Chapter Seventeen – Takes Two
Chapter Seventeen
Sadie
TAKES TWO
Performed by Maren Morris
I watched through half-closed eyes as Rafe pulled his lips from mine and trailed them down my neck and chest before torturing my breasts again in the most delightful way. My body felt hot, needy, ready, and all I wanted was for him to sink into me. To give me release. To pull me up and over the edge I was already frantic to find. And yet, I also loved every second of the denial. The anticipation. The control he was insisting I give to him.
Because he was right. I didn’t want to think. I didn’t want my brain to spiral with what we were doing, and what would come after, or the hundred other things I should be doing with my night…my life…
I just wanted to exist in these long minutes where there was nothing but sensation.
Where only pure want and frenzied desire existed.
My hands tightened on the headboard as he continued to slide that sexy mouth over every inch of me. His beard gently scraped along my skin, sending waves of sensation over me, goosebumps bursting along every surface. My breath caught as he nipped at the curve of my belly button just as he pushed aside the single scrap of lace left on my body. A guttural moan, feral and raw, escaped us both at the same time as his fingers brushed over my core.
He’d just dragged the fabric aside, just landed a heated kiss on my center that had me gasping and arching up, when he froze. His hand pressed on my stomach, pushing me into the mattress, and for a second, I thought it was a new sensual demand. Stay still.
But his voice was anything but sexy. It was full of a tension that had nothing to do with carnal activities when he said, “Don’t move.”
The sound hit me next. Not from him but from the other side of the bed. An unmistakable rattle. An unmistakable slither and coiling sound that made my stomach sink as if I’d dived from the cliff above the lake back home when everyone knew it was foolish.
I fought every instinct I had that wanted to turn my head and look at it. Every flight instinct screaming at me to leap from the bed and put distance between me and the snake waiting there.
“It’s pissed,” Rafe said quietly. “At being here as much as at us being too close.” Rafe moved ever so slowly away, and the speed of the rattle increased. I finally couldn’t stop myself from turning to face the danger and saw the snake had its head pulled up and back, ready to strike.
Panic rushed through me. I’d felt this kind of wild fear once before. The time I’d had a gun shoved into my forehead, and I’d known I was going to die. Nothing in my body seemed to function correctly, as if everything was frozen while simultaneously working in overdrive. My naked skin suddenly seemed all sorts of wrong. I’d left myself completely exposed and horribly vulnerable.
“Let go of the headboard, Sadie.” And when I started to bring my arms down, Rafe stopped me with a quick and quiet demand. “Don’t move them. Just let go.”
I did as I was told while trying to control the thunder of my heart.
The black-and-white stripes on the snake were different than the rattlers we had back home, but the sound coming from its tail left no doubt of what it was and what it could do to me. Even knowing it was likely as scared as I was, that it was our reciprocal fear that would have it striking, the reptile still felt evil. Dark eyes watched every breath I took, the long tongue flicking in and out, almost mesmerizing.
Rafe took another slow step back, and my gaze darted to his. I was sure he saw the panic in mine, but he seemed calm, assessing the situation in order to come up with a plan. He was much more collected than me, but then again, it was easier for him to be cool-headed when there was plenty of distance between him and the angry creature. A rattler could leap at least half their body length during a strike, and Rafe was now well out of reach.
The vicious beat of my heart had me scrambling for a breath I was afraid to take, and my vision turned spotty. I fought desperately for a single inhale, trying to be ready for the moment Rafe said it was safe to move, knowing with a surety that stunned me that he would do everything he could to ensure I was unharmed. And that simple thought eased the pressure enough for me to breathe again.
Rafe stepped toward the middle of the footboard, and the snake’s head twisted and turned, the smooth ripple of its body echoing Rafe’s movements. He grabbed the edge of an old quilt slung over the footboard.
“I’m going to count,” Rafe said, his voice a deep, low lull that had the rattler’s tail shaking faster. “And on three, I’m going to toss the blanket over him, and you’re going to roll out of bed.”
