Page 142 of Under an Endless Moon

What fuckin’ bullshit.

There was no forgetting Raven Tayte because no matter how painful it was, this woman was carved on my heart and written in my soul.

THIRTY-NINE

RAVEN

So letit be said that Otto Hudson was delusional.

Completely, freaking delusional.

Forget?

Seriously?

Yeah, I think not.

My mind was a foggy haze of lust as I struggled to focus on arranging a birthday bouquet that a man had ordered for his mother who’d turned eighty today.

Everything ran on a slow-moving reel as my mind replayed every time he’d touched me in the last twenty-four hours.

In the darkness of his room after I’d had the nightmare.

In the garage.

The feel of him as he’d stood behind me in the shower, my head tipped back as he’d massaged shampoo into my hair. His eyes tracing the trails of where the sudsy rivulets had streaked down my body.

His drenched, gorgeous flesh written in the horrors of his past writhing with restraint as he’d touched me gently.

Adoring me even though he didn’t want to admit what it really meant.

Not to mention the protection that had roiled from him whenhe’d brought me to work on the back of his bike. I loved that he’d already known that I would insist on coming in today. That he’d already known there was no chance I was going to allow some asshole to chase me from the one place I’d created for myself.

Besides, I needed a moment away from him. A breath. Some clarity.

Fat chance since Otto loitered across the street, leaning against the brick wall to the right of Sunrise to Sunset Café.

Tattooed hands stuffed in his jeans’ pockets, so big and intimidating that I felt his presence covering me like a shield.

Refusing to let me out of his sight, just like he’d promised my brother.

Brutally intimidating and still tossing out easy grins at people who passed. It seemed most were uncertain whether to grin back or run because the man was rabid and likely to bite.

From over my shoulder, I peeked that way, through the panes of glass at the man who toiled intensity, his focus unending as his attention continually swept the street.

I turned back to the pile of fresh-clipped flowers and started tucking the pink roses and white irises into the bright green sprigs. I didn’t even realize I’d gotten lost in my thoughts until I startled when the door banged open from behind.

I whirled around, silently chastising myself for getting caught up and lost, not that Otto was going to let some deviant get to me, anyway.

Unnecessary since a giant smile took to my face when I saw who was coming through the door.

Nolan started bouncing and clapping his hands overhead like he was doing jumping jacks when he caught sight of me on the other side of the counter. “Auntie Raven! Auntie Raven! Hi, we came to see you because you’ve been staying at my uncle Otto’s all the time and I miss you so much.”

His blond curls bounced around his cherub, chubby face, his blue eyes alight.

My heart panged with the adorableness that was my nephew. Panged with how much I’d missed him,too.

“What, you came all the way over here to see me?” I enthused, playing it off like I was shocked.

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