Page 148 of Branded
No heel to trip on, still cute enough that I’d have my shield and, hell, I liked them, so I was going to wear them.
So…Pru had done good.
Smiling, I made a mental note to tell my friend she passed the Beth Mason outfit selecting test.
But now I needed to shop, and then when I came home from that, I would bust out my computer, get my work done, and I would make sure all the doors in my mental castle were locked.
Firmly.
With extra chains.
On that thought, I shimmied into my leggings, that slouchy sweater, snagged the boots from the bed and moved back to the couch, sitting down and moving carefully to slip them on.
But I wasn’t dizzy, hadn’t been from the moment I’d woken up and started chugging water.
No, from the moment I’d sat up and stared into beautiful blue eyes.
Warm blue eyes, like a spring morning, the sun shining down, hands on my arms, face close, and none of the prickly, angry yelling.
Just Raph.
And that glimpse of beauty had taken my breath away.
I’d only seen it a few times, and all of those times had come before he’d been with Monica…before things had ended with Monica.
Once at CeCe’s. I’d been outrageous then in a way that would have made my stepfather lose his shit, but since I’d been out of New York and with my friends and they always got a kick out of me being outrageous, I’d been going full tilt.
Another sort of mask, I supposed.
Another way to hide.
If I could be fun and loud and make them laugh, then they wouldn’t see through, they wouldn’t notice all the doors that were blocked off.
But that night, I’d made an outrageous joke on the heels of many other outrageous jokes, and Hazel and Oliver and Pru and Marcel and Smitty had been cracking up. Even Jules, our favorite server, had dropped her tray onto the table and bowed her head, her shoulders rocking with laughter. And Raph…he’d laughed.
It was masculine and strong and intense, and I’d fucking loved it.
That glimpse of warm blue eyes.
The turning up of his lips.
The way he’d looked at me.
Another time, I’d watched that light fill his face when he’d looked through the glass at a little girl who was cheering raucously for the team.
One final time when I’d been over at Hazel and Oliver’s place, after Oliver’s career-ending injury. It hadn’t been easy on Hazel’s man to lose his leg, to lose his career, but in doing so, he’d come full circle, and he’d found Hazel.
And we’d all been eating dinner, just pizza and beer, and sitting around watching a crappy action movie, and Hazel had said something…something that I didn’t remember, probably something sweet because that was Hazel, and I remembered watching Oliver’s face change, soften in a way it only did for her. Then he had leaned in and gently cupped her cheek.
I hadn’t been able to take that gentle, that sweet.
It had been a battering ram to my castle’s gates.
To ease the burn I’d turned away…and had seen Raph’s expression.
And…it had been so beautiful that it had awakened something in me that was absolutely terrifying.
Need.
