shuttered gas lanterns piercing the night in twin halos, is nothing but straight up terrifying.

Gunner’s lips pull back in a tight, black smile. It’s even scarier than his usual flat, disinterested expression. “I know. That’s why I wanted to apologize.”

Raiden doesn’t unfold his body from mine. “It’s kind of a bad time right now.”

Gunner blanks, someone dialing down the knob on that lantern. Whatever emotion he was displaying is gone. Forced? Faked? I’ve met a lot of different people, but no one like him.

He turns that dimmed down icy stare on me. “I scared you.”

I shrug and cross my arms, putting one boot against the wall to lean casually, slightly away from Raiden. I’m nowhere near as good at faking it as Gunner is, so might as well go with the truth. “You’re scaring me currently.”

“I…” He glances over his shoulder, down the hall, but we’re alone here.

I don’t get the sense that Gunner could ever be an enemy, and thank god for that, but the creepy factor he has going on is always going to be blasting as loud as the music currently thumping up the floorboards and vibrating in the walls.

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me.” He turns to Raiden, giving me a moment of relief. “This place… you guys are the only family I’ve literally ever known. There’s not many choices for a man like me in life, and Zale saw that. Back before he was twisted up and blinded by the shit that doesn’t mean anything, he used to get it. He used to see straight into a man and know the heart of him.” He knocks his fist over his chest. “Physically, I have one. Even the worst monster has to, in order to breathe.”

Maybe Gunner wants people to think he doesn’t feel. Maybe he truly can’t most of the time, but it’s obvious that something got through. He’s struggling. He’s here for a reason. The remorse of taking a life so brutally and almost gleefully that day outside the range is lacking, but he’s capable of knowing fear. Does he think he’ll be cut out of this place?

“That’s bullshit. There’s always a choice and you know it,” Raiden cuts in.

“I chose to come here, yeah? I don’t want to lose it.”

“You think that I’d go to Gray and—”

“No. I’m only here to apologize. It’s the right thing to do.”

“But not what you feel in your gut you should do.”

“We both know that feeling isn’t my forte.”

I’m not sure that’s the truth. I watch his face darken during his exchange with Raiden like someone’s just slipped the sharpest of blades through his ribs.

“I know fear and apprehension. You’ve seen what I am. You knew before, but now you’ve witnessed it. It’ll change—”

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