His gaze met mine, making sure I’d heard him, making sure I understood. And I did, but I was too afraid to respond. Too afraid to even nod in the slightest. How was I going to get my frozen body to move?
“He’ll strike the blanket, Sadie, because that’s what will be coming at him. He won’t even pay attention to you.”
His voice was composed and sure, but I saw the way his jaw was locked, saw the anger and fear thundering through his dark depths.
“You’re not getting bit by anything but me.” It was a joke as well as a promise. He was trying to relax me, trying to make sure I could move.
He lifted the blanket more, and the snake slithered again, the beady eyes no longer directed at me but still too close. He could still shift. Could still strike. God, get a grip, Sadie , I told myself. It wasn’t like I hadn’t faced a rattler before. I’d come across plenty back home, especially hiking. You just moved away from each other, and everyone was fine.
Rafe must have seen something in my face that showed the shift in me, the moment my fear faded into determination, because he started counting aloud. “One. Two. Three.”
The quilt flew toward the snake, and I willed my body to rotate. I landed on all fours, knees and palms screaming in objection. The rattler’s tail was beating a furious rhythm as it fought with the cover. I flung myself backward, crawling farther away from the bed.
Rafe scooped the snake up tangled in both the quilt he’d thrown and the plain blue comforter I’d been lying on. He strode toward the door, sliding his feet into a pair of shiny black dress shoes. He yanked the door, and it swung fully open, slamming into the wall and making the entire cabin shake and shimmy before he disappeared into the night.
I scrambled for my dress, pulling it on and tying it with shaky fingers. I slipped my feet into my sandals and followed him into the darkness.
I was too late to see which direction he’d gone.
I pulled my phone from the pocket on the dress, turned on the flashlight, and spun it around. The nearest building was one of the stables. The one with the paddock where Fallon had performed this morning. God, was it really only this morning?
“Rafe?” I called out.
Nothing.
An engine caught, and lights flashed. He was in the Jeep we’d driven to the lake. He headed away from me, gravel and dust kicking up behind him.
I went back into the cabin and straight to the glass of bourbon he’d taken from me. I downed it in two large gulps and then poured myself another finger. The adrenaline crash left me shaking from head to toe, but the alcohol burned, coating my nerves. Instead of concentrating on what had almost happened, I focused on the alcohol, swirling it around in my mouth, tasting the layers and undertones.
By the time Rafe came back in, I was on my third glass, and my shaking had slowed. My mind was no longer seeing the rattler on repeat. But Rafe didn’t look like he’d had time to calm down. His face was a dark glower.
“You kill it?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not its fault. I shook it out in a rock outcropping rarely visited by any of us.”
I was glad he hadn’t. We did the same any time one neared our ranch. They were an important part of the food chain. They were needed to keep the rodents under control, but it didn’t mean you kept them close enough to hurt you, a guest, or one of your animals.
He eyed the glass in my hand, crossed over to the table, and downed his before pouring himself a second glass as well. “How many have you had?”
“This is my third, but I think I’m entitled to one or two more.”
He sat in the rickety chair across the table from me and ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck.”
It tore a shaky laugh from me. “You can say that again.”
His eyes never met mine, but I could still see his expression. Grim and dangerous and furious. “If you’d been struck…” His throat bobbed.
“I wasn’t,” I said, trying to reassure us both.
The alcohol had slowed my tremors, but watching Rafe lift his glass to his lips, I could see they’d found a home in him. He’d abandoned his calm with the snake, and the idea of this man, this large force of nature, trembling because of what had almost happened, tore into me. But just like seeing him play with his daughter, getting to witness this utterly human side of him felt like a rare gift. Something very few people would ever see—Rafe Marquess undone.
I set my glass down, rose, and went to him. When I sat on his lap, he finally met my gaze, and I was taken aback by the regret I saw swimming in those chocolate depths. One of his hands went to my waist, and the other set the glass down in order to cup my cheek.
“You got caught in the middle of something that was meant for me.”
Shock winged through me. “What?”
“Don’t be dense. No way a rattler just slithered its way into my cabin, wound its way up the bedpost, and tucked itself under my pillow.”
The shaking that had pretty much disappeared from my body returned to match the tremble I felt in his. He was right. Someone had put the snake there. Someone had meant for it to strike Rafe. And what would have happened? Who would have heard him this far out? Would he have had time to get to a phone? To call for help?
“You need to leave,” he said. It wasn’t really a request. It was one of his mighty commands.
“Who would want to hurt you like this?” I asked, gripping his chin like he was fond of doing to mine.
His teeth ground together before he uttered, “There’s a list.”
My mind flashed immediately to Rafe and Lorenzo on Monday in his café. The barely leashed fury that had vibrated through him and the disgust he’d sent my way when he’d thought I was working for a man who may or may not be my cousin. Those thoughts were followed by the image of the long scar traversing his body.
I touched my forehead to his, bringing our mouths so close our breaths mingled, but it also forced him to meet my gaze straight on. “Is that how you got that scar? Someone hates you enough to try to kill you? Why?”
I could see the debate warring within him.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” he said in a deep, guttural voice that told me, more than anything, he had no desire to tell me what had happened.
But I wanted to gather yet another piece of him, another one he didn’t share with many others, so I gave him my past in order to have a chance at receiving his. “My brother Maddox is our county sheriff, and the leader of the local motorcycle club wanted him under his thumb. Chainsaw tried to kidnap my niece to use her as leverage, and I just happened to get in the way.”
Anger flashed over his face, and his hand tightened reflexively on my waist. I let his touch ground me enough to continue the story I despised telling. “I didn’t even know he was at the ranch at first. One minute, Mila and I had parked and were getting out of the car, and the next, Chainsaw had my ponytail in his hand and a gun at my temple. He demanded Mila come to him or he’d hurt me. I slid my boot down his shin and used his loosened grip to kick him in the balls. When he let me go, I screamed at Mila to run. She headed for the creek, and I followed, but he was faster than both of us. He tackled me, shouting for my niece to come back or he’d kill me. I tried to give her time to keep running by fighting him off, but he was too strong. Too angry.” My palms grew sweaty, feeling again the hopelessness and terror I’d felt then. I’d known I was going to die, but I’d just wanted to give my five-year-old niece a chance to live.
Rafe stroked my cheek. A gentle hand that almost undid me.
“Instead of running away…” Chills ran up my spine as I remember seeing Mila stopping, seeing her head back toward us. “While he was ranting about Mila’s mom stealing his money, she came back, and just as he pulled the trigger, she launched herself at his arm.” I inhaled sharply. “She’s why I ended up with a hole in my leg instead of my heart.”
Rafe’s scowl grew. “She’s okay?”
I nodded. “When he turned to go after her, I grabbed his ankle, and he fell. I was able to hold on long enough for her to get a good head start. I tried to get up, tried to go after them, but I lost consciousness. Thankfully, my sister had found my car abandoned with all the doors open, my purse and phone on the ground, and had called Maddox. When he got to the ranch, he had his girlfriend, McKenna, with him. She’s an emergency room doctor, and she worked on me while Maddox went after Mila and Chainsaw.”
“Give me his real name, Tennessee, and I’ll make sure he’s destroyed if he ever happens to get out of prison.”
His voice held a deadly promise. It sent a thrill up my spine I couldn’t explain. More of those ancient Homo sapien instincts resurfacing—a woman attracted to a man beating his chest and fighting off anyone who threatens something that was his.
Except, I wasn’t Rafe’s.
“He’s dead,” I said, and my voice was shaky from the dozens of conflicting emotions slinging their way through me.
“Your brother shot him.”
I nodded. “He didn’t die at first. He made it to the hospital but not through surgery and recovery.”
“Good.” Not a hint of regret or remorse existed in that single syllable.
And then he kissed me, long and slow, with a bevy of emotions flying behind the flame and lust that normally flickered between us that had nothing to do with sex. I pulled back enough to whisper, “Good distraction, Slick.” A hint of a smile lifted the corners of his lips, but it disappeared as I said, “But now it’s your turn.”
“I don’t talk about it, Sadie. My family…” He shook his head. “They think it was a mugging gone bad.” I tried to soothe him as he’d tried to do for me while reliving the worst day of my life. I ran my palm along the bristles of his clipped beard before resting my forehead against his once more. He inhaled, closing his eyelids briefly before opening them and saying, “I stumbled into some things when I first went to Las Vegas. I was working for Puzo and had no idea the mob still had a hand in almost every dark corner of the city. I thought it was ancient history.”
My entire body stilled at Lorenzo’s name, Gia’s warning coming back to me as Rafe’s focus turned inward and backward in time. “I collected and turned over evidence against some of his men. Racketeering. Money laundering. Drugs. The district attorney was hoping they could get one of the men to flip on Puzo, but it didn’t work out that way. They all went to prison with their lips sealed, much more afraid of him than anything that would happen to them behind bars. Two of them got ten years, and the leader of their crew got life.
“No one was supposed to know it was me who’d turned over the evidence, but in Vegas, you can find out just about anything you want for the right price. I was one of the secrets offered up, and it resulted in my being attacked in an alley by three people. The only reason I got out of it alive was because Jim Steele was running security for a casino nearby and saved my ass.”
“It was Lorenzo?” I asked. It stabbed at me, knowing a part of my family might have struck out at Rafe. “He sent his men after you?”
“No one could prove it. They’d all been wearing masks and gloves. No fingerprints. No DNA. No camera catching them in the act,” Rafe said. “But yes, everyone knew who’d done it.”
“If it was him, why hasn’t he come after you since then?” I asked and then paled when he looked behind me at the bed. “Have these sorts of things been happening all along?”
“No. At first, with the police watching, he backed off. It allowed me to hire Steele and get security measures in place. Then, I started building clubs, growing Marquess Enterprises, and the more I became a part of the Las Vegas community, the harder it was for him to come at me without revealing himself.”
Our stories proved there was a lifetime of differences between Rafe and me, but somehow, revealing our darkest moments had narrowed the gap. We were no longer strangers merely having sex. When I kissed him this time, it wasn’t in an offer of a momentary escape. It could never be that simple between us again. In giving each other these intimate pieces of ourselves, in sharing trauma that no one could truly understand until they’d had death standing at their door, we’d handed each other a piece of our souls. We’d staked a claim on one another that was much more than two bodies connecting with neurons and electrons flashing.
Those thoughts shook me to my core, and I pulled back to give myself a chance to recover from them.
“Is this why you’ve kept Fallon away from you?” I asked. “Because you’re afraid she’ll be a target?”
His nostrils flared as if I’d asked an off-limit question. “Yes and no. Like I’ve told you before, what happened with Spence and Lauren and me…it’s complicated. But this added to it.”
Those words brought back Fallon’s face in the kitchen this morning when she’d all but made herself invisible and the things she’d told me in the barn about her dad not having a heart. She needed to see him like this, all but torn apart because of the complications his life had wrought on hers.
“She thinks it’s because you don’t want her,” I said softly. “That no one has ever wanted her. She sees herself as a mistake that ruined your family.”
He inhaled sharply, and his voice was almost a growl when he asked, “She told you this?”
I shook my head. “Not exactly, but I could read between the lines.”
“Having her was never a mistake.”
“You should tell her that.”
He didn’t respond, but we sat twined together, giving each other some comfort. The adrenaline had gone, and while the haze of lust that always burned like an endless flame between us was still there, it was now accompanied by something much fiercer.
I wondered if this was how my siblings felt while holding the person they loved. As if somehow, in a world filled with billions of people, you’d managed to find the one soul who could truly know you. See you. Love the you that existed at your core.
Except, this wasn’t love with Rafe.
It couldn’t be.
Sure, we’d formed a bond, a deep friendship and unearthly attraction, but just yesterday, he’d looked at me with disgust and mistrust. Love couldn’t bloom in its place that quickly, could it? What would I do if it had? With no easy answer to those questions, I shoved all my thoughts into a closet in the far recesses of my brain and locked them away before they could take permanent hold